Hello everyone. I'm new to Android app development but I'm not new to web development. I was searching around and I found that I could do an "offline" web application. Since I'm new and can't post links, there is an example that can be found on Linux Mag. The article is called "Under the Hood of Native Web Apps for Android" and it's specific to offline app development. I'm looking for help with an ONLINE application using PHP/MySQL/AJAX using my web server to host the app - minus having to use the phone's browser.
I know you can do "web apps" for the iPhone (such as Google Voice) and I was wondering if I could do it with Android (unlike in the example from Linux Mag where the app is "offline", mine needs to be online). Any information would be appreciated as I keep turning up dry search results. Thanks very much!
This is not any of a problem with android (or java in general)
I'm just gonna give you a few catchwords & links:
Apache (Default)HttpClient - Pretty straight-forward-to-use HttpClient - http://developer.android.com/reference/org/apache/http/impl/client/DefaultHttpClient.html
AsyncTask - A pretty simple way to fetch data asynchronously (meaning you wont actually block your app while loading data) - http://developer.android.com/reference/android/os/AsyncTask.html.
If your source-data is being delivered as xml you can use sax-parsers for json u can use org.json which is also built into standard android - http://developer.android.com/reference/org/json/package-summary.html
And finally a hint from my side if you're new to android application development... care about rotation-handling from the very begining of application development. You will regret later on if u didn't .
Hello,
I'm new here and just starting to dabble with Android app development.
I've installed android studio and began playing around with it making a few Activities just to try it out and begin building my knowledge. I want to make an app where users will need to authenticate then pull data from a server (via an API). I followed this guide (google how-to-build-mobile-app-with-app-engine-backend-tutorial to find, can't post link) to add the app engine backend to it, but I couldn't finish it because I couldn't find the RegisterActivity so I decided to take a break and come ask here.
I'm very new to this, trying to warm up to the Android activities/layouts/things so I'd appreciate it if someone could link me some tutorials or guides on setting up a backend that will be able to interact with my app to perform things like registering, logging in and fetching data? Instagram would be a good example (I'm not making a photo sharing app but the functionality in terms of signing in then fetching your photos from the feed is a similar idea of what I want to do).
I have solid knowledge in web development languages and Java but am still trying to grasp this all.
Thanks for any and all help!
Daniel
I just got a Shield TV, and I love it. I'm probably going to root it tonight to tinker further.
One issue I have with it is how annoying it is to configure, side-load apps, upload files to, etc. I'd love to have a web console for it, and I'm willing to do most/all of the heavy lifting for the front-end and server-side web development perspective. I'm going to need help on other fronts, however.
I'm a full-stack web developer. Most of what I've done professionally is PHP, but I'm not married to that. I'm also pretty good at configuring apache/nginx/ha-proxy/etc. Though once upon a time, I wrote front-end applications in Java and C++, that's ancient history, and I don't really have time to re-learn those skills and the Android SDK. Also, I'm not much of a designer, so unless I'm just using a pretty stock framework like Bootstrap, I'll need someone else to provide the art.
What I'm envisioning is an app that we can have in the play store that has a very simple UI to:
- install an SSH server
- install bash
- install web server/app server
- install DDNS client
- launch server on boot
- check server for new versions of the software it installed
Stuff I want the web interface to do:
- install/uninstall apps (file submission, URLs, etc.)
- 1-click installs of common things people want (Kodi, Amazon Prime Video, etc.)
- start/stop sshd
- manage mounting/unmounting NFS/AFS/CIFS/etc. shares (is this even possible on Android?)
- restart the device
- configure most settings on the device, including some hidden stuff
- file management
So, what I can do:
- script the download/install/upgrade of stuff on already rooted box in bash
- write back-end web code in PHP, Python, or Go
- write HTML/CSS/JS for front-end
What I need help with:
- writing the Android TV app to trigger the install script
- some help understanding/bootstrapping the process (what's installed by default on Android? What's the minimum we can get away with? Do we need Python?)
- someone to design the app (honestly, this can wait until we've got a baseline functionality if we like)
Anyone interested in joining me?
I'm leaning towards Go for the web app, because the binary can (in theory) be deployed standalone, and can be its own web server, obviating the need for apache or nginx or whatever. Also, performance and memory utilization -- PHP and Python are fairly expensive to run, and this is a really minor background thing.
This would be open source on Github.
While I unfortunately don't have a machine to helpwith code, nor the time for the code, I thought I'd give you a dev/modders look on the possibility/dificulty of things. Please don't think that I am discredditing this idea, in fact, I like it. Just want to passibly help you consider dev order and dificulty oy each item as listed, and hopefully add my own as others may have interest.
- install/uninstall apps (file submission, URLs, etc.) <-- Would be pretty easy. Users should provide apks, or you'll need a site that stores a lot of them.
- 1-click installs of common things people want (Kodi, Amazon Prime Video, etc.) <-- Similar to last point. You'll have to have a mirror of updated apks, weather you or another host provides it. You'll probably need a web scraper if going to an external host.
- start/stop sshd <-- I suggest dropbear, even if it's not my cup of tea. It can be easily found in other apps and should find code in open source ones to get you started.
- manage mounting/unmounting NFS/AFS/CIFS/etc. shares (is this even possible on Android?) <-- can be done. Check Kodi or other open source apps for code, though there are usually caviats to each approach. Luckly Android has fuse in most kernels these days.
- restart the device <-- Very easy
- configure most settings on the device, including some hidden stuff <-- Gonna be a long process, but you can probably reverse engeneer the apks and parse the XML files for a shortcut.
- file management <-- Super easy. Use the ssh server, or adb connection.
Over all, I think a lot of this is possible. Luckly these machines have the beef for a web server, and several are ported last I checked, though they may be out of date. Even still, check their codebase for a massive head start as they are mostly required to keep open source by licence (Apache excluded, though some still are). I would also suggest these features as they would be somewhat easy to imprement once the base file management is started, and would broaden the scope to bring in more users, support and interest, and hopefully devs.
-Rom Manager for emulators.
Mass File Renamer based on Filebot (Both are java, so should not be TOO hard to port) as many buy this box for Kodi.
I'll think of more.
I'm not an app dev, though I do rom modding and sometimes porting, and I can offer insite to things, so if you have questions on specifics, please pm me. If I get some free time, and a dev machine, I'll let you know antd get things going in the right direction. May also want to, once this idea is flushed out, post something in a more general android TV/ App Development thread for cleanness and to get devs on board (don't post in dev till there is code to show on github though please.
Something like remix os would be nice, this x1 has a lots of power
Sent from my trltetmo using Tapatalk
This is a great idea. This device is in serious need of developer attention. Im not a dev at all but Ive gotten pretty familiar with this device and Android OS in general, especially after spending so much time digging around trying to make android things happen that apparently were not indended for Android TV. I will be more than happy to be a tester and keep up so as to offer any ideas and some of the ways Ive found to do stuff.
@kdb424 - Thanks for the info. I'm working on a prototype right now. First build is going to list a bunch of stuff from the setting status, and allow you to reboot the device. I'll post the Github repo when I have that.
Great ideas!
There is a tool sorta in development already that does a lot of this (I've mentioned it on the Shield Zone a couple of times)
https://sites.google.com/site/nvidiashieldtvutilityapp/home/
My main needs (personally) is a means to move files to and from and my current solution is a free FTP server that works even when the Shield TV is sleeping.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.theolivetree.ftpserver
... works very well despite having to side load, has a terrible interface, etc. Set and forget. What's great is, I can use my file-manager-on-steroids Directory Opus to manage files since it is a standard FTP connection.
@darkuni - Yeah, I saw that, but I've got no Windows PC's in the house -- 2 Macs, a Chromebook, a Linux server, phones and tablets. I'm an old-school UNIX guy, and Windows doesn't strike my fancy. Plus, it seems like the sort of thing a web app is best for. No need for a fat client.
darkuni said:
Great ideas!
My main needs (personally) is a means to move files to and from and my current solution is a free FTP server that works even when the Shield TV is sleeping.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.theolivetree.ftpserver
... works very well despite having to side load, has a terrible interface, etc. Set and forget. What's great is, I can use my file-manager-on-steroids Directory Opus to manage files since it is a standard FTP connection.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for that I'll give it a go. I use ES file manager currently but it closes the server when you exit the app. Will also try this on a couple of FireTV Sticks I have dotted around the house as Kodi boxes :good:
Hey guys,
I want to explain you how you can integrate different services like Facebook, Dropbox or Slack into your application.
Why is this important?
In the kind of ever evolving market place that we are now in, it is more important than ever that your application can rapidly add new features. You don't have to invent the wheel again, there are thousands of great software solutions out there. All you have to do is to leverage those software and integrate them into your application. By doing so you can provide your users a more pleasant user experience and make your application stand out from others.
What is the problem?
Integrating different services also means to deal with all the different APIs since all the services are using their own API which are very often complex and you will need a lot of time to become familiar with all of them. This means you lose time which you could spent on focusing on your core application.
How to solve this issue?
A very simple solution is to use the CloudRail SDK. CloudRail is a completely free developer tool which allows you to combine all the different APIs including all the features you want to only one universal java or android API in only a few steps. By making the process of adding any new integration quick, simple, and easy, you can start ignoring all of the busy work and get on with making simply great applications.
I would love it if you did check it out and let me know any feedback, good or bad!
Hi, .
I am trying to figure out the best approach for an upcoming big project. Except doing small projects for Android (no web backend), most of my experience is with java, C++, and drupal programming.
The app I am looking at involves storing location for each user and a bunch of user data.
The app then needs to visualise/sort based on the nearby users on the map.
I've been reading up on current mobile technologies, which brought me to phonegap and drupalgap, although I am slightly afraid of being overly complex, and the delay of js rendering.
So I am also considering using a simpler restful service for login and user data storage (any recommendations? Do I build this myself?) and just building 2 native apps that communicate with this.
Drupalgap seems overly complicated to me and doesn't offer a good UI (would I use intelliJ and then just build a simple site in Drupal that is being rendered?). Or using the rest full services by hand (without phonegap) to do it native, as described at varunity.github.io/Drupal-Services-Android-App. Maybe there are libraries for this?
Sorry for the many questions, I just want to save myself time and do it right from the beginning. I am still very much in the process of reading up on existing libraries.
Thanks,
Do