We need to test a web site in different devices in defferent OS. I found many tools to the url in multiple devices but couldn't found anything which can be used to test the UI in different devices at one by operating the site in a single device(or emulator). Please help us.
Test your website on any screen size i.e different devices
Test your website on various browser
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I will try to be brief and specific here. I want to build a mobile cross platform College News app (that serves android and IOS) which can be used by students at my school of 2,000. This app would likely serve about 500 - 1000 people at its peak and I'm thinking it would have a worker from the news paper office update the articles that go within the app. For its first iteration I want it to be simple as possible.
I was wondering what are the minimum physical or software systems required to make this happen? Currently I think I will need: Google Login API, the app it self, and a server to populate data. Am I missing anything else here? Would I need a database or a physical computer server to support the app? Any input appreciated.
The easiest solution to handle thousands of clients and a server would be to use web technologies. Take a look at Apache Cordova. This is a cross platform solution for iOS, Android and Windows Phone.
Firebase could help you to upload and download news from and to subscribers.
I am trying to build a web application that can capture audio and video from a web cam and upload it to our server. The solution should work with both Windows and Mac. Supporting mobile devices would be a plus, but is not required. My boss would prefer if the platform/framework was from Microsoft.
My initial impulse was to start looking into SilverLight... Interestingly, there were plenty of demos showing how to capture video and display it to the user, followed by many comments suggesting that for the application to be useful we need some way to save/upload the video, followed by the original poster saying that of COURSE it's possible and easy and that he is working on an updated demo that does just that, followed by silence. As far as I can tell SilverLight will not record video.
I already have a component that can record video in a winforms application using DirectShow, but the goal is to build something that is cross-platform so that our program will work for Mac users as well as Windows users. A desktop application is not out of the question, but we would much prefer to stick to a web page.
I am aware that Flash can record video from within a browser, but the higher ups would prefer to avoid flash. Is there any other way to record video captured from a user's webcam from within a web browser?
To build a cross-platform solution you shall consider either one of :
VLCj
Xuggler
JMF
I have been working lately with VLCj.
I am aware that Flash can record video from within a browser, but the higher ups would prefer to avoid flash. Is there any other way to record video captured from a user's webcam from within a web browser?
Unfortunately on the desktop there is no other production ready way to record video in a web page except a Flash client linked to a media server like Red5 or Wowza. The Flash client captures and encodes the video and audio and the media server stores the encoded data in .flv or .f4v/.mp4 files.
On mobile you could use HTML Media Capture which, for recording video, is widely supported on all mobile browsers. The downside is that you'd end up with .mov files from iOS and .mp4 and .3gp files from Android devices. The .mov and .3gp files need to be transcoded before they can be used on other platforms.
Quick commercial solutions that implement the above include HDFVR (downloadable) and Pipe (cloud video recording).
Is there a good solution for A|B Testing in mobile apps like online? I know with iOS it's against the TOS to have different user experiences with identical actions, but what about Android? And what about firms like Apsalar which claim to offer A|B Testing in their analytics for apps? How would one implement that?
Artisan mobile makes an A/B testing solution for iOS and Android.
The basic idea is that you drop the SDK in your app and then put it out in the app store. You can use the service to create A/B tests and optimize your application without having to touch the code or go back through the app store for each test.
For mobile apps, A/B testing basically works by replacing static, hard-coded objects with dynamic objects that can be controlled from a remote server.
This methodology raises a potential performance issue: What if the end user's device is not connected to pull configuration data for an object being tested? We've built Splitforce (http://splitforce.com) to seamlessly setup and manage A/B testing in mobile apps while controlling for performance risk.
Los details
Once the SDK and experiment has been integrated, non-technical product or marketing folks can setup new tests or tweak existing tests on-the-fly - without having to resubmit to the app stores or hassle engineers.
On first app launch, the mobile app requests configuration data from the server and then caches that data locally on the device. This is to both ensure a consistent user experience on subsequent app launches, and prevent corrupt test results by guaranteeing accurate attribution of conversion events to variations.
If the end user's connection fails or is timed-out on first app launch, the library displays a hard-coded 'default' variation. And to make sure that everything is looking good before you go live, we've built a 'shake to preview' functionality in debug mode that does just that :-)
Once the app is deployed with Splitforce event data are stored locally and sent back to the website to be displayed for each variation alongside measurements of observed improvement and statistical confidence.
Instructions on integration of the SDKs and new tests can be found at https://splitforce.com/documentation.
And how is it used?
We've seen Splitforce used to A/B test:
UI elements + layouts (color, text, images, ad/menu placements)
UX workflows
Game dynamics + rules
Prices + promotions
We've also seen the tool used to control mobile apps remotely, by essentially setting one variation of a test subject to 100%.
Yes there is: E.g. the company Leanplum offers a Visual Interface Editor for iOS and Android: This requires no coding, and Leanplum will automatically detect the elements and allow you to change them. No engineers or app store resubmissions required.
Apple must have updated their TOS (https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/#user-interface) - At least I am not aware of anything that prohibits altering the UI in a way that the Leanplum Visual Editor is doing it.
Generally that is achieved by method swizzling (iOS) and reflection (Android).
To learn more about the Leanplum Visual Interface Editor, check out leanplum.com. They offer a free 30-day trial.
(Disclaimer: I am an Engineer at Leanplum.)
I wrote a small open source project called Switchboard.
It let's you A/B test, remote configure and stage rollout things in your native mobile app. It contains a server component that specifies what information the application should have and 2 native clients for android and iOS.
You can find the codebase at github.com/keepsafe/switchboard and a blog post about how you can use it HERE
The new kid around the block is Arise.io. They provide an A/B testing service for iOS and Android.
I wrote MSActiveConfig, an extremely flexible framework to do remote configuration + A/B testing on iOS, with a portable format to be able to implement clients on other platforms: https://github.com/mindsnacks/MSActiveConfig.
This framework is being used in applications with more than 5 million users.
There have been a spate of new entrants in this field...you could check out Swerve, Appiterate, leanplum...all of them seem to be having SDKs for iOS as well, not really sure whether and how Apple TOS allows for that, but since there are some many of them doing it, there must be a way.
Yes, new entrants are showing up in app A/B testing practically every week! But, I think Appiterate has gone two steps ahead of other competitors by creating a visual interface, without any need to re-write code. I have seen their platform (you can ask for an invite. I got a demo within 12 hours) and believe me, it is actual WYSIWYG that they are providing.
So, yes, this is probably 1000th question on the subject. However, my question is somewhat different from others that were asked about this, so please bear with me:
I am looking to develop a single mobile-app that targets the three/four popular and/or growing mobile platforms (Iphone, Android, WinPhone7, RIM). This application is an extension of an existing SaaS system that my startup currently offers. This mobile-app would provide a quick-and-simple way to view up-to-date status & chart & report information for the data that SaaS application collects. Connection to the internet is required 100%. No data entry besides username/password. App is very simple with 5-6 "pages".
In phase 1, all that would need to be supported is for user to log in, get to see current status of his data stored in the cloud, get access to a few live reports
In phase 2, I'd like to be able to offer push-notification of certain key events from my servers in the cloud
My goals are:
1) The back-end processing that generates data for reports is already written in ASP.NET MVC2. I want to re-use it. It can be exposed as either a WCF service or published on a mobile-friendly website
2) I'd like to be able to deploy the patches faster than through the official app-stores/marketplaces.
3) I cannot afford to spend a lot of resources to target three-four proprietary platforms, for an app that is auxiliary to the vertical purpose of the business. I want to develop it once for all 3-4 platforms.
4) I do not have access, nor do I want to purchase a Macbook
5) I do want to deploy thru the vendor-specific application marketplaces
6) I'd like to stay way from proprietary languages/frameworks/lock-ins
Sounds like what I need is a shell around a mobile-friendly site that can be packaged as an app. Are there existing products that can make it REAL EASY for me to do so? Will doing so, preclude me from doing push notifications in phase 2?
Can anyone recommend a "shell" product that would make a wrapper around the website as well as Javascript library that would look the best across all 4 platforms. I've seen the names like Jqtouch, Jquery Mobile, etc... but not sure which ones are better for what I need.
Do I need PhoneGap? I am not 100% sure here. Can PhoneGap use online-only html/javascript pages to translate into native code or must html/javascript files be distributed with the application? I'd rather have the website itself drive the UI completely, as I can keep changing the website without various version approval processes from vendor market-stores.
Thank you for help
I don’t think you need Phonegap after reading about your project goals. You might consider a Web App instead of a native one if you 1) dont want to buy a mac (required for iOS even tho you can compile it in the cloud: https://build.phonegap.com/), and 2) want to apply and deploy updates anytime without going thru those platform independent marketplaces and approval processes.
jQuery Mobile would be an excellent choice, currently (at this very moment) in Alpha 3 but a very stable one and you can deploy your system on any of those platforms. Note that if you focus your efforts in a Web App you can’t target the second phase you mentioned: Push Notifications.
If you decide going Native, then Push Notifications services can be deployed into your Phonegap project once you setup the proper web services and certificates (take a look # http://easyapns.com);
..and one quick note, the idea of phonegap is that all resources (html, js, images. etc) have to be distributed locally within the app and then getting online data (like reports, etc) using JSON from another web service, and that’s another easy task to accomplish. Phonegap DOES NOT compile your HTML files into native code (ObjectiveC or Java), it just load your Web App into a UIWebKit component at run time (in the case of an iOS app)
Another alternative could be using Titanium - http://www.appcelerator.com but this approach is more javascript oriented and your final app looks much more native. (not HTMLs here so I think thats a drawback for you)
Hope it helps :)
I would like to start developing mobile-friendly versions of websites for my clients, however, I am baffled with options and google search wasn't very helpful - there is so many options and opinions, I've been reading for few days now and still have no idea how to start.
What's your opinion/experience about/with it?
My main points:
mobile devices supported (in order of relevance): iPhone 3G, iPhone 2G, Blackberry, Droid powered mobiles, other
phone friendly numbers, phone friendly emails
contact/register form working on each (or the most possible) devices listed
jQTouch seems superb (simple, quick, working), I'm not sure about it on blackberry/droid and I don't want to create 6 web versions for each mobile device - Makes even less sense if you consider, that I'm starting with small web (6-10 pages, 1 contact form, 3 register forms) to play with.
Thank you
my 2c;
the best approach is the one we use on the web as we know it; cross-browser development.
use (basic) html & css to start with (ensuring you'll reach as many handsets as possible) & progressively enhance by adding more complex stuff (javascript & more specific css) for more advanced devices.
jqtouch (which has to be combined with jquery if i'm not mistaking) is swell, but very much iphone-centric (some of the nifty css-stuff doesn't work anywhere else). a (slightly) more cross-platform js-framework is the jquery-like xui.
once you have something up and running, testing it on mobi.ready might be a good idea.
Have you heard of NetBiscuits?
http://www.netbiscuits.com/
Check out the mobiforge site, which is run by dotMobi. They have a very powerful tool called ready.mobi which you can use to get a health check on your mobile site. The results give advice on what you need to do to improve your site, so getting a really well optimised site is simply a case of testing and taking note of the recommendations. Mine now get 5/5 scores as a result of using it and work really well on any device, including many I never really tested it under. I can't recommend it enough.
Mobile Devices: See QuirksMode.org for charts, tutorials, and more to get your pages working on multiple mobile browsers. (Blackberry might be the hardest on your list)
Phone friendly links: Not sure why this would be difficult, as far as I am aware, all mobile browsers/OS's support the same mailto: protocol that desktops use. Most phones also support tel: so you can have links like:
Call Me
The only issue there is desktop computers generally don't have a way to handle that standard despite being able to link with Bluetooth phones. (Feature request for those in OS development)
Contact/Register Forms: Again, most mobile browser support basic form elements out of the box, the key here is more user experience. Anything you can do to reduce the amount of data entry will lead to more users filling out the form. (Remember the user's session info for a long time, they will go back to the page after they finish the 2 hour call from their mother)
I'd suggest going with a responsive framework like zurb or bootstrap. If you stick with what the frameworks have, you can have one codebase of the site that works in mobile browsers also.