I am trying to implement an android IM program,
So far i could send messages from my phone to my webserver and get responses over http but
i am using a timer thread which runs once in 5 seconds for instant messages and an another timer to get friend requests and responses once in 15 seconds. And other timers for other tasks.
It looks fine to me but it requires lots of network connection and uses battery a lot.
I woud like to ask if there is a better solution.
Thanks in advance.
Instead of polling for messages you can use push notifications to tell your app when it should check for new messages.
http://tokudu.com/2010/how-to-implement-push-notifications-for-android/
You could also just use one connection and xmpp. The smack library has been used to implement chat. Take a look here.
Android and XMPP: Currently available solutions
Related
I started with a application where you can chat.
Now im in the position to start with the chat.
The problem I'm facing is that I don't want to use
resources from "outside". With outside I mean:
Firebase, Socket.io and so on.
I do simply rent a webspace. And I'm asking you now,
how is it possible to realize an live chat without
using extern services like firebase.
Is it possible with only using an Webspace?
What is required to make an live chat?
And there comes the second question:
How do I realize to stay connected to a server to check if there is a new message without using much battery or network ressources?
I'm not asking without hardly trying by my self.
Two days ago I started with the research of possibility, but I didn't found anything which would work I guess.
Thanks folks...
You need to connect to the Web Server using a Socket and keep that connection open to receive new messages with little delay (see for example http://srchea.com/build-a-real-time-application-using-html5-websockets) This keeps the phone active and uses much battery.
The very purpose of Firebase is to bundle this work for all services which need this type of communication (E-Mail, Push messages of newspapers, Chats) such that the phone only has to query one server. Therefore, I see no way for you to find another solution which uses little battery.
I'm try to make my Android App that send an HTTPRequest to a server repeatedly even when the App is not running (much like chat).The server will return a JSON file and if there is any update at the file, the app will send a notification to the user.
How can I do that?
Thnks.
From you question i can only understand that you are polling from server. Repeated hit will drain your battery very fast and will exploit user bandwidth also. With this kind of mechanism there are changes that your app will be uninstalled very soon.
So, what i will suggest use push notification ,if there is any update let server tell you. There is no need for client to ask for it.
One more way but complicated both at server and client side is you can open your own TCP socket and can then you can share as much data in both direction.
I can suggest you to go with push-notification for easy implementation and do right thing.
You have to use Service as explain here :
http://developer.android.com/reference/android/app/Service.html
Only service could run in background when Activity are not visible.
I need to open and keep long term connection with server to send messages, recieve response. Also sometimes server sends information without user request, so android device should listen to the server and react.
There are AsyncTasks, where I can implement socket connection, but main problem is that I know only one way - to send request and recieve response once. Then AsyncTask (and connection) is closed.
I have also read about services (that I never used).
Is it possible to make long term (1-4 hours) connection with server that keeps connection alive, listens for user commands (for example, need to send data to server when button is clicked) and recieves response or requests from server (and then changes UI).
Will service (and connection) be killed when phone fall asleep, needs more memmory or other? Is it big cost to the battery?
Maybe there are other ways? Thank you in advance for all your answers
P.S. sorry for poor english skills, hope you understood :)
You should probably use a Service, running in background.
Also, you really need not keep the service always alive with a network connection. You can opt for Google Cloud Messaging, which supports 2-way communication via the XMPP protocol. Using this protocol you can:
Receive notifications from server, start the service and do necessary processing.
Send notifications to server, upon which server does any necessary work.
These notifications are short 4kb messages , so they are better used as "commands" of a publish/subscribe model, which initiate other network heavy connections such as uploads and downloads. Rest of the time the service can be inactive to reduce resources consumption.
According to Android API Reference
"A Service is an application component that can perform long-running operations in the background"
And yes it consumes battery and you have to stop it by yourself:
" It's important that your application stops its services when it's done working, to avoid wasting system resources and consuming battery power"
So I think Services fit your needs.
If you need to communicate with the server when you want to send data to the server you can do it and wait for answer. If you need to send data from server to the device then take a look at push notifications.
To start of, i should mention that i'm a newbie in Android (Not that much experience in Java at all tbh), so be easy on me.
I am making an app that continuously pulls data from a server, and then returns data through a http post request. The question is, what is the best way to handle the actual pulling from the server? Should i be using AsyncTask or create another thread and let it run on that? Are there better methods for this purpose?
I will be pulling data every 5 minutes. (I am aware that this will drain the battery very fast, and i should definately be using Androids C2DM framework. But i have no experience in it before and i'm on a deadline, so this'll have to do until i have time to learn how to implement it.)
I'm grateful for any advice!
As an alternative to C2DM, you can do the persistent TCP connection between your device and the server. Then every 5 minutes your server can push a tickle to the device. Upon being tickled, the device can request the information via Http post.
Here is some sample code on how to do that.The connection stays open in a background thread even after the app has exited
Creating and Managing a persistent TCP socket: http://openmobster.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/cloud/android/connection/src/main/java/org/openmobster/core/mobileCloud/android/module/connection/NotificationListener.java
Full Disclosure: I am the Chief Engineer of OpenMobster and I wrote this code. Please feel free to use whatever you like or just get an idea if thats what you need
Thanks
Do you need to pull the data in background (even if your app is not "opened" and the android device is sleeping)? I suppose thats what you want because you mentioned C2DM. If so..the buzzwords are AlarmManager (with repeating time)/BroadCastReceiver and maybe NotificationManager to notify the user. With AlarmManager you schedule your events (every 5 minutes) and with BroadcastReceiver you receive those events and do what you want to do every 5 minutes :)
I want to create a background service which continuously check that is there any message that has come from server.
I am trying using AsyncTask but I am not getting how can I know when any message will come or has arrived.
Please Help.
I take it that you are polling at a set inerval to your web server to figure out the state. Simply read the response from your web server and take action.
Read this post
Example: Communication between Activity and Service using Messaging
Alternately try using the Cloud to device messaging.
If you want to go really large scale use XMPP.
I got the way from here.