How to access the iPhone's camera from Mobile Safari - iphone

Is there a API or way for accessing the the iPhone's camera from Mobile Safari?I want to create a application that can read barcode within the browser.
Thanks in advance.

It's now supported in iOS 6. I believe it uses a regular form file input field.
You can see some explanation here.

Try using input tag <input type="file" name="image" accept="image/*" capture/>.
It works well as compared to getUserMedia method which is fully supported by Opera mobile and chrome higher versions.
Hope it help.

No. There's no way to do that. No web page can access internal devices.
You can do however a small tiny app that its launched via mobile safari link and makes user select the barcode image and then redirect to a web page that will process (the small app will also upload). Like what THIS guys actually implemented (the link provides code).
If you doesn't have experience with Objective C and Cocoa Touch you can create that app via PhoneGap like if you were creating a Web Page.
UPDATE
From iOS 6 and so on you actually can as the official specs says, you can use it via the upload API as seen here.

Related

iPhone: Access Camera and Album from Web app

I want to develop a web app using html5, js. One of the feature is to launch device Camera and record video, take a picture and access photo album. Is it possible to access via web app if i develop? I saw in the forums that, it is saying not possible in some places and it is possible in some places. I would like to know, is it really possible to access directly camera and album etc. ?
Please suggest!
Thank you!
It's not possible to access phone camera using Web app, as the "Web APP" typically runs in the browser of device.
Though there are some frameworks (like Phonegap) allows you to embedd your web app into native container. With this approach and added libraries from such framework you can access some of those native API's and Device Hardware.
One Possible solution is,
Create one app and distribute it using app store
using your webapp, you can connect to above app using url-scheme
http://code.google.com/p/iphone-photo-picker/
go to above link, where you can find complete code for it.

How to initiate/send SMS from a HTML5 webpage using devices native functions?

I am wondering how can I open the send SMS application by using a web control of a HTML5 page on Android and iPhone. I want to use the device native SMS sending app, with a prepopulated value from the web.
Further to other answers I can confirm that smsto:555:bodytext does not work on an iPhone running iOS5.
What does work (and I've tested it) on Android is the format:
sms:444?body=hello
Example:
Tap to say hello!
On iPhone the ?body=hello will prevent it working at all, and you should use just sms:555 instead.
sms:555
Example
Tap to text us!
I have tested the below and it works:
Using HTML Anchor tag:
Subscribe
Using JavaScript:
window.open('sms:111?body=SUBSCRIBE', '_self');
With Android 3.0 SDK Google has started exposing API in HTML5 for device access. An example is listed here. It may not be enough for what you seek to do.
I dont know enough about iphone to advise either way.

HTML5 optimized for iPhone

I have a software that eventually will have some reports to be accessed via iPhone.
Once I am not willing to develop an iPhone app, I´d like to make these reports accessible via iPhone Safari browsers.
GMail in iPad uses HTML 5, so I guess I can do the same.
My question is where can I find some resources to learn best practices doing so and how can I test it in a PC computer.
Thanks
Here is a similar answer I've given: Exclusive CSS for iPhone/Android
For testing you can use Chrome or Safari, as they are both webkit browsers (which is what the iPhone uses). Safari can even render as the iPhone user agent.
Hope this helps.
Please take a look at PhoneGap, I think that is what you are looking for.
You can emulate the program in xCode, but you will need an Apple for that. For PhoneGap also..
From the app architecture view-point you should also consider introducing app-specific optimization such us:
Simplify the app (show only what you need for mobile)
Minimize Application and Data Size

Aggregate Images into a Single Composite Resource (Sprites)

Include Background Images Inline in CSS Style Sheets

Keep DOM Size Reasonable

Ensure Paragraph Text Flows

Avoid Redirects

Android, Iphone app with JS and HTML

I have read some post about apps programming for Iphone and Android, but I have one question. Is it posible when there is a mobile website optimized for mobile phones, that I can create apps for Iphone, Android, Win 7 and Blackberry, that only statrts the browser as instance and display the mobile website? What do you think, is this ok? Do you have any ideas or examples for that kind of apps? I mean this is not an app, that should be has access to the hardware of the phone, only web app.
Thanks
Nik
This would work.
You could create an app that consists merely of a webview into which you load your content. The content could be loaded over the mobile network or be stored locally.
However most users (including yours truly) strongly dislike apps that merely present a single website to the user, because of the long delays if the content is loaded over the mobile network every time and because the UI is, in many cases, very different to what the he or she is used to from native apps.
Most users fail to see the need for a specialized app just to visit a website which they could as well keep as a favorite in their mobile browser. On the iPhone, you may even add favorite websites as icons on your homescreen, so there is no need for apps presenting a single website at all.
It's not only possible, such things are already done. One example I know of is cookd, a restaurant guide for Vienna. But there are some constraints; for example, cookd requires GPS data for the "Nearby" option; on my Android phone (HTC Legend), this is possible when I open the web page directly in the browser (the browser asks if I want to allow cookd.com to get this info); but the same webpage, running in an application that does nothing more than display the browser component, cannot do that. To fix that, they would have to build GPS reception into the app and forward this info to the browser component.
O'reilly has a fantastic article about this:
http://building-iphone-apps.labs.oreilly.com/
This is a little bit directed to iPhone only, but will give you a good overview about the topic and possibilities.

Launching a native application from a link of website on iPhone

I have a query regarding launching a native application from a link of website on iPhone.
I will explain.
Generally a web based application is used to work online without using any feature of iPhone device (such as GPS, Camera, Accelerometer etc.)
I have a iPhone specific website which performs many tasks online.
Now while keeping all the functionality same, I want to add a feature of taking a picture from iPhone in-built camera.
i.e. when user clicks a button on website "Take Picture", my native application should be launched, which will take a picture and do specific tasks..
How to capture a event of button click which is performed on website?
Should I use UIWebView or Safari?
I know that using URL Scheme we can launch Safari from native application.
But how to achieve the opposite as explained above?
All other functionality works great on website, so I don't want to convert the whole website into native application.
(Otherwise I will have to deal with web services). Only this functionality needs to be added.
Register a URL Handler, then have a link on your site to myapphandle://some.parameters.here/
A la: http://iosdevelopertips.com/cocoa/launching-your-own-application-via-a-custom-url-scheme.html