I have an android application I build which gets the current location.
I want to call this method from a server, and get the location, instead of using a timer in the application which sends the location to the server.
Is there a way to do this?
Basically you can only send a trigger to the device so that it then answers by sending the location to the server. This is based on the Google Cloud Messaging service. You will find everything you need there in detail.
Another way for you to do this is by using a TCP socket. The Android application must connect up to the server. As long as the connection is live, the server can push down a message requesting the GPS location. When the application receives the message it needs to decode it and decide what to do. It should see that it wants the GPS location and thus decides to send the GPS location back.
Although, like WarrenFaith answered, Google Cloud Messaging is another way to push down an 'event' to the application. From there the app must push the GPS location to the server.
Related
I have a very basic design of my entire application, where several users with my app on there android devices commits data to the server (I have used REST web services(java) + postgresql as my server) through HTTP post request from the android application. I am successful in achieving this and app runs absolutely fine. Now i want to implement a scenario where any change(CRUD operations) on my db on server should create a notification on my users android device. How should i achieve this with my server design unchanged? I have looked into Google Cloud Messaging, but could figure out the server implementation.
For now i have implemented db triggers on postgresql and able to get control back into java code using Notify/Listen feature of postgresql. From here i need to connect to android device. How can this be achieved. Is Google Cloud Messaging the only way? I have not seen any insert/update statements in there server implementation. Could anyone please guide me on this?
either you can use GCM or implement a Socket at server end and open a socket connection from mobile but this approach may add some additional processing overhead because it will create a daemon thread to listen socket port from mobile device.
You should use native library (NotificationManager etc.), here you can find a great tutorial.
My Advice is for you to use GCM. GCM normally takes a maximum of 4kb, so you could have your own defined "commands". You could use them to determine the requests on both ends, ie on android app and the server end. A php script on the server would help you in this.
I am working on an app where by the android app sends messages to the server via POST and the server forwards the message to the appropriate user via GCM. In my case I have very many things to share so in that case I am using commands, for example if it is a new incoming message I send a GCM to the app with one variable as the command and the rest as the data. On the android app I use the command variable to determine what to do with the data.
Kindly avoid that socket advice, it will have your app drain the battery to sustain the open socket , besides you don't have to re-invent the wheel while Google servers already has it
I'm trying to make it such that a click on my web client from a computer can "trigger" the android app to run its set function.
I've searched extensively but it seems like all methods need the mobile device to initiate a connection before the web server can even do anything.
Is there a way for the web client to be the one initiating? Also, is there any way to do this without notifying the user of the device, i.e. in the background? I'm using cakephp for the web client but any kind of answer will be appreciated. Thanks!
Use push notification system to trigger any action on your device. Push notification system such as Parse, PushApps, pubnup etc are available for free and some are paid too. Try them. Send a push notification and listen to that push message and on receiving trigger your action.
Use Google Cloud Messaging .
"Google Cloud Messaging for Android (GCM) is a service that allows you to send data from your server to your users' Android-powered device, and also to receive messages from devices on the same connection. The GCM service handles all aspects of queueing of messages and delivery to the target Android application running on the target device. GCM is completely free no matter how big your messaging needs are, and there are no quotas."[Google]
Here you'll find how to implement the GCM with PHP.
I'm aware of GCM services for push notifications, but I have this issue.
I have a android app which will send a data to a local web server (php) that will response to another android device with the data sent, a normal push notification with GCM, I think.
But I need this to work even without internet, because it is a local web app that will work only that.
Is that even possible? Android device X send json data to web server that will send the data to other android device Y.
How can I verify that exists new data in the device Y ?
Thanks. I know its a little wierd.
Yes, it is possible. But it is not easy to develop. This is why:
Push notifications work attached to an account service. So you would have to implement an Authenticator service and then the whole push platform yourself.
I would not use GCM for what you are doing though. If it is working on a local network, you can use "polling" (request the server every now and then for updates)
I currently have an small application that I have been using to learn java/android programming. Right now I have a setup were the app on one phone sends a request (via sms) to another phone running the same app. The remote phone receives the request and sends back some info. Next I would like to try this from the web. Is there an established "best" way to to this?
I was thinking I would have a web server send requests to the device via google cloud messaging and then have the device return the data directly to the web server. (Not that I really know how to do any of that just yet).
I see that there is a google cloud messaging return path (send messages from the device to the google cloud server, but it seems very new, do I need something like that? The main thing I want is to be able to ask the phone to do something when I want, not have it poll to see if there is a request, or just periodically update some status.
UPDATE:
Thanks to the answers below for confirming to me that I was on the right track.
I now have some basic functionality.
I started out using this gcm android demo code
https://code.google.com/p/gcm/source/browse/#git%2Fgcm-client%2Fsrc%2Fcom%2Fgoogle%2Fandroid%2Fgcm%2Fdemo%2Fapp%253Fstate%253Dclosed
and this ruby gem
https://github.com/spacialdb/gcm/blob/master/README.md
between the above two I was able to send a message to my phone pretty easily.
To get the round trip working, I setup a very simple rails app on heroku.
I included a modified version of the sample code in the gcm gem in a controller and then used
HttpPatch (needed for rails 4) to send a post/patch from my phone to my web app, the controller then echoes the message back to my phone.
I guess it would be nice to get the two way gcm stuff to work, but I am not sure there are any gems that handle that, and I am not qualified to handle a task like that :)
I would say it's the right call: Google Cloud Messaging for Android
From the site Android Developer:
This could be a lightweight message telling your app there is new data
to be fetched from the server (for instance, a movie uploaded by a
friend), or it could be a message containing up to 4kb of payload data
(so apps like instant messaging can consume the message directly).
In this case you don't want to fetch data from the server but you want to send them.
You can send them in different ways. I would suggest, since you are learning, to try a RESTful solution using one of the implementation of JAX-RS.
As a short and direct answer for beginner : GCM (Google Cloud Messaging) would solve your issue. However, if your app turned out to be something bigger, other more technical and complicated solutions are present too.
see this link.
I am new in Android and trying to develop an app with push notification. I have a small confusion on the architecture behind the c2dm, that after getting the authentication token and device reg_Id, the application server will send them along with the message, but how will the server will know to send the message to the c2dm server?
I am getting an error and even I am not able to add a google account on my emulator for synchronization. While doing this my emulator says com.android.calender not there.
Thanks in advance.
you have to call web service to sent push notification on particular device. And whatever the massage you want to pass on device is written in web service. you can make web service any any language like php or .net. Ask me if you have any query regarding push.