wiki:BluePrint/Mobile

Version 81 (modified by Tom Baker, 10 years ago) ( diff )

--

Blueprint for Mobile Clients

We want a versatile client for Mobile devices to be able to talk to Sahana Eden servers which can be easily maintained and adapted to meet new requirements rather than the point solutions which have been developed to date which are unmaintained & not adaptable.

The ideal would be the ability to generate the code using the same core framework and data models. XForms are promising here, although our current XForm interface isn't complete (doesn't handle either Images or Locations) and can only handle data entry, not reporting.

Online

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

An initial protoype should be developed in static HTML/CSS which can then be ported to Eden.

  • download a couple of pages' HTML & CSS & tweak the CSS until it is fully resizable.

Offline

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:

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

XForms editor:

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

Android

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:

This supports using Mesh4j to do synchronisation via SMS:

Multi-Platform Mobile App

Alternatives

Another XForms/J2MEPolish client (Xfolite):

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

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

iPhone

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

HTML 5

Responsive Web Design

Bootstrap (twitter.github.io/bootstrap) has been used to implement a responsive web design in the DRMP template: (https://github.com/flavour/eden/tree/master/modules/templates/DRMP). This could be extended to better support the default template by:

  • Re-designing the following generic pages for mobile view:
    • List / Table
    • Search
    • Reports
  • Better supporting maps
  • Reviewing & Testing for features which don't work on the responsive design

jQuery Mobile

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

Sencha Touch

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

Mapping

OpenLayers now has touch support:

On our map, the Panning/Zooming works already, but Popups cannot be clicked yet.

We'd also like to move the LayerTree to a native-style widget.

ExtMap Touch:

Taking the Map offline:

OpenStreetMap on Android:

Google Latitude would make an excellent Mobile Presence tool:

Other projects


See Also:

Note: See TracWiki for help on using the wiki.