Database Info

Need Programmer for Custom Biz App

First let me say Moderators, I could not find where requests for programming work to be done was prohibited, if it is, please delete this thread.
2nd - If you need to move this thread, please feel free to do so.
I have written a custom web application for a specific business, that allows schedule tracking of jobs, allow comments to flow between staff members and clients, and pictures to be uploaded.
This application is just starting to take off, but I am getting a huge request for dedicated applications for the mobile devices. (WM, Blackberry, Palm).
I am a web developer and know nothing about programming for the devices, so I am needing to find someone with great knowledge of this type of work, and can knock out the project in a timely manner, and be able to provide support and upgrades as I under the web application.
I will be looking to roll out one application at a time, and go from there. If you would interested in this project please PM me with some form of contact info.
I will be requiring all source code be provided and you must speak perfect english, as this can effect the output of the application

[Q] Noob needs help to create event calendar app

Hi all,
I'm a noob app developer trying to do it for the first time. I'm trying to create an event calendar app for company's internal purposes. So that everyone in the company (which uses a lot of android phones) can be updated on company events that are coming up.
My approach is to create a database with MySQL for events input, and to use PHP to connect the database which is in a server and to push it to the android devices that are used in the office as that's how I found it in a tutorial from HelloAndroid.
My questions are:
1. is this the best approach to create such app?
2. Can I use Android's default calendar to input these events? if not is there some kind of calendar template that I can use to display the information to the users.
Probably will have more questions as I progress, but please help if anyone is more experienced in these matters than I am.
Thank you very much, and really appreciate the inputs that I'm gonna get

A simple solution would be to use Google Calendar.
By using GC you can add/edit events either from a PC (work or home) or your Mobile anywhere in the World.
All that is required is for someone to first set up the calendar on Google and push it out to all those who you want to see it.
This way you are not isolating anyone who does not have an Android Phone.

that's a really good point. Especially in a closed environment like an office. I didn't think of that before. THank you very much.
However, if let's say I want to try to build an app for that for public use, not just confined to limited numbers of people in a company.
Would that be the best approach or if there's any better way to approach it. I may decide to build the app after all just to learn and gain experience in app development.
thanks again for the feedback, really appreciate it.

I can't really give you advice on developing an App sorry.
All I can say is the method I mention is the one which I use to keep all my Operational Team (Surgeons/Doctors/Nurses/Admin/etc) updated and advised.
There's nothing short in you developing your own Calendar App but you would have to ensure it would be available to all and that includes anyone anywhere regardless of the fact they are at work, home, holiday, with Android or not, have a Phone, PC, Mac, etc... etc...
For that there's already a stable tool by the name of Google Calendar.
If you do develop one I'd still be interested in seeing what ideas you could bring into practice that would have a benefit over GC.

I understand your point of view, and actually you got me thinking, maybe if I really want to do the apps, I can create an app that calls the Gcalendar events, and display it from the app. I can find out the API to do that, and that would be much simpler.
Thank you again for your input, really appreciate i

racdyn said:
I understand your point of view, and actually you got me thinking, maybe if I really want to do the apps, I can create an app that calls the Gcalendar events, and display it from the app. I can find out the API to do that, and that would be much simpler.
Thank you again for your input, really appreciate i
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No problem.... I wish you well on your venture.
Do please let us all know how you get on.. You never know, if it becomes that good I may even use it myself over the stock calendar App or any of the other's that already link to GC.

Tips about a good customer support

No matter if the app is free or paid, as a developer you want to offer a good support to the end users. Why? Because as long as they are happy they will continue to use your app and they will recommend it to others. So it is in your best interest to do your best and resolve issues that customers are reporting, implement requested features and solve as many bugs as possible.
To that end, you must ensure you provide easy to access means of communication between you as a developer and the end users. There are many ways you can achieve that and I will list a few I am using and the more you can provide the better so we can put together a list:
Create an email address or use one you already have (I prefer the former) and provide links on Google Play and inside the app. It is nice if you add an accessible menu item that says (Suggestions/Bug report/Support/Etc) that will start an intent chooser for sending emails to this email address
Use forums (XDA ) and post your app and frequently visit and answer suggestions/questions. There are a lot of helpful users there that will test the app and discover bugs, suggest new features and it is very good if you can keep the thread hot so you keep the interest up. Users like feedback and makes them feel important (which they are) so try to answer as many posts as possible even though you don't have a solution to the problem yet
Get social! Social networking is very helpful these days both for spreading the word about your app but also for customer support. Create profiles for the app on all major social networks (Facebook, Google +, Twitter, etc) and try to get as many users as possible. Post as many updates as possible and keep the users informed about changes to the app, answer to their comments and implement suggestions
Prioritization - build yourself a TODO list with priorities: for each update try to solve major bugs first that are heavily reported or that are causing big problems. Always find some room for improvements and user suggestions. Then fix small bugs and try to improve UI.
Localization is an important part of today's apps. Try to support as many languages as possible making easy for the users to understand the app and to better communicate their findings
Use the publish console to check for crash reports. Many users use this feature and send crash reports along with the stack trace and it is very helpful to keep track of major crashes and identify the root cause
Please reply with more tips so we can create a big list for everyone

Email is the number 1 way people ( from my experience ) contact the developer to ask questions, recommendations, etc. What I did in addition to all the things in the op was create a cheap 5 page website with Godaddy website tonight its like $100 bucks a year or something. They also auto optimize your site for mobile viewing!Then made a contact us page, were users can choose a reason for contacting us. This works really well and you can set up an auto responder to send them a message letting them know you got the email.
I always try to answer emails immediately (during business hours) but always within 24 hours. Having a great customer service program even if your a solo dev like I am will translate into 5 star ratings based solely on customer service!
Have a lax customer service program and you will see the negative 1 or 2 star ratings pop up again based solely on customer service. It shouldn't take anyone more than say 48 hours to re connect with someone and at least start the process of answering their concern.
You can see the contact us page here
Good policy will turn into good reviews and good downloads!
:good:

I've put a feedback page in all my apps.
You don't even need to create a new email address. Just use your personal email address and create an alias. That way it looks formal on the outside but messages go to same inbox as your personal one, only have to check one inbox everyday.

HMMMMMM!
FIRST OF ALLL EMAIL AND AFTER THAT XDA POSTS.........:victory:

email or the message box is very important. But it's also important to reply to their questions promptly.

Free Customer Service SDK
Replying promptly to customers is essentially the first step towards good customer service. If you are an iOS app developer, looking to impress your customers with excellent customer support, try out Freshdesk's Mobihelp SDK ( [freshdesk.com/mobihelp) you can snap-in to your app and start communicating with your customers from right within your app. I'm sure it will be of great help in your customer service efforts!

Thanks for the tips! Just a question: I have got one Crash report in google play console very early, but since then nothing. I have put email in the game and on the play store. But nobody used it. I do not have many installs, but I wonder what is the usual percentage of people who actually report bugs?

kulisgames said:
Thanks for the tips! Just a question: I have got one Crash report in google play console very early, but since then nothing. I have put email in the game and on the play store. But nobody used it. I do not have many installs, but I wonder what is the usual percentage of people who actually report bugs?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In my experience, if the app is something people desperately need (e.g. utility) or want (e.g. game) but it isn't working quite as they expected, they will be vocal. Not hearing anything from users is usually a warning sign that nobody was too excited about the app in the first place, or that not that many people downloaded the app in the first place.

If I see a crash on Google Play I assume that the same crash occured for 10 others who didn't bother reporting it. So I try to fix it ASAP.
You could use Google Analytics to report crashes without user prompt.
Regardless of the above, it sounds like you have a general marketing challange which is much more critical than that crash report, so you should investigate marketing and promotions in general.
kulisgames said:
Thanks for the tips! Just a question: I have got one Crash report in google play console very early, but since then nothing. I have put email in the game and on the play store. But nobody used it. I do not have many installs, but I wonder what is the usual percentage of people who actually report bugs?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Bad reviews on google play
slackydroid said:
No matter if the app is free or paid, as a developer you want to offer a good support to the end users. Why? Because as long as they are happy they will continue to use your app and they will recommend it to others. So it is in your best interest to do your best and resolve issues that customers are reporting, implement requested features and solve as many bugs as possible.
To that end, you must ensure you provide easy to access means of communication between you as a developer and the end users. There are many ways you can achieve that and I will list a few I am using and the more you can provide the better so we can put together a list:
Create an email address or use one you already have (I prefer the former) and provide links on Google Play and inside the app. It is nice if you add an accessible menu item that says (Suggestions/Bug report/Support/Etc) that will start an intent chooser for sending emails to this email address
Use forums (XDA ) and post your app and frequently visit and answer suggestions/questions. There are a lot of helpful users there that will test the app and discover bugs, suggest new features and it is very good if you can keep the thread hot so you keep the interest up. Users like feedback and makes them feel important (which they are) so try to answer as many posts as possible even though you don't have a solution to the problem yet
Get social! Social networking is very helpful these days both for spreading the word about your app but also for customer support. Create profiles for the app on all major social networks (Facebook, Google +, Twitter, etc) and try to get as many users as possible. Post as many updates as possible and keep the users informed about changes to the app, answer to their comments and implement suggestions
Prioritization - build yourself a TODO list with priorities: for each update try to solve major bugs first that are heavily reported or that are causing big problems. Always find some room for improvements and user suggestions. Then fix small bugs and try to improve UI.
Localization is an important part of today's apps. Try to support as many languages as possible making easy for the users to understand the app and to better communicate their findings
Use the publish console to check for crash reports. Many users use this feature and send crash reports along with the stack trace and it is very helpful to keep track of major crashes and identify the root cause
Please reply with more tips so we can create a big list for everyone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
how can we deal with bad reviews on google play, reviews that comes from pepole that didn't understand the meaning of the app?
Thanks.

If you're looking for app support best practices, contact a big startup like Buffer or Squarespace and see how they respond to your question. Notice the friendly tone of voice, the detailed answers they try to give you, and the call for action at the end of every support ticket - whether it's to try and recreate the event that caused the bug or read a FAQ section. Do that a dozen times and you'll learn more about 'proper' support than any how-to article can teach you.

dimnikolov said:
If you're looking for app support best practices, contact a big startup like Buffer or Squarespace and see how they respond to your question. Notice the friendly tone of voice, the detailed answers they try to give you, and the call for action at the end of every support ticket - whether it's to try and recreate the event that caused the bug or read a FAQ section. Do that a dozen times and you'll learn more about 'proper' support than any how-to article can teach you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep makes sense in my experience - personalise as much as possible and reflect the tone of voice of your app. Users will really appreciate it. Stay social.

Why not have some kind of in-app help?
Having a suggestions/feedback menu item seems to be the common thread here to provide good customer support.
But wondering - why not some kind of in app help itself? Sort of a Whatsapp inside the app? I feel email being a separate channel breaks the context - help within the app itself and in context would be so much easier for the end user.
Thoughts?

I know it is an old thread but there are SDKs that help you integrate a support chat right within the app. I have seen zomato use one of these.

Thank you for a list!

[Q] Total NOOB needs some help :)

Hi all,
My name is Fabian, and I have a strong background in C. (Done a CS course in C).
I want to do an Android app for my final project(nothing too fancy or complicated but I have to at least have some interface ) and I'm a little stuck with how to proceed from here.
I watched the Java essential course on Lynda and I did understand a little the difference between C in Java, however I don't know how to proceed from here to actual Android development.
If anyone can recommend me finding a crash course, a book or any other resource that could get me up and running as soon as possible, I would really appreciate it.
I don't mind spending money on it.
Thanks in advance.
Fabian

fabiansc said:
Hi all,
My name is Fabian, and I have a strong background in C. (Done a CS course in C).
I want to do an Android app for my final project(nothing too fancy or complicated but I have to at least have some interface ) and I'm a little stuck with how to proceed from here.
I watched the Java essential course on Lynda and I did understand a little the difference between C in Java, however I don't know how to proceed from here to actual Android development.
If anyone can recommend me finding a crash course, a book or any other resource that could get me up and running as soon as possible, I would really appreciate it.
I don't mind spending money on it.
Thanks in advance.
Fabian
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A great resource for Android development is the official Android training documentation from Google, as well as these tutorials. Let me know if you still have questions I'll be happy to help.

thanks little question regrading databases
shimp208 said:
A great resource for Android development is the official Android training documentation from Google, as well as these tutorials. Let me know if you still have questions I'll be happy to help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
Thanks for your help I learned a lot and I'm already planning my app
I just have one question that could really help.
I want to make an app where people on different devices can interact and send each other tasks. I guess I need a kind of SQL server that supports Android, right? Is there a better or at least more economic way to do it if I will have around 1000 users where each one can add people to send tasks to?
Many thanks,
Fabian

And one more question
Is there any way to do a phone number authentication (like Whatsapp) instead of user name and password which I think is a little to tedious for my planned app ?
Thanks in advance

Hola, for the task sending. Would you like to make all task public? Or should you send it like a message?
But when i need access to a server, i use php scripts. But we can take that later, when you have answered my last question
For the phone number authentication, you have to have a online database, with all phone numbers. User inserts their phone number, the first time they starts the app. Then you can retrieve it from the database. But we can also take that later.
I´m glad if i helped.
(Sorry for my bad english.. )

Hola
Well I want it to be like a manager that gives a task to his employee. I want the task to be between them and only they can close it.
Likewise, it would be a problem if I make a simple phone number insertion if there's no validation. I was thinking about a number verification (like whatsapp) to prevent other people from accessing the tasks.
Do you think it's possible or should I go with username and password?
Thanks

fabiansc said:
Hi,
Thanks for your help I learned a lot and I'm already planning my app
I just have one question that could really help.
I want to make an app where people on different devices can interact and send each other tasks. I guess I need a kind of SQL server that supports Android, right? Is there a better or at least more economic way to do it if I will have around 1000 users where each one can add people to send tasks to?
Many thanks,
Fabian
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am using OpenShift - https://www.openshift.com/developers - which is a open source cloud architecture in that they offer packages like NodeJS and DB's. They allow you to have 'gears' which I guess is their name for services running on their cloud. The free account has 3 gears.
I currently only have a NodeJS server running to deliver files however (as far as I understand it) you can have MySQL and others as a backend. I would think that whatever devices you develop on would simply log into the DB and look up messages/tasks etc. I would also think that your app could insert those things. The best part is it is free until you reach Enterprise level or so. I would check it out since free is good. Offhand, I do not know what DB's Android supports via java but MySQL is probably one of them.
Just some info for you to examine.
Good luck

Hola, of course its possible! But maybe Username and Password is easiest.
You can use e-mail validation.
I actually worked on a application, there store products in databases. So i have tried it before. Ask if you are confused
And Sum1nil, sqlite is implemented in android, so for local database, use sqlite.
But for online database access, i use php

Where to keep my data

Hi there guys,
Here's my story, I have this project I want to start working on, and it's suposed to be a running prototype in a month or so.
Anyway the app is going to be pretty simple, it is going to have users, that can be drivers, passengers or both, every user will have to have this info: name, surname, user ID, car which he/she is driving for now pictures are not neccesary(if you could point me in the general direction as to how I can do that, great), and users should be able to send(not instant) messages to each other.
I will also have a webpage in which you will be able to do all the things you can do with the app, so my question is
Where and how should i keep all of this data, all of the info?
I'm a real newbie in this, but I plan on learning a lot, so should I make a database and store all the textual info in there and link it with the app, or is there another way that you are supposed to do that. Where do I keep the pictures?
Any help would be wonderfull :3
Have a nice daaaay!

AzBahAJR said:
Hi there guys,
Here's my story, I have this project I want to start working on, and it's suposed to be a running prototype in a month or so.
Anyway the app is going to be pretty simple, it is going to have users, that can be drivers, passengers or both, every user will have to have this info: name, surname, user ID, car which he/she is driving for now pictures are not neccesary(if you could point me in the general direction as to how I can do that, great), and users should be able to send(not instant) messages to each other.
I will also have a webpage in which you will be able to do all the things you can do with the app, so my question is
Where and how should i keep all of this data, all of the info?
I'm a real newbie in this, but I plan on learning a lot, so should I make a database and store all the textual info in there and link it with the app, or is there another way that you are supposed to do that. Where do I keep the pictures?
Any help would be wonderfull :3
Have a nice daaaay!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You need a large server for this, and that has to grow larger by times as new members will start joining and this is going to cost you a tad..... A suggestion from me is that limit the size for each users content, like multimedia, let's say it's 1gb and one exceeded it and the older stuff got deleted