I have lot of forms with data being submitted to the system and lot of views with data being pulled from database. I want to convert my web application into online and offline mode. I have gone through HTML5 local storage and web storage concepts and already started
implementing. I had to refactor my code a lot for this.
I am feeling that this approach is not the right one. Does anyone have a better suggestion as to create an application which works both offline and online and can save and retrieve lot of data.
Currently my application is a web application written in Groovy & Grails. My application is intended to be used on all possible browsers and smart devices. Its a Proof of Concept still work in progress and I need guidance on this
Thanks
HTML5 is still a web technology, and optimized for online usage. Making offline web app, even using HTML5 features, is very limited.
If you're really need full functional offline app, it's better to take a look at desctop/mobile tools. Some of them, like Apache Cordowa (was PhoneGap) or Appcelerator Titanium, can reuse some web techologies, like JavaScript. But it's totally different way, and you'll need to have 3 version of your app: web (grails), desktop (titanium, or swing maybe) and mobile (cordowa/titanium)
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I am developing one mobile app, the requirement is as follows.
1.The app should work offline and online.
2.It should have database in both local device and in the server.
3.When internet is on data has to be synced between local and server.
4.At any point of time local data and server data should be the same.
I have done lot of research on this but not able to find whether hybrid app development supports or not. Some one says we can do but other link says it's difficult and might not be possible.
Please help to me sort out this issue.Thanks in advance
for sure it is possible to have those features in an hybrid app. All depend what you choose to use to deal with that or how you choose to program it.
Remember than an hybrid app have almost all features that a web application could have as it could use almost all technologies, tricks, frameworks and libraries out there.
I have already developed an hybrid mobile app using cordova, jquery and jquery mobile that meet points 1 to 3. Though I am not saying you need to use jquery, or any of the other tools. I described the solutions I use for that app, however they are maybe not the best but it was the most practical and easiest solutions given the time frame and budget.
Was achieved by mirroring the server "data base" the first time the app is installed with WiFi access. When no internet is available the the app use the local data, when it is available then it take the data from the server and update the local data.
The local database was not a formal one, just JSON data files, very similar to the ones provided by the web service.
You can be checking for an active internet connection with the cordova network functions, once detected try to reach the server to check if the actual connection is working, on success then proceed to request mirroring the data. Just be sure to check if the local data is newer to the server one and instead of overriding you should first update the changes in the server.
I think this point is a bit difficult given the fact that you want to work offline. When you are offline you couldn´t do too much to reflect the server data into the app, as you are offline. Then having an exact mirror at any time is not feasible. However having a mirror when you have connection then that is another story.
Having a perfect data sync should be done carefully and instead of programming you own solution try to use a service or tools for that, like http://www.couchbase.com/mobile.
Hope it helps.
Hybrid applications are, at core, websites packaged into a native wrapper. They look and feel like a native app. Hybrid app have main features are portability (one code base, multiple platforms), Access to various hardware/software capabilties, cheaper orginigation costs, faster speed to market.
I am new to mobile programming, and I want to build a mobile app to fill few forms, offline, and then sync them later, when internet access is available, with a database on an online server through a VPN connection.
At first, I thought about learning Windows8 Phone App development, but then I heard/read about Phonegap and Jquery Mobile! and I am a bit confused which one would be better to use, considering two things:
1- Which one you think would be good for my app's functionality
2- Which tool would be more beneficial on the long run (in the mobile programming world).
Any advice would be very much appreciated.
With these functionality I don't thing you don't need many mobile dependent features rather you need more web features. For your first question, answer could be that technology in which you are more comfortable. But it also depends how you want to sync your data. In background or when the app is open. If you want to sync data in background that means app is closed, you have some data to send in server, and internet access is there, then you'll need some native windows phone code. In that case if you use phonegap ultimately you will need some native code to deal with it, may be you'll need to write a plugin to communicate between phonegap and native code. And if you don't need background process, if you want to send data to server only when your app is opened,phonegap can work like a charm. It'll be easy to communicate between 2 web technology.
For your second question, ofcourse phonegap is great technology to learn to deal with cross platform. If you need to make apps not only for WP rather for all platforms then phonegap is great. Having said that it's necessary to mention phonegap has it's quirks too. Native code always has it's benefit. Phonegap can't completely overcome native code. But if you are willing to compromise a bit, then it's easy to learn phonegap,a familiar tech than all those platform dependent techs like objective-c, android etc.
(N.B. I'm not an expert, it's just my experience so far)
I am planning to implement an online whiteboard. But I have no idea where to start. I went through many creative applications online, most of them seemed to have been implemented using Adobe Flash. Can anyone provide ideas on how to start off with the application regarding both the front-end and back-end implementation.
As a web developer I would suggest you to look at HTML5 Canvas as it allows you to draw/scribble on it. You must consider using fabric js So you would need HTML5 and javascript.
To share your whiteboard scribbling or anything you ll have to push real time data to other clients/user(aka browser), you should consider websockets , socket.io
Here this question can you help you I think. That should get you started. Let us know if you face any specific problem.
This is kind of a dumb question but I've aware of classic style JDE development for Blackberry but I've never tried using WebWorks. BB website says that it's possible to build applications for both smartphones (OS 6.0+) and tablets - sounds fantastic, but what's the price?
Is here anyone using WebWorks on a daily basis and capable of describing pros and cons?
Thanks in advance
I would suggest using it if you build webOS applications before hand. It make porting to the blackberry a breeze.
Use WebWorks if you know html5, Css3 and javascript over Java and C++.
I haven't ran into any issues with the webWorks, ported two applications without running into any issues. Its your standard html5, css3 and javascript you love with blackberry APIs
WebWorks is a good development choice, particularly as it allows easy migration from earlier BB OSes to BB10. It's mostly standard web technologies (HTML5, CSS3, etc.) and the team seems focused on making it perform well (e.g. hardware accelerated WebGL graphics) while at the same time providing BlackBerry-specific APIs to make WebWork apps capable and with good UX (e.g. you can make it look like a native app).
For native apps, you should look into Cascades. This is a modern development environment with good tooling, accelerated graphics, and APIs for building snazzy apps. It's the one that will most be a "BlackBerry app".
AIR remains an option, but I would recommend WebWorks over AIR, as even Adobe is migrating from Flash to web technologies. Likewise, you can develop Android apps on BB10, but unless you are keen on Java programming, you will get more cross-platform support from WebWorks (or even AIR) so there's no particular reason to go the Android route.
WebWorks API is limited, for example it does not have socket, so you cannot port a VNC (UltaVNC, tightVNC ..) to it but you can do it with JDE.
For UI, WebWorks allowed me to write UI of acceptable quality quickly and easily, a thing that I have never succeeded with JDE.
Still on the UI side, I can make use of multi-touch (PlayBook), I don't think this one is possible with JDE.
So depending on your needs you should go either WebWorks or Native, having heard that Java may not be supported in BB10, and Air may not be future proof (Adobe favors HTML5 instead of Flash). Android appli has some lag on start up when it is run on PlayBook, some customers are sensitive to the initial even just one time slow response time.
I'm a huge proponent of Webworks. Ever since I've started using it, it quickly became the default option for my apps going forward. Especially for someone like me who is just writing a few apps on the side, I don't have the time to do it in c++.
The apps I'm writing revolve around home automation. They are client/server based from the get go.
Here's why I like it:
First and foremost, native API support. I can very easily create my own active frames, import invocation from other apps (think camera, stuff like that). I can export portions of my webworks app as an invocation card! Which means I can write say 3 unique apps (in this case home automation, lights, thermostat, security cameras). And I can very easily pull features from each app into the other. Maybe I want to turn my lights on in the living room, I can also import the camera card from my IPcam app and view the results, without having to add that code into my lights app and maintain two separate code lines.
Rapid design. Since I've been dabbling in html since I was a kid, it's now very easy for me to whip up an appealing UI in little time. Because web engines these days offer good performance in terms of graphics capability, I also can make apps that behave very fluid.
Considering the time to make something beautiful, it's hard for me to leave webworks and go for something in c++. Also the big plus is often these apps I'm making are intended for multiple devices, namely an app on my phone and being hosted on my personal website. By maintaining two slightly different css files, most of the time I need no code changes, just load a different css depending on if it's a phone or a pc. (Exactly what you'd do if you were developing a regular old website).
For that matter, I actually don't put my code on the device, I host all of my html and javascript, images etc on my server. The webworks app is just the config.xml pointing it's source to my server, and an icon. A glorified website bookmark on the homescreen, only difference is I can use native API and there's no browser bar in the app.
Also, this way I can still continue to edit the same single codeline on my server, and instantly apply changes to the in-browser app and the on-device app.
This is especially cool if you're designing an app where all of it's data is out in the "cloud", say you work for a publication and you want to write a magazine app which pulls content from your servers on the net.
I'd like my Blackberry devices to get and possibly set data to the server, and am a little confused by all the options:
RIM-Push/Pap-Push. Use any library that is able to compose a HTTP GET request to the MDS-CS service (not MDS-IS). This is a one way operation from the server to the device.
RIM-Push (Push a URL and or shorcut to a device for possible offline viewing)
PAP-Push (Same as above, BUT allows for message confirmation of delivery)
WebServices: Use Visual Studio 2008 to create a Web Services only project. I'm unclear if this is supported anymore, or if MDS-IS is used. This is a 2 way operation.
MDS-IS: Use Eclipse to develop the applications and Java is required, I am unsure of what client libraries are able to do (2 way operation).
Let me know if missing any option, or if I need to revise my understanding of the basics
This is actually quite a broad question - there are a lot of ways for a BlackBerry device to interact with a server, and the ideal way depends heavily on your specific application.
Generally:
MDS Studio: the Visual Studio 2008 method is no longer actively supported. It was a mostly visual forms designer, but not a great solution for a lot of reasons. Basically, don't use it.
Mobile Web: Depending on what you need to do, this might work. Everything server side. The thing to be aware of (and why this doesn't work for a lot of problems) is that prior to BlackBerry 6 the browser wasn't very capable, either in terms of HTML support or JavaScript support. You can, however, create shortcuts to mobile web sites which appear as icons on the BlackBerry homescreen. And you can use BlackBerry Web Signals: http://na.blackberry.com/eng/developers/browserdev/websignals.jsp to push changes to mobile web pages to devices
Widgets: Supported in BlackBerry OS 5 and higher. http://na.blackberry.com/eng/developers/browserdev/widgetsdk.jsp These are packaged much like 'native' BlackBerry apps, but written using HTML and JavaScript. Can be a good option for rapid development if you're ok with just targeting OS 5, and with the limitations of the BlackBerry Browser. Lots of JavaScript hooks to system functions, so they give you more functionality than pure mobile web, and you can distribute them through App World and the like.
Java Apps: Most development work, but you get potentially the best user experience, and the most functionality. Too broad a topic to cover adequately here, but there are a lot of questions related to these on SO and elsewhere. A good starting point is the BlackBerry developer zone: http://www.blackberry.com/developers RIM Push and PAP Push both fall into this category, as they interact with Java apps, though there are other methods that you can use to achieve similar results (client polling, or I've even seen SMS or email used to push info or wake up a client, though this isn't recommended by RIM).
For a deeper overview of the options I'd recommend a book by my friend John Wargo, called BlackBerry Development Fundamentals. He covers the various options pretty well.