We’re building a mobile solution on windows 8 i.e. Windows Store App, enabling real time collaboration features for maintenance personnel to connect with Customer Support team. We are leveraging Lync 2010 client SDK to support the collaboration needs. The following are the key functionality we plan to enable with in the app
Text Conversations
Audio Conversations
Video Conversations
File Sharing (Send/Receive)
Remote Desktop Sharing
White board sharing
The following is the approach we’ve taken to integrate Lync with Windows Store app:
Lync will be running in UI Suppression Mode & app will communicate with Lync client through SDK APIs, since the functionality is needed within the application.
Lync Assemblies are wrapped in WCF service, since Lync SDK is not available for Windows Store apps.
We are currently able to enable Text & Audio Conversations through SDK in UI Suppression mode
We right now are in need of an approach to enable File sharing between the app & Lync standard Client.
The option available for file transfers is through contextual conversations which requires GUID exchange as per the below references.
http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/office/Lync-2010-Transferring-f766e7aa
We want to know if this scenario works between Windows Store App & standard Lync Client, if not request to advise the right approach.
Along with File transfers, we'd also need the approach to enable video conversations, remote desktop/white board sharing with the current approach (Lync -> WCF Service -> Windows Store app) as from SDK it is not clear how we get stream data which can be forwarded to Windows Store app.
Just found out that Desktop/Whiteboard/Resource sharing is not possible in UI Suppression mode, (reference below)
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/communicatorsdk/thread/1a7355fe-5c64-4b11-ba25-ce18d6bdd3dd
The following behavior will be the concern from user experience point of view in case of Automation APIs, especially for Windows Store App, considering their full screen behavior
On starting a conversation, corresponding conversation window flashes and takes the user to desktop, user will have to manually go to the windows store app, post this event. The conversation window can be docked in case of desktop apps, i.e. WinForms/WPF using DockWindow(),is there a way for Windows Store app?
Incoming call notifications are bubbled which disturbs the user experience with the Windows Store App
User has to accept the file transfers to receive, in the conversation window, manually
Please advise if there is a best solution to avoid the above behavior if Automation API is the only option to go with for Windows Store App.
Related
My organization has purchased a number of Hololens 2 devices. These devices are shared, and need to support multiple users. However, when users log in, they are required to download a "Microsoft Authenicator app" on their personal phone and associate it with their company account. This is severely frowned upon. (Moreover, the hololens gives a QR code which must be scanned; rather difficult to scan an augmented reality QR code!)
How can we drop the requirement that users need to create a "Windows Hello" pin to use a Hololens 2?
(Strangely, I am able to dismiss the Windows Hello dialog box, but other users are not. Is this a clue to help us move forward?)
Well the easiest way to circumvent is to first log in and then reset the device and add a non corporate Microsoft account and share the details with your manager and dev ops person.
After adding a non-corporate account, you can remove the Window Hello and Pin things from the settings.
Where can I find list of PWA features that are supported and under development for each browser?
This will greatly help to determine if I shall develop a native app or go directly for PWA. And also know upfront what to expect in the foreseeable future in terms of browser support so that I can enhance my app with newer features.
Thanks
Actually you can try
https://whatwebcando.today/
for test your browser first
Web App Manifest, and
Service Worker API
seem to be the key technologies to watch. Google's Progressive Web App Checklist mentions both of these technologies.
However, other technologies such as BeforeInstallPromptEvent, or PWA installation notifications, are explicitly discouraged by Mozilla Developer Network, MDN:
Do not use it [BeforeInstallPromptEvent] on production sites facing the Web
Also, as an aside, commercial incentives for PWA's appear to exist:
The Supreme Court signaled Apple could face a revived antitrust
lawsuit over its price control [...and 30% take] of the iPhone and
iPad App Store. -Fortune
Google indicates that a progressive web app, PWA, is:
Progressive - Works for every user, regardless of browser choice because it's built with progressive enhancement as a core tenet.
Responsive - Fits any form factor: desktop, mobile, tablet, or whatever is next. Connectivity independent - Enhanced with service
workers to work offline or on low-quality networks.
App-like - Feels like an app, because the app shell model separates the application functionality from application content .
Fresh - Always up-to-date thanks to the service worker update process.
Safe - Served via HTTPS to prevent snooping and to ensure content hasn't been tampered with.
Discoverable - Is identifiable as an "application" thanks to W3C manifest and service worker registration scope, allowing search
engines to find it.
Re-engageable - Makes re-engagement easy through features like push notifications.
Installable - Allows users to add apps they find most useful to their home screen without the hassle of an app store.
Linkable - Easily share the application via URL, does not require complex installation.
You can check this blog about the features of PWA. Also based from this documentation, Chrome, Opera and Firefox have all implemented support for service worker with Edge having positive public signals about interest in the feature. Safari briefly mentioned interest in it via one engineer's proposed five year plan. You can also check this related thread for more information.
Is there any good advice on uploading files to the device? I've seen many apps create a http server on 80 or 8080 to upload files. Does that mean I have to implement a server too?
Are there any 3rd-party libraries? (Preferably open-source and non-GPL)
EDIT: I am going to upgrade files in the app for specific devices in a corporate environment, so the ipad pulling files from a central server is also an alternative. But I would have to send messages to these ipads to tell them to fetch those files.
But I would have to send messages to
these ipads to tell them to fetch
those files.
Push Notification Programming Guide
Or mail with custom URL scheme for launching your application.
iOS Application Programming Guide - Implementing Custom URL Schemes
I assume what you want is a kind of automatic update. An app do something by order from server without user's manual operation.
I don't know enterprise-license specific feature of iOS. But I believe there's no such enterprise-specific APIs. And as I know, automatic update is almost impossible. Because,
There is no system-level support for automatic update. (yet?)
So messaging and fetching feature should be implemented in app.
But no app is guaranteed to run in background for long time.
And also user can turn off any app at any time.
There is no way to send message to an app which is not running.
Even you can send, there is no way to address each client form the server.
If your app is running, sending message or commanding them to fetch or do anything is just a simple work. The problem is there is no regular way to force them always keep alive. Even under situations like OS reboot or abnormal termination.
However there is an alternative. Just registering app as VOIP app like Skype. OS does not keep the app running too, but will monitor specific socket port, and will wake your app when the socket receives some message. For more details, see here: http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/iphone/conceptual/iphoneosprogrammingguide/BackgroundExecution/BackgroundExecution.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40007072-CH5-SW15
In AppStore, an app using VOIP for other purpose like automatic update will not be passed, but you have no need to concern about it.
And other way to send message to device without running app is push notification. This is a feature supported in system-level. But this is not designed to commanding app. This is designed to send textual message. So If your app is not running, the message will be displayed to user. However, you can guide the user to start the app by sending push notification.
As a final option, you can request some feature to Apple for enterprise environment. If your company is big enough to get an enterprise license, Apple will consider your feature request seriously.
If you decided to use VOIP method, I'm sorry I can't help you any more. I have no experience of implementing this kind of app. But it should not so hard.
However hard part is server. It definitely require custom server program which keeps TCP/IP connection. Regular HTTP server cannot be used. Because HTTP itself is designed as not to keep TCP/IP connection. You have to build this kind of server yourself from scratch. You'll have to handle lower level TCP/IP transmissions.
There are a few solutions(both of free/commercial) for this kind of server, but none of are popular because this kind of server regularly needs full customization. So there's nothing to re-use or share.
However I believe this is most suitable implementation for your app.
If you can satisfy automatic update only when the app is running, you can archive it by polling server status from the client periodically.
This is easy to implement because you can use regular HTTP servers for this. Client connect and download recent updates from central server periodically. If there is a new update, just fetch and do what you want. And the app is launched, just check the update at first. Prevent all operation until update applied.
This is regular way. Most of applications are built with this method. In this case, you have no need to implement server or hard thing.
However applying speed of update is depend on polling period.
(Edit)
I couldn't care about private APIs. Because your app is not for AppStore, so you can use private API's freely. (This is different thing with jail-breaking. There are so many hidden features by excluded from documentation) I don't know about private APIs, but it's possible there is some API which enable the support for keep-alive of the app.
However, this reverse engineering work is so painful unless you're born to hack.
You may try to use the following open-source in your project:
http://code.google.com/p/cocoahttpserver/
https://github.com/robin/cocoa-web-resource/wiki
Apple has some sample code on their website that details exactly what you're looking for:
http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/samplecode/CocoaHTTPServer/CocoaHTTPServer.zip
So you have a couple options:
You could distribute your app wirelessly within your organization and push new content out as app updates. Apple provides this option to their Enterprise Developers.
Wireless App Distribution
iPhone enables enterprises to securely host and wirelessly distribute in-house apps to employees over Wi-Fi and 3G. Apps can be updated without requiring users to connect to their computers. In-house apps can be hosted on any web server accessible to users. Users simply tap on a URL to install apps wirelessly without needing to connect to their computers.
The alternative is you configure the app to fetch the updated data. You describe adding an HTTP server to the iOS device, but there's no way the server can receive data when the app isn't running. Given your needs, it would probably work better to embed a web client in your app instead.
If I was in your shoes (and option #1 didn't work), I'd use ASIHTTPRequest to check with a server at launch/daily. If there are new updates, the app could then either prompt the user that there are new data files to download, or it could just silently download them in a background thread.
UPDATED: Perhaps I should have been more explicit about how to do #2. You can configure the download so it isn't interrupted when the user quits the app (you don't need to do a Voip hack). Check out the Completing a Finite Length Task in the Background section in the iOS Programming Guide.
There are http server sample codes from Apple and open source community such as cocoahttpserver TouchHTTPD.
You can upload file to the http server on iphone.
Here's a blog and screen-shots about running cocoahttpserver and upload file to iphone.
The Python CGIHTTPServer allows you to create a server in 0 lines of code:
jcomeau#intrepid:~/rentacoder/bin2txt$ python -m CGIHTTPServer
Serving HTTP on 0.0.0.0 port 8000 ...
Actually implementing a script to parse the input and save the file would take a little more effort.
[later]
OK, so forget about that, Apple doesn't allow it. See Local server on iPad for the iPad at least.
We have a web application and we've built phone applications (iPhone, Android, BlackBerry) to be companions to the site. The usual workflow is that an existing user of the site gets a phone app and then plugs their existing credentials into the phone app and they are off and running, but more often now we are seeing folks who are downloading the app and then (and this should not surprise anyone) don't read the help screen that explains they need to go and get credentials at the web site and therefore cannot connect to the application which does require registration to manage their content. This is a giant usability fail condition.
So we know that we need to put user registration workflows on the phone app.
Other than the obvious solution of duplicating our registration page on the mobile, does anyone know of a better identity solution for the phone? For example, on the desktop we also use Facebook Connect as an identity server and the users love it. I'm looking for something that simple that we can implement across the major smartphone platforms.
Clarifying note:
I should add here that this registration mechanism is likely to; and it would be desirable if it did, go hand in hand with a general identity/authorization mechanism such as the Facebook mechanism mentioned below.
One other place I'm poking around is to see whether there's an openId solution that does not require a browser to pop up.
Restful service might be the e asiest way for you to achieve this, you can use it on any device that can make http requests, so you can make your own login screens and talk to the s ervice that way...
Facebook has a Connect API for the iPhone. Integrating it into your iPhone app is very smooth.
http://developers.facebook.com/connect_iphone.php
On the BlackBerry we were able to build a fairly robust REST pipeline between the client apps in the field and our servers. We primary use the framework for updates, but the device API is generic enough to be able to build almost anything you need via standard HTTP/HTTPS GET/POST calls.
On the RIM platform, look into the HttpConnection API as a starting point. There is also an example on the BlackBerry Developer's site which will help. Finally, I believe there are several examples inside the sample package that comes with every BlackBerry JDE (IDE + API download).
i want to create a application which sync my iPhone contacts to my server and vice-versa.
i read a article on google Get Google Sync on your phone . i want to this type of feature which directly update the contact without user interaction (however one time setting is desired).
any body have idea how the google sync work .
Please advice me that how can i achieve this task. any suggestion and link is greatly appreciated
I think it's important to separate the two overlapping approaches in your question.
Firstly, Google Sync is essentially a way to use Microsoft Exchange protocols and to setup a Mail / Contact / Calendar profile on an iPhone. The iPhone OS supports this feature, not an iPhone App in the App Store. Google Sync leverages this fundamental capability of the phone by exposing the data (mail, contacts, calendars) via these known protocols. If you want to expose data in this way to your users, setup a Microsoft Exchange server and ask questions on serverfault.
Secondly, there are iPhone apps. iPhone apps sold in the app store are not currently allowed to run in the background. This means you can't emulate functionality like iTunes or Mail where your music plays while you are browsing the web, or mail checking is done while you are playing a game of Mini Squadron. If you want this backgrounding capability, file a bug/enhancement with Apple.. However, you can interact with iPhone contacts (Address Book) via the API.. You can also of course "re-invent the wheel" and expose the data however you like via the internet, and consume that data from a custom iPhone App with the one caveat that users would need to actively launch your application to get to this data and it would not be integrated with the built-in iPhone Calendar, Address Book or Mail applications. Some good examples of that are some of the music community apps that have messaging systems built into them. Presumably that is all being done with web services.
EDIT: It is also worth mentioning that should you go the "iPhone App" route, you should at least consider if push notifications are right for you, and if so how you will handle it.
Have you seen the API-Docs?
http://developer.apple.com/iphone/library/documentation/ContactData/Conceptual/AddressBookProgrammingGuideforiPhone/100-Introduction/Introduction.html
Next there is an application I use called Funambol - it is a sync4j Server/Client. They have an open source application to sync contacts on the iPhone. Source is somewhere in their repository, informations here: http://forge.ow2.org/scm/?group_id=96
As slf told you your application must run in foreground. This may limit you.
Good luck & best regards,
Florian
The 3.0 SDK will allow your application to read contact data on the phone.
Web services will allow you to publish that data to your server, and receive updates.
You may also want to use coredata to store a hash of all contact data so you can tell what is new / updated and just send that data to your server.