I wish to use the ZXing barcode scanner app along with my app and their site recommends "distributing the project's release, rather than building from source, for best user experience".
https://code.google.com/p/zxing/wiki/FrequentlyAskedQuestions
I've searched and searched and haven't come across a way to have one's own APK file in Google Play and have someone else's APK be loaded along with it when a user installs my app.
Has anyone had any experience doing this with an APK or more specifically the ZXing Barcode Scanner?
I know I can prompt the user midstream to download the app but that is not ideal for the user experience I'm interested in offering.
You cant deploy a second apk with your apk as far as I know. The best you can do is make the acquisition of the 3rd party app you want to send intents to as smooth as possible.
For instance when the user hits the button with the intention of scanning search for the zxing package and if not found redirect the user to download zxing from the playstore.
Using ZXing to create an android barcode scanning app
Related
I have a requirement where I need to generate a QR code which, when scanned, displays the following behaviour.
When scanned for the first time, if my ios/android app is not installed then it takes the user to the appstore to prompt them to install the app.
When scanned again, if the app is already installed then it should open the app to a particular screen in the app.
Is it possible to create a QR code (or is it the app?) that behaves like this?
This behaviour is not be implemented in QR code. This will be implemented in your app.
I talk about Android. Same will be for iOS.
QR code will give you applicationId. (like com.stackexchange.marvin)
Get list of installed apps. See this question for getting installed apps list.
If user has installed this package name already, then open the app. See this question.
If not installed then open play store page.
Related question:
https://stackoverflow.com/a/8778268/6891563
I am trying to set up my current app (it's a HTML5 application compiled with phonegap build) where when I press a button, it pops up an option to select which bar code scanner to use(Or prompt to download the bar code scanner). When I select and scan it, I want to retrieve the information.
For example:
Retrieving via Zxing scanner would give me a set of numbers.
Retrieving via Goggles will give me more information like the number and product details.
I have seen some guides which are for native Android where they use Zxing but not Goggles. Seen no guides for using Goggles in an application. Closest I saw is a reverse engineered attempt dated few years back and not for HTML5 plat.
All I need to do is press a button from my app, go out into one of the scanner apps and retrieve the information back to my app to display.
Is there anyway I can do this? Is there a set of APIs available to access Zxing and Goggles via a HTML5/PhoneGap application?
It is definitely possible. Seen it on few applications.
This one for example: An app on Google Play
Please assist.
Screenshot additions for reference.
Screenshot 1
Screenshot 2
I want to allow for visitors of some exhibition install and test my app that doesn't listed in app store and android market at this moment. And of course I don't know any id of visitor devices.
Is it possible and which is the easiest way to do that?
For Android you could put your app in a Dropbox folder of yours. Then using an app like ZXing barcode scanner share that link as a QR code in an email to yourself. Extract the .png image from the email (maybe enlarge it) and print it out again. Attach the QR code to the welcome poster at the exhibition and invite visitors to scan it with their Android phone (assuming they have a barcode scanner app on their phone - if not suggest they download a free one from Google Play). They can then install the app easily, as scanning the code will download it.
Transfer the .apk file(for android) to the user's phone through bluetooth so that people can install your app
check hockeyApp http://www.hockeyapp.net/
You upload your app on it, and register "testers",
they receive a mail with a link to download the app(for iPhone you need to provision the phones).
After the installation it sends back crash reports with the type of the device and the OS version. I think it's a great tool for what you need.
It has a free version.
Currently only for iOS but have a look at TestFlight
I'm developing an app that has QR code reading ability, i'm using the Zxing library, launching via intent, so the Barcode Scanner is handling the QR reading functionality, my question is, if the user doesnt have the Barcode Scanner App installed on their device, is there a way to bring them to the app store to get the application for their device?
Peter
You should be using the ZXing IntentIntegrator, which will automatically give the user the option to visit the Play Store if the app is not installed on their device.
Here is a sample project using IntentIntegrator, including a JAR edition of that class (in the project's libs/ directory).
i am using a augmented reality in my android application.
For this i am using the wikitude api. This api requires the phone to have the wikitude browser installed in our phone. if it is not there is a provision that i can show a message that the apk file is not available on your phone.
When the above message is shown that the wikitude broswer is unavailable on the phone, i want to install the brower on the user's phone using the code in my application.
Right now i am providing a link to the android market where the wikitude browser lies, rather than redirecting him to this url, i want to install the app directly in the phone without the user ever knowing that there is another app being installed in the background from the android market.
is this possible in android?
thank you in advance.
It's actually a bad idea to try to install any kind of software without letting your users know about it. And there are permissions that user must accept, you cannot just overcome this. So the only solution for you is to redirect the user to the market and let him know that he won't be able to use your application without having the other one installed.