Hi, we have a great product (in no small part due to Elevate!) that has evolved over the years using the DBISAM then the Elevate Server. I have now been asked if we can provide an Android version on a tablet. This is not an Android version of the dbserver but "just" an Android app that can talk to the main Elevate Server running on a Win XP box.

Any ideas if this can be done or will be possible in the future?

Regards

Edward Jones
NVS UK

Others with more knowledge will probably follow, but I'll butt in first ...

I don't think you can write for Android using Delphi _yet_ (even with the new whizzy XE2 version) but there are lots of tools that allow application development for that platform, you would have to take your pick & learn how to code for it, or employ a specialist. You can develop in Eclipse, writing in Java after installing an SDK from Android. I am pretty sure that Eclipse built apps can be made to access EDB using its ODBC driver, though I haven't tried.

I have attended a couple of "programming for Android" seminars & it is a bit of a rough platform in my opinion. Basically Google have stuck their own bespoke java library (Dalvik) on top of Linux & you address the phone through this layer. It is very "phone" oriented (unsurprisingly!) so if a phone call while someone is using your app the app has to be able to seamlessly pause and wait to be re-assigned processor time later ... or not ... all apps have to be ready to cope with things like random power-off events, and the OS can randomly switch off an app anytime it likes (for powersaving etc.) so there are a lot of Gotchas.

I looked at it & basically thought "ugh". But I think it probably isn't too bad once you get into it. There is a hell of a lot of information at: http://developer.android.com/index.html ... I guess people with Linux development experience (or perhaps Java) rather than my Delphi experience may laugh a bit at my response & say I ought to grow some extra coding skills.

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A way which might be easier (and is my preference) would be to design a phone-oriented web-site (i.e. built with pages of "phone" size) & have users access this. It is relatively easy to build web-applications which acces EDB databases. You could do it in Delphi with Intraweb, use a decent tool called Morfik, or wait for a few weeks and use the upcoming Elevate Web Builder!

If you took this path any phone-based browser could access the site, so you wouldn't only serve Android, you would would serve iPhone & other smart phones ... also it would be relatively easy to create other versions of this site to be accessed by ... iPad, GalaxyPad .... plus the dozens of other products which will be launched over the next few years.

Finally, while Android (& other smart phones) claim to have a single OS, actually the capabilities vary quite a lot ... so designing complex database apps would likely require a bit of fangling, with different versions of the app for different phone-models, different download instructions etc., etc. not something that I would enjoy.

Of course using a Browser approach brings other challenges & isn't as "nice" as a dedicated App (no App sales fees for 1 thing!) ... so it depends on your intention.

Hi and thanks for the prompt response.

The ODBC link that you mentioned may be a possibility and I like the idea of using a web page or two.

Let me shed some more light on where I am. I have already written a prototype using IntelliJ IDEA running on a Japanese Android clone tablet called a "Haipad" which despite the amusing name has proved a useful way of getting into Android coding. The database I use is SQLLite2 which is what Android comes with so I have a good start. I would like though to replace the SQLLite2 calls with calls to the Elevate Server running on my Win XP box via the wi-fi connection.

Why? For vets that have either have limited space or for the nurses who want to do a stock take or build an order, making room for another PC, monitor, keyboard and mouse or carrying a laptop can be a pain. So having something that is very portable and a nice big screen to use is very appealing and let's not forget that at the end of the day some vets just like the "wow" factor of the latest gadget!

This could be interesting! Any more thoughts?


Regards

Edward Jones
NVS UK

Edward,

<< Hi, we have a great product (in no small part due to Elevate!) that has
evolved over the years using the DBISAM then the Elevate Server. I have now
been asked if we can provide an Android version on a tablet. This is not an
Android version of the dbserver but "just" an Android app that can talk to
the main Elevate Server running on a Win XP box.

Any ideas if this can be done or will be possible in the future? >>

Your best bet will probably be our Elevate Web Builder product, once it's
released.  At some point in the near future it will be able to "talk" to an
ElevateDB Server using web services.

--
Tim Young
Elevate Software
www.elevatesoft.com

<< Your best bet will probably be our Elevate Web Builder product, once it's released.  At some point in the near future it will be able to "talk" to an ElevateDB Server using web services. >>

Very nice.

Excellent, thanks for the reply!


<<Your best bet will probably be our Elevate Web Builder product, once it's
released.  At some point in the near future it will be able to "talk" to an
ElevateDB Server using web services.

--
Tim Young
Elevate Software
www.elevatesoft.com >>