How can I send calendar information from webservice to iphone app? - iphone

I want to create or use an open source php calendar as a webservice. This is just one feature of an entire app idea of mine, but I'm working on the app in steps and would like to start with a calendar. Is there a way to use a php calendar to update an iphone apps calendar? Example, I want to be able to add an appointment within the iphone app and have it update on the php calendar on my website? I want syncronization both ways. If I decide to add an event on the calendar through the website, I would like it to update in the iphone app.

For the maximum amount of customization I would go the route of writing your own calendar in PHP. Then you can make the calendar work exactly how you want and it can work seamlessly with your App. This shouldnt be too difficult as for a class project I had to right a simple PHP Calendar (it didnt have web services but still). Ray Wenderlich discusses several ways of using web services in iOS apps, and even has an example based on PHP/MySQL.
How To Write A Simple PHP/MySQL Web Service for an iOS App
How
To Write An iOS App That Uses A Web Service

Related

Import possibility from iPhone App to native Calendar

So I have this iPhone app, working a lot with my webserver (PHP) and getting data from there, mostly HTML content. In this app you can see a list of events (with date, hour etc). Now my users asked me if they could include it to their native iPhone calendar.
Is that possible, and if yes, how?
Do I need to update my application for that or is it possible to generate a file at the server side which the users simply can download? I kinda hoped I could do it that way.
Try using the EventKit framework: http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/EventKit/Reference/EventKitFrameworkRef/_index.htmlLike explained here: Programmatically add custom event in the iPhone Calendar

Is it possible to create a widget for iOS?

I'm a little bit confused now. There is a weather and stock widget on the iPhone. Is it possible to create such a widget yourself? I don't want to talk about new features in iOS 5 here. I only want to know it in general (iOS < 5).
Here I found the introduction guide with the help of Dashcode.
Wikipedia also states that this is not possible. I always thought it would be.
So are there only web apps and native apps possible?
PS: What is a widget exactly? A combination of native app and HTML, CSS, Javascript? Only HTML, CSS, Javascript? A cocoa application?
No, iOS does not currently allow the creation of widgets. The weather and stock widgets you're talking about were created by Apple. There are no APIs to write your own.
As of iOS8, its possible. 3rd party apps will be able to create widgets for the notification center.
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2014/06/02Apple-Releases-iOS-8-SDK-With-Over-4-000-New-APIs.html
This isn't a Guide for iOS Widgets, it's Guide for Mac Dashboard Widgets.
You can't
create iOS Widgets
change how the iOS Notifications Appear
With Dashcode you can create Web Applications for both iOS and Mac. It's a combination of HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Those Web Applications are only available on the Web (e.g. Safari). If you wan't to create a native App you have two possibilities:
Create a real native Application in ObjC
Create a Web Application (e.g. with Dashcode) and load it into a UIWebView, this requires also ObjC.
Advantages
Web-only Application (Browser-App)
You don't need a Apple Developer Account
Easy to port to Mac and other Smartphones
Unreal-native Application (Browser-App in a native App)
Easy to port to other Smartphones
It feels like a real native app
Your app is on the App Store
Native Application (Real iOS-App)
You have full access to the iPhone Frameworks (e.g. Contacts.app)
Your app is on the App Store
Disadvantages
Web-only Application (Browser-App)
The user needs to know your URL
You're not in the App Store
Unreal-native Application (Browser-App in a native App)
You need to pay 99$/year for an Apple Developer Account
It could feel like it's not a native app
You have not the full access to the iPhone Frameworks except you use something like PhoneGap or ObjC
Native Application (Real iOS-App)
You need to pay 99$/year for an Apple Developer Account
You can't port your app easy to other Smartphone
You need to learn ObjC
No, currently thats not possible. But you can, and should, file a feature request at bugreport.apple.com so that this issue gets some attention.
There is no reason you can't create a widget like component using javascript and display it in a uiwebview. This works equally well in android and iOS
A few years ago when I was involved with java server pages development I put together a tutorial of using dashcode to wrap java or javascript components.
http://www.jsfcentral.com/listings/A21034;jsessionid=A15086803ABF96A63DB1AB5405C9A329?link

Phonegap WEB-APP without xCode

I'm building a simple web app for iOS that will not be published to the AppStore.
For infrastructure limits (and my boss!) , I can't use xCode anyway to build the app in a native way.
The only NATIVE functionality required by the web app should be a simple "Add to contacts".
I've tried to implement it with phonegap , but it works only compiled under xCode.
Is there any way to "add to contacts" without building an app (using only a web-app )?
Thanks in advance
Andrea
I don't think there's a way for you to add a contact directly, using only a web app.
PhoneGap was made for this sort of thing, allowing you to access a device's features (like Contacts, Camera, GPS, etc). But if your company's project specifications don't allow for an app... I don't know that there's a way to do this directly, via the web.
If you're building a web app... while you may be targeting iPhones, you're still making it available to anyone with a browser. I'm not 100% on this, but having some way for a web page to directly manipulate a (Mac) user's contacts seems like a security issue.
As a test, I tried placing a vCard on a page, and accessing it via my iPhone. Changing the extension from .vcf to .vcard didn't yield anything (and for some weird reason it prompted me to open the file via Dropbox).
What did work was emailing myself the vcard as an attachment. I was able to view the attachment, which then gave me the option to add the info as a new contact.

how can I build and iphone app which tracks a users location uploads the coordinates

I am writing an app for iphone to go along site my website which tracks the location of the user. Can anyone give me any pointers on where to begin. I am very good with mysql and php etc but I am a novice with iphone apps.
The coordinates from the app need to be able to upload to my api which I have set up.
Thanks
What you probably want to do is create a simple app that can run in the background.
http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/iPhone/Conceptual/iPhoneOSProgrammingGuide/BackgroundExecution/BackgroundExecution.html
During background execution you cannot do anything really too much with the network so I suggest logging it using CoreData and then on resume/startup to send an HTTP post to a PHP page that logs it into your DB?
You might want to check out the HTML5 geolocation API. Also reading "Building iPhone Apps with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript" is recommended. I read the same book for Android and was very pleased. Building your app in HTML5/CSS/JS will also mean that it will probably work on other platforms.

Using another one application in one Iphone Application?

anytutorial to use good reader application in iphone sdk?
can I use Good reader application in my Iphone APplication?
To launch another application you have to find out if they have published a protocol to use and then 'open' that URL. See example, but not sure if GoodReader has published a protocol or how to find out if they have. You could always contact the developer directly.
You can't access another applications Sandbox or start another application via code, otherwise Apple will reject the app. I stand corrected to the answer about URL schemes to launch another app. You learn something new everyday.
You [can also] build the PDF functionality into your own app (i.e. use a UIWebView to do that for you).