Is anybody developing an Android App for DaniWeb?

If nobody is, I'm planning on doing so, and if someone wants to participate, you'll be welcome.

If someone is developing, and wants help, I'd like to participate.

Cheers.

Ps.: I was not sure if I should post this here or in Community Feedback, if this is the case, please move the post.

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There is a team who is working on an iPhone app, although they have just begun, but as far as I am aware, no one is working on an Android app. Having one would be greatly appreciated I'm sure! :)

Alright, I'll start it soon and keep you all informed about the progress =)

Android App. Cool! I wouldn't mind using it (if i had an android)...

@Dani, by any chance are the "guys" (dudes making the iphone app) making an ipad version/samsung galaxy version?

Who am i asking exactly?

I will consider asking him at one point.

Michael, if I'm not mistaken, Samsung Galaxy is Android, isn't it?

Samsung Galaxy is Android, isn't it?

I don't even know lol, i don't have one... i have an iphone :)

commented: iphone is best +0

i searched it on google, it can be considered an android :)

I don't have one either, but at my firm we have one for testing apps. But I was uncertain because, who knows if in another country it could have another SO, like Windows Phome in example.

I'd like to make a pool to find out the most used Android OS version among Daniweb users, is there any way to do it in the forum? I couldn't find anything

Dani, I'm planning what will be needed to acomplish this app, and my first doubt is about the login with OAuth2.

As described in the API page the app must redirect to the daniweb auth page, but the Android app will not run in a browser.

If this is the only way, I thought about the following, it's kind messy but I think it would work:

  1. Android app will embed an WebView which will load my auth page
  2. My auth page will redirect to Daniweb auth page
  3. Daniweb auth page will redirect back to my auth page
  4. My auth page will send the token to the Android App
  5. Android app will have the token to make the API requests

What do you think?

Hi ... I don't know anything about Android dev, but if you're doing what I think you're doing, then that will work. There are lots of ways around it if you do a bunch of Googling. If you want to be really fancy, instead of redirecting your visitor to my auth page, you can fetch my auth page behind-the-scenes, scrape it, and show the form using your own design with the scraped data.

Dani, I'm gonna try make it behind the scenes, but I was testing the oAuth pages and confirmed the request, so it won't ask again for my login... there's any way to can the authorization so I can test it in my android app?

hi guys im making a similar app but sorry since im just a starter and havig difficulty at adding rss feeds to the android app... are you still making the app for this? maybe i can ask for some tips and maybe i can help out in design of your app (in exchange)

I don't have any experience with Android but I can offer assistance regarding the API. Start a new thread if you have a specific question regarding RSS feeds and be sure to tag it daniweb-api.

For the rest of your questions, guess you'll have to wait to hear back from Ale :)

Dani, thanks, I couldn't find this page on my onw.

About doing the login behind the scenes, I was analysing the html from daniweb and tried somethings...
One of them was to post Username, Password and Referer to the members/login page, hoping it will accept and redirect to the Confirm authorization page, but instead I got an "Ooops, error occurered", problems with session message.

Can you explain to me the validations behind the login so I can make the proper use of it?

PudingEatsPanda, I'm just starting this app, and I'm starting with the login/authorization part, because it's the one the I don't have complete knowlodge about. I think using the rest of the API will be much easier.
If you have any doubts that I can help with, I'll help gladly =)

The API is the Syntax or like the GUI part of the programming?

The API is the mechanism (interface) by which you are able to tap into our backend. It's simply a fancy word that gives the ability for two applications can talk to each other.

Can you explain to me the validations behind the login so I can make the proper use of it?

You need to also pass in the security token (csrf_token), which is unique for each individual page load.

PudingEatsPanda, I'm just starting this app, and I'm starting with the login/authorization part, because it's the one the I don't have complete knowlodge about.

If this is the case, I would actually leave what you're currently trying to do to last, and start off just using something like the simple code provided. It's much easier to just use the built-in mechanism the way it's supposed to run, and get that to work, before getting all fancy.

Dani, I would use an embed browser to make the login, but I tested the site in some androids browsers and it gets buggy sometimes, so for the end user this work will be really good.

The csrf_token is stored in the session? So I'd need to keep the session alive? Because I tried just passing one genereted csrf_token and I got the same message.

What about the site is buggy in Android? I agree for the end user it would be a much nicer alternative, but what I meant is that you should first get the simple things to work and then expand into the more complicated.

The csrf_token is stored as a cookie, and is unique on each page load. Basically I think what you'd be trying to do is come up with a workaround against cross site request forgery, which is what we're trying to prevent.

Yes, It's difficult for me to login in daniweb in my Android phone, that's why I thought about the app.

Some bugs I encountered:
- Login dialog doesn't open (it just refreshs the page and doesn't open the dialog)
- Login dialog opens and closes immediately
- Login dialog opens in the middle of the screen, but since I had to zoom the page to be able to click the login button, when I zoom out, or move the screen, the dialog closes

I tested on Opera Mini, Firefox, Photon Browser and the default browser for Android. Not all bugs occurrs in all browsers.

I'm not saying that is a problem in the site, because on desktop I never had a problem. But it was not designed for mobile use.

And Dani, there's no way to do it behind the scenes that doesn't look like cross site requesting... Even if I keep an hidden browser, to keep session alive, and just fill the forms with the user input, in some way it'd still be a "bot" doing the work.

Maybe I'm missing something, but I think the only two options to do it without looking like forgery it'd be:
- Redirect to the login page (The idea that I first posted, but in that time I didn't thought that the authorization would require the login dialog, silly me)
- Login by API request (the API would have to support this with some kind of encryption)

I think the missing piece to the puzzle that you're missing is if you do it the correct non-hacky OAuth 2.0 way, it should work fine from Android and is totally unrelated to our normal login dialog box. Check out two OAuth demos to see what I mean.

Dani, now I noticed that the JavaScript demo uses another login page when the user is not logged on.

I think that will do =)

Thanks!

What about the progress of the android app? Is it being made or i haven't noticed it's already done?

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