We have a business system based on PHP/JQuery/HTML. What would be the best solution for creating a mobile version of the system. Im thinking of making a part of it run on different mobile platforms and came up with presenting web services for the data and jquery mobile for the presentation.
Anyone out there done something similar?
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Currently building a hybrid app. using Ionic Framework with PHP for backend services
I am having a case where a user has got his profile in Web app and Mobile App as well.
If the user adds two stories as favourites (Its kind of a reading app) from his mobile app or Web app,how do I sync that?
Here are the scenarios:
1) User marks the stories favourites from web app and when I come online through mobile app, display it.
2) User marks the stories favourites from mobile app when he is offline(Now this will be stored in LocalDB). So again when he comes online sync with the server?
I know there are services like Firebase which provides syncing service.
But What If I would want to develop a Custom Syncing service on my own for my application? Is that an extremely complicated process?
If yes and it can be developed ,then how should I proceed ? A basic idea? What are the best practices that I should consider?
Any links would be appreciated?
I know some of the comments recommended CouchDB in combination with PouchDB. That is a much better solution than trying to implement your own synchronization service with MySQL.
However, since you're using Ionic Framework you can also use Couchbase. Take the following example application:
https://github.com/couchbaselabs/TodoLite-Ionic
If you chose this solution you would have three moving parts. You would be replacing MySQL with Couchbase Server and running the Couchbase Sync Gateway to orchestrate any data between the device and the server. You can still keep your PHP backend if you have a web version of your application as there is a PHP SDK for Couchbase.
Two write-ups on this can be found here:
http://blog.couchbase.com/using-couchbase-in-your-ionic-framework-application-part-1
http://blog.couchbase.com/using-couchbase-in-your-ionic-framework-application-part-2
In the long term, you're going to find NoSQL much more pleasant to work with when it comes to APIs and mobile than MySQL.
Can be useful to write a POST method on the backend that receives the data from your local from the app and some user data (session, access tokens and other thing you considered neceasary). On the body for the request you include the data needed to be synced. The backend takes the body. Parse it and rreturn a result (http code) Based on that you can decide if the app should delete the local data or only mark it as synced on the local database
I have a PHP web application, I need to integrate SCORM with my application.I know that there is cloud option for integrating SCORM. But our requirement is that saving course details into our local DB.
Please help me.
You have a couple options for integrating SCORM content into standalone (web or otherwise) applications.
One is SCORMCloud (www.scorm.com), which gives you an integration API. They have PHP based plugins for both WordPress and Drupal, which you can use as a guide.
SCORMCloud has a couple of methods based whereby you can bring your learner data back into your database.
When a course launch is finished, SCORMCloud will redirect back to your website. At that point, you can hit the SCORMCloud API and fetch the results of your launch, and write that back to your database.
Our company (www.aura-software.com) produces an application integration framework for cloud based elearning sources (Vimeo, SCORMCloud, TinCan LRSs) called Bright CloudConnect. Depending on what your integration requirements were, it can perform the same functions and a few others. Enabling trackable elearning in existing applications is Bright's primary function.
Here's the situation. I'm working on a PHP-based web app for a company with a desire to setup an SMS share widget on their mobile site. The goal is to allow visitors to mass-share via SMS to their list of mobile contacts, in much the same way that Cloudsponge does this for e-mail contacts via the Google/Hotmail/Yahoo/Exchange APIs.
I was told repeatedly that this is impossible, but after a bit of research we've come across the possibility of accomplishing this via the Facebook deep integration built into newer smartphones and mobile devices.
SO, being completely inept, and coming into this with zero knowledge of how I might accomplish this... and having spent hours researching Google turning up very little / misleading information, I come to you. Where to look? What to do? Not looking for a blueprint here... just a hand (or two, or three :-) to point me in the right direction.
You can't access any system feature (GPS fine location, Contacts, Câmera) from a web app running in a mobile browser. Just for security reasons.
I have one .php web site and I want to put it in iPad application "web application".
I mean create UIWebView and load files in WebView, so my First question is, is it possible to create this webApp and can I run it on Xcode simulator?
What do I need for implementing this application (Apache, MySQL) inside ipad outside?
Basically I want to have all my .php class inside of app and run it via iPad app, it means that if I hadn't any internet I can run the application.
Since I want to run it in both iPad and XCode simulator.
Would you please give me some hints for implement this application?
A few points you need to think about:
App Store Approval - if you intend to market this app (i.e it's not for jailbroken devices via Cydia, or an in-house corporate app) then you will most likely run in to issues with the approval process.*
You're intending to bundle in a scripting language with your application. Now this may not be an issue depending on whether or not this is exposed to the end-user; but you do run the risk of Apple finding out and pulling the plug.
The alternative to bundling in a scripting language (PHP in your case) is going to be loading the code off of an external server. This is a no-no straight away, as Apple requires your application to have functionality offline - or atleast they did. Where this leaves all the Social Networking and other network-dependant apps... Well, I guess there are exceptions!
Device Performance - you're essentially intending to run a small web server on a mobile device; a tablet in this case. This could be very resource intensive, so is probably not wise. I personally wouldn't want my battery being drained because someone has decided that they want to bundle in a web server with their application.
Your implementation idea itself is sound, in the respect of using a UIWebView. You should probably check out the Apache Cordova/PhoneGap framework, and that should satisfy your needs and provide an off-the-shelf way of packaging up your web app. If you do need custom functionality then it's worth looking at anyway; plugins are relatively easy to develop, there's a wide range available already and the plans for cordova now are to allow developers to implement it into native applications. (Say, if only one view requires PhoneGap functionality etc)
Personally, I fail to see what requires PHP that can not be done via HTML5 and PhoneGap. There are storage options available, SQL options, you're using web technologies so can easily query external web services. It's also a lot safer with regards to app approval - as it's tried and tested; there are many applications build using such solutions already in the store.
I think you need a serious re-think. Otherwise, perhaps you could post some more details?
Please note that PHP is a server-side language. So do you want to run a server on your iPad? If so, you can develop PHP applications on a proper desktop/laptop and then view them on iPad Safari browser over Wifi.
Otherwise you can install LightHTTPd server with PHP libraries, MySQL, CURL and all from Cydia app store on a jailbroken iOS device to get a full environment. For Android there is this app PAW server available which can run an Apache server in such devices.
If you just want to check your website is working fine on small devices, or you want to check responsiveness of your website. Go to:Ipad Peek and run your website on given devices/simulators using url.
A simple google search pulled up this free framework: http://www.ipfaces.org/
I've never used to before, but it might do what you need.
I have a website and am planning to develop a mobile version of it for the iphone, blackberry and android.
My website is a social network built on PHP Zend framework. Now all these mobile apps are going to be having the same functionality like the website.
I am little ignorant about this - but from a high level I understand that all these mobile apps should not have to write any backend logic. For every functionality - they will simply make a web service API call to interact with the backend.
So does that mean, for every functionality I need to create a web service method. Can the existing code be re used - I'm a little lost -
Can someone shed some light on this matter or point me in the right direction (like some articles)
Thanks
I think the best thing for this kind of application would be write a mobile website. This should not include more than some new views in your Zend framework application.
There are some tutorials out there how to start. Just use your favorite search engine.
Apple and Android have browsers which are very advanced. They actually show the site in total. The point is would your website look better in that interface? ( I bet it would be cumbersome). You would have to make a mobile site (as suggested by #Felix) and implement the required features in a simple interface.
If you want an installable application then you are looking at three applications(one for each platform). My suggestion would be to make the mobile site and look for an app maker kind of product which would install your regular mobile site as an application on these platforms.
HTH
This is a very open subject that's obviously going to divide opinion (as already demonstrated it seems! :))
My personal view on it it this, using Safari on my iPhone is a terrible clunky cumbersome experience and "mobile optimised" websites are not ideal and don't really take advantage of the features of the device you are developing for (i.e. multi-touch etc)
This is why I think mobile applications are more appropriate ways of encapsulating the content of the web and delivering in a format suitable for its platform. Take for example, the Facebook application for iPhone and Android. That's a perfect example of taking the core features of the website and contextualising it in a manner that's easy to use and designed from the ground up for the device it's made for.
In answer to your question then yes, I would approach the development with web services in mind and use these to feedback the relevant data you need to interface with your site
While I agree with djhworld that the native mobile applications are sometimes easier to use than mobile-optimized web apps, there is a pretty big gulf in implementation time and user base fragmentation. I think the best first step is to develop a mobile web application, and if you are getting use there, consider developing native apps using web services. You may also want to look at PhoneGap as a way to cross-compile a single mobile app:
http://phonegap.com/
Also, see my other post about mobile web application development.
If you want to maximize your investment in your mobile site, I would develop it in HTML5. Currently, only WebKit browsers support it (iPhone/iPod/iPad/Android/Blackberry[soon]), but within a year most devices in developed countries will support it.
If you need to detect mobile devices on the server side, I would recommend Tera-WURFL. It is a high-speed PHP & MySQL mobile device detection software package that is free and open source.