Android in Action - Questions

[Kadle Rajesh]

W. Frank Ableson/Robi Sen/Chris King,

Can you please let us know what you expect in the following section of the book.

Chapter 6 Networking and web services - Web services

It would be great if you can through some light on connecting to REST based web services from native apps.

Regds,
-Raj

[Ulf Dittmer]

All versions of Android come with the HttpClient library built in - that is sufficient to access RESTful WS. If you have a particular REST toolkit you'd like to work with, you could check its documentation for Android compatibility.

[robi sen]

Kadle,

Google and you will find a lot of great examples but now there are even nice libraries to help with various RESTFul approaches even a library written for Android that helps with JSON

[Mellon Sun]

Is there a possible someday we use Android as desktop OS?

I just started reading Pro Android 2.

I wish Android in action can give me a different perspective.

[Migue Carvajal]

I think Android makes possible easy and fast development of mobile applications for several types of platforms, including mobile phones or tablets. I work on automation software, SCADA and the like, so, I'm very interested in possible uses of mobile devices in industrial applications. For example, mobile applications to allow receiving alerts or sending commands to a remote installation. Also, mobile apps related to domotic technologies offer a lot of possibilities.
Of course, this poses questions related to security and stability. Do you think Android can be an adecuate platform to run this sort of software? Do you know if is there already work done in this line, as application frameworks, industrial protocol libraries... etc.?

Thank you in advance and greetings

[adithya narayan]

First of all a big welcome to the authors of the Android in Action, Second Edition !

I would like to make special mention of the abilities of android which exists ..specially the ones where it integrates with JAVA and helps one accomplish the desired task.
For e.g. i was trying to access a web service (using Android 2.2) and i finally accomplished it using Android and Java API's together. This flexibility is amazing but i feel there needs to be a protocol which will keep a disciplined approach for writing bug-free and secure applications.


Cheers,
Adithya.

[Raghavan Muthu]

Hello Adithya,

Just a note. If you want to win the Book Promotion, you have to make a separate thread for your post to be eligible.

[robi sen]

Migue Lon,
I have done some system integration, machine to machine integration, and integration with SCADA systems with Android devices. If you google around you will see other people who have done all sort of system automation using Android devices as command and control systems as well as even sensor platforms. As for stability and security I think the stability is fine in Android but security is a huge discussion that has to incorporate platform, processes, human factors, workflow, and the like before you even touch on technology.

[adithya narayan]

@Raghavan : Thanks for informing. Actually,i have written a separate thread but nobody has replied yet ! ..This is a nice chance to ask the authors my question .


Adithya.

[Raghavan Muthu]

adithya narayan wrote:Actually,i have written a separate thread but nobody has replied yet ! ...

There are chances that your thread might have got missed! For me also it happened once.

Just I have noticed, you had also put the same caption for the thread as that of mine

[Hauke Ingmar Schmidt]

Mellon Sun wrote:Is there a possible someday we use Android as desktop OS?

Sure, in a way it is already done. You can get a Toshiba netbook with Android as main OS. No doubt that with Honeycomb more devices of that class will rise up.

But... why? I played around with the Toshiba and it is a nice device but not more than a prove of concept for me. Android has not much advantages over a full fledged OS there. No doubt the engineers and product developers will build nice devices that can profit from lower energy consumption and run on lower technical specs. You get the additional benefit of being able to run Android apps but you lose the capability of "full" applications. So it is a trade off. For most people it will be enough, if you are in software developement (quite a high probability here ;-)) you may not like it.

I still wonder how ChromeOS fits in, which is Google's dedicated netbook OS...