I have a survey on my website that I'd like to deliver to my Android app users (like demographics and such). I'm wondering what the best way to do this is - do you think that using a WebView to just display the survey webpage would work since they'd need to have internet to get the survey questions anyway? Or is it a better idea to pass the survey questions to the app, create a native view and then send the results back to my Rails server?
From this thread it sounds like it's pretty easy to do one question - Embedding Survey In Mobile Apps
But my survey is around 10 questions, so mainly I'm wondering about app performance/feel. Especially in poor internet connection scenarios.
Related
So, I'm reading this android game programming book, which is great, and I was wondering about how to implement the database of a social game.
Let me take a dummy example that fits the example purpose: there is a group of people playing a game, where everyday there is a question (generated by the app), and the first user to answer it wins.
So, basic questions: when someone answer the question, how the others players will know?
I imagine that when the winner answer the question, this would be stored in a database (the cloud?) and when the others users log into the game, the app would connect to the clound, synchronize all users update and display a message saying that there is a winner already for that question.
Is that in anyway correct? I have a fair/medium experience in developing in Android, but never worked much with storage/internet connection.
There is any specific API to deal with this task?
P.S. I'm aware of SharedPreferences, but I'm quite sure that's not I'm looking for. My main question is how to share data over the internet/users using and Android app.
Thanks
Android provide Game Services for this.
I this APIs https://developers.google.com/games/services/android/realtimeMultiplayer are what you are looking for
Otherwise you may think to develop your own server logic for instance via Google App Engine
What I want to develop: Crude Overview?
Suppose 10 web links present on my (native/web) app, and user will scroll through links. And when user clicks on any of the link, it will open that website. And user might wish to close this website and again views the list of those URLs on my app and the cycle may go on as per his wish. Also, user can create custom list of those links. Also, these lists will be updated regularly, may be on monthly basis. Which I guess I just need to update data files and not app.
No, it is not similar to browser bookmarks but in very crude terms you can relate it. Anyways, I will accessing user's bookmarks with his permission which I guess can be easily done with the APIs available.
Right now, technologies in my mind.
1) Phonegap ( to be precise, its phonegap build - as I don't have MAC) with JQuery mobile and deploy as native app,or
2) SenchaTouch and deploy as web app or native app using sencha cmd.
3) I want to use MongoDB along with above 1st or 2nd option. Is it required or JSON can suffice? Also, I may need some security by encrypting this data while storage at user's mobile and also while collecting user's custom lists.
4) In future, I would also need Node.js for the purpose of collecting MongoDB or JSON data files in above 3rd point. Is there any other way so that it can be integrated with phonegap or senchaTouch.
Please suggest things if existing resources can help me develop my idea and guide me what to use!
Note: All technologies I am picking up are focused on single code base with minimal focus on platform specific changes-iOS/android/Windows/Blackberry.
I want to go for Native app rather than web app. Why?
1) I feel that it would perform faster if I deploy my idea as android/iOS/Windows app rather than web application.
2) My cost of hosting the application on server will go to null because I am using local storage of the user's mobile.
3) Since I want a feature in my app which stores user custom settings so it would be better if I deploy it as mobile app rather than web app so that I don't have to maintain user specific settings which may make my DataBase hosted on server to grow immense in future.
4) Also,I feel that there is no sense in hosting this application on a dedicated server because there would be less user interaction with my backend. But later I would plan a feature to collect data/settings done by user to improve feed for which I think I need to use Node.js. But then also there is no requirement of hosting frontend to a dedicated server. Hence, I can use dedicated server to serve my own purpose of analytics to improve feed rather than service user's purpose of unnecessary access to my web application always through the server and fetching lists of links which are maintained on server in custom manner for him.
My dilemma!
My above points are valid to prefer deploying as native app over rather than web app. But I feel what if I keep my app as offline web app which runs on the default browser of the user but loads the jquery and other data and scripts from the storage in mobile. Is this possible? I am unaware of this.
If this is available then it is the best thing for me to adopt as my application redirects to other websites. Because, if I am deploying my app as native app then it would ruin user experience of opening my app and selecting an option whose URL opens up in default user's mobile browser which is a different app and then there are many chances that user will switch back to my app and then again he would be redirected to that mobile browser. And obviously I cannot develop my own browser in my app as I would have to develop several things from security and other perspective which would be a cumbersome task. So, having my offline web app will be opened in user's default browser itself without annoying him to switch back and forth between my app and browser as in previous case and thus creating seamless experience.
Also, I am not sure whether we can create offline inbuilt browser plugins as we can do in chrome browser on desktop. If so, then I think I would have to concentrate differently on different mobile browsers Safari, Chrome, mozilla which I feel is not worthy. Please throw some light on this for me.
I have no idea why people are downvoting my question as I feel that it is kind of unique question.
Here is what I found more and with the help of my friend
1) I don't have to use MongoDB as my application is not much complex. So simple JSON will suffice.
2) I'll be using Phonegap for android and windows phone and phonegap build for iOS along with jQMobile. So the app will be in the native form only.
3) I'll be using inApp browser for seamless experience although it is not as perfect as having my idea as web app.
4) No need for senchaTouch as it is heavier than phonegap and not required for me idea.
5) My next look forward is comparing the above points with offline web app built using JQMobile and JSON and finally whatever I decide I will share.
EDIT:
I am finally going with phonegap for native deploy rather than offline web app or web app hosted on server for reasons that I found on several blogs.
People downvoted my ques so I feel that it is not worth writing answer further but if you want the detailed reason you can always add a comment.
Thank you
You should definitely go for web. It is cross platform. If you do an android App, or iOS App, they are restricted to the specific devices. So I definitely recommend Web App
I am involved in developing application for mobile sensors, data from these sensors is to be collected using Android/iOS mobile apps. We want the end users to be able to view this data from desktops also. This data is uploaded to be uploaded to our own database(s) from the mobile apps. I have done this development of the prototypes using native applications (iOS/Android) and implemented web services using Django 1.6 with SQL database. This was just for prototype.
We are at stage where we really need to make this into real product with paying customers, so we are in position to revisit our technology stack question. So I am looking for suggestions.
Currently I am thinking of using Play Framework on the server side. I really haven't seen anything compelling that can provide Native app like feel so we will have to keep developing mobile apps using native libraries. We will interface with our web services using REST API. My concern with Play framework is it doesn't seem to have lot of plugins similar to django, but its early days hoping that situation will improve.
Is this right approach we are very small team ( 4 people, we can hire 2 more probably). Given this is this right technology path I am choosing anything I should be looking at?
I have looked at Parse library but doesn't seem to offer too much data flexibility, geared towards more social media aspects.
We will be using StromPath for user management, any other choices I should be looking at for user management?
We really don't want to do a lot of MVC programming on client side, so on desktop app we will keep it simple jQuery/Javascript & html
-Sam
With jQuery mobile you can assure the look and feel like in a native app. The library it self does media queries and stretch or shrink the content accordingly. So in terms of UI you will not face any problem providing native app like look and feel to the users. For client/server communication I recommend normal ajax functionality so you can dynamically add content.
When working with JQM there are certain rules that you will have to obey.
I am new to android development, I have a website that is for online shopping and I want to make an android app so the smart phone users can also access it. It will use something like PHP post/get, JSON, JavaScript to get values from server and submit forms from app. My question is after doing all these, mean HTTP Connection and all that, is there any need to make a special website for mobile device too, that will be compatible with mobile device? or no need of this, just to open it in mobile app? I have googled it but can't find something useful.
I think most of visitors will visit the normal site instead of installing a unknown app.
It's your own choose, if i have the the choice i would choose both (web and app).
I think it's important to have a user and mobile friendly website.
At least you could make your website responsive so that user have the choice whether they will install a Native app or use the 'web' app.
I've met the same question.
Apps are good-looking and functional.
But the thing is, especially in China, almost everybody around me uses "Wechat" as a daily app. The most important thing Wechat can provide is an entry. By establishing an official accounts, customers can be easily linked to your mobile website. And 1)it's way more convenience than Apps. 2)Mobile website has a less developing cost than an App. 3)With HTML5 spreading to mobile terminals, the interfaces can be cool and the function can be amazing.
So, for middle/little companies, I personally recommend mobile website.
I am going to develop a cross-platform app that will need some screen scraping capabilities. The app itself looks like an obvious candidate for Phonegap since the UI is quite static and simple (no fast UI interaction needed) - it is basically a kind of foreign currency comparator which needs to show some updated exchange rates and a few simple graphs.
The problem is however that it needs to connect to certain sites and grab the data from there using screen scraping. There is no API. I have many years experience with screen scraping in PHP, and some experience in native Android using jsoup. And the "app" already runs in PHP (on server) for use in browsers, but the client needs a real app.
What are my choices for screen scraping in Phonegap? I reckon that the javascript support available is not suited for screen scraping, but is it possible without too much fuss to build a native layer beneath the Phonegap app?
I have virtually no experience with Phonegap, so I might have missed some obvious solutions. If so, please advice me.
As a side question, does an equivalent of jsoup exist for IOS (objective C)?
Bobik is the very API you are looking for. It lets you tap into its cloud computing power through the API in which you only provide the urls and xpath/jquery queries. Read my article at http://zscraper.wordpress.com/2012/06/02/client-side-web-scraping/ to see Bobik in action.