Mobile Solutions

Mobile Solutions - Google Android

DataArt has been monitoring Android-related developments from the start. We had specifically researched the platform during its pre-launch phase, participated in the early Google Android application contest and started to offer development of custom commercial applications for the Android platform as soon as Android-powered handsets became available on the market.

Since then, DataArt has developed multiple custom solutions for Android, from separate widgets and standalone applications to Java solutions using .NET Web services and enterprise-level mobile clients integrated with heterogeneous corporate systems.

Mobile Solutions Case Studies: Android

"Project at a Glance" Widget for Android

Description:
This mobile application, developed specifically for the Android platform, allows a project manager, project customer, executive, or team member to quickly observe the status of his/her project at a glance.
The customizable widget displayed on the Android desktop provides users with a high-level overview of the project and its status in a visually pleasant and effective manner. A user may switch from the widget to a full screen mobile application view displaying all the necessary details (list of active tasks, key people responsible for them, statuses of the both, etc). Along with the functionality related to the project management itself, the application utilizes features typical for modern mobiles (such as one click calling, push e-mail, etc.) and for Google platform (Google Calendar, GTalk, etc). An auxiliary plug-in that provides integration of the application with Google Latitude is currently in development.

Technical Highlights:
The mobile application uses the client’s custom project management system as a back-end (.NET based) and utilizes REST-based Web services for lightweight communications. However, the mobile client is built to be flexible enough for integration with almost any third-party project management system.

Technologies:
For mobile client: Java, Android 1.6+
For server side: .NET, SOAP client, REST proxy

Tools:
Android SDK, Eclipse, IntelliJ IDEA

Project Timeframe:
1.5 Month

Mobile Client for Corporate Time Tracking System

Description:
One of the applications developed by DataArt for the Android platform was a mobile client for the existing (and also developed by DataArt) corporate time tracking system. The functionality ported to the mobile client included support for both, general tasks (i.e. time tracking and absence notifications) and auxiliary tasks, most popular among corporate users (i.e. searching for a particular employee, displaying his/her photo, contact info, working desk location, etc.). In addition, the application provides features typical for mobile clients, such as one click calling, sending & receiving various corporate alerts and notifications.
Along with the mobile client for Android, DataArt has developed mobile clients for Symbian S60 and Blackberry (with similar functionality). Applications on each particular platform used native UI widgets and shared the the same Web-service backend located within the corporate network.

Technical Highlights:
Since Android was not the only mobile client for the corporate system, we extracted as much of the code as possible into a (reusable) platform-independent module. Several third-party libraries were utilized during the development: particularly, the kSOAP2 library was used to access .NET Web-services at the back-end. An additional challenge was that these Web-services used a proprietary (NTLM) authentication method and had no native support of NTLM on Android, so it was implemented as an additional kSOAP transport using parts of the JCIFS library (pure Java implementation of the SMB protocol).

Technologies:
For mobile client: Java, Android 1.5+
For server side: NET, ASP.NET, web services

Tools:
Android SDK, Eclipse,

Project Timeframe:
Two Months

Vehicle Alert Notification System

Description:
DataArt participated in the Google Android contest with a fully functional vehicle alert notification system, a prototype of a location-based service (LBS) application allowing car drivers to share various information (while on the road). The users can track their routes and those of other users, and can report incidents they witness with a simple press of a key. The drivers who might be potentially affected by the problem are warned in advance, before reaching the dangerous area. One of the features of the application is the use of artificial intelligence for map processing to generate a list of users to be warned.

Technical Highlights:
The application takes full advantage of the Google platform using GPS for geographic positioning, Google Maps for visualization, GTalk XMPP client for instant messages, and other Google services.

Technologies:
Java, Android 1.1

Tools:
Android SDK, Eclipse

Project Timeframe:
One Month