I want to build a phone app using phonegap that can access data on a mysql server that is backing a cakephp app. Can this be done, if yes then how can use phonegap to access data from a mysql server?
Yes you can!
You need too make the controllers of you cakephp to output views that can be interpreted by the javascript in your phonegap app. For a more detailed answer we need more information. i.e. what javascript framework do you want to use in the phonegap app?
Just to be aware, an app that is basically a web page will probably be rejected by Apple. Quoting from the Phonegap Faq:
Q. Can I just create an iPhone PhoneGap-based app that just loads my website?
A. You can, but as for Apple approving it, that's another matter, and they most likely won't. As a rule of thumb, if there is no Internet connection, you must at least load the UI (your views) without the corresponding data, and put an error notice to that effect. Therefore your app must have these views included in it. For a guideline, set your iPhone to Airplane Mode in the Settings, then load either the Maps, Weather, Youtube, ITunes or Facebook apps, and see what they do (have a "shell"). Apple is probably concerned about them approving your app based on your app description and functionality as promised by you, and then you turning around and changing it completely after approval to something undesirable.
Also see similar question: iPhone Phonegap based app load External website made of componentone
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Without diving deep into programming for iOS and Android, is it possible to wrap a responsive PHP-based webpage in a wrapper that we lock to our url, and present it as our own app?
Also is it possible to make this app remember the users login session and other options (cookies)?
Yes, both Android and iOS support "webviews" (each platform has their own name for it).
In your app, you would simply launch into a webview with the URL that you hard code within the app yourself. Both platform webviews should also support storing cookies too.
Although, since you're wanting something this lightweight, you may want to consider a cross-platform development framework such as React-Native, Cordova/PhoneGap, etc. So that you only have to write the code once and deploy to both iOS and Android.
This probably seems stupid question. But I'm new to ionic apps. I wanted to clear this before development.
Can we build ionic app without API? like we normally do for our website.
Example:
If you go to MySite.com, you will see the site running in php with normal rendering. Would Ionic work same way or it has to go through API Send/Receive request for data handling?
Ionic has no direct requirement on data access. It is built on AngularJS, which is in turn built on Javascript. Best practices would generally have you accessing JSON data from a server by using a mechanism that is Angular aware such as $http, $resource, Restangular, etc.
However, you can execute any javascript based browser command (or even load something like jQuery to perform the data access). However, as soon as you go outside of Angular, then you will have to deal with the additional complexity of making sure the digest cycle is run whenever you have updated values that may be reflected on your view because of data binding.
And, just to be clear, none of this has anything to do with what's happening on the server side. When you are asking about accessing "without API", do you mean accessing HTML files vs. JSON data? Ionic is built to be a SPA (single page application) that is installed on the mobile device and doesn't require internet access to run once it's installed.
Therefore, especially if external/live data isn't required (imagine some type of calculator where you enter values and results can be calculated with just the data in the app on the handset -- without the need for a live server at all), Ionic apps don't REQUIRE access to an external server at all.
You could provide traditional hyperlinks to other html files, but at that point it would no longer be running the packaged/installed files that form the basis of the installed app on the handset and would instead be a web app that is relying on an external server for all views. And, of course, even if it does require access to data from a server, the often massive increase in speed by not round tripping the server with a new HTML page (only a relatively tiny JSON payload in most situations) makes it feel much more like a true native app.
In ionic, the rendering happens on your phone. The server simply provides data. So if you need any data from a server (usually yes) then you need an API.
Ionic is focused on building native/hybrid mobile apps rather than
mobile websites.
– http://ionicframework.com/docs/overview/#browser-support
As per definition, an API only defines the way your ionic app can interact with your php script. In principle, there are no rules on how you design this interaction. So yes, you can keep it quite traditional/old-fashioned. Don't get the concept of an API mixed up with the concepts of RESTful or SOAP APIs etc.
I want to code an Android client and a Windows.exe server application (possibly PHP., I am still trying to decide).
I have no problem with developing the server app, but have not yet done any Android coding. Mostly, though, I am unsure about how to communicate between client and server.
A client aapp will login to the server then at regular intervals send its location (GPS coords) to the server which will store the data in a MySql database,
A second Android app will display a historical trail of where the first user has been using Google maps, plus a little more functionality.
Since I am not serving HTML, I am wondering whether to use HTTP GET / POST or a proprietary protocol over TCP/IP. I would like to encrypt it, so SSL seems in order,
Is there any compelling reason to use one or the other of use HTTP GET / POST or a proprietary protocol over TCP/IP?
Would coding my Android app be easier if I used JSON as my data format (or something else?), irrespective of the protocl used to transfer the data?
Hmmm, since much of the data returned as a response to GET by one of the apps will be data used to draw a Google map with a series of points showing travel, could I do the heavy duty processing on the server & return the HTML (or JS) necessary to display it an dhave the app embedd a browser in its UI to display the map? (the UI will also disply more, but maybe I shoudl just make it browser based HTML & JS, rather thn an actual Jav Android app? As you can see, I am confused)
[Update] I want to code both the clients and the server and to host the MySql database. I would prefer no 3rd party frameworks unless they are excedding simply to use and play very well together with Delphi or PHP.
I may recommend you to use Wcf with poco entity that provide you security as you want and create client in android to consume it.here is simple example of using wcf in android-http://fszlin.dymetis.com/post/2010/05/10/Comsuming-WCF-Services-With-Android.aspx
I would strongly recommend the use of the newest Google Play Services with the Google Cloud Messaging... It takes out of you all that work.
Check out, see if you like ;D
Google Cloud Message: http://developer.android.com/google/gcm/index.html
There is also a great video of this year's Google I/O about the maps improvement on Google Play Services:
https://developers.google.com/events/io/sessions/325172829
Are you trying to create App that can be delivered from Google Play Store or a Andriod enable Web application? You Question is confusing in your need. If you are looking to create Andriod Apps then definitely PHP is not going to serve it up. Look for Andriod SDK and create your interface using that, then for Windows Server EXE you can do PHP based API or as suggested by other answers. But for User interface PHP is no. You need to read and understand the different between APP and Web App. or your question is not very clear on topic.
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.
here is my scenario, i am building a web application using PHP and MySQL. basically it is a real estate application. where i would like to share the data among several other platforms and devices, here is i what i intend to do
a) building the web app to be used with the browser using PHP, MySQL, and AJAX. (this will be my server)
b) extend the support and build a desktop application using POKKI.
c) extend the support and build an application for Androids and iOS devices.
d) all data transaction for the app should take place from the web server.
e) basically it will be server client application . where the server will be my web server and the clients will be iOS app, Android App Pokki etc.
i am not a hardcore programmer, although it has been more then 1 year since i started using PHP, and i do understand it to my use. i would like to know the best feasible solution on how to share the data among the different clients(POKKI, iOS App, Android App).
i would like to know.
a) do i have to connect to database directly from the client and access the data? is it possible? is it bad if i go this way?
b) do i have to create a public class with api sign up process? what would be the real scenario if i would like it to make it cross platform.
A Humble request to all of you to guide me on how does this things works. any articles, resources, links that can prove useful to me will also be appreciated.
thank you.
I think you should create an API which allows you to access the database strictly as you want it. Look at the twitter API for example and see how it allows third parties to access their data using simple requests.
So your site uses the DB directly where as all other applications you want to make will use the API ( which runs on ur web server)
This would allow you with the flexibility to have control who gets access and who doesnt ( only your own apps or even third parties etc etc) and allows you to build kick-ass applications without putting your actual database at risk.
Hope this helps!
1 - you should not allow client to access data directly - bad.
2 - sign up are easy with open id, let google or any other openid provider handle authentication, you deal with your own clean code without worrying about auth.
http://code.google.com/apis/accounts/docs/OpenID.html
You can create xml api and share the data from your server.
On different type of client you can eaisly parse the xml data and process it or show it.
In xml API if you want the restrict access then your can provide the restriction.
Please let me know if you have any issue
Thanks and Regards,
Ankur K Singh
take a look into getfrapi.com for building API.