I am an novice programmer and I need a little direction.
Here is the concept of what I am looking to do:
Let's say I have an iOS and or OS X app for let's say storing people's names and phone numbers. Now I want to be able to have multiple people to be able to use the same app on different devices and access the same database; read and write values at the same time.
I am moderately well versed with Core Data and I have found that it works well but is not capable of accomplishing what I am trying to do.
Could someone point me in the right direction to find resources where I could learn how to do this? Thanks.
I apologize if the question has been asked before; I tried to do searches but I didn't know exactly what to search/could not find what I was looking for.
It seems that what you want to achieve will require an external database storage, which would provide an API that both your iOS and Mac OS apps will use in order to read/write to this common database.
There are plenty of resources on how to setup a database and an API. A pretty simple (yet heavy) approach would be to create a little web server in the language of your choice (PHP, Ruby on Rails, Node...) that exposes a hosted database, and communicate with that API from your apps. My advice if you are a beginner, would be to have a look at RoR to setup a simple web server/Restful API that exposes a MySQL database: http://guides.rubyonrails.org/getting_started.html.
If this is not the answer you're looking for, maybe you want to use iCloud in order to keep your data in sync between devices. However, this is not applicable in a multi-user land (e.g. this will work fine for multiple devices of the same user).
Related
I am working on a project that will include a Laravel web application, Android application, and iOS application. I am new to iOS. Since a user's data will need to be synchronized across all platforms, I assume the optimal way to do this is with a Relational Database (i.e. MySQL) and a PHP Web Service that interacts with the mobile apps.
Everything I see online says to basically use Firebase for mobile apps. There is a lot of work to create the PHP Web Services necessary. I am surprised the dominant recommendation is to use Firebase. About every iPhone app I have has both web and mobile platforms where data must be synchronized. I assume they cannot use Firebase and must use PHP Web Services.
Am I missing something?
You are absolutely correct that it is not a foregone conclusion that one would use Firebase. It’s a great solution that fills a particular niche, but developing separate web services is extremely common. (I suspect that that your online research may be biased by the fact that most of these articles are likely geared for mobile developers who might not have the wherewithal to develop, maintain, and support their own web server infrastructure.)
That having been said, I would not have jumped to the conclusion that the “optimal” way would be to write your own backend going against some RDBMS. These NoSQL solutions, like Firebase, are perfectly up to the job in most cases. There are pros and cons on both sides of the NoSQL vs RDBMS discussion (which is probably beyond the scope of this question).
So, do not be unduly biased by these Firebase articles you found online, but consider adding it to your tech stack if:
there are some compelling Firebase features that you don’t want to reinvent yourself (e.g. the integrated authentication options are nice; the realtime observers for database changes is a killer feature, if you need that; etc.);
the NoSQL paradigm of Firebase’s “Real-time Database” fits your app’s requirements; and
you need backend server capabilities, but don’t want to deal with the overhead of developing and maintaining your own backend.
In your case, because you’re already developing a Laravel app, that largely undermines that last rationale, because you’ve obviously already signed up for that.
So, it is just a question of what Firebase features you need and whether these features are compelling enough to justify adding Firebase to your tech stack. But don’t use Firebase because you found a bunch of articles advocating for it. Nor should you dismiss Firebase because you fear it won’t be “optimal”. It depends.
All of that having been said, the excellent, seamless, object-to-database mapping that Laravel provides really begs for the SQL database approach. If you tried to use Firebase for the backend, you’d likely lose a lot of the benefits of Laravel.
I want to develop a native application to ios.
I want to build an app that is a mix of Instagram and YouTube,generally.
I need to persist and get data to and from the database,store user data(images,videos,audio etc.), Allow user to edit his uploaded media ( images,videos,audio etc.).Also things such as drag and drop, GPS and image edition are added.
So far I think these are the most demanding features that app will contain.
I think about using swift for the front end, but I am still considering what language and database to go with to develop this application.
I though I should maybe go with php laravel framework RESTful api(since I know it already), combined with firebase.
Any better suggestion you might think about, and why?
Will appreciate your honest thoughts about this.
I was really putting the last hours in order to determine the right language for developing the back-end and the database. And I reckon that really node.js and mongoDB , along with Swift will make the perfect match!
node.js seems to be good for my app, as it does not really require very complex computing, and MongoDB is ideal for social networking features. These are the main reasons I am going with this stack :)
Also,about scalability, it's easier in MongoDB,rather than MySQL.
thank you all for reading my question~
Before asking some (2~3) questions, I will briefly explain what I am trying to do. I am trying to build a turn based multiplayer (1 vs 1) game. I have a little knowledge of Swift/IOS development, mysql, html, and jsp. I am planning to learn php since many people say combination of mysql and php is good for ios back-end programming.
Here are actual questions:
Do I need to get a droplet from places like Digital Ocean and deploy my own server? Or is it possible to use web hosting such as bluehost for this purpose?
This is the part which I have no clue about... How do I actually develop a multiplayer game? I can guess that this has something to do with tcp/ip socket programming. My experience with tcp/ip programming did not require mysql or something similar if I remember it correctly. In that vein, what's the role of some database like mysql when it comes to developing a multiplayer game? Of course it becomes handy when saving scores and achievement; however, I do not know why it is required for finding a match and establishing a connection. Wouldn't a private server needed instead for receiving and sending sockets? Does this mean I have to lease a dedicated server and setup everything by myself?
It seems like there are more than three questions... sorry for asking too many questions. I am a noob programmer and needs many advice from experts!
Is is necessary for me to deploy a web application for handling all backend stuffs? By the way, I am trying to avoid having users make an account. As a result, if I have to manage each user, maybe keeping each user's unique phone id can help me distinguish each user?
I have looked into both Google's and Apple's free game match system... It is very tempting to use them, but my friends designed game match screen and separate ranking systems. As so, I need to come up with a way to solve this conundrum. Please help me!!! Thank you all for reading my question again and help a poor soul here...
I am planning to create a library related desktop application using Delphi 5, for which there would be a single database kept at one place and this application would be installed at different places more over in different cities.
Here, my doubt is Using Delphi 5, is it possible for all the instances of this application which are installed at different cities could access one centralized database? If yes then how?
If anybody is having any other ideas kindly feel free to share it. Because I have familiar to only desktop application development, that is the reason I am asking how these different instances of an application could access only one centralized database ?
So, all the screens and coding would be done using Delphi 5, moreover it would be a desktop application only the difference would be database access would be from different places.
That depends upon back-end database technology. By "desktop application development" u probably mean ISAM databases like Paradox, DBF-family, etc.
If so, then you should quickly learn about SQL, its concepts, ACID principles, etc.
I believe there is a lot of good books in English about SQL in general and SQL with Delphi link in particular. For staring u may try something like http://www.firebirdsql.org/en/books/, but basically you would have to cover three areas:
SQL in general, principles, patterns, etc
Details about Delphi wrt SQL designs.
Details about chosen database server, including components to connect it to Delphi, bugs, gotchas, etc
I think you'd hardly find all that in one book and would have to get two or three.
Then you would have make a network connection between clients and server.
That splits to two questions.
How to find server
How to connect to it
VPN are reliable solution, you may try Windows built-in methods, or simplier methods like TeamViewer, Comodo, Hamachi, etc
But that can make you whole server computer exposed to your clients.
You'd better find not whole-featured network, but a tunnel that would connect clients for database server and nothing else. In russian comunity classic solution to Firebird/Interbase family is http://sf.net/projects/zebedee for Windows. For Linux SSH is usually used.
You probably can find a lot of FAQ in English if you google for "tunneling" and you database server of Choice.
How can i write a cloud-aware application? e.g. an application that takes benefit of being deployed on cloud. Is it same as an application that runs or a vps/dedicated server? if not then what are the differences? are there any design changes? What are the procedures that i need to take if i am to migrate an application to cloud-aware?
Also i am about to implement a web application idea which would need features like security, performance, caching, and more importantly free. I have been comparing some frameworks and found that django has least RAM/CPU usage and works great in prefork+threaded mode, but i have also read that django based sites stop to respond with huge load of connections. Other frameworks that i have seen/know are Zend, CakePHP, Lithium/Cake3, CodeIgnitor, Symfony, Ruby on Rails....
So i would leave this to your opinion as well, suggest me a good free framework based on my needs.
Finally thanks for reading the essay ;)
I feel a matrix moment coming on... "what is the cloud? The cloud is all around us, a prison for your program..." (what? the FAQ said bring your sense of humour...)
Ok so seriously, what is the cloud? It depends on the implementation but usual features include scalable computing resource and a charge per cpu-hour, storage area etc. So yes, it is a bit like developing on your VPS/a normal server.
As I understand it, Google App Engine allows you to consume as much as you want. The back-end resource management is done by Google and billed to you and you pay for what you use. I believe there's even a free threshold.
Amazon EC2 exposes an API that actually allows you to add virtual machine instances (someone correct me please if I'm wrong) having pre-configured them, deploy another instance of your web app, talk between private IP ranges if you wish (slicehost definitely allow this). As such, EC2 can allow you to act like a giant load balancer on the front-end passing work off to a whole number of VMs on the back end, or expose all that publicly, take your pick. I'm not sure on the exact detail because I didn't build the system but that's how I understand it.
I have a feeling (but I know least about Azure) that on Azure, resource management is done automatically, for you, by Microsoft, based on what your app uses.
So, in summary, the cloud is different things depending on which particular cloud you choose. EC2 seems to expose an API for managing resource, GAE and Azure appear to be environments which grow and shrink in the background based on your use.
Note: I am aware there are certain constraints developing in GAE, particularly with Java. In a minute, I'll edit in another thread where someone made an excellent comment on one of my posts to this effect.
Edit as promised, see this thread: Cloud Agnostic Architecture?
As for a choice of framework, it really doesn't matter as far as I'm concerned. If you are planning on deploying to one of these platforms you might want to check framework/language availability. I personally have just started Django and love it, having learnt python a while ago, so, in my totally unbiased opinion, use Django. Other developers will probably recommend other things, based on their preferences. What do you know? What are you most comfortable with? What do you like the most? I'd go with that. I chose Django purely because I'm not such a big fan of PHP, I like Python and I was comfortable with the framework when I initially played around with it.
Edit: So how do you write cloud-aware code? You design your software in such a way it fits on one of these architectures. Again, see the cloud-agnostic thread for some really good discussion on ways of doing this. For example, you might talk to some services on GAE which scale. That they are on GAE (example) doesn't really matter, you use loose coupling ideas. In essence, this is just a step up from the web service idea.
Also, another feature of the cloud I forgot to mention is the idea of CDN's being provided for you - some cloud implementations might move your data around the globe to make it more efficient to serve, or just because that's where they've got space. If that's an issue, don't use the cloud.
I cannot answer your question - I'm not experienced in such projects - but I can tell you one thing... both CakePHP and CodeIgniter are designed for PHP4 - in other words: for really old technology. And it seems nothing is going to change in their case. Symfony (especially 2.0 version which is still in heavy beta) is worth considering, but as I said on the very beginning - I can not support this with my own experience.
For designing applications for deployment for the cloud, the main thing to consider if recoverability. If your server is terminated, you may lose all of your data. If you're deploying on Amazon, I'd recommend putting all data that you need persisted onto an Elastic Block Storage (EBS) device. This would be data like user generated content/files, the database files and logs. I also use the EBS snapshot on a 5 day rotation so that's backed up itself. That said, I've had a cloud server up on AWS for over a year without any issues.
As for frameworks, I'm giving Grails a try at the minute and I'm quite enjoying it. Built to be syntactically similar to Rails but runs on the JVM. It means you can take advantage of all the Java goodness, like threading, concurrency and all the great libraries out there to build your web application.