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
  • BluePrintMessagingModule
  • 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)
• Written in Ruby Rack, so harder to integrate as-is:
  • ​http://code.google.com/p/opendatakit/wiki/ODKBuild

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

• Get the jaxdroid work on Sahana compatibility merged into ODK Trunk

• Send Images
  • Use ODK Collect to acquire photographic data through a form on the mobile client
  • Store images on the mobile device until a connection can be made to the server
  • Provide an interface in Sahana through which users can access ODK Collect to upload photos
  • Handle image storage on the server side when a user uploads a photo
  • See ​Sahana Eden Mobile Photo Upload Blueprint for additional information.

• Send GPS Coordinates
  • ​GeoTagger is a sample Form for ODK which can be used as a template for what needs to be produced by controllers/xforms.py from location_id & image_id fields.
    • We also need controllers/xforms.py to be able to parse the form back.
    • Currently the ODK Collect client seems to only be able to use GPS for location rather than a wireless fix, which could use fixing (Sahana's Location should have the lower accuracy marker: either source or ce fields).
      • ​http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/location/obtaining-user-location.html

• Support Component Tabs for a multi-table form

• SMS: There are 2 APIs for sending SMS. 1 of which automatically splits up larger messages into multi-part SMS.
  • NCSU have produced some initial ODK Collect code for SMS.
    • This currently sends an SMS whenever an HTTP transmission attempt fails
    • Still need prompt if the HTTP submission fails.
    • Needs to work on the Sahana server side with more than just the controllers.msg.tropo() method (like sms_handler_modem)
    • Need some way to verify that a whole form submission was successful (esp. for multi-part SMS).
    • Need to delete the submitted form from the mobile device when it the submission was confirmed successful.
    • The current multi-part transmission uses a very proprietary sequence number and unique id system that looks like this, and needs to be fixed in a less proprietary way:
      • (1/3)(12345)
      • ...
      • (3/3)(12345)
    • ...This method required a change in the ODK Collect code, and in the Sahana, which is why only the tropo code path can rebuild SMS somehow.
  • Want to be able to download Forms via SMS
    • Push updates from server
    • Pull requests from client
  • Need to compress the forms

• QR Code to download the Trunk version (which should update from this version & not default ODK location)
  • UserGuidelines on creating/embedding a custom QR code for a deployment-specific version

• Have the list of downloadable XForms more easily configurable (currently hardcoded in controllers/xforms.py formList())
  • e.g. Use the same approach as Importer does by marking resources in the modules list in 000_config.py

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.

HTML 5

• ​http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/x-html5mobile1/index.html

jQuery Mobile

This has a lot of industry backing for a truly cross-platform solution:

• ​http://jquerymobile.com

Sencha Touch

Cross-platform (Android/iPhone) HTML5 environment based on ExtJS

• ​http://www.sencha.com/products/touch/
• ​http://dev.sencha.com/deploy/touch/getting-started.html

Mapping

Adding touch support to OpenLayers:

• ​http://mobilegeo.wordpress.com/2010/01/05/testing-open-layers-with-iphone-and-android/
• ​http://dev.openlayers.org/sandbox/bjornharrtell/swipe/examples/swipe.html

ExtMap Touch:

• ​http://www.extmap.com/index.php?pid=2

Taking the Map offline:

• iPhone: ​http://www.offmaps.com

OpenStreetMap on Android:

• ​http://developers.cloudmade.com/projects/show/j2me-lib-android

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