Google cloud print android implementation available in https://developers.google.com/cloud-print/docs/android
Google cloud print c# implementation available in Google Cloud Print using C#
The above methods does not work on windows phone 8.1. Please help.
I recommend that you create a console application and get the code working on that app to verify that, yes the code, works as expected. The failure exhibited may be due to factors outside of the phone's code.
Once satisfied that one is getting the proper results, port the code over to Windows Phone.
Keep in mind that the CLR used by console applications is different from the Silverlight CLR so some methods may not be available. So one may have to find alternates to the missing or incorrect functions.
Related
I'm using appengine-magic to set up a web application, more or less as described at http://www.digitalbricklayers.com/2012/03/geotasklist-in-jquery-mobile-and.html. The example works on my local machine, locations and tasks are added to a local datastore etc.
My question is if it is possible to interact with the datastore from within a REPL, e.g. call (ds/save! ...) etc. during interactive development? I ask because when I try I get:
NullPointerException No API environment is registered for this thread.
com.google.appengine.api.datastore.DatastoreApiHelper.getCurrentAppId
(DatastoreApiHelper.java:108)
I'm getting this error no matter if I use an eclipse+counterclockwise based setup or an emacs+slime based setup.
Thanks,
Joachim
There's a bunch of ways to do this.
The easiest way is to go to the admin console (http://localhost:/_ah/admin) and click on the "Interactive Console".
I use django-nonrel, which comes with a command to launch an interactive shell (manage.py shell). If you're not using django-nonrel though, getting it set up though, is somewhat involved. I suspect most of what's necessary is found in the setup_env() function in django-nonrel: https://github.com/django-nonrel/djangoappengine/blob/develop/djangoappengine/boot.py
Getting it all to work is a pain, good luck.
The solution I use 99% of the time is to use pdb and force the interpreter to break at a certain point in my app where I need to do some debugging. See this for instructions: http://eatdev.tumblr.com/post/12076034867/using-pdb-on-app-engine
appengine-magic lets you use App Engine services (like the datastore) as long as the application is running; see https://github.com/gcv/appengine-magic#app-engine-services — as long as you ae/start your application, it should work.
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.
I have a class library which is a set of helper classes to develop windows phone 7 applications.
One of core helper classes I have in this library is responsible to provide location service functionalities, so it uses ILocationWatcher and references to System.Device.
Now the problem is even if I don't use this helper class (i.e. LocationWatcher will never be started) after submitting the app in marketplace, it shows "Location services" as one of capabilities my app is using.
I believe the way marketplace detects this, is more or less analysing all codes and libraries within the project.
How can we somehow override this behaviour?
Capabilites are detected using static analysis when your xap is submitted to the marketplace.
The location capabiltiy is reported if you reference the assembly System.Device and use the namespace System.Device.Location.
All assemblies in your XAP are analysed. Even ones you get from 3rd parties.
If you don't want the capability to be reported in the marketplace then remove the references which triggers its detection.
You may want to consider how you structure your shared/common libraries/code with this in mind.
You can check your used capabilities with the free capability detection tool supplied with the second Mango SDK beta. If you use location without defining it at the WMAppManifest.xml, the user will get a "Access denied" message and your app will throw an UnauthorizedAccessException. Afaik there is no possible way to circumvent this behaviour. It is meant as a security feature to warn users before they install a app so they can check on marketplace what features the application will want to use.
I don't believe it is analyzing the code. Rather it is using the manifest's Capabilities section to determine what is required. You can learn more about that section here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff769509(v=vs.92).aspx#BKMK_Capabilities
Does the application's manifest include ID_CAP_LOCATION? If it does, and you aren't using it - it can safely be removed.
I just heard that a company I do work for may be bringing in the Pyxis Mobile application development system. When I google it most of what I find is from the company's web site and that is not very informative from a geek perspective. Can any one shed some light on what sort of programming environment it is and what programing language is involved (please let there be a text based language). Any additional information would be great.
Note: the company/product changed their name to Verivo in January.
Full Disclosure - I work as an engineer at Pyxis Mobile. However, I have been in the mobile space for 7+ years and have evaluated several approaches to mobile so hopefully this is helpful.
Pyxis Mobile provides a set of tools and components to build cross platform mobile applications. Let me outline them first.
1. Application Studio - All application development, backend integration, user provisioning and application maintenance/debugging is done w/in this tool. Application Studio (for now) is a Windows based desktop app.
2. Application Clients - Pyxis Mobile provides native client runtimes for iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry, and Android devices. These runtimes get branded for the customer through a build service and are primed to point to a specific Application Server URL.
3. Application Server - Pyxis Mobile App Server runs on the .NET stack (on IIS). All client communication is proxied via this server. This server is able to connect to varied of backend systems (via the Plugin Framework listed below) and respond to the client in a mobile optimized manner. This server needs a SQL Server (2005 or newer) for configuration access, session management, logging and more.
4. Plugin Framework - The Plugin Framework is a backend component that provides system specific pre-built access to several of the enterprise and cloud based systems (Oracle, Siebel, SAP, Salesforce.com, social feeds, REST/SOAP web services, etc.) and also offers an API layer in .NET and Python (using IronPython) to allow even further customization. A plugin is essentially comprised of one or more DLLs or a Python file. These assets are then dynamically loaded to normalize communication between Pyxis Mobile and the customers' backend systems.
5. Push Services - This provides a cross-platform push layer that can poll a backend system for change and alert a mobile device via BlackBerry Push, Apple Push Notification Services (APNS) or Android's Cloud to Deice Messaging (C2DM).
6. OverWatch Analytics - This is an optional (but included) component to track users/devices and provide integrated analytics on what the users are using and what kind of devices and locales makes up your users.
The application itself is "coded" via configuration that is build in App Studio. Pyxis Mobile abstracts away from the code so that you can work at a higher level without having to worry about the wide array of device variances (GPS, touch screens, camera, accelerometer, push, screen resolution, etc.). You can drag fields onto a from, connect screens via menus or buttons, set up caching rules and more in this graphical utility. This configuration (essentially think of an XML like document) is interpreted by the native client layer to produce a rich application. There is also a scripting layer in Lua that allows to really customize behavior via code.
The real value of Pyxis Mobile comes up when you have change to make. The clients check for new configuration at app startup or if the server forces the client to get new configuration. This gives you great agility. Lets say once your application is deployed you want start using the swipe gesture to go next/prev through a set of records. This change on other platforms would mean writing some platform specific code to trap and interpret the swipe to perform a navigation (you couldn't trap a swipe on a non-touch screen). However, in Pyxis Mobile this is a simple configuration change that can be quickly deployed to the App Server and the clients automatically download and use the new configuration. No compilation, no redeployment or re-download for the end users.
I could keep going, but hope this provides some level of guidance.
Beware of Pyxis Mobile. While many of the things they say do work, there are some serious platform issues (as a geek) which I've experienced.
1) No version control system process. The Application studio can basically only be developed on by one person at a time or you risk having your changes overwritten by a fellow developer. The "principle of last save" is very much in play.
2) No unit test coverage. This isn't the biggest issue for a lot of people, but it's a concern for anyone who wants to work in the Enterprise world.
3) The middleware server gets you some value, but it's also a PITA to work with. There is no concept of "client side storage" unless you consider the middleware server the client side. If your phone goes out of coverage, your app won't work. Again, this might not be an issue for you.
4) The application has no true scripting language to work with. The middleware server allows you to intercept requests and responses and modify what you're doing there, but it's not the most elegant solution considering that a native application can have something as simple as "if this then X else Y." This can be accomplished with Pyxis, but the whole process is convoluted and more complicated than one would think it needs to be.
5) Lack of documentation. There's some training guides and the GUI is easy enough to get around for simple apps; however, when you need to do something with guts, you're left relying on Pyxis professional services. There's really no developer community to pose questions to.
I have more complaints, but they are more opinion oriented than Q/A oriented.
I just got note about the most recent comments. I don't want to turn this into a thread of back and forth, but did want to throw a couple of quick notes.
Regarding the points on version control and documentation/developer community - no big contest there. We are definitely working on these shortcommings. We have some basic pieces in place, but we have big plans to focus on this.
Regarding unit testing - we provide a very open interface to our middleware and backend components and they can be very easily unit tested with a bit of instrumentation. We run a ton of unit and integration tests internally. However, mobile unit testing is extremely difficult to get right. We'll investigate this further.
Regarding #4 around middleware and offline capabilities - things are a lot different now. With version 7.1, 7.2 and 7.3 our products have increasing become more capabale offline and now features a secure local database if necessary. I can provide more details as necessary, but you can certainly login and operate the app even if you are out of coverage for weeks at a time!
Regarding #5, we've had a scripting engine for over 2 years. Its Lua based and its actually quite powerful and fast. It was BlackBerry only till the most recent release. Given Apple's change of stance on allowing scripting we now allow scripting on BlackBerry, iPad, iPhone and Android as well now!
#RockMeetHardplace - feel free to reach out to me directly and I'll be happy to give you more detailed live demos of our latest platform. I am at - arunSPAMNOTatpyxismobiledotcom (drop the "SPAMNOT" and replace the at and dot). I happen to be the Director of Software and interested in knowing more about the issues you had.
I would like to know if there is any way to launch a local application with silverlight. I'm having some security problems doing this with a user control embedded in IE 8, so I would like to convert this into silverlight app. This little issue is stopping me to go forward with silverlight, so if any suggestion, I would appreciate to hear it.
Thanks in advance..
Carlos.
This will be, theoretically possible, using COM interop with Silverlight OOB in SL4, but you will still have the same security issues, and in addition, add some deployment issues.
In order to do this directly from within IE, you'll need to make an add-in that gets installed with proper security permissions. Any "automatic" model for this would violate the standard IE security policies, so there is no direct means of getting from browser->local system.
this would totally invalidate Silverlight security model. So, good luck with that. Pretty sure you can not do it. This is what officially is known as a "Bad Thing."
Things I learned from Jurassic Park: Just because you CAN do something doesn't mean you SHOULD do something.
It is absolutely possible to get "Out of Browser" support using Silverlight 4. But what you need to do in order to access applications on the "Host" machine is the certify the SL4 application as being trusted.
This will involve getting a certificate for it. This could be obtained from CA (or similar for Internet applications) OR you could generate your own certificate for Intranet use and have the users simply install it or have it installed via another automated sys admin style process.
The bottom line is that when the SL4 application is running OOB AND it is trusted, it can access anything on the host machine; to a point.
Even though you can have file access and so forth, you still cannot call the application directly. That is unless it's installed as a COM object.
So what you will need to do is invoke the application using the "script" host COM object. You create a reference to the Script host and then simply pass in the command (and parameters if you like) that would invoke the application.
Hey presto, you broke the wall :-)
It should be noted that the use will still only be able to run the applications on their machine that they are currently allowed to. So you won't be able to invoke Admin tools on a user with limited control.
See here for details
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd550721(VS.95).aspx
It seems to me that you ought to post a question about the developement of the user control you already have. Ultimately no matter what technology you use you will need to get the user to opt-in manually. Silverlight when hosted by a browser is designed to live in nice and secure sandbox that it can't get out of. It isn't the answer to your problem in this case.
Your Silverlight application should be a trusted application because it runs on a browser.
If you want to launch an application in your local machine use the below code:
AutomationFactory.CreateObject("WScript.Shell").Run(FilePath);
Use the namespace System.Runtime.InteropServices.Automation