Re: [android-beginners] Advice For First (Simple?) Non-Tutorial Project
Greetings again, fellow beginners! I looked through status.net and it provoked a question. I do not need something too specialized; in fact, I don't really have the server to host the suggested microblogging service on. Instead, does Android have the capability to do something with a public medium instead, as described below? --- Affecting the Counter --- 1. User makes a selection to add or remove themself to/from the counter. 2. The app posts something to a public medium (example: twitter) account that indicates an addition or a removal. 3. The app updates its counter according to the user's addition/subtraction. 4. The app looks up the public counter (below). --- Looking Up the Counter --- 1. The app looks up the twitter account. For simplicity, let us say that this occurs when a user adds or removes themselves (above). 2. The app reads entries from some date/time to present date/time; entries contain text that indicate additions/subtractions to the count. 3. The app reads/parses these entries. 4. The app updates its counter according to the entries' values. What I want to know: is all that possible on the Android? You don't have to give me details if you don't feel like it, but any direction/comments/ideas/pitfalls are welcome. Thank you for reading, and have a great day! -Danny On Sat, May 1, 2010 at 3:42 PM, ubuntuexplorer ubuntuexplo...@gmail.comwrote: Dear Mark, Thanks for the answer. As I understand, it seems that learning will be simpler if I make up an app. idea and then try to learn what is required to build it. I will try to get the books suggested if I need further info. Regards, UE. On Sat, May 1, 2010 at 11:30 PM, Mark Murphy mmur...@commonsware.comwrote: Ubuntu Explorer wrote: I have more or less the same question. The amount of detail in the API is overwhelming for me to choose what is really required for my app. Are there specific areas we can focus on that can help us ramp up quickly. That is impossible to answer in the abstract. A 3D first-person shooter is very different from a PDF viewer, which is very different from a social networking client, which is very different from a tip calculator. The specific areas [you] can focus on that can help [you] ramp up quickly will vary by what you are building. At the risk of sounding self-serving, if you find the documentation overwhelming, perhaps you need different documentation: http://wiki.andmob.org/books (in the interests of full disclosure, I wrote some of those) On Sat, May 1, 2010 at 4:27 PM, Daniel Favela dfav...@gmail.com First question: I've done the Hello World and notepad tutorials, as well as run through the quick tutorial http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6ObTqIiYfEon youtube by Dan Morril. I've also read a bit of the Android fundamentals materials. Is this enough experience to make an application like the one I'll describe below? If not, what do you think I should read or try next? If so, The application I have in mind will be a counter triggered by users. A user will add themselves to the count, remove themselves from the count, and view the count. When a user adds or removes themself to the count... - if possible, this will update the count on other instances for other users/devices That's my first step for now. The UI will be a ListView showing the counts that users have added themselves to (once I create the means to have one count, I will easily be able to scale the app to have n counts). There will be a button to add and remove the user. Sounds reasonable, right? Please let me know if this sounds difficult, especially where the multi-device communication (in updating the counter) is concerned. Know of a library that I'll have to use, or have some general advice for this? Tell me! :) IMHO, you're looking at your problem backwards. Your application requires a server, from your description. Focus on getting the server right first: -- how are you planning on sending data to the server? (HTTP via a REST-style API? XMPP? SMTP? something else?) -- where and how are you storing your counts? (SQLite? MySQL? Oracle? Flat file? memcached? Redis? something else?) -- how are you determining who sees what count? (everybody sees everybody's? something else?) -- how are you planning on distributing updates from the server? (polling by the clients? WebSockets with Comet? SMS? something else?) -- what data format will you be using for all of this? (XML? JSON? YAML? binary payloads via Protocol Buffers? binary payloads via Thrift? something else?) The only part of Android that really comes into play when thinking about your server are the communication protocols and payloads to/from the server. In the end, Android can handle just about anything, but there is more work involved with some compared to others.
[android-beginners] Advice For First (Simple?) Non-Tutorial Project
Greetings, fellow beginners! First question: I've done the Hello World and notepad tutorials, as well as run through the quick tutorial http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6ObTqIiYfEon youtube by Dan Morril. I've also read a bit of the Android fundamentals materials. Is this enough experience to make an application like the one I'll describe below? If not, what do you think I should read or try next? If so, The application I have in mind will be a counter triggered by users. A user will add themselves to the count, remove themselves from the count, and view the count. When a user adds or removes themself to the count... - if possible, this will update the count on other instances for other users/devices That's my first step for now. The UI will be a ListView showing the counts that users have added themselves to (once I create the means to have one count, I will easily be able to scale the app to have n counts). There will be a button to add and remove the user. Sounds reasonable, right? Please let me know if this sounds difficult, especially where the multi-device communication (in updating the counter) is concerned. Know of a library that I'll have to use, or have some general advice for this? Tell me! :) Thank you for reading! -Danny -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Android Beginners group. NEW! Try asking and tagging your question on Stack Overflow at http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/android To unsubscribe from this group, send email to android-beginners+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-beginners?hl=en
Re: [android-beginners] Advice For First (Simple?) Non-Tutorial Project
Dear fellow beginners, I have more or less the same question. The amount of detail in the API is overwhelming for me to choose what is really required for my app. Are there specific areas we can focus on that can help us ramp up quickly. Regards, UE. On Sat, May 1, 2010 at 4:27 PM, Daniel Favela dfav...@gmail.com wrote: Greetings, fellow beginners! First question: I've done the Hello World and notepad tutorials, as well as run through the quick tutorial http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6ObTqIiYfEon youtube by Dan Morril. I've also read a bit of the Android fundamentals materials. Is this enough experience to make an application like the one I'll describe below? If not, what do you think I should read or try next? If so, The application I have in mind will be a counter triggered by users. A user will add themselves to the count, remove themselves from the count, and view the count. When a user adds or removes themself to the count... - if possible, this will update the count on other instances for other users/devices That's my first step for now. The UI will be a ListView showing the counts that users have added themselves to (once I create the means to have one count, I will easily be able to scale the app to have n counts). There will be a button to add and remove the user. Sounds reasonable, right? Please let me know if this sounds difficult, especially where the multi-device communication (in updating the counter) is concerned. Know of a library that I'll have to use, or have some general advice for this? Tell me! :) Thank you for reading! -Danny -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Android Beginners group. NEW! Try asking and tagging your question on Stack Overflow at http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/android To unsubscribe from this group, send email to android-beginners+unsubscr...@googlegroups.comandroid-beginners%2bunsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-beginners?hl=en -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Android Beginners group. NEW! Try asking and tagging your question on Stack Overflow at http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/android To unsubscribe from this group, send email to android-beginners+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-beginners?hl=en
Re: [android-beginners] Advice For First (Simple?) Non-Tutorial Project
Ubuntu Explorer wrote: I have more or less the same question. The amount of detail in the API is overwhelming for me to choose what is really required for my app. Are there specific areas we can focus on that can help us ramp up quickly. That is impossible to answer in the abstract. A 3D first-person shooter is very different from a PDF viewer, which is very different from a social networking client, which is very different from a tip calculator. The specific areas [you] can focus on that can help [you] ramp up quickly will vary by what you are building. At the risk of sounding self-serving, if you find the documentation overwhelming, perhaps you need different documentation: http://wiki.andmob.org/books (in the interests of full disclosure, I wrote some of those) On Sat, May 1, 2010 at 4:27 PM, Daniel Favela dfav...@gmail.com First question: I've done the Hello World and notepad tutorials, as well as run through the quick tutorial http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6ObTqIiYfEon youtube by Dan Morril. I've also read a bit of the Android fundamentals materials. Is this enough experience to make an application like the one I'll describe below? If not, what do you think I should read or try next? If so, The application I have in mind will be a counter triggered by users. A user will add themselves to the count, remove themselves from the count, and view the count. When a user adds or removes themself to the count... - if possible, this will update the count on other instances for other users/devices That's my first step for now. The UI will be a ListView showing the counts that users have added themselves to (once I create the means to have one count, I will easily be able to scale the app to have n counts). There will be a button to add and remove the user. Sounds reasonable, right? Please let me know if this sounds difficult, especially where the multi-device communication (in updating the counter) is concerned. Know of a library that I'll have to use, or have some general advice for this? Tell me! :) IMHO, you're looking at your problem backwards. Your application requires a server, from your description. Focus on getting the server right first: -- how are you planning on sending data to the server? (HTTP via a REST-style API? XMPP? SMTP? something else?) -- where and how are you storing your counts? (SQLite? MySQL? Oracle? Flat file? memcached? Redis? something else?) -- how are you determining who sees what count? (everybody sees everybody's? something else?) -- how are you planning on distributing updates from the server? (polling by the clients? WebSockets with Comet? SMS? something else?) -- what data format will you be using for all of this? (XML? JSON? YAML? binary payloads via Protocol Buffers? binary payloads via Thrift? something else?) The only part of Android that really comes into play when thinking about your server are the communication protocols and payloads to/from the server. In the end, Android can handle just about anything, but there is more work involved with some compared to others. However, it may be that you are still better off choosing something that you're already comfortable with, even if it makes the Android side a bit more complex, just to make your server work simpler. Once you have the server more or less working -- perhaps via a client technology you are already comfortable with -- then tackle the Android client. As you say, the client side should not be terribly difficult, assuming you have a well-designed server. IMHO, the majority of your complexity is with the server. The only reason that would not be the case is if you're going to try to graft your design onto an existing engine (e.g., you'll use the status.net microblogging server and distribute count data via tweets). -- Mark Murphy (a Commons Guy) http://commonsware.com | http://github.com/commonsguy http://commonsware.com/blog | http://twitter.com/commonsguy _Beginning Android 2_ from Apress Now Available! -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Android Beginners group. NEW! Try asking and tagging your question on Stack Overflow at http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/android To unsubscribe from this group, send email to android-beginners+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-beginners?hl=en
Re: [android-beginners] Advice For First (Simple?) Non-Tutorial Project
Thank you very much, Mark Murphy; that was EXACTLY the type of response I was looking for, and it provoked some more thought on my end. My original idea was to avoid the need for a server. My naive idea was relaying data between devices themselves (ex. user A adds themself to count. This messages/texts user B. This adds user A to user B's list of participants, and both update their counter. Any future inquiries -- user C -- to A or B will get that list of participants, and user C will now be able to relay their own addition and removal to A and B). The reason I first dreamt that up was because of current applications such as google talk, messaging, etc. -- correspondence between two devices, which other applications http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUmachL5IW4 have been capable of. For those that may benefit from my case, a problem arises that can be seen when the first user, ever, uses the application. Who does he or she contact when adding themself to the count? They have no one to contact; the need for the server becomes apparent. Thanks again, Mark. You've described my upper bound for what I'll need in order to relay that contact information between devices -- and maybe after that, users can maintain a device-centric count. I'll be looking into status.net for that purpose. Have a great day! If you have any more comments or corrections for this newbie, lay 'em on me. -Danny On Sat, May 1, 2010 at 7:30 AM, Mark Murphy mmur...@commonsware.com wrote: Ubuntu Explorer wrote: I have more or less the same question. The amount of detail in the API is overwhelming for me to choose what is really required for my app. Are there specific areas we can focus on that can help us ramp up quickly. That is impossible to answer in the abstract. A 3D first-person shooter is very different from a PDF viewer, which is very different from a social networking client, which is very different from a tip calculator. The specific areas [you] can focus on that can help [you] ramp up quickly will vary by what you are building. At the risk of sounding self-serving, if you find the documentation overwhelming, perhaps you need different documentation: http://wiki.andmob.org/books (in the interests of full disclosure, I wrote some of those) On Sat, May 1, 2010 at 4:27 PM, Daniel Favela dfav...@gmail.com First question: I've done the Hello World and notepad tutorials, as well as run through the quick tutorial http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6ObTqIiYfEon youtube by Dan Morril. I've also read a bit of the Android fundamentals materials. Is this enough experience to make an application like the one I'll describe below? If not, what do you think I should read or try next? If so, The application I have in mind will be a counter triggered by users. A user will add themselves to the count, remove themselves from the count, and view the count. When a user adds or removes themself to the count... - if possible, this will update the count on other instances for other users/devices That's my first step for now. The UI will be a ListView showing the counts that users have added themselves to (once I create the means to have one count, I will easily be able to scale the app to have n counts). There will be a button to add and remove the user. Sounds reasonable, right? Please let me know if this sounds difficult, especially where the multi-device communication (in updating the counter) is concerned. Know of a library that I'll have to use, or have some general advice for this? Tell me! :) IMHO, you're looking at your problem backwards. Your application requires a server, from your description. Focus on getting the server right first: -- how are you planning on sending data to the server? (HTTP via a REST-style API? XMPP? SMTP? something else?) -- where and how are you storing your counts? (SQLite? MySQL? Oracle? Flat file? memcached? Redis? something else?) -- how are you determining who sees what count? (everybody sees everybody's? something else?) -- how are you planning on distributing updates from the server? (polling by the clients? WebSockets with Comet? SMS? something else?) -- what data format will you be using for all of this? (XML? JSON? YAML? binary payloads via Protocol Buffers? binary payloads via Thrift? something else?) The only part of Android that really comes into play when thinking about your server are the communication protocols and payloads to/from the server. In the end, Android can handle just about anything, but there is more work involved with some compared to others. However, it may be that you are still better off choosing something that you're already comfortable with, even if it makes the Android side a bit more complex, just to make your server work simpler. Once you have the server more or less working --
Re: [android-beginners] Advice For First (Simple?) Non-Tutorial Project
Dear Mark, Thanks for the answer. As I understand, it seems that learning will be simpler if I make up an app. idea and then try to learn what is required to build it. I will try to get the books suggested if I need further info. Regards, UE. On Sat, May 1, 2010 at 11:30 PM, Mark Murphy mmur...@commonsware.comwrote: Ubuntu Explorer wrote: I have more or less the same question. The amount of detail in the API is overwhelming for me to choose what is really required for my app. Are there specific areas we can focus on that can help us ramp up quickly. That is impossible to answer in the abstract. A 3D first-person shooter is very different from a PDF viewer, which is very different from a social networking client, which is very different from a tip calculator. The specific areas [you] can focus on that can help [you] ramp up quickly will vary by what you are building. At the risk of sounding self-serving, if you find the documentation overwhelming, perhaps you need different documentation: http://wiki.andmob.org/books (in the interests of full disclosure, I wrote some of those) On Sat, May 1, 2010 at 4:27 PM, Daniel Favela dfav...@gmail.com First question: I've done the Hello World and notepad tutorials, as well as run through the quick tutorial http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6ObTqIiYfEon youtube by Dan Morril. I've also read a bit of the Android fundamentals materials. Is this enough experience to make an application like the one I'll describe below? If not, what do you think I should read or try next? If so, The application I have in mind will be a counter triggered by users. A user will add themselves to the count, remove themselves from the count, and view the count. When a user adds or removes themself to the count... - if possible, this will update the count on other instances for other users/devices That's my first step for now. The UI will be a ListView showing the counts that users have added themselves to (once I create the means to have one count, I will easily be able to scale the app to have n counts). There will be a button to add and remove the user. Sounds reasonable, right? Please let me know if this sounds difficult, especially where the multi-device communication (in updating the counter) is concerned. Know of a library that I'll have to use, or have some general advice for this? Tell me! :) IMHO, you're looking at your problem backwards. Your application requires a server, from your description. Focus on getting the server right first: -- how are you planning on sending data to the server? (HTTP via a REST-style API? XMPP? SMTP? something else?) -- where and how are you storing your counts? (SQLite? MySQL? Oracle? Flat file? memcached? Redis? something else?) -- how are you determining who sees what count? (everybody sees everybody's? something else?) -- how are you planning on distributing updates from the server? (polling by the clients? WebSockets with Comet? SMS? something else?) -- what data format will you be using for all of this? (XML? JSON? YAML? binary payloads via Protocol Buffers? binary payloads via Thrift? something else?) The only part of Android that really comes into play when thinking about your server are the communication protocols and payloads to/from the server. In the end, Android can handle just about anything, but there is more work involved with some compared to others. However, it may be that you are still better off choosing something that you're already comfortable with, even if it makes the Android side a bit more complex, just to make your server work simpler. Once you have the server more or less working -- perhaps via a client technology you are already comfortable with -- then tackle the Android client. As you say, the client side should not be terribly difficult, assuming you have a well-designed server. IMHO, the majority of your complexity is with the server. The only reason that would not be the case is if you're going to try to graft your design onto an existing engine (e.g., you'll use the status.net microblogging server and distribute count data via tweets). -- Mark Murphy (a Commons Guy) http://commonsware.com | http://github.com/commonsguy http://commonsware.com/blog | http://twitter.com/commonsguy _Beginning Android 2_ from Apress Now Available! -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Android Beginners group. NEW! Try asking and tagging your question on Stack Overflow at http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/android To unsubscribe from this group, send email to android-beginners+unsubscr...@googlegroups.comandroid-beginners%2bunsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-beginners?hl=en -- You received this message
