Blueprint for Mobile Clients

We want clients on Mobile devices to be able to talk to Sahana Eden servers.

The simplest way to do this is to provide a layout for the web application suitable for smaller screens: BluePrintCSS

Ideally, though, they should have local storage for use completely offline & then be able to sync back to the server using whatever connectivity becomes available:

• SMS
  • compressed multi-part SMS to get maximal throughput
  • wiki:BluePrintMessagingModule#Micro-Syntax
  • forms should be updatable via SMS
  • photos should stay offline until the phone has better connectivity, but then the photo needs to be used to update the same record
• GPRS/3G
• WiFi
• BlueTooth
  • J2ME eedocs:
    • tbc
  • Python docs:
    • Intro: ​http://www.devshed.com/c/a/Python/Bluetooth-Programming-using-Python/
    • ​http://lightblue.sourceforge.net/
    • ​http://code.google.com/p/pybluez/

Using the open XForms standard means that we can support handsets using both Android & J2ME.

XForms editor:

• Written in Django, so should be easy to port to Sahana Eden:
  • ​http://github.com/nyaruka/rapidsms-xforms-builder
    • Video walk-through:
      • ​http://www.screencast.com/t/YmYwYjUzMz
      • ​http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyjEruT5uoU
• Written in GWT, so includable in Eden as a simple HTML page:
  • ​PurcForms - can import the output from our controller, powerful but not for non-techies!
    • ​Demo
  • ​OX-Designer - more basic, but pretty. No import yet. Built for OpenMRS (which uses ODK)

XForms can be submitted using SMS by including the encoding format within the XForm so that client & server agree on the encoding:

• ​http://bitbucket.org/javarosa/javarosa/wiki/SMSSendingAPI

Android

​OpenDataKit have a suite of tools to use on Android.

• UserGuidelinesMobile - how to use ODK Collect with Sahana Eden
• Android Development Environment
• ​OpenRosa - joint project between ODK & JavaRosa

ToDo

• Send Images
• Send GPS Coordinates
• SMS: There are 2 APIs for sending SMS. 1 of which automatically splits up larger messages into multi-part SMS.

J2ME

Documentation on the current implementation is here: ​http://wiki.sahanafoundation.org/phase2/doku.php/dev:j2meclient

• This needs updating to the latest version of JavaRosa

JavaRosa is a fast-developing framework which uses XForms & ​J2MEPolish:

• ​http://code.javarosa.org

This supports using Mesh4j to do synchronisation via SMS:

• ​http://code.google.com/p/mesh4x/wiki/SMSAdapter

Alternatives

Another XForms/J2MEPolish client (Xfolite):

• ​https://projects.forum.nokia.com/XFormsJ2ME

KUIX can be used to develop lightweight applications which work across may handhelds & forms can be customised easily via XML/CSS:

• ​http://www.kalmeo.org/projects/kuix

Old, un-maintained J2ME client for the PHP back-end, which just uses XML-RPC (=> requires Internet):

• ​http://wiki.sahanafoundation.org/doku.php?id=dev:sahana_mobile_intro

iPhone

Sahana Software Foundation have a developer license which can be used by anyone interested in developing this.

Mapping

Adding touch support to OpenLayers:

• ​http://mobilegeo.wordpress.com/2010/01/05/testing-open-layers-with-iphone-and-android/

Taking the Map offline:

• iPhone: ​http://www.offmaps.com

Other projects

• ​FrontlineSMS
  • FrontlineForms is a proprietary add-on for FrontlineSMS allowing a mobile Java client to connect to FrontlineSMS and share data with it.
• ​Global Relief Technologies

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BluePrintMessagingModule

BluePrints