Android How To Simulate HTTP Communication for Offline Demo - android

I have an Android App which uses http communication for nearly every operation. I want to be able to demo without connection to the internet by somehow replaying the http exchange. How can this be done? So I want to somehow almost like mock objects but really mock http session so I can always demo the app on or offline. This is really a very cool thing to be able to do. Since you can demo the app easily and reliably. Does anyone know how I could do this. Replicating the whole server side is just not an options its got too much stuff. Its important not to just show screencast but the real data exchange. I just want to be able to run thru the app and replay. Maybe debug as well. Thanks

Here's a hybrid solution using similar ideas from other answers:
You could write a dead simple HTTP server that listens on "localhost:80" (or whatever the port is on the server you're targeting) and point your application to this host instead by factoring out the host name from requests. Your local server has a reference to the actual remote server and does the following:
If ONLINE, forwards the request as-is to the real server, gets the response, saves it locally either in an in-memory cache keyed by the request URL or a file named with the URL as its identifier (munged appropriately)
If OFFLINE, looks up a request in its (in-memory or file system) cache and returns the contents from the cache instead
This is kind of like the record/playback mode that #nicholas.hauschild says.
Now you can just run your app once when ONLINE, causing your localhost server to save away requests that it issues against the real server. Then when you run your app OFFLINE, it just returns these cached contents instead whenever the same URLs are issued.
Hope this helps.

If you're device is rooted, you can use tcpdump as explained in this post: http://www.vbsteven.be/blog/android-debugging-inspectin-network-traffic-with-tcpdump/
or use AndroShark (get if from xda-developers here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=725692)
or this one (wifi only): http://www.9bitlabs.com/default.aspx

I would create a "Record Mode", and a "Playback Mode" for my app.
While in Record Mode, I would write out a file each time an http request was made. The file would be named by the endpoint the request is made. The contents of the file would a collection of serialized http requests/responses broken up by line. You could then deserialize lines from this file until you find the proper request, and play back the deserialized response.
This approach would also allow you to create Record/Playback profiles, where you could record multiple different sessions (by placing the files into a different directory) and then playback from whichever profile you choose.
This whole approach could be done with a small wrapper class around the HttpClient object you are using.

One way would be to use an HTTP proxy. Redirect all web traffic to the proxy, which can be running locally on the phone. This could be done with little or no source code change.

find a way using fiddler on pc,and android app take fiddler as proxy.So the http traffic is record.
http://blog.csdn.net/grhunter/article/details/5830199

Simples solution lies in faking it when there is no connection. If there is a error in connection, make sure ur app throws some preset data rather than an error in connection thing.

Related

How to make android app accessible to web browser

I want to create a pair of Android app (Server - Client) using Socket to communicate with each other in real time. I found the sample here http://androidsrc.net/android-client-server-using-sockets-server-implementation/ which works. The client can connect to the server. Now I think about making the server a... "web server" (I don't know if I'm calling it the right way) that can display what they (server and client) are communicating (maybe showing their chat or calculation...).
But when I type in the address and port (eg: http://172.16.1.21:8080/) into the browser (Chrome), the result is
172.16.1.21 sent an invalid response. ERR_INVALID_HTTP_RESPONSE
I guess it was responding but with some other kind of format that the browser doesn't understand. I tried calling with postman and got the error:
Could not get any response There was an error connecting to
172.16.1.21:8080.
I tried putting an index.html to the root of the storage (/storage/emulated/0/) but no luck
The idea would be the same as the app "Websharing" on store. All you need is that the phone and the Computer is on the same network. When access the app, the browser will show the content of the phone.
My idea is to show other information. I though about creating another "display-app" to show the result, but then what if I wan't to send some custom message to all client, then I will need an another phone, which is so difficult to have. Opening another tab is much easier. I don't want to risk using online service like Firebase because the internet connection may not be stable. Just local connection is fine for me.
I don't know that is it called, a keyword would be appreciated. I tried googling and found some suggestion that to run an app called "Tiny web server", I haven't tried it but I don't wan't to use a third-party app because the installation will be complicated and not support full customization.
Thank you for your time.

Local Proxy Server Running On Android Device

I am trying to write a http proxy server that would run on the device itself. In fact, need to find a way to capture the outbound http traffic generated by the device.
The code I have so far is compiling OK, it is based on the code found here: http://www.jtmelton.com/2007/11/27/a-simple-multi-threaded-java-http-proxy-server/
The problem is that the http request to the actual server would block and never return .
Is there a better way to write such a service without rooting the device?
You should check SandroProxy.
Can caputre traffic on non rooted device if os proxy settings are used, or with iptables rules on rooted one.
Traffic is stored it in local sqlite database. Captured data can be also examined by chrome devtools. To capture traffic in your app you should check source code for plugins. It has all the code for iptables redirections and proper settings.
Check out the wiki link on google source code HowToInterceptTrafficOnMyOwn
http://code.google.com/p/sandrop/wiki/HowToInterceptTrafficOnMyOwn
btw: send by sandroproxy support :)
I've been using a piece of software called proxydroid to use my device as a proxy server, and its the only one I've found which doesn't require root. I'm not sure if it will be any help to you, but its an open source project and the code can be found here:
https://github.com/madeye/proxydroid
I have noticed that the application will freeze after a while, or if a large number of request are sent at once, but I've not had chance to find out why this is happening.
Forget about setting proxy, use Facebook Stetho library (http://facebook.github.io/stetho/) to review all http requests and responses from emulator/device

Capture All Webservice Calls from Android APP

I have an app, and I would like to know the webservice URL that it calls. Is there anyway to find this out?
You should check your android logs first. If the app exposes no info about requests through this, the next best thing would be to decompile the app. If the URL is static, just looking through the data files will get you the address. If it is dynamic, you can modify the dalvik bytecode to have it log to logcat and recompile the apk. If all else fails, you can use tcpdump. You'll need root, and can follow this tutorial to utilize wireshark to visualize it easily.
You can do this using app tPacketCapture. It can store network dumps in a format that can be read by WireShark or other programs on your pc.
or you could set up a proxy for the phone, using fiddler and a PC, like this:
http://www.cantoni.org/2013/11/06/capture-android-web-traffic-fiddler
you'd get all the API requests quite easily then...

how to use android json webserver

Hello every one I am new with servers things. I want to develop program that get data from the database on the server and it's my first time I don't have any idea of this thing.
Let say like Login & Logout:
how can i make a virtual server for testing on my PC
how can i connect the emulator with this virtual server
how can i request the data from thee database
Do I need software like Xamp or Wamp? If yes how can I use it?
I found so many examples about the json and webserver but I don't know how to make virtual server and connect the emulator to it.
as I understand this problem you need two separate pieces of software. You will need 1) server. To begin with you can install XAMP and WAMP to get Apache running. There are millions of tutorials on how to set up an Apache web server online, and to begin with you could just return a string or a simple data structure (e.g. JSON or XML). As you want to do more complex things you can learn more, but in the beginning think "easy does it". From your text I anticipate that you just want to test as a proof of concept.
- What OS do you run BTW?
Another solution is to rent some space on a server accessible from the Internet. Then you could test your server-side regardless of where you are located.
Second you would need to create a program for the android. There are several guides, but have a look here: http://developer.android.com/training/basics/network-ops/index.html. If you choose to make your data available through the HTTP protocol there are very boilerplate-like procedures for how to download and parse the data.
If you are hosting the server-side on your local computer you would need to use local addressing, but if you choose to put it online you could acquire the data from everywhere as long as you have an internet connection.
Good luck!

Safe connection between Android application and Apache server

Below I explained what I need and in the answer I would like to get information what technology, what kind of protocols, services etc should I use.
Also I know that there is a massive amount of information on the internet, but because there are so many choices I'm unable to make a decision. Here's what I want to have:
Android application which will sent and receive information from the internet/server
Of course server, which will do some rudimentary computation with the obtained information, then store it and at the end send it back to the client application
I have to admit that the subjects of networking, socketing, protocols, ciphering etc are the ones I've always run away from. Therefore advices such as what domains, databases etc utilize are highly welcome
Update: After a bit of a research I've implemented mechanism based on information from this site [1]. I already have a working MySql database with several tables inside. Also I've added php scripts to my Apache webspace and implemented all that's necessary within my Android app.
Now, as I understand communication between php's scripts and MySql database is safe (I've hardcoded the usr/pass within scripts). Therefore the only thing that has left to be done to secure the connection between my Android application and php scripts (I want to prevent the situation when everybody has an access to my php scripts). So my question should be pretty straightforward now, how can it be achieved?
[1] http://blog.sptechnolab.com/2011/02/10/android/android-connecting-to-mysql-using-php/
I think a simple TCP/IP connection via Sockets will do just fine for your purposes.
The lesson (with more information and some examples) from the Java-Docs can be found here.
The basic workflow is as follows:
Your Android-App opens a Socket-connection to your server on a
given port where a server-application listens.
The Android-App sends it's data (whatever that might be) to the
Server.
The Server reads the send data,
processes it,
stores it...
...then it sends back some response (maybe the computed values) to your
Android-App.
Your app can then figure out if everything went okay and use the
given data.
Answering my second question, all the php scripts has been put into directory with the password on my Apache server. To be able to trigger them I need to give this password which is hardcoded in my application. All the connection is done through HTTPS. Now everything works as planned!

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