Database Info

A new App for web-tinkerers (Open Source)

I don't participate much, but I've learned a great deal from this site. So I'm posting this here as GPL2 software as a way of thanking everyone. All I really ask is that it not be used in a closed-source app without talking to me first.
Can't poast URLs, because I have fewer than 10 poasts (I lurk hard). Mod, if you don't deem this to be spam, would you kindly provide the link (or allow me to do so)?
[sourceForge.net]/projects/webremote/
Basically, this was meant to be a generalized HTTP(S) client, with the URLs being assembled dynamically and under a variety of different circumstances. The server-end of the transaction is a creation of the user.
I wrote this tool to assist me with repititive tasks at work (specifically, asterisk/linux administration). I wrote a PHP page to do things like add users, check server load, trigger recordings and dialplan modes, and so forth.
I have also used it in conjuction with a Raspberry Pi to trigger relays and read sensors in my home from wherever I happen to be at that moment.
There are lots of things I want to do with this app...
Implement GPS, so I can trigger URLs at waypoints.
Tie into NFC and make a bitcoin wallet that you can "bump" or scan a QR code to pay someone.
Implement Trigger packages to support one-click importing of Triggers for a specific task (IE, minecraft server administration)
Use BouncyCastle to encrypt the DB.
Hook into the camera and fire triggers using snapshots (or image files) as arguments.
Actually cause the HTTPS Receivers to validate certificates. Presently it does not (although the traffic is still encrypted).
I will take requests, questions, and bug reports at the sourceforge page, but how fast things get done will directly correlate to how much interest the project attrracts (which may very well be none).
For those learning how to program and trying to learn something by reading the source, I'm sorry.
I've tried to keep things hygenic. I come from a C/Java background, so Android was a bit of a leap, with respect to its organization. This program is a work of evolution.
To check out the source, use subversion:
svn checkout svn://svn.code.sf.net/p/webremote/code/trunk webremote
My working copy is also my Eclipse directory, so importing it with Eclipse should be minimal trouble.
If anyone *really* wants to thank me, I am a bitcoin user:
12rA36FH4NUFZojxyxQgWmQm6WUnzfQ1yR
Or you could buy the version I have up at google play (but I consider this a donation):
Can't poast URLs.... Search the Play store for WebRemote.
Thank you all again for sharing your knowledge.

[Q] I have just create a website for android apps statistics

I have just create a website for android apps statistics.
I find there is leak of statistics of android app comparison with other developer, so I create a website force on statistic that let you know rankings of you app, and how well is your app perform.
Android Analytics - Android Apps Statistics Website (androidanalytic.com)
But, I have several question, hope someone can help me.
1. What else feature that you want suggest me add into the website?
2. Anyone have suggestion for me to work on marketing / SEO?

Android Analytics said:
I have just create a website for android apps statistics.
I find there is leak of statistics of android app comparison with other developer, so I create a website force on statistic that let you know rankings of you app, and how well is your app perform.
Android Analytics - Android Apps Statistics Website (androidanalytic.com)
But, I have several question, hope someone can help me.
1. What else feature that you want suggest me add into the website?
2. Anyone have suggestion for me to work on marketing / SEO?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Suggestions:
- you can represent to 5 or top 10 apps as graphs in Apps Statistics and Developers Statistics
- you can put a description page describing how this tool could be used.
- put a about us page

Android Analytics said:
I have just create a website for android apps statistics.
I find there is leak of statistics of android app comparison with other developer, so I create a website force on statistic that let you know rankings of you app, and how well is your app perform.
Android Analytics - Android Apps Statistics Website (androidanalytic.com)
But, I have several question, hope someone can help me.
1. What else feature that you want suggest me add into the website?
2. Anyone have suggestion for me to work on marketing / SEO?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Working with startups can be both challenging and rewarding. For a small design/dev shop this can mean operating under strict time and budget constraints. On the other hand, nothing can be more exciting when millions of people use the product you created. That is why i wanna share my experience with you and recommend you to check web development service cause that guys can create everything and help you with some marketing/seo.

Best back end for Android app?

I appologize if this is a dumb question, but I am new to app development, altough some experienced in php/html.
I want to create an app where user fills in forms. The app development is easy to find info about, but i also want a back end plattform where I read the submitted forms and organize users.
So, my question. Is there a sort of ready wordpress like plattform to customize, or should this be built from scratch? If so, which platform is the best?

One note I should add about Buddy (full disclosure: I work there) is that we maintain independent instances of the platform in different locations around the world. If you need to host your backend in Europe (for response time or data sovereignty reasons, for example), you can choose your app backend to be sandboxed in the EU. Likewise the US and likewise China (with Brazil, Singapore and Australia coming soon).

he best way to develop mobile apps is to use REST services. So now you can choose any thing.
Any language that can used for server side programming can be used.
Now it is up to you choose the language.
If you familiar with JavaScript then you can try nodejs. You can make small app server in it.
But if your server software design is very complex (containing threads and synchronisation) then java can be handy.
But there is no restriction of language.

Firebase should be also a way to go for this.

The best android back end services include, Parse, Kumulos, Kinvey, backendless, QuickBlox.
Concerning the forms where users can fill up information, would something like help out?
https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...solutions.fasp
On Apple's platform you might need an iPhone developer - it is quite possible to create and publish an iPhone app using your form.
I did take the help of mobile apps development service in toronto to know the process which is described here: http://support.brightcove.com/en/app-cloud/docs/step-step-guide-publishing-apple-app-store-using-mac

Thanks Carol for sharing such a wonderful article.

"Planet Odoo | About | Odoo Migration, Odoo -Quickbook Integration
Odoo-Ebay Integration takes into consideration the competitive level in business and provides a quick fix implementation for every industry to break through.

I have heard good things about Hasura (Not affiliated in anyway). And I think parse - mentioned above - is no longer available.

I'm wondering why nobody mentioned Google CLoud or AWS. They are most mobile friendly for a good price

Hi, if you will decide to build from scratch, there are different options/frameworks. But If you use kotlin you should look to Ktor.

Backend options for an Android app
Here, The list of good backend options for an Android app:
1. Parse.
2. Back4app.
3. Firebase.
4. Kinvey.
5. Appcelerator.

How do Whatsapp Tracking Apps work (existing on Google Play Store)

I have come accross multiple applications on the Play Store which are able to succesfully track the activity of a Whastapp Number.
I am a web developer myself having basic knowledge in WEB API's etc. I was really intrigued with the accuracy of the app called "WhastLog: online last seen" . My question is what do these applications use to track a number because there are no public API's existing as far as i know, and can i myself try to code and reproduce the results. Anyone who can point me in the right direction is appreciated. I have found a few open source projects on GitHub but most of them require QR code authentication.

Getting started microG: how I degoogled my Google Pixel

Hello all,
Recently I got a new phone and installed it using LineageOS + microG. Many Android apps rely on the Google Apps API, but many people no longer trust Google for various reasons. In response to this, microG was created as an open-source re-implementation of the Google Apps API.
The thing is, once you step outside of the Google sandbox, there are a few features you might miss and this thread intends to express my experience moving off the Google network. This is organized with the most important considerations during your transition away from googledom at the top:
Play Store
You're probably used to the Play Store, and you may even use apps that are not owned by Google but where to get them without logging into Google?
Enter F-Droid: a FOSS repository for Android apps. There is an app called "Aurora Store" which connects to the existing Google Play store, but without using the Google app---its just a play-store client!
First, install F-Droid using the APK they provide.
Install Aurora Store using the F-Droid interface from your phone.
Login with an existing Google account or the provided anonymous account.
Then download whatever you want from Aurora and it will come from Google Play.
This is a good time to install your firewall (AFWall+ or orWall) before testing a bunch of apps. Default-deny/explicit allow is the best policy. See the firewall section below.
Contact Sync & Calendar
You can still use Google's storage if you wish, or at least use it temporarily to move to a private DAV server. Install DAVx and follow this guide to (at least initially) sync your contacts and calendar from Google. Then you can use the calendar that comes with LineageOS/AOSP. Non-google Cal/CardDAV servers are available, or your can host your own on something like NextCloud.
Navigation
I'll break this into two parts: Location services and Nav Software:
Location Services
The microG Unified Network Location Provider (UnifiedNlp) is used to find your current latitude/longitude. In addition to your on-phone GPS hardware (which is typically slow to get a location fix), microG uses different backends to discover your lat/long with faster resources such as cell tower signal strength based on known tower locations. See "Apps->microG->Location modules".
nominatim - Converts addresses to lat/long
Uses OpenStreetMap by default
Can optionally use the MapQuest API for address resolution. You will need an API key from MapQuest.
The GSM Location Service (gitlab) can use an OpencellId database to find cell towers. It first downloads a database and can from then on get a lat/long location without Internet connectivity.
Mozilla Location Service: uses Mozilla's online database to find lat/long, requires network connection.
See the Unified Network Location Provider (UnifiedNlp) link for a full listing and detailed description:
AppleWifiNlpBackend - Uses Apple's service to resolve Wi-Fi locations. It has excellent coverage but the database is proprietary.
OpenWlanMapNlpBackend - Uses OpenWlanMap.org to resolve user location but the NLP backend did not reach release-quality, yet. Users interested in a freely licensed and downloadable database for offline use should stick with openBmap for now - Last updated in 2015
OpenBmapNlpBackend - Uses openBmap to resolve user location. Community-created, freely licensed database that can optionally be downloaded for offline operation. The coverage varies from country to country (it's best in central Europe).
MozillaNlpBackend - Uses the Mozilla Location Service to resolve user location. The coverage is OK. Only the cell tower database is free.
LocalWifiNlpBackend - Local location provider for Wi-Fi APs using on-phone generated database.
LocalGSMLocationProvider - Local opencellid based location provider backend. Has been surpassed by LocalGSMBackend which also has an OpenCellID option - Last update in 2014
LocalGSMBackend - Local location provider for GSM cells. It works offline by downloading freely licensed database files from Mozilla, OpenCellID, or lacells.db.
Nav Software
These navigation packages download maps to your device so you can navigate without network connectivity! (Read the text-to-speech section below if audible announcements.)
Organic Maps is the most user friendly, others are more technical:
Navit
OsmAnd
ZANavi
You'll have to try it to see if you like it. If you really prefer the more user friendly features that Google Maps and Waze provide, then I know at least Google Maps will install from the Aurora store will get your location using the UNlp backends from microG (above).
Firewall (requires root):
I've not found anything better than AFWall+. orWall is an option too, but I've not tried it. Drop a comment if you have a firewall you like better. Generally speaking you want to disable all network and then only enable what you need.
By default I disable everything. At a minimum, you probably want to enable these apps:
NTP for time sync
Aurora Store
DAVx
F-Droid
Location:
GSM Location Service (to download cell database)
GSMLocationBackend (to download cell database)
Mozilla Unified Nlp
Nomanatim Geocoder backend
microG Services Core is needed for some location downloads to work (I think...)
Network Manager so it doesn't say "limited connectivity"
Phone and Mesaging Storage for SMS and such.
Text-to-Speech (TTS) Engine
eSpeak will verbialize text which is useful for mapping software annoucements like "Turn right at the next intersection". Without a TTS engine you will not hear any navigation advice. When you run eSpeak the first time go to "eSpeak->menu->General TTS settings" and select "Preferred Engine" and then select "eSpeak" so it will download the voice model.
I find the voice is choppy so in "menu->eSpeak TTS settings" change the speech rate to "80 WPM". This is slow, but then you can go to "menu->General TTS settings" and set the "Speech rate" slider to run at a reasonable speed with less chop. Adjust your language and other parameters to your preference.
Speech-to-Text (STT)
One of the great things Google provides is speach-to-text, but unfortunately there are not many great replacements here, or at least not yet. There are a few projects being worked on:
LocalSTT is a proof of concept to support the microphone button on some keyboards like AnySoftKeyboard.
This page has an en-US build of LocalSTT (.apk) that works on Android 11.
vosk-android-service is a work in progress. Check it often and encourage the developer, it appears to be the first promosing STT option that does not need a network backend to convert speech to text:
Kõnele (github) provides STT service but requires a network server to do the translation. You can setup your own server, and maybe even deploy that server on your phone but I've not tried so post a comment if you get this working.
Keyboards
If you use swipe, then you can try a few alternatives:
OpenBoard
AnySoftKeyboard
Of course you can always install "GBoard" if you need to, just firewall it off
Email
I have found FairEmail to be a great open-source IMAP/POP3 client with a focus on privacy.
SMS
I use Signal from the Aurora store as my default SMS app because the android SMS app wasn't always waking the phone. This is probably a LineageOS bug, though, not a microG bug. The privacy feature is neat if you and your peer are both on Signal, but most of my texts are things like "please bring home milk" so I really don't care about the private text messages. (Of course now that I say that I'll start getting milk advertisements...)
Actually if you have an SMS app that you really like, please post it in the comments. I've never really loved any particular SMS app so something great would be great!
Browser
I'm sure everyone has an opinion on browsers. My favorite is Firefox Mobile and I always install the NoScript plugin so javascript is off by default. It is difficult these days to exploit a vulnerability in a browser, to advertise or to track you without some JS help, so only enable JS for sites you trust. There are many private browsers so I'll let you do your own research.
SafetyNet
See "Apps->microG->Google SafetyNet" because there is an option for it. For now I've been fortunate not to need any apps that need SafetyNet, so untested by me. The microG core does support it, read this article and this ticket for more detail.
Closing Thoughts
So thats about it, the rest is just normal use of your phone the way you normally would. I've been daily driving this config for a while and so far no real issues. GPS works, I can text and make phone calls, and do my occational browsing about the latest Linux Kernel features, maybe lookup a recipe or a HAM radio repeater frequency. It will be interesting to see what the future of microG is, but for now, I like that it gives me greater control of my device.
Cheers,
- Eric, KJ7LNW