Mobile-Web Integration with Open Source Tools

Mobile-Web Integration with Open Source Tools (1) Lukhnos D. Liu Principal, Lithoglyph Inc.

Agenda Client Side Server Side

Client-Side Agenda What to put on client, what on server Mobile app design constraints Case study: TapExpense Open source tools you can use Demo

Mobile Internet is ﬁnally there!

Ubiquitous computing for consumers

But mobile web is not the answer to everything...

Server-side pro’s and con’s Server is good for LARGE data But network is slower than you think Mobile web = just ok to use But you don’t want to use it every day Native mobile app FTW

Perspective Mobile computers that happen can make calls Telephony is not important Data terminal, data presentation Limited device versus cloud

Client-side problems Device is limited in every aspect Display, memory, CPU speed But response is very fast Suitable code: UI, data collection, simple computation

Mobile app constraints Slow CPU Low memory: 64 MB of heap, no swap So design you app as if you were in 1996 (seriously)

Integration considerations Use lightweight data structure XML parsing is usually a bad idea (no SOAP, e.g.!) Stream-able or partially readable format is good (JSON, CSV, etc.)

Wacky connections Internet should be assumed but not taken for granted Power management policy is a pain 3G handover Intermittent connection Design early: Ofﬂine plan, caching policy, resume mechanism

UIRequiresPersistentWiFi UIRequiresPersistentWiFi <true/> <false/> Always on, but idleTimerDisalbed Always on, always wifi/3G off after 30 YES connected min 3G/wifi off when Wifi on when app idleTimerDisalbed device wants to is on, but 3G off NO even when app is when screen off on

Still with us? Good.

Case Study: TapExpense iPhone expense tracker Requirement: Excel spreadsheet export Data analytics Internet strategy: “Shoot and Forget”

“XLS is complicated...” “Let’s use CSV” “But...”

CSV is not simple at all! Originally: Email to user Common format, but tons of pain (saving, exporting) Usability = 0 No way to handle multi-line text Variants! Not all spreadsheet app is created equal Excel, Numbers, OpenOfﬁce

You thought that is all... 1,000,000.00

Parlez-vous français? 1.000.000,00 30.4.2009:Food:1.000.000,00 Ich spreche Deutsch, aber...

Sprechen Sie... Schwyzerdütsch? 1‘000‘000,00

Two Provisions Pure-text CSV: Matches user’s international settings (language and locale)—backward compatible XLS: Use server-side solution

Making HTTP Requests Everyone has her favorite wrapper on iPhone Our favorite: LFHTTPRequest

LFHTTPRequest Part of the ObjectiveFlickr project http://github.com/lukhnos/objectiveﬂickr/ Targeting both Mac 10.4/10.5/[Redacted], iPhone OS 2.x/[Redacted], 32-bit, 64-bit Lightweight and robust

Other Open Source Libs Three20 http://github.com/joehewitt/three20 Erica Sadun’s code http://ericasadun.com/ And more

Client-side demo

Mobile-Web Integration with Open Source Tools

by lukhnos on Apr 21, 2009

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Mobile-Web Integration with Open Source Tools — Presentation Transcript