Setup on my server is a set of PHP scripts which when run will interface with a MySQL database and return information in the form of a HTML response. I want my android application to be able to 'navigate' to one of these pages and post/get the information required for validation and the query, and then get a response.
I cant find out how to get the HTML response information from a browser or find any other method to do this communication. I cannot connect directly with the SQL database as the php scripts are the interface for an application and website also and I want to connect all platforms through the php scripts.
Does anyone know of a means by which I can communicate with the PHP server and read the response details?
Delphi ships with Indy preinstalled. Indy works on mobile platforms, including Android. You can use Indy's TIdHTTP component to send HTTP GET and POST requests to your webserver as needed. Response data can be given to you as either a String (which TIdHTTP will decode to UTF-16 for you) or a TStream (raw data).
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I am an android newbie who is coming from PHP background. In PHP basically what happens is that
all of the database connections happen in php code(server side) and then it later coverts in html code(client side).
From what I have seen in android for database connection, we write a service in php using mysql. And from our Android java class, we make the service call(always aysnc I think), and then when the result comes, we update the UI(kinda like Ajax architecture and gwt).
The system above makes sense to me. I read somewhere that even though using JDBC is not practical on android, it can be still be used. Let' say for example's sake, we want to make the database call through JDBC. In a normal web app, I would put it in a servelet. But in android, we don't have that. All we have is UI widgets code.
So just to the understand the architecture, could someone please explain to me where I would make the JDBC call in the code? or in broader terms does it's architecture differ from traditional client/server side?
Like Php:
A brief recap of what you used to do in PHP is as follows:
Connects to MySQL server using PHP
Query the server using PHP function
MySQL server receives, parse the query and send the results back
PHP parses the response and then you displays (or do anything with) it
PHP has built in support for MySQL library.
Now in android we have built in support for SQLite. But the difference is SQLite stores its data on the device itself not on the server.
For database operations same procedure is followed using SQLite:
Using Android(Java) activity it connects to SQLite database
A query is sent to database
SQLite engine receives, parses the query and sends the results back
Android activity receives the result and then you can do whatever you want with it
But, Here comes the issue
This is only good if you want to store the data locally, like saving a users score.
Suppose, you want to have a leader-board in a game you built. Then you can't do it this way, because data is stored locally on all devices. For this we need to have all the users data stored on one/same place.
The Solution (like~in PHP)
We will save our data on an online server and will retrieve it whenever required. We can connect to any database engine on the server but MySQL is fast as compared to others. So, we will use MySQL as our database server and connect to it using a PHP web service.
That web service will do all (mostly CREATE and READ) database operations for you. This way you can save the data in the server and retrieve it globally whenever you want.
But, how it is done? Here are the steps:
Create a web service
A collection of PHP scripts which can read and write, to and from database
For security, plug in something like OAuth to perform transactions and encrypt data being transferred (Best will be to write this type of service in a framework)
Send READ or WRITE request from Android activity to web service
Web service receives, authorize, parse the request
Web service then sends the appropriate request to MySQL server
MySQL server receive, parse the query and send the results back to web service
Web service receive, parse the response and send the results back to Android activity
Android Activity receives the data and then you can play with it :)
You might have private databases in Android itself without using JSON etc. Just like you used in PHP with MySQL.
You might find lots of tutorials about SQLLite. But, here is official documentation of Google's Android page: http://developer.android.com/reference/android/database/sqlite/package-summary.html
The short answer is you can't use JDBC in android. The reason is JDBC is too heavy for mobile.
But you can use built in SqLite support to work with your local sqlite database. It has some limitations comparing to JDBC MySql driver but it should fit your needs.
Usage of SqLite is simple:
Connect to database
Send query
Get your data
Process data
The only thing you have to remember is that you should not use SqLite in main thread. You may create your own with Thread but the simplest solution is to use AsyncThread.
If you want to make calls to remote MySql database then your way is a bit more complicated
Write server side code that will handle requests from android and send it to database(e.g. using JSON)
Send request to remote server from your android device
Receive server's answer
Process it
As in above method with SqLite you should do it in a background thread to not to block UI.
-If needed you can use a local database (using SQLite)
-Server/client side in android are similar to any other application: you need a WebService handler which is usually (best practice) an AsyncTask.
Solution: nice and easy...
Create a .php that does the job for you, parse the result as a json workflow. Use your asynctask to get and parse the result. Add data to your database if needed. You can finally display a nice UI in the onPostExecute method.
I am sending packets of data to a desktop application using PHP Curl, this works using a specific IP address and port to request and post information.
What I need to do now is the opposite and send information from a desktop application and process them on the web as soon as I receive them.
The information will be sent in XML format.
I've been looking into how I can achieve this and so far I have come across NuSOAP and PHP. I am just wondering if this is the way forward to achieve what it is I need to do.
As much information would be great! Thanks
This is actually a one-liner in php:
$xml = simplexml_load_file('php://input');
This assumes that
php is running behind a web server (typically, Apache)
the request is a standard HTTP POST request
xml data is sent raw in a request body
I want to connect a MySql DB with my android application.
However, I DON'T want to/CAN'T use PHP for doing this.
Almost all solution for MySql connection with android on internet uses PHP.
I read somewhere that, If one don't want to use PHP then web service should be used.
But I'm not able to find any tutorial/sample example for the same.
Any help appreciated.
It seems you're mixing up some things.
A web service is simply some code on the internet (web) which allows you to receive and send information to a server, where it is saved per example in a database.
PHP is just a language, in which you can write a web service.
You can use a vast array of languages to create a web service ( read: expose your database) to other devices. Among others, you can easily do this in Java, .NET, Python ...
If you're looking for a way to connect to an external database without any web service / API in between, i'll have to disappoint you with the news that this is not supported by Android.
Most examples of a simple web service / a bunch of scripts contain PHP since this is probably the easiest and can be used on pretty much any server.
A webservice, is as it's called, a service, meaning that you have one side consuming it (the android client). if all you want is a persistent storage, you could use SQLite which is an SQL compliant solution which exists within android.
If it's possible to SSH to a server via Android, you could use that to connect to mysql, because the only other solution involves having mysql binaries installed locally on your android machine, and that's not possible AS FAR AS I KNOW, on Android.
One major reason for using a webservice (e.g. written in PHP) to connect to a remote DB is that you don't want to store the database login credentials inside your app. Because otherwise it'll be easy to extract your login for that database and access and edit it in a way you might not have planned (eg. delete stuff).
Its Possible to connect mysql database .
I have done with out using php file . I have used an spring configuration file to establish an connection to the database and dao to access the data from the database.
Create an Web Application that access the Server through the Spring Framework and an Servlet .
Create an Android Client Application tat make an get / post request to the Servlet , process the results in the servlet and return the response to the Android Client Application (json format ) Process the json format reponse in the Android Client Side and use it to your application
I have a mysql database with informations about users. Now I want to work with them in my iPhone app. Is there a way to bring the stuff from mysql to objective-c?
It's not an option to use the mysql c api because my web server just allows php.
Greekings, Valle.
Your question is not very clear but maybe this can help:
You can serve the information from your database with PHP (some XML or JSON can be useful) and then parse it on your iPhone App.
Or you can export your database and convert it to SQLite and use it directly on your iPhone.
With a bit more information maybe we can give you a better answer.
It sounds like you want to create an Application Programming Interface (API), in PHP on the web server that your Objective-C program will talk to using the devices internet connection.
Effectively you want to create special url's and request parameters your web server will use to pull database information, parse them into JSON or XML, and return them as plain text.
Inside your Objective-C application you will craft these URL's and parse the incoming JSON or XML into actionable data for your app.
Well, I don't think you explained your problem very well. Shared web hosting solutions usually don't offer access to MySQL servers from outside, it means you can access only from their servers (like PHP scripts on your hosting).
Solution to this is usually simple web service - REST, XML-RPC, SOAP.
Web service is some application that can be written in PHP and is running on your web hosting. This application returns data (usually in XML or JSON) via specific URL.
Example:
From your native iPhone you call
http://yourserver.com/webservice/?what=episode-list&tvshow=battlestar-galactica
and output will be XML with list of episodes.
I want to transfer 10 user details from my server database to another server.The other server can call a php page (in my sever) which can supply the needed 10 user details.This should happen in such a way that a user using the site must not understand that the data is coming from another server.
I will recommend using WebService for this purpose. In the Server A (provider) you will code this webservice to serve the users as requested by server B(consumer), So you will be able to consume the services provided by A at any time and being transparent for the USER.
References:
WebService
XML-RPC
SOAP
You can implement JSON-RPC server and client.