Premise An android app for Premise... How would you go about building one?

[etc6849]

Since I was playing with minibroker and Visual Studio 2005 a few weeks ago and finally got a working program (thanks to John's help ), I am beginning to wonder how one would go about building an android app that worked with Premise... Is this possible?

My idea so far is to use Mono to create the android app from within VS 2010, but I'm not sure whether the app would be able to communicate with minibroker or not. As I'd be forced into purchasing VS 2010 to use Mono, I thought I'd ask if there's an easier or cheaper way and if this even sounds like it is even possible...?

Structure
The only application involved would run on an android phone. A user would initially input the SYS server location, username and password; this would be stored to a text file.

Upon starting, the app would grab server connection parameters from the text file and connect. There would be an option under a tools menu to "refresh", which would invoke a subroutine that iterates through all of the home objects on the server and appropriately creates objects and the needed user controls.

This would mean that the android app would be automatically configured for the user, in a similar manner to the automation browser. However, the app would run faster and would work better over 3G. The app would be more ideal for running on the 4" display of a phone and would be open source so that anyone could modify and improve it.

Disclaimer
This is too big of a project for just me (plus, I'm new to programming), so I'm also interested in probing to see if there's any interest out there from folks who are programmers (unlike me) I think with the large number of cheap android tablets, it's worth while for us to develop a native app that will work much faster than the automation browser.

 

[mhilbush]

My idea so far is to use Mono to create the android app from within VS 2010, but I'm not sure whether the app would be able to communicate with minibroker or not. As I'd be forced into purchasing VS 2010 to use Mono, I thought I'd ask if there's an easier or cheaper way and if this even sounds like it is even possible...?

Why not just use the Minibrowser to render web content on the Android phone's browser, just like minibrowser on the iPhone?

If you really want a native Android app, why not download Eclipse and the Android SDK and start from there? Eclipse and the Android SDK are free. On the SYS side, you could create a REST or JSON wrapper around the SYS objects. This also is free (other than your time to create it, of course). Your native Android app could make REST or JSON API calls to interact with the SYS objects. No matter how you go about it, this is a fair bit of work, IMO. This sounds like a great project. I'd love to help, but I just don't have the time....

Of course, accessing either web content or the REST API over the 3G network (versus WiFi) means you need to be concerned about the security issues associated with exposing your SYS server on the Internet. That would be a BIG negative for me....

 

[chucklyons]

Yes, I'm still alive!

Generic Web App is prob the best overall solution...runs on everything (although see my post on multiple sessions with Android). I see the reason, the impetus, and the coolness of an 'app'. Thought of doing one for the Windows 7 Phone.
Not sure if it's worth the hassle.

As far as exposing SYS to the 'cloud'. a) I doubt the Chinese want to flick my Radio Ra lights; B) Finding my website is hard enough c) How cool!

I have similar thoughts - a SYS app - username, password, IP address - but at the end of the day, given internet speeds,again, not sure whether its worth the hassle.

I think the energy would be best spent on integrating functionality into the mini-browser. I've i-framed some apps - Round Table; traffic stuff; having a wrapper for developed apps that interface w/ SYS would be epic!
Imagine - alarm wakes you up; triggers traffic app to fire, displays trouble spots as you drink your coffee (or Diet Pepsi, in my case); sets the house temp; speaks your email; and on and on...
-
My two cents!

 

[etc6849]

The idea of a java wrapper sounds interesting. I'll have to research this as I'm not a programmer. Thanks for the idea! There's probably some tutorials online on how to do use a .net dll with java. I'll play around and see how far I get. Hopefully, I don't need to learn C++ to use minibroker with java.

I like the webpage idea too. The iPhone minibrowser works on my phone, but for some reason the scaling is off. However, I think I'd much rather have a menu system that looks and acts like native android 2.3 menus and uses a lot less bandwidth (as I want it to work very fast over the slow 3G service I get).

 

[chucklyons]

Of course, now that I have gotten my 1st Windows Phone 7 app to work, I might have to rethink my position....very nice and relatively easy...So I'll have to think how to make something useful versus the 'apps for dummies' one that I finished

 

[etc6849]

I'm still hoping Charlie will post his nice looking app for WP7 as my contract is up in a few months...

Hopefully by then there will be more WP7 options and a Chuck modified version of Charlie's work