I need to implement an http server which accepts requests from android devices. To give a brief idea, this server will contain a location based game, and multiple android devices can access this game which is stored on the server. The server will also handle messages sent via mobile devices. can you give me some tips or links of articles/tutorials which might help me in this task?
Any server can make this stuff. It depends on what programming language are you using on server-side. I don't know what language you know but I usually use ruby on rails. If you use rails, then you can use heroku for a quick and fast server to implement. But it depends on your language.
I wouldn't use HTTP as a game server protocol.
Take a look at Apache Mina. It's an Java, event based framework. I recommend the "new line" protocol.
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I am new to mobile applications. I am basically from a web development platform. I am just playing around mobile frameworks like App Framework, LungoJS, Jquery Mobile, kendo etc to gain some knowledge in this vertical.
The app I am developing is still in UI level. All I need is to fetch data from the server and populate in my app.
I need some ideas to establish server communication between the smart device and the server. My questions are
What kind of server needed for mobile applications ? A cloud or a
regular web server is enough ?
What are the ways to connect the app with the server ? ( on cross
platform mobile development )
What is the secure way to communication with the server ?
What kind of server needed for mobile applications ? A cloud or a regular web server is enough ?
Because you are creating a hybrid mobile application you can use any type of server side technology, it doesn't matter is it a classic web server technology (using Java, PHP or .NET) or some kind of cloud technology like Parse.com.
You also don't need to create anything from scratch. Best course of action would be to use some kind of micro RESTFul framework(like PHP Falcon or Java Play Framework). Read more about them here.
But, there's always a but. You can't use server side technology for classic content generation, you only need to use it to send data to your hybrid application. I will explain this later.
There's also an alternative to RESTFul services, you can create a webservice, again using Java, PHP or .NET.
What are the ways to connect the app with the server ? ( on cross platform mobile development )
You would use AJAX as a technology (in case of RESTFul), rest depends on you. You would probably do it in JSON format (or JSONP if you are doing cross-domain calls, but you don't need to think about JSONP when creating a hybrid application).
If you intend to use a web service then you would use a SOAP connection and communicate via XML format.
No matter which server side technology you use you will always use AJAX on a client side.
Now let me tell you why you should not generate your content on server side. Basically nothing can prevent you from doing that, you can generate your complete page on web server and just show it in PhoneGap app, it would still be a hybrid app. But, if you try to put this app in Apple store you will get yourself rejected.
What is the secure way to communication with the server ?
Security of course depends on server side technology. Every framework has its own kind of security handling, but all of them relay on HTTPS so you should not worry too much.
From the client side you can always encrypt JSON/XML data and send them using POST.
Examples:
If you want to use jQuery Mobile then take a look at this tutorial. It will show you basics of client - server side communication.
Since you are new to mobile application, ill try to give short answers
1) What kind of server needed for mobile applications ? A cloud or a regular web server is enough ?
A regular web server is good.
2) What are the ways to connect the app with the server ?
via web-services
3) What is the secure way to communication with the server ?
Use HTTPS webservices (SOAP, REST), HTTPS secures the transmission.
Above is a basic explanation for your quick help, I would recommend you to go through the documentation, and review some sample codes
This will really help you Sample
Please go through this link it will surely help you
http://www.androidhive.info/2012/01/android-login-and-registration-with-php-mysql-and-sqlite/
Webserver,cloud anything is good for restful service
for security purpose you can use POST parameter to send and recieve data or if you want more security then you can encrypt and decrypt data through secure algorithm
I'm planning to write up an android App that will collect some data from a smartphone and periodically send the data to some publicly accessible machine (i.e., the machine has a public IP address). What is the best approach to doing this? Is there any good sample code or skeleton available online?
At this point the communication is one way, i.e., from smartphone to external machine.
HTTP is the ideal solution for an application like this. Run a web server on the external machine and POST data from the app to the server.
Info on how to do this from Android can be found here: How to send a data to a web server from Android.
As for the web server side of things, there are a ton of different solutions available. It all depends on your level of knowledge, what languages you're familiar with, and what you intend to do with the data once it arrives.
CGI is the classic web server tool for handling POST requests, but there are better techniques now. For example, the Java Servlet API if you like Java, WSGI if you like Python, PHP is a common server side language also.
what is the best way to create a two way constant communication between a server and an android app?
When I say constant communication, I mean client asking server for data or server constantly pushing data to clients.
From what I saw, I can't use websockets since they are designer for server/browser setups. Is that right? If so, what is the alternative?
Is there free frameworks to work with this in Android?
What I am trying to do is an application that works like a chatting but for multiple people. So they all will get in one "room or channel" on their devices, and then interact with each other, in a way handdled by the server.
Thanks!
As far as I know , one possible way is using a web service where the client can connect to the server , if the web service is RESTFul there are many libraries to access it , one of them is the apache HTTPClient , for the server pushing the only way I know is C2DM for pushing data to clients.
For continuously-open data connection, you may use Sockets. But you should also consider the fact that an always-open connection will drain your battery quickly too. For more details, read this and this
You may want to look at AutobahnAndroid:
https://github.com/tavendo/AutobahnAndroid
which provides native Android/Java WebSocket client framework (plus WAMP = PubSub/RPC over WebSocket .. http://wamp.ws).
This is fully interoperable with WebSocket servers that server browser clients.
The AutobahnXX libraries (where XX = Python, JS, Android) are Open-Source (Apache 2.0). We (Tavendo) are offering a commercial virtual appliance based on Autobahn: http://autobahn.ws
Disclaimer: I am author of Autobahn and work for Tavendo.
But keeping the connection running on the background on iOS and Android devices does drain the battery, for people who have this issue, I suggest using push notifications when the app is not on the foreground.
From what I saw, I can't use websockets since they are designer for
server/browser setups. Is that right? If so, what is the alternative?
Websocket is an IETF/W3C protocol, so it is not confined to a specific client platform. You can use Android websocket to get a two-way communication between Android and server side. For Android websocket client, I recommend using AndroidAsync. It has all websocket API that you need to establish the communication link and exchange data between Android and the server.
I intend to write a multi platform smartphone app (currently only I-phone and android).
Which has to send and recieve information from a web server I intend to create.
The web server will do all the algorithms, and handles also DB connection.
My question, is how is this best accomplished, which kind of web-server technology fit best the scenario, and supports connections from various devices.
Basically, I thought about implementing a simple TCP/IP protocol, making the app (on the phone) the client, and server on the web on the other side. however, I want to deploy the application to an application server (maybe google app, JBOSS, etc.) and I don't want to be stopped by various firewalls.
does anyone has an idea ?
edit: few things are certain, the application server will be written in java, and db will be mysql.
This is a very broad question and any suggestion about which backend technology to use will depend on your language preferences, your other requirements, etc.
For starters, I'd suggest JSON over HTTP as a transport mechanism: it's easy to parse on both client and server-side, and it's directly usable in Javascript should the need arise. XML is another choice, but it can be annoying to parse.
JSON-over-HTTP (or XML) will be completely device agnostic and won't have the firewall/proxy problems you'll run into trying to do a custom-implemented TCP-based protocol.
For the backend, may folks use MySQL or Postgres for their database, and connect to it from Java, C#, Ruby, PHP, or other server-side languages. Use what you're comfortable with or what you want to learn next.
Why not write the server-side as a regular web application - in whatever technology you like (php, asp.net, java)? This way you can deploy the app on any web server and your client apps on the phones would simply establish a connection to an HTTP server. Normally, firewalls would not be a problem in such situation.
I have used this setup for my apps (both android and iphone) - connecting to a web server app written in php with postgres back-end.
I am trying to develop a system that involves a:
server with a database that will handle the system's logic and manipulate data
an android app that will interact with that server (pull and push data into the server)
a website that will do the same as the android app, but from a website with slightly different data.
What I thought of is to use SQLite with Apache Tomcat installed on the server and deploy a Grails war file on it. That will take care of the 'website' side of the system. But what about the android app? Can it communicate with Tomcat as well?
Tomcat will suit your needs. I would look at hosting options though. Are you hosting your own server, or do you have a hosting provider? Do you have experience hosting a tomcat server etc. Do you have experience with java web applications, or other web frameworks? All of the above, and probably more should lead you to your decision on what type of framework/language to use on the server. This in turn will lead you to your options for hosting, and web-container to use.
Once that is determined all major web frameworks will allow you to publish web-services Rest, Soap, etc. that can be consumed by an android application.
Also, if you are planning on providing a web interface and service at the server level, my guess is you are going to be storing a fair amount of data, I would look into a more robust and scalable database such as mysql or postgres. This post contains some insights into this.
If you have an API that is web accessible, an Android can access it.
Android shouldn't have any problems communicating with Tomcat.
Look at http://grails.org/doc/latest/guide/13.%20Web%20Services.html for more information.
A RESTful web service is most likely what you'll need. Android can consume SOAP web services but it requires more work for less overall functionality.