Creating an App

[DJ-Jonesy]

Been looking at creating an Ios app and Android app for the schools latest news events ect.. has any one done this and if so how easy do you think it would be?

 

Thanks

 

Dan

[Steve21]

Well iphone etc generally uses objective c (most C works though). Android is mostly java, (think it can do C++) too.

 

Really ignoring the specifics for the phones etc, not much difference to doing apps as to coding a basic program. Only got to remember limits on memory etc.

 

Only thing I would say, Is how many people will use the app? If it's just teachers etc, is it easier to just use RSS feeds etc, into a "bog-standard" news app? Does it need it's own? (or even a "mobile" news site)

 

Steve

[DJ-Jonesy]

The app will be available to all teachers students and members of the public. its only that the college oppasite have created an App as well that they like the look of and SLT would like something similar as they all have iphones.

 

Been looking at the software for App developers provided by apple them selves doesnt seem too bad.

[InterwebsGuy]

I don't understand the 'App' obsession. There are so many installed apps out there that are simply over kill, where actually a web application or web page designed for a mobile device would be better (for example, look at Google's mobile webpages).

 

Unless you NEED to hook into some of the phones advanced features such as screen rotation, then why do you need an installed app? Mobile designed web pages, if done properly are the better solution to so many apps out there - and of course you only need to maintain one 'app' then.

 

Look into jQuery Mobile.

[DJ-Jonesy]

exactly, i cant see the big thing about it i dont run a android or an iphone so i can quiet happily live with out apps. our school website runs on the phones pretty well to be honest its just that we have a java latest news scroller with images that can be viewed. no big deal.. but to SLT an app would be fancy and state of the art. lol (no just copying the college lol)

[InterwebsGuy]

It is also perhaps worth mentioning, that mobile devices, are perhaps some of the best poised devices out there to harness HTML5 technology at the moment. Smartphones tend to support this to the best they can.

Not so scary if used sensibly!

[InterwebsGuy]

exactly, i cant see the big thing about it i dont run a android or an iphone so i can quiet happily live with out apps. our school website runs on the phones pretty well to be honest its just that we have a java latest news scroller with images that can be viewed. no big deal.. but to SLT an app would be fancy and state of the art. lol (no just copying the college lol)

Would it not be simply easier to replace the Java news scroller with a JavaScript one? Java is a little bit heavy for such a task!

Look at one of the JavaScript library's such as jQuery, YUI or Prototype - there are thousands or example news scrollers for those all with much better support in general for both browser and mobile devices.

[jwpercival]

It would be worth taking a look at Dash Code, part of the Developer Tools. You can use it to create a Web App for all of your SLT and then you won't have to worry about signing it or distributing it to all of the members of staff, they can just add it the link to their home screen.

 

It'll also be easier for you to update the app or you could link it to a data source.

 

I'm personally a big fan of using RSS and ATOM feeds to distribute information rather than having to dip into a single source. I use Flipboard on the iPad which aggregates all of my data feeds using Google Reader as well as social networking such as Twitter.

[EduTech]

I know @ZeroHour has been looking into create iPhone applications alot over the past year or so. I am sure he will also be able to help you out too! :-)

 

James.

[dhicks]

Been looking at creating an Ios app and Android app for the schools latest news events ect.

 

You could create one cross-platform web-based application, then convert it to an iOS and Android app via each platform's web-page-as-an-app frameworks - I think both platforms have them available. I seem to remember the complaint about the iOS version was that Javascript performance was an order of magnitude slower than in the native web browser, but if you're just displaying a page of updates it shouldn't need anything too taxing.

[DJ-Jonesy]

Thanks for all the adivec people. i shall have to talk it over with the boss as dont want more work if a simple fix will keep them happy. i will update on what happens lol

[jwpercival]

Interesting to note that Porchester School used AppMakr :: iPhone App Maker | Make your own iPhone App | Free iPhone App Maker which used their existing RSS feeds, podcasts and Flickr account.

[Marci]

Personally, the hassle of getting it out there as a legit app is more than I can be bothered with when you weigh up the actual usage the app would see. Much quicker just to do a webkit-standardised website using jQTouch / jQuery mobile / PHP / CSS that'll work on both iOS and Android. Easy access to that from frontpage of your mainsite, with a blatant "tap to add to home screen" et voila: It's on the phone with static pages cached via manifest files, behaves like an app etc etc. Also means on-the-fly changes can be made without having to go back thru reapproval via Apple etc etc.

[jumpinglemon]

I use Nimblekit to develop iphone apps, All you need is to know how to write an HTML page with Javascript.

[Marci]

/me points out (just in case) that NimbleKit requires you to have a Mac on which to run NimbleKit... the jQTouch method can be done from anything capable of editing a basic text file... jQTouch — jQuery plugin for mobile web development

[jumpinglemon]

You do need a Mac, I am not aware there is anyway you can build a native app that will appear in the AppStore without the use of a Mac

[Marci]

Correct - not possible without a Mac, hence I went for the web-based app route rather than the appstore app route.

[DJ-Jonesy]

Thanks for those will deffently check them out

 

Would be intertested if any other school have implamented this or something similar?