Building PHP Powered Android Applications John Coggeshall

Introductions Welcome! About me CTO of Automotive Computer Services (ACS) Core PHP 5 Dev Author, Speaker John Coggeshall Presentation Title

Welcome!

About me

CTO of Automotive Computer Services (ACS)

Core PHP 5 Dev

Author, Speaker

Agenda Crash Course in Android Development Building PHP-powered backend services for the application Bringing it all together Warning: Nothing Magical here! Heavy Java/Android ahead!

Crash Course in Android Development

Building PHP-powered backend services for the application

Bringing it all together

Warning: Nothing Magical here! Heavy Java/Android ahead!

Server Backend Zend Framework Backend of web services supporting our primary Flex-powered front-end Supports both XML-based and Action Message Format (AMF) encodings How Auth Service ultimately works: Post to http://server/service/v1?command=auth.find the necessary parameters Receive back a success, and a session ID

Zend Framework Backend of web services supporting our primary Flex-powered front-end

Supports both XML-based and Action Message Format (AMF) encodings

How Auth Service ultimately works:

Post to http://server/service/v1?command=auth.find the necessary parameters

Receive back a success, and a session ID

Server-Side Service Code

Basic Android Concepts Activity – A “Screen” of your application where you do things Intent – An inter-process / inter-activity notification system Layout – An XML definition of widgets for an activity

Activity – A “Screen” of your application where you do things

Intent – An inter-process / inter-activity notification system

Layout – An XML definition of widgets for an activity

The Goal Create an Android application that can authenticate against our pre-existing web services Create the Android App itself Create a Proxy that can communicate over HTTP to the backend server Process the XML response Save the authenticated session for future use

Create an Android application that can authenticate against our pre-existing web services

Create the Android App itself

Create a Proxy that can communicate over HTTP to the backend server

Process the XML response

Save the authenticated session for future use

The Android Application

Considerations Android itself doesn’t provide too many tools for web service calls (other than a HTTP client) The most challenging piece of the connectivity is in the details Error handling Parsing of responses Connecting all of it with an effective UI

Android itself doesn’t provide too many tools for web service calls (other than a HTTP client)

The most challenging piece of the connectivity is in the details

Error handling

Parsing of responses

Connecting all of it with an effective UI

Another option As Android is entirely Java-based, there are numerous Java toolkits that can help you along the way Be careful, many are too bloated for Android For XML-RPC, you can use the android-xmlrpc package

As Android is entirely Java-based, there are numerous Java toolkits that can help you along the way

Be careful, many are too bloated for Android

For XML-RPC, you can use the android-xmlrpc package

If you’re going to try.. If you’re interested in trying the Android platform, here’s a few words to the wise: Find good sources of documentation Too many out-of-date / wrong articles http://www.anddev.org/ http://www.helloandroid.com/

If you’re interested in trying the Android platform, here’s a few words to the wise:

Find good sources of documentation

Too many out-of-date / wrong articles

http://www.anddev.org/

http://www.helloandroid.com/

Development Tips Use the Android Debugger! The Log class is great for printf() sort of things (Shows up in the Android LogCat tab) Log.e(“MyErrorTag”, “My Error Message”); Server side: You *must* have good logging facilities Log exceptions, errors (real and logical) to a file you can tail –f on when making service calls

Use the Android Debugger!

The Log class is great for printf() sort of things

(Shows up in the Android LogCat tab)

Log.e(“MyErrorTag”, “My Error Message”);

Server side: You *must* have good logging facilities

Log exceptions, errors (real and logical) to a file you can tail –f on when making service calls

Development Tips The AndroidManifest.xml file is very important Need to define everything in there to some degree Activity classes Intent Filters Permissions requested (i.e. Network access) Works a lot better if you use the GUI interface instead of modifying the XML directly

The AndroidManifest.xml file is very important

Need to define everything in there to some degree

Activity classes

Intent Filters

Permissions requested (i.e. Network access)

Works a lot better if you use the GUI interface instead of modifying the XML directly

We’re Hiring! Thank you! Interested in working on a project like this? We’re hiring! See our full-page ad in the conference program and visit us at the Job Fair!

Thank you!

Interested in working on a project like this? We’re hiring!

See our full-page ad in the conference program and visit us at the Job Fair!