Database Develop

wrapping websites into .apk?

anyone here have a good write up on how to do this?

I'd be interested in this, too. Especially if you could find a way to wrap vBulletin forums so they appear almost like they're native =P
Maybe some AJAX and some theming magic with a webview window?

amgupt01 said:
I'd be interested in this, too. Especially if you could find a way to wrap vBulletin forums so they appear almost like they're native =P
Maybe some AJAX and some theming magic with a webview window?
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Yeah, I get what your saying, which begs to ask why XDA doesn't have a mobile optimized version? I mean this is one of the sites i frequent the most on my phone... or am I missing something? an XDA app would be sweet!!

they do have a mobile app (beta) but it was created for WM. it was a big deal and they even raised a bounty to whoever can create it. check the general forums to check it out. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=540504
back to the topic, i think it's possible. there is a widget in the market called web widget maker, that wraps a webpage inside of awidget so you can display it on your homescreen. it's very buggy and not worth the buy, but the concept is there and potential.

It would be easy to wrap a static web site inside of an APK. If I am not mistaken, this is what the AndroidAPI app in the market has done with the Android documentation. Note also how large that application is. But to wrap an entire system such as vBulletin would be pretty tough, given no PHP in Android. I suppose there are options, but I highly doubt they are practical. The most practical option, in my opinion, is for someone to write a generic vBulletin API Interface (not even sure if there is a vBulletin API) and allow for that to be included in apps that call to the web for their data.

Couldn't you just load the page normally inside a webview but edit it to point to a heavily modified android resolution friendly css file instead of the reg. one. Does anyone know if you can edit html on the fly through a web view?

Does anyone know if this is possible... I would like to have my forum built into a stand alone app. Or anyone who knows how to make a website/forum it into an app we can talk about things.

Battle of the PDF Readers

After doing some research and banging my head against a wall, it seems I've come down to 2 choices.
BeamReader PDF Viewer or Documents to Go
Having read review after review, Beam seems fine for what I need (reading PDFs on the go), but it still seems a bit of a mixed bag. Reports indicate it's not as "feature rich" as Docs to Go. Of course, the "feature rich"-ness of Docs to Go includes editing MS Office docs on the go... something I don't have a real NEED for at this time... but could in the future.
The obvious solution is to just purchase the cheaper of the two (Beam) and live with my choice if I do need better features in the future.
Instead, I'd rather go for the final showdown and get the view from fellow forum members.
Thoughts?
(Lack of links to said apps on Androlib is a result of my n00b status:
To prevent spam to the forums, new users are not permitted to post outside links in their messages. All new user accounts will be verified by moderators before this restriction is removed.)

There is a free PDF reader by Maciej that does a perfect adequate job for those who occasionally need to view a pdf. It's not the fastest, but doesn't appear any worse that Beamreader when I tried their free trial.

I'm happy with Repligo Reader

Optimizing Views

Hey guys, wanted to post this publicly because I think we can throw ideas around, not just between people on XDATV but with anyone interested. Basically, I want to share some of the things I've learned from youtube over the years about optimizing the impact of our videos. If we work together on this, everyone benefits.
I assume everyone wants to see their view count go up. We make videos for people to watch, and the view count says how many times they've been watched. So that's the goal, and these ideas are all about achieving that goal. For each idea, I'm putting what we'd do, and then explain why.
1. Post only on your designated day--or if you must, on a day when no one else is posting--so there is only one video posted per day.
Most of the views come from that Latest Video on XDATV box on the right hand column on the portal. At the very least this idea is a courtesy to one another because we aren't taking time on that prime real estate away from each other. Our videos shouldn't compete with our other videos. We're working as a whole, however disjointedly. I wouldn't post more than one video a day even on my own channel for the very same reason. Actually, that's not true... I have posted more than one video in a day on my youtube channel before, with the explicit intention of burying the first. Because that's what posting more than one video a day does.
Videos do not work like blogs. Especially not when the videos are time-sensitive, as many of our videos are. And looking on every other tech blog that also makes videos, you'll see they do this too. The reason the first video gets so few views is because even the most dedicated viewers tend to check Youtube only once per day. Also, the longer a video goes before the next is posted, the more views it gets. Something to keep in mind if you want to post more in a week than your timeslot allows.
2. Tell the viewers to subscribe to the youtube channel, or at least to check out more of our videos.
Currently, our videos are averaging more views than the xdadevelopers youtube channel has subscribers. While that's a good indication of future growth, it still means that more people are watching than are subscribed. Often, people just forget to do it. Given the linear growth in subscribers versus the radically varying video views, it means that we aren't building a steady viewer base, we're mostly getting one-time views in passing.
Now, I know we're here more or less to provide a service to the forum, and if that's all we want XDATV to be, then there's no reason to follow this idea. However, XDATV could be a great marketing tool for xda-developers, which would make the relationship between XDATV and the forum less parasitic and more symbiotic. Bad analogy, but I can't think of a better one right now. I can't think of any reason why we wouldn't want XDATV to bring people to the forum and likewise, instead of only the forum bringing people to XDATV. Our subscriber count means nothing on the forums, but on Youtube, subscribers mean baseline views. (And if videos are getting far fewer views than the channel has subscribers, something went very wrong. That's the case with my channel, went on too many hiatuses.) Building it needs to be a big focus.
3. Provide links, article titles, tags, and video titles with each video.
For the most part we all provide article titles and links, but the more, the better. Internet searches pick up on everything in the video description, so the more detailed it is, the more traffic your video will get. Tags and video titles are the same, but we don't do them. Tags provide keywords. You know this, I'm just reiterating. Imagine every reason you can that someone might need your video. Your tags should be all the words you think they would search to find your video.
Lastly, the video titles. When I find tech videos for other sites, if it's news they title it with one or two of the biggest headlines, put ambiguously. That way people searching for any related headlines will be more inclined to watch. Stuff like "NEW EVO 3D!!!!" or "Xperia Mini Revealed!" And so on. And trust me, people click it. If it's a tutorial, review, or even interview, the title tends to be what you can do with the info in the video. Chad sorta did that a bit ago, but it should be simpler. Something like, "Root Your Desire HD". Shawn, your interview with Mendozinas could have been titled "Make Your Own Themes on Android". The titles are relevant, but capitalize on what people can get out of it, rather than what it's about or, as we're titling them now, what it is. And then, providing these things for Svetius will make his job a whole lot easier.
I was pretty sure I had more, but I forgot for now. So go make words below this post, preferably in some coherent order and pertinence.
Sent from my GT-P1000 using XDA Premium App

Werd. Agreed. I don't give XDA as much love as I give the other two sites I work for. I might start soon.

Azrienoch, the podcast should also pick up the viewing count and any description added to the files, so such information is always good, particularly links.
I just hope that we can get the update process sorted out so you guys can do your encoding and then update the podcast without any effort on your part. I'm not sure what we need to do to submit the podcast to iTunes etc, but I am reluctant to do so until the podcast is updated promptly (I guess I could open it up for other users to upload the videos instead, but that creates other issues).
At the moment, there will be a two week gap in updates as I won't be able to do it until the end of the month.
There are still some adjustments I want to make to it (icon, description etc), so if you guys want anything altered or changed then let me know. Most parts are adjustable (I've noticed that meltwater is in the copywrite bit - it only showed up on my GoogleReader, I'll remove it when I can - it is because I'm using my FeedBurner version of the youTube feed to get around my access issues...which I setup a while back).
If we want to move it to a common account or something then it will have no effect on the podcast link itself (as you just update feedburner account). Also we can set-up a common feedburner account too if you guys want to view the stats.
As of Today, the stats are: 896 views of 34 items
If only youtube would re-enable the rss feeds directly and then the podcast would also count on the viewing count too. I can also add a podcast item about subscribing to the channel too, but not everyone wants to use data-plans to access content on the go.

A better line of communication with the news team and owners/maintainers of the site wouldn't hurt, either. At the present time it's like a 5 story office building, and the door is locked to each floor, so you have to call and request it to be opened over intercom.

Today's stats are: 1,446 views of 34 items
Shame as it is just starting to grow, it won't be updated for a while.

meltwater said:
Today's stats are: 1,446 views of 34 items
Shame as it is just starting to grow, it won't be updated for a while.
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No worries, man. We're in this for the long haul.

azrienoch said:
No worries, man. We're in this for the long haul.
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Shall look forward to the new videos when I return! Cheers.

Great tips, Jeff.

[Q] Making a website for not for profit organization

One of my good friends who is a priest and a doctor is asking for a little help with creating a website for his nonprofit charity organization. Anyone have any recommendations of free / cheap website creation templates or hosts to look for creating something for him? I was looking at wix.com, but also want to see what my other options are, or if anyone has used any of these hosts. Also what kind of monthly / year costs are we looking at?
For those that are curious the basic charity is helping out AIDs / HIV children in Ghana Africa, which can be kept alive for about 40 cents a day.

Wordpress is probably the most popular website platform, and it's free.
http://wordpress.com/
It's touted as a blog platform, but I've seen many sites built with it and only a few of them were actually blogs. If you're just looking for a site with pretty much static information on it then it's apparently easy to use, but you can also use plugins to make the site more dynamic. It all depends what you need from it.
I'd recommend giving it a look and trying it out.

Archer said:
Wordpress is probably the most popular website platform, and it's free.
http://wordpress.com/
It's touted as a blog platform, but I've seen many sites built with it and only a few of them were actually blogs. If you're just looking for a site with pretty much static information on it then it's apparently easy to use, but you can also use plugins to make the site more dynamic. It all depends what you need from it.
I'd recommend giving it a look and trying it out.
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Correction
WordPress is divided into WordPress.com and WordPress.org
WordPress.com is for relatively new users. Your blog is hosted and managed by WordPress, but you do not have much freedom of customization since WordPress.com doesn't support plugins. Also, unless you buy a domain, your website will be www.yourwebsitename.wordpress.com
Wordpress.org is for slightly experienced users. This alternative requires you to find your own hosting, and install wordpress on it. However, the customization is nnear infinite with a lot of plugin options.
I recommend wordpress.org if you can set up hosting and want a more pleasing experience , and wordpress.com if you just focus on the content rather than the design
Sent from my Asus Transformer TF300T using XDA Premium HD app

QuantumFoam said:
Correction
WordPress is divided into WordPress.com and WordPress.org
WordPress.com is for relatively new users. Your blog is hosted and managed by WordPress, but you do not have much freedom of customization since WordPress.com doesn't support plugins. Also, unless you buy a domain, your website will be www.yourwebsitename.wordpress.com
Wordpress.org is for slightly experienced users. This alternative requires you to find your own hosting, and install wordpress on it. However, the customization is nnear infinite with a lot of plugin options.
I recommend wordpress.org if you can set up hosting and want a more pleasing experience , and wordpress.com if you just focus on the content rather than the design
Sent from my Asus Transformer TF300T using XDA Premium HD app
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Thanks for that. That makes sense now it's been explained. I've clearly spent very little time looking at it myself!

Archer said:
Thanks for that. That makes sense now it's been explained. I've clearly spent very little time looking at it myself!
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My pleasure.
(ZOMG! I corrected Archer)
Sent from my Asus Transformer TF300T using XDA Premium HD app

sites.google.com for just basic info and files, but more advanced ucoz.com is good. You can create html or basic web pages, forums, chats, a comment system, a file cabinet, and organize and theme any way you want, along with pm's and rankings and site view statistics. and $30 a month (cheaper if bought for a year or so) you can remove ALL adds, custom domain, more storage and such. Once you understand it is easy to use. a bit of HTML for more advanced users, and plain text for newer people. a good example is http://communiteam.ucoz.com/, which I built in 45 minutes, but still seeing what else I want to add.
oh, and you can create privates forums and such, and a contact page where they can send the msg straight on the site to your email.

Weebly.com is awesome
Epic Sax Guy Is Epic.

[RELEASE] Audiour for Chromecast (beta)

I'm not allowed to post a direct link yet, so you'll have to search for "Audiour for Chromecast" on the Play Store or Github.
What is it?
Audiour is a free, open, and anonymous audio sharing platform that let's anyone quickly and easily share files without any hassles like forcing you to create an account or wade through banner ads.
Audiour for Chromecast is an beta-release app for Android that let's you explore interesting content on Audiour and play them either on your phone or tablet, or send them to your TV using a Chromecast device. You can also share content with friends, which plays instantly if they also have the app installed.
It's built using Audiour.com's public API and the source code is available on Github.com
How do I use it?
At the moment, the Chromecast functionality only works if you either have your Chromecast rooted with Kyocast installed, or it's white listed and you can upload the receiver to your white listed URL. Instructions to setup the receiver can be found on Github or in the app's settings screen.
If you just want to playback files on your local device, everything should work as expected.
Wouldn't it be cool if it did...
Why yes, I agree that feature sounds fantastic. I'm extremely open to feedback/suggestions/criticism/praise and would love to hear from you. You can email me at [email protected] and I will try to respond ASAP. Also, if there are any features you'd love to see, let me know. Also, I will gladly take a look at pull requests if you want to contribute.
I have plans to support uploading music shortly, for now just go to Audiour.com, it's nice and responsive and very mobile friendly. I'm also working with the site's founder to add the ability to save a list of your favorite tracks.

Very nice to see this released to the public.
Good work and I look forward to seeing more of your work in the future! Definitely going to have a play around with this.

Awesome app nathanrjones!
Sent from my C6603 using xda app-developers app

Thanks for the feedback guys!
I want to re-iterate that I definitely appreciate any feedback and if there's anything you think could be changed or improved, I will definitely look into it.
If you think it's great as is, sharing it with your friends or leaving a positive review on the Play Store would be awesome.

cant wait to play around with this.
thanks