Can an externally loaded mobile app be contained within another mobile app? - android

If you create a mobile app which uses a custom url scheme to launch an external app, can that external app be visually contained within your mobile app? I want to launch a skype window, but have the tabs, borders, etc. of my mobile app (which happens to be an AIR app, but for which I could create a native extension) still visible, so that the skype window is one of the views within the app.
A corollary: can one get the position and size of the launched application window? If so it might be possible at least to create the illusion that skype (or any other launched app, for that matter) is contained within your mobile app.

This is not possible in iOS 6.
There is a possibility, that launching other apps and displaying their views just like you described, may find its way to public SDK in future versions. Now only system components can do this.

Related

Run 2 or more applications inside our third android based application

I want to executive/run other pre-installed android based application inside my new developed application. For example I want to run what's app, Facebook, and Skype at the same time within my application.
I am analyzing about the android containers in which application can be load and execute. Like we used WebView container to load website.
Please suggest for the same
You should use Deep Links or better Dynamic Links - https://firebase.google.com/docs/dynamic-links/android/receive
How it works? You have 2 buttons in your App. On click on them you will open needed app or open it page on Play Market (or your own web site or something else, because you can config it via Dynamic Links).

In mobile, can different apps respond to a browser call-to-action and open directly?

I'd like to design a cross platform protocol that any app on mobile or app on your desktop can respond to.
On desktop the best example is torrents, where you have a magnet link of the form magnet:?urn:btih:abcabcabcabcabcabcabcabc etc. that can be opened by any app that supports the magnet: scheme. There also exists .torrent files which can be opened by anything that supports .torrents (although this won't open directly).
Is something like this possible on mobile? From my initial research it appears that iOS doesn't let multiple apps register the same uri scheme so customuniversalscheme:// won't work. I also vaguely recall mobile safari opening files in browser and not in separate apps or even being able to download the files, but i'm not sure about that anymore...
What about android? Can multiple apps respond to the same custom scheme? Files can be downloaded on android, but can files be opened directly in browser?
Is the user flow I am thinking about possible on mobile? If so, how? If not, what's the next best alternative?
So I think your comparison with the desktop torrent flow is a bit wrong. On desktop you can choose the default app to open a file or you can "Open With" an app that you want, on mobile it's a little bit different and more complicated.
So mainly on mobile platforms you open an app with a deep-link and iOS has two ways of deep-links:
the old and well known URL scheme that you defined above
the universal-link, this one is used a lot (iOS 9 and above) to forward a link, that usually will be opened in browser, to the app that responds to the universal link (it's very similar to the URL scheme thinghy)
For Android you have something similar using intent-filters and as far as I know it's possible to have multiple apps that respond to the same deep-link, but if I remember correctly the user will be prompted with an app picker (to select which app to use).
Now this is a short summary about deep-links, but from my experience the main issue with deep-links is now how you create them, it's about the app that must "forward" them. For example, on Android there are so many web browsers (not chrome) that won't forward the deep-link to the system in order to check if there is an app that can open them.
Now, if you can pass this problem, what I think you could do to unify the implementation for both platforms is to link your framework/lib/app to an API that will generate a unique deep-link scheme for every app. For example I want to "respond" to your deep-links so I register my app on your platform, with the bundle id and package name (which are unique), and your system will generate a unique combo of package name / bunde id and other number. When your lib/app/framework launch you will fetch all the configured bundles and try to fire a deep-link for each of them, this approach is kind of limited by the number of registered apps.

Creating android app, say mother app

I'm new to this forum..
I want to create a Android app (say mother app), which can be installed to the Android devices on the home menu. This app should contains one or more apps inside (say child app)..
The mother app should have online login verification and on the successful login this app should show all the child app...
The concept is just like creating a app such as newsstand of iPhone.
Is it possible to create such app for Android using Adobe Air
When any child app is installed from the marketplace then It must be shown inside mother app instead of home menu
To make it clear:
I want to create a app which store my other apps when it is downloaded from anywhere, instead of placing my apps here and there on the device.
I suggest that you try out Android tutorial first and proceed further. It will surely help you out. You can check this Stackoverflow question for information about using Adobe Air in your application. I can help you with this information only. :D

Run an app within an app Android

I am creating an app that i would like to have apps running within it like let's say an iframe on a website. Is this possible? For example i will open my app and it will show the Gallery of the phone but while running my app, and not just by opening the gallery app which will make my app minimized. I want it exactly like an iframe, is this possible?
you can not run another app within your own application. You can do any of the following two
start the other app by sending intent message
or create the other app's features similarly in your own app.
According to your question if your need is to create a gallery then why aren't you creating a own gallery in your app? that will be more easier and flexible
You can not run another app's Activities within your app in an iframe style for security reasons, sorry.
Yes, I believe that is is possible for Apps to run cross platform if there exist a common data framework that creates a uniform standard for how data is stored and referenced. So the data can exist in the cloud but referenced via each app independently of the mobile phone platform.

Turning Drupal 7 mobile themes into apps that use both REST and a webview together?

I have a number of Drupal 7 websites (http://drupal.org) that have a mobile theme with JQuery mobile (http://jquerymobile.com/) for users browsing with smart phones or tablets. Although this provides a great mobile experience I would like to create an app for the Android and Iphone that uses a few built in features for content creation (mainly just the camera on node creation). I have eclipse and the android emulators all installed and have an installation of Phonegap working for Android testing. Here is where I need some advice on the best approach to my particular problem.
Basically each app can be almost entirely just a webview (easy), but I do need 2 features which should add enough uniqueness to make it able to get approved in the MAC app store.
Ability to add nodes using a REST service (along with phonegap) have access to the use phone’s camera to populate an image field.
A start or front-page has a fast login, and allows instant access to add content (all assets stored locally on phone, so even if the phone is offline, this page will still come up).
Ability to go from the regular mobile site (webview) back to the local node creation page (with access to the camera) or frontage.
Ability to pass something to the webview so I can hide content creation links that access the web version of node creation forms (which would not have the camera for example).
Here is where I’m confused. I don’t want to recreate the entire site and retrieve all the data using services (lots of tutorials and stuff I’ve seen are doing this including DrupalGap - http://drupal.org/project/drupalgap). That seems like a ton of redundant work that will require lots of continuous updates when the site is upgraded and changed with no real gain other than speed (For this it’s ok that it won’t be as fast).
For my mobile apps, when a user wants to view their profile, look at various pages etc, that should all happen in a webview, I only need services and the typical approach to mobile development for the front page, authentication and node creation. The rest should happen in a webview. So what is the best way to switch between adding nodes and authentication using a service and just going to a regular webview? Should I try embedding a webview in a page and having a small menu on the top that doesn’t’ change which links to the add content and login?
How do I setup the session for both the webview content and the service? Or how I can I force authentication through REST and then pass that on to the webview?
You don’t have to answer each one of those directly, I would just like some tips to get me started in the right direction. So far I’m thinking I create a “frontpage” for the app with all it’s assets stored locally on the phone, which has a login which authenticates through a web service (REST). After you login it shows the link to add nodes and a link to view the webview. The big question is how I use the same session for both and how to navigate between the 2 well?
I accomplished the goals stated above, by have the login use a REST service via jquery mobile in a regular html page (like this tutorial http://tylerfrankenstein.com/code/android-app-with-drupal-7-services-phonegap-and-jquery-mobile) this is also where the create content links can be placed. When you want the user to be able to open the "regular" mobile website and already be logged in, use the childbrowser phonegap plugin (https://build.phonegap.com/docs/plugins). Users can close the childbrowser and go back to the main dashboard by clicking the X, or you can create a listener that responds to them vising a specific URL (like the homepage).

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