This may not be the type of question I am supposed to ask here but I don't have anywhere else to go. I want to make an android application which gets feed from a web-server and displays in the application. It will be kind of a newspaper app. I have done my share of work: I know android application developemnt: have made some apps. Also, I have an idea of UI: a listview with the feeds and then on selecting an element I will open another activity with the complete feed. What I wanted to know is:
How to set-up a server for this?
How to request?
Can I set-up a free server?
I dont want to use GCM as I don't think it allows sending pictures. Plus it allows small data to be sent. Also, I have no knowledge about the 3rd party server I may need to create for this.
I would want to post both text and photos (combined makes a post, total of around 10 posts) from the server. Please dont close as not a question. Any link, tutorial will be highly appreciated. For server side coding, I know php, .net. I have never coded in java for a server, but I can learn it.
Please follow following steps to get your project done.
Set up any php or Java or .Net Server (If you are aware of any of these web technologies)
After you set up server you need to make web service which will work as mediator to transfer data between your server and mobile.
Webservice response will be either in JSON or XML
Generate response according to your need and parse them on android side.
Display in listview :) :)
You can use JBOSS for your server, and do a Java Server with Webservices.
In your webservices you'll have a service that get all the feeds, and maybe another that request the complete feed...
Your "language" between the Android app and the Server, you can use XML with SOAP (ksoap2 for Android), or you can try JSON (I never used, but I will 'cause we goona need use in my service).
You can try find another free server side, but I think the SOAP is important in most of the servers to "talk" with your app.
I hope helped you.
[]s
Bertan
Related
I'm new to android, I'm trying to build an android app that is a front for a web portal. For example, Airbnb. They have a website, but they also have an android app that, using it's own layout, will show listings from their website.
There are many websites that teach how to or even directly convert your website to android apps. However, this will result in an app that loads too slowly and is unresponsive due to CPU usage.
Could anyone share any tutorial/guide to learn how to do this myself?
Million thanks.
To actually load data from a web server you're gonna need and API which usually delivers the proper date using JSON or XML format so that you can properly parse and display that data. Building this API is in it self a complete course on its own.
But connecting to and requesting data from the API is usually done using some networking libraries. These are some of the better know libraries for this purpose.
OkHttp: A complete library with a set of tools for handling network connections and HTTP requests.
RetroFit:Type-safe HTTP client for Android and Java by Square, Inc. which is built on top of OkHttp.
Async-Http-Client:
The Async Http Client library's purpose is to allow Java applications
to easily execute HTTP requests and asynchronously process the HTTP
responses. The library also supports the WebSocket Protocol. The Async
HTTP Client library is simple to use.
There tons of other good libraries.
its called webservices
Through android you get data in form of json from a web server and then return in custom view as you want.
Follow this link hope it will help
Step by Step Method to Access Webservice from Android
you would have to write an API/Web service or use if already exits to fetch data from web server. Basically the concept is that, the website itself must be pulling data from some database, so write an API which would fetch the data from same API and return JSON data and consume the API from your android app.
If you know PHP refere to this for the help :http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/267023/Send-and-receive-json-between-android-and-php
You can write WebService, in programming it generally refers to a web page(ex. Airbnb), that can be called from your android application which can pass in data to it, or receive data from it.
WebService is basically like a 'method' or 'function' in a normal programming language; except you're calling it over the internet.
The first thing is you have to create a Web Service. The Web Service will be your "bridge" to consume the data from other Website like airbnb or others and return the data to your android through json format for example.
You can create a Web Service using many languages like C#, Java, PHP, etc. I would like to recommend you to use the language that you know the most.
You can try to google this
Cheers
I am interested in making android app like crickbuzz that will fetch live content from server and also there is option of like and comment for users for feedback. So, can anyone tell that how to implement this i.e (how to fetch data from server) how that data will fit in app(confused about this how data get fit in instagram app means profile, home, search tab)
thanks
I suggest you check out this links
Android, PHP & MySQL
Fetch Data From Server
Ok, let's break it down:
The data is obtained from the server using http requests. It is usually received in the form of JSON String, basically a ordered, human-readable data format which is easy to read and parse.
On the app side, you need to implement the layout, which is done in xml and Java. You also need some logic which will obtain the data with the aforementioned requests, parse it, turn into Java Objects and put everything into the layout.
The process is not really complex, could be completed by a single person, but you will need experience, time and good architectural decisions.
If this is your first time with Android app programming, do some tutorials (especially ones that cover networking), learn some libraries (Volley, Retrofit, org.json, RXJava, Picasso will be really useful for what you ask about) and code several small apps from start to end. After that you may be ready to tackle the app you described :-)
I am new to socket programming i have to use socket.io and node.js to connect with my server host in android so can anyone please just describe me the programming example of how to connect to server in android. And if possible please give some help regarding node.js and socket.io. As i have searched everywhere on google but not able to find out the proper example.
Thanks
You can just have your web service be REST base.
Your Android application can just talk to your web server via REST and receive data json or xml whatever you fancy.
So with node.js you should set up routes.
An example would of a route would be
www.example.com/users via GET post would return a list of users either in JSON/XML
For your android application you need a library, I believe there's a built in one already, to make request for certain routes such as www.example.com/users via GET method and write the logic to expect JSON or XML and parse that.
I just googled this:
Android: https://github.com/koush/ion
As for node.js you just have to build route...
I think is would be better:
websocket api to replace rest api?
It actually invalidate my answers sorry, REST and websocket api are different.
I have no clue what problem exactly you have. But you should break your problems down to small part. And google and search for answer for each smaller part which would make your life easier to google.
Get your webservice up first so that your android software can consume stuff, build a prototype and then build a prototype of android app that consume data from that webservice.
I have started working on an Android app for which we need to use MySQL as database and Ruby on Rails for server side code. We will be using SQLLite too on device(will sync both DB as and when required). I searched the web and couldn't find any relevant tutorials/examples which can serve as a base to start with.
I have gone through MySQL and ROR tutorials but still has confusion on connecting Android with ROR.
Can somebody share some relevant tutorials/code snippet which can explain the complete linkage of the technologies. I mean how to send data from Android device to MySQL and vice versa. I know the concept theoretically but not sure how and where to start with.
My sincere apologies for asking such a basic question or if I sound ambiguous but I am a beginner and need to complete this task. Thanks in Anticipation..
Here is a brief overview of what you should know to accomplish your goal. I am not going to go that far into detail, especially since I have never personally used RoR. Note that some of these parts might not relate exactly to RoR, but the general idea behind it still applies. I will leave it up to you to research and figure out how to implement each individual component.
The general flow of everything is as follows:
Android App <==> Network <==> Web Service <==> MySQL
Note the double-edged arrows since data will be flowing in both directions.
The Android App is the client, and the Web Service and MySQL database are located on your Web Server. I only included the Network part for completeness, but you shouldn't have to do anything once the data has been sent onto the network.
A brief overview of each section:
Android App:
The Android App is the client that sends and retrieves data from the Web Server. I am assuming that in your app you are going to allow the user to do some tasks which in essence becomes the data that you want to send to the server at some point.
Take for example, the user should be able to enter his name and favorite animal. Lets say that there is an actual "Submit" button that the user may click. When this "Submit" button is clicked, it should wrap up the data into a proper format to be sent across the network. Two of the most common ones are JSON and XML. Once the data has been formatted properly, you will want to send the data to the server using some type of network protocol such as HTTP. In order to send the data, you of course must have some URL as the target. Lets say the target is www.example.com/webservice.php. This target is our Web Service located on the Web Server.
Once you send the data, the server will respond with some data at which point you can do whatever you want with it. Maybe display it to the user, or stick it in an SQLite database, or even both.
The key thing to remember is that there is no magic going on. Everything I have just described will be implemented in Java code that you will write in your Android Application at some point.
Key Ideas you should research more and figure out how to implement in Java code:
JSON and XML
HTTP in Java
REST and SOAP
Here is an excellent video on possible ways to set up the structure of your Android App.
Make sure that you are doing all network operations in your Android App on a different thread. An easy to use method is an Intent Service.
Web Service:
This is often the most confusing part. A Web Service is simply some entry point for clients attempting to access the Web Server. My explanation here might different slightly when using RoR, but the same idea applies. Notice above that the target URL was www.example.com/webservice.php. The web service is literally the PHP code that exists on the Web Server, called webservice.php. In your Android App, when you send data to the target URL using HTTP, the Web Service code will be executed on the server (and also have access to the data that you sent to it). Inside of your Web Service code, you will basically be extracting the data (which is in some format like JSON), grabbing the necessary parts, and then doing something with it. In this case you will most likely be querying the database. In PHP it is easy to write code that connects and queries a MySQL database that is also running on the server. When the response of the database is retrieved by the Web Server, you can send it back to the Android App. Just as before, remember, there is no magic going on. All of these ideas are implemented by writing some code.
Main ideas to research:
Ruby on Rails web service
How to access a MySQL database using Ruby on Rails
MySQL Database:
This is where you will store the data on the Web Server. I am not going to go that in depth here because this is just going to require you doing a lot of reading up on how to set up a MySQL database on a web server. It is also important that you learn how to create the appropriate queries such as SELECT, INSERT and so forth.
Main Ideas to research:
How to setup a MySQL database on a web server
If you need any clarification, let me know!
I've been reading some info about Web Services for Android using SOAP or REST but I've never created a web service so I have many questions about this.
I'm developing an Android App where the users answer some questions and for each user an XML file is generated and saved in the device.
Here are my queries:
What I would like to do is to send these XML files from the devices to the Web Service and also sometimes to retrieve all the files to any
device.
Do I need to convert these files into Byte or just send the XML?
Are these actions possible with the Web Service or will you use Java Sockets? In case you prefer the Web Service, what would you use:
REST, SOAP.
I would appreciate some links to tutorials and piece of advise.
Use SQL Server to manage the data on your desktop and create a web-service in .NET on Visual Studio.
Then connect to the web-service in your application and set/get data from the DB, using web-services. You can use either XML or JSON to transfer your data between the phone and the server.
There is no need for the use of Java Socket API for this.
Links which might be useful :
How to make a web-service in .NET (does not include the implementation in Android) : http://srikanthtechnologies.com/blog/dotnet/wsdaljava.aspx
How to connect your service with Android :
http://seesharpgears.blogspot.in/2010/11/basic-ksoap-android-tutorial.html
http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/304302/Calling-Asp-Net-Webservice-ASMX-From-an-Android-Ap
http://adrianandroid.blogspot.in/2012/05/access-c-net-web-service-in.html
Note: I have never worked on RESTful services. My work has always been on SOAP and hence it remains my preference.
Your final choice of how, exactly, to architect your app, is going to be based on all sorts of things that you haven't included in your questions: your experience, the experience of the other developers in the project, so on and so on.
I will say this, however. REST is deep in the heart of Android. If you decide to go with REST and, possibly, JSON instead of XML (there is, almost certainly, no reason to use byte arrays), you will find that Android's architecture supports you. SOAP and such and you are on your own.