this is more of a general question - does anyone have an opinion on whether
ODK could be re-created using
something like PhoneGap (www.phonegap.com)? This would allow ODK to reach
more platforms- iphone, blackberry etc. - I have heard
you can use sensors to make use of the phone's native GPS and Camera.
The very first version of ODK (before it was even called ODK) did
exactly this -- it was a web page with hooks for native code. We
deployed a version of that in Uganda and ended up scrapping it and
going with native Android. Recently, we've returned to this idea and
have some very experimental code for Collect that does something
similar with HTML5 and JS.
Whether or not this is the best way forward remains to be seen. We try
to hitch ODK to promising technology trends and certainly for big
players like Google (at least on non-Android platforms) and Facebook
(on all platforms), shell apps are the way to go. In the data
collection space, Pendragon Forms
(http://pendragonsoftware.com/formsviinfo/index.html) has HTML5
support with native hooks. JQueryMobile (http://jquerymobile.com/)
also has a good head start on web forms in the mobile browser.
That said, all this technology is very young and not well-sorted. My
biggest complaint is that it's all very slow to use and results in a
sub-optimal user experience. http://sandofsky.com/blog/shell-apps.html has a great post that lays out some of the arguments against shell
apps.
On Tue, May 8, 2012 at 5:26 PM, Sanjay Patel <svpatel...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello,
> this is more of a general question - does anyone have an opinion on whether
> ODK could be re-created using
> something like PhoneGap (www.phonegap.com)? This would allow ODK to reach
> more platforms- iphone, blackberry etc. - I have heard
> you can use sensors to make use of the phone's native GPS and Camera.
I'm in the native app camp. Imho, odk should capitalize on Android toolset,
even leveraging sync adapters instead of the current roll your own upload
methods. If someone wants to make an iPhone app they should go ahead, it's
an open source app and idea. Blackberry is out. I would also like to see
the aggregate app engine side integrate with other open formats like json.
HTML5 is okay with 4g, but nothing beats native, especially if you are
without a connection in the field.
On May 8, 2012 9:18 PM, "Yaw Anokwa" <yano...@gmail.com> wrote:
> The very first version of ODK (before it was even called ODK) did
> exactly this -- it was a web page with hooks for native code. We
> deployed a version of that in Uganda and ended up scrapping it and
> going with native Android. Recently, we've returned to this idea and
> have some very experimental code for Collect that does something
> similar with HTML5 and JS.
> Whether or not this is the best way forward remains to be seen. We try
> to hitch ODK to promising technology trends and certainly for big
> players like Google (at least on non-Android platforms) and Facebook
> (on all platforms), shell apps are the way to go. In the data
> collection space, Pendragon Forms
> (http://pendragonsoftware.com/formsviinfo/index.html) has HTML5
> support with native hooks. JQueryMobile (http://jquerymobile.com/)
> also has a good head start on web forms in the mobile browser.
> That said, all this technology is very young and not well-sorted. My
> biggest complaint is that it's all very slow to use and results in a
> sub-optimal user experience. http://sandofsky.com/blog/shell-apps.html > has a great post that lays out some of the arguments against shell
> apps.
> I'd love to hear what others think...
> Yaw
> On Tue, May 8, 2012 at 5:26 PM, Sanjay Patel <svpatel...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Hello,
> > this is more of a general question - does anyone have an opinion on
> whether
> > ODK could be re-created using
> > something like PhoneGap (www.phonegap.com)? This would allow ODK to
> reach
> > more platforms- iphone, blackberry etc. - I have heard
> > you can use sensors to make use of the phone's native GPS and Camera.
I am a huge fan of the theory behind shell apps, but in my previous experience performance has been a significant problem. We've used Titanium (http://www.appcelerator.com/) to build cross platform apps but then had to spend a significant amount of time rewriting and tuning them for performance. The slowdowns were because we had proxied access to native libraries, and these problems went away when writing native code.
> I'm in the native app camp. Imho, odk should capitalize on Android > toolset, even leveraging sync adapters instead of the current roll > your own upload methods. If someone wants to make an iPhone app they > should go ahead, it's an open source app and idea. Blackberry is out. > I would also like to see the aggregate app engine side integrate with > other open formats like json. HTML5 is okay with 4g, but nothing beats > native, especially if you are without a connection in the field.
> On May 8, 2012 9:18 PM, "Yaw Anokwa" <yano...@gmail.com > <mailto:yano...@gmail.com>> wrote:
> Sanjay,
> The very first version of ODK (before it was even called ODK) did
> exactly this -- it was a web page with hooks for native code. We
> deployed a version of that in Uganda and ended up scrapping it and
> going with native Android. Recently, we've returned to this idea and
> have some very experimental code for Collect that does something
> similar with HTML5 and JS.
> Whether or not this is the best way forward remains to be seen. We try
> to hitch ODK to promising technology trends and certainly for big
> players like Google (at least on non-Android platforms) and Facebook
> (on all platforms), shell apps are the way to go. In the data
> collection space, Pendragon Forms
> (http://pendragonsoftware.com/formsviinfo/index.html) has HTML5
> support with native hooks. JQueryMobile (http://jquerymobile.com/)
> also has a good head start on web forms in the mobile browser.
> That said, all this technology is very young and not well-sorted. My
> biggest complaint is that it's all very slow to use and results in a
> sub-optimal user experience. http://sandofsky.com/blog/shell-apps.html > has a great post that lays out some of the arguments against shell
> apps.
> I'd love to hear what others think...
> Yaw
> On Tue, May 8, 2012 at 5:26 PM, Sanjay Patel <svpatel...@gmail.com
> <mailto:svpatel...@gmail.com>> wrote:
> > Hello,
> > this is more of a general question - does anyone have an opinion
> on whether
> > ODK could be re-created using
> > something like PhoneGap (www.phonegap.com > <http://www.phonegap.com>)? This would allow ODK to reach
> > more platforms- iphone, blackberry etc. - I have heard
> > you can use sensors to make use of the phone's native GPS and
> Camera.
I would like to see a more shell apps approach, but as already pointed out the technology is not quite there yet to be a dependable replacement for native apps (maybe in the near-ish future?).
On the project I'm working on (http://opendatakit.org/2011/10/using-odk-to-improve-maternal-care-in-...) using ODK, we have started to use an HTML5 app (run in the mobile browser rather than as phonegap or similar) to deliver dashboard/analytics information (see: http://digital-campus.org/developing-an-analytics-dashboard-for-mater... for more info). The advantage for us is that we can allow users with or without Android devices (such as managers/supervisors in the health bureaus) to access this on their normal desktop/laptops, even if they have an intermittent internet connection since the data is cached in the browser. Admittedly, this dashboard is quite simple/read-only and doesn't require access to device GPS, camera etc, but this approach (using a mixture of native/shell wherever is most appropriate) seems to be working well for us so far.
On Wednesday, May 9, 2012 2:26:20 AM UTC+2, Sanjay wrote:
> Hello,
> this is more of a general question - does anyone have an opinion on > whether ODK could be re-created using > something like PhoneGap (www.phonegap.com)? This would allow ODK to reach > more platforms- iphone, blackberry etc. - I have heard > you can use sensors to make use of the phone's native GPS and Camera.
On Wednesday, May 9, 2012 2:26:20 AM UTC+2, Sanjay wrote:
> Hello,
> this is more of a general question - does anyone have an opinion on > whether ODK could be re-created using > something like PhoneGap (www.phonegap.com)? This would allow ODK to reach > more platforms- iphone, blackberry etc. - I have heard > you can use sensors to make use of the phone's native GPS and Camera.
I'm actually prototyping a HTML5-based variant of ODK Collect.
PhoneGap (now the Apache Cordova incubator project) is not yet stable
enough for building reliable Android apps. The native-features interfaces
also seem to be more complex than appears necessary; I think it may be
trying too hard to handle platforms that don't provide substantially all
the HTML5 embedded browser functionality. There is some talk of a Cordova
2.0 which might be leaner and more appropriate.
More problematic, I've found that our Android 2.x Droid phone cannot
support jQuery or jQuery mobile-based HTML5 apps -- they end up crashing
deep in the bowels of the webpage renderer. Android 4.0 works somewhat
better. Gesture detection (swipeleft, swiperight) within the javascript is
a problem with both phones.
So for the prototype I've switched to zepto.js and jqTouch libraries, which
work on 2.x upward, and an ODK-specific callback mechanism for accessing
the native functionality.
On Wed, May 9, 2012 at 1:16 AM, Alex Little <a...@alexlittle.net> wrote:
> Hi all,
> my 2cents ....
> I would like to see a more shell apps approach, but as already pointed out
> the technology is not quite there yet to be a dependable replacement for
> native apps (maybe in the near-ish future?).
> On the project I'm working on (
> http://opendatakit.org/2011/10/using-odk-to-improve-maternal-care-in-...)
> using ODK, we have started to use an HTML5 app (run in the mobile browser
> rather than as phonegap or similar) to deliver dashboard/analytics
> information (see:
> http://digital-campus.org/developing-an-analytics-dashboard-for-mater... more info). The advantage for us is that we can allow users with or
> without Android devices (such as managers/supervisors in the health
> bureaus) to access this on their normal desktop/laptops, even if they have
> an intermittent internet connection since the data is cached in the
> browser. Admittedly, this dashboard is quite simple/read-only and doesn't
> require access to device GPS, camera etc, but this approach (using a
> mixture of native/shell wherever is most appropriate) seems to be working
> well for us so far.
> Cheers,
> Alex
> On Wednesday, May 9, 2012 2:26:20 AM UTC+2, Sanjay wrote:
>> Hello,
>> this is more of a general question - does anyone have an opinion on
>> whether ODK could be re-created using
>> something like PhoneGap (www.phonegap.com)? This would allow ODK to
>> reach more platforms- iphone, blackberry etc. - I have heard
>> you can use sensors to make use of the phone's native GPS and Camera.
> On Wednesday, May 9, 2012 2:26:20 AM UTC+2, Sanjay wrote:
>> Hello,
>> this is more of a general question - does anyone have an opinion on
>> whether ODK could be re-created using
>> something like PhoneGap (www.phonegap.com)? This would allow ODK to
>> reach more platforms- iphone, blackberry etc. - I have heard
>> you can use sensors to make use of the phone's native GPS and Camera.
On Wed, May 9, 2012 at 10:08 AM, Mitch S <mitchellsu...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I'm actually prototyping a HTML5-based variant of ODK Collect.
> PhoneGap (now the Apache Cordova incubator project) is not yet stable enough
> for building reliable Android apps. The native-features interfaces also
> seem to be more complex than appears necessary; I think it may be trying too
> hard to handle platforms that don't provide substantially all the HTML5
> embedded browser functionality. There is some talk of a Cordova 2.0 which
> might be leaner and more appropriate.
> More problematic, I've found that our Android 2.x Droid phone cannot support
> jQuery or jQuery mobile-based HTML5 apps -- they end up crashing deep in the
> bowels of the webpage renderer. Android 4.0 works somewhat better. Gesture
> detection (swipeleft, swiperight) within the javascript is a problem with
> both phones.
> So for the prototype I've switched to zepto.js and jqTouch libraries, which
> work on 2.x upward, and an ODK-specific callback mechanism for accessing the
> native functionality.
> Mitch
> On Wed, May 9, 2012 at 1:16 AM, Alex Little <a...@alexlittle.net> wrote:
>> Hi all,
>> my 2cents ....
>> I would like to see a more shell apps approach, but as already pointed out
>> the technology is not quite there yet to be a dependable replacement for
>> native apps (maybe in the near-ish future?).
>> On the project I'm working on
>> (http://opendatakit.org/2011/10/using-odk-to-improve-maternal-care-in-...)
>> using ODK, we have started to use an HTML5 app (run in the mobile browser
>> rather than as phonegap or similar) to deliver dashboard/analytics
>> information (see:
>> http://digital-campus.org/developing-an-analytics-dashboard-for-mater... >> for more info). The advantage for us is that we can allow users with or
>> without Android devices (such as managers/supervisors in the health bureaus)
>> to access this on their normal desktop/laptops, even if they have an
>> intermittent internet connection since the data is cached in the browser.
>> Admittedly, this dashboard is quite simple/read-only and doesn't require
>> access to device GPS, camera etc, but this approach (using a mixture of
>> native/shell wherever is most appropriate) seems to be working well for us
>> so far.
>> Cheers,
>> Alex
>> On Wednesday, May 9, 2012 2:26:20 AM UTC+2, Sanjay wrote:
>>> Hello,
>>> this is more of a general question - does anyone have an opinion on
>>> whether ODK could be re-created using
>>> something like PhoneGap (www.phonegap.com)? This would allow ODK to reach
>>> more platforms- iphone, blackberry etc. - I have heard
>>> you can use sensors to make use of the phone's native GPS and Camera.
>> On Wednesday, May 9, 2012 2:26:20 AM UTC+2, Sanjay wrote:
>>> Hello,
>>> this is more of a general question - does anyone have an opinion on
>>> whether ODK could be re-created using
>>> something like PhoneGap (www.phonegap.com)? This would allow ODK to reach
>>> more platforms- iphone, blackberry etc. - I have heard
>>> you can use sensors to make use of the phone's native GPS and Camera.
On Wednesday, May 9, 2012 11:08:28 AM UTC-6, Mitch wrote:
> I'm actually prototyping a HTML5-based variant of ODK Collect.
> PhoneGap (now the Apache Cordova incubator project) is not yet stable enough for building reliable Android apps. The native-features interfaces also seem to be more complex than appears necessary; I think it may be trying too hard to handle platforms that don't provide substantially all the HTML5 embedded browser functionality. There is some talk of a Cordova 2.0 which might be leaner and more appropriate.
> More problematic, I've found that our Android 2.x Droid phone cannot support jQuery or jQuery mobile-based HTML5 apps -- they end up crashing deep in the bowels of the webpage renderer. Android 4.0 works somewhat better. Gesture detection (swipeleft, swiperight) within the javascript is a problem with both phones.
> So for the prototype I've switched to zepto.js and jqTouch libraries, which work on 2.x upward, and an ODK-specific callback mechanism for accessing the native functionality.
> Mitch
> On Wed, May 9, 2012 at 1:16 AM, Alex Little <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:a...@alexlittle.net" target="_blank">a...@alexlittle.net</a>></span> wrote:
> <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
> Hi all,
> my 2cents ....
> I would like to see a more shell apps approach, but as already pointed out the technology is not quite there yet to be a dependable replacement for native apps (maybe in the near-ish future?).
> On the project I'm working on (<a href="http://opendatakit.org/2011/10/using-odk-to-improve-maternal-care-in-..." target="_blank">http://opendatakit.org/2011/<WBR>10/using-odk-to-improve-<WBR>maternal-care-in-ethiopia/</a>) using ODK, we have started to use an HTML5 app (run in the mobile browser rather than as phonegap or similar) to deliver dashboard/analytics information (see: <a href="http://digital-campus.org/developing-an-analytics-dashboard-for-mater..." target="_blank">http://digital-campus.org/<WBR>developing-an-analytics-<WBR>dashboard-for-maternal-care/</a> for more info). The advantage for us is that we can allow users with or without Android devices (such as managers/supervisors in the health bureaus) to access this on their normal desktop/laptops, even if they have an intermittent internet connection since the data is cached in the browser. Admittedly, this dashboard is quite simple/read-only and doesn't require access to device GPS, camera etc, but this approach (using a mixture of native/shell wherever is most appropriate) seems to be working well for us so far.
> Cheers,
> Alex
> On Wednesday, May 9, 2012 2:26:20 AM UTC+2, Sanjay wrote:<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
> Hello,
> this is more of a general question - does anyone have an opinion on whether ODK could be re-created using
> something like PhoneGap (<a href="http://www.phonegap.com" target="_blank">www.phonegap.com</a>)? This would allow ODK to reach more platforms- iphone, blackberry etc. - I have heard
> you can use sensors to make use of the phone's native GPS and Camera.
> On Wednesday, May 9, 2012 2:26:20 AM UTC+2, Sanjay wrote:<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
> Hello,
> this is more of a general question - does anyone have an opinion on whether ODK could be re-created using
> something like PhoneGap (<a href="http://www.phonegap.com" target="_blank">www.phonegap.com</a>)? This would allow ODK to reach more platforms- iphone, blackberry etc. - I have heard
> you can use sensors to make use of the phone's native GPS and Camera.
It is still very early stages. We're trying to settle on what the HTML
should look like for the form and how a new XLSForm would generate that.
It will run on Android 2.2 and newer. I haven't thought much about how to
publish data back into Aggregate, so that is broken at this point. It may
or may not publish using the OpenRosa standards -- we may instead decide to
use the synchronization API we have developed for ODK Tables, which this
would be released with.
Anything I gave you would unstable and I could not provide any support on
upgrades to more stable versions.
We are aiming to have something in an early beta condition by September.
Ping me as that gets closer, and I can point you to that code. But expect
migrations to be somewhat painful if you decide to try out the beta.
On Wed, Jul 25, 2012 at 9:09 PM, <bills...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Mitch, where are you on this? I would be very interested in trying it out.
> On Wednesday, May 9, 2012 11:08:28 AM UTC-6, Mitch wrote:
> > I'm actually prototyping a HTML5-based variant of ODK Collect.
> > PhoneGap (now the Apache Cordova incubator project) is not yet stable
> enough for building reliable Android apps. The native-features interfaces
> also seem to be more complex than appears necessary; I think it may be
> trying too hard to handle platforms that don't provide substantially
> all the HTML5 embedded browser functionality. There is some talk of a
> Cordova 2.0 which might be leaner and more appropriate.
> > More problematic, I've found that our Android 2.x Droid phone cannot
> support jQuery or jQuery mobile-based HTML5 apps -- they end up crashing
> deep in the bowels of the webpage renderer. Android 4.0 works somewhat
> better. Gesture detection (swipeleft, swiperight) within the javascript is
> a problem with both phones.
> > So for the prototype I've switched to zepto.js and jqTouch
> libraries, which work on 2.x upward, and an ODK-specific callback mechanism
> for accessing the native functionality.
> > Mitch
> > On Wed, May 9, 2012 at 1:16 AM, Alex Little <span dir="ltr"><<a
> href="mailto:a...@alexlittle.net" target="_blank">a...@alexlittle.net</a>></span>
> wrote:
> > <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px
> #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
> > Hi all,
> > my 2cents ....
> > I would like to see a more shell apps approach, but as already pointed
> out the technology is not quite there yet to be a dependable replacement
> for native apps (maybe in the near-ish future?).
> > On the project I'm working on (<a href="
> http://opendatakit.org/2011/10/using-odk-to-improve-maternal-care-in-..."
> target="_blank">http://opendatakit.org/2011/<WBR>10/using-odk-to-improve-<WBR>maternal-care-in-ethiopia/</a>)
> using ODK, we have started to use an HTML5 app (run in the mobile browser
> rather than as phonegap or similar) to deliver dashboard/analytics
> information (see: <a href="
> http://digital-campus.org/developing-an-analytics-dashboard-for-mater..."
> target="_blank">http://digital-campus.org/<WBR>developing-an-analytics-<WBR>dashboard-for-maternal-care/</a>
> for more info). The advantage for us is that we can allow users with or
> without Android devices (such as managers/supervisors in the health
> bureaus) to access this on their normal desktop/laptops, even if they have
> an intermittent internet connection since the data is cached in the
> browser. Admittedly, this dashboard is quite simple/read-only and
> doesn't require access to device GPS, camera etc, but this approach
> (using a mixture of native/shell wherever is most appropriate) seems to be
> working well for us so far.
> > Cheers,
> > Alex
> > On Wednesday, May 9, 2012 2:26:20 AM UTC+2, Sanjay wrote:<blockquote
> class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid
> rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
> > Hello,
> > this is more of a general question - does anyone have an opinion on
> whether ODK could be re-created using
> > something like PhoneGap (<a href="http://www.phonegap.com"
> target="_blank">www.phonegap.com</a>)? This would allow ODK to reach more
> platforms- iphone, blackberry etc. - I have heard
> > you can use sensors to make use of the phone's native GPS and Camera.
> > On Wednesday, May 9, 2012 2:26:20 AM UTC+2, Sanjay wrote:<blockquote
> class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid
> rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
> > Hello,
> > this is more of a general question - does anyone have an opinion on
> whether ODK could be re-created using
> > something like PhoneGap (<a href="http://www.phonegap.com"
> target="_blank">www.phonegap.com</a>)? This would allow ODK to reach more
> platforms- iphone, blackberry etc. - I have heard
> > you can use sensors to make use of the phone's native GPS and Camera.
On Thursday, July 26, 2012 10:18:31 PM UTC+5:30, Mitch wrote:
> It is still very early stages. We're trying to settle on what the HTML should look like for the form and how a new XLSForm would generate that.
> It will run on Android 2.2 and newer. I haven't thought much about how to publish data back into Aggregate, so that is broken at this point. It may or may not publish using the OpenRosa standards -- we may instead decide to use the synchronization API we have developed for ODK Tables, which this would be released with.
> Anything I gave you would unstable and I could not provide any support on upgrades to more stable versions.
> We are aiming to have something in an early beta condition by September. Ping me as that gets closer, and I can point you to that code. But expect migrations to be somewhat painful if you decide to try out the beta.
> Mitch
> On Wed, Jul 25, 2012 at 9:09 PM, <bill...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Mitch, where are you on this? I would be very interested in trying it out.
> On Wednesday, May 9, 2012 11:08:28 AM UTC-6, Mitch wrote:
> > I'm actually prototyping a HTML5-based variant of ODK Collect.
> > PhoneGap (now the Apache Cordova incubator project) is not yet stable enough for building reliable Android apps. The native-features interfaces also seem to be more complex than appears necessary; I think it may be trying too hard to handle platforms that don't provide substantially all the HTML5 embedded browser functionality. There is some talk of a Cordova 2.0 which might be leaner and more appropriate.
> > More problematic, I've found that our Android 2.x Droid phone cannot support jQuery or jQuery mobile-based HTML5 apps -- they end up crashing deep in the bowels of the webpage renderer. Android 4.0 works somewhat better. Gesture detection (swipeleft, swiperight) within the javascript is a problem with both phones.
> > So for the prototype I've switched to zepto.js and jqTouch libraries, which work on 2.x upward, and an ODK-specific callback mechanism for accessing the native functionality.
> > Mitch
> > On Wed, May 9, 2012 at 1:16 AM, Alex Little <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:al...@alexlittle.net" target="_blank">al...@alexlittle.net</a>></span> wrote:
> > I would like to see a more shell apps approach, but as already pointed out the technology is not quite there yet to be a dependable replacement for native apps (maybe in the near-ish future?).
> > On the project I'm working on (<a href="http://opendatakit.org/2011/10/using-odk-to-improve-maternal-care-in-..." target="_blank">http://opendatakit.org/2011/<WBR>10/using-odk-to-improve-<WBR>maternal-care-in-ethiopia/</a>) using ODK, we have started to use an HTML5 app (run in the mobile browser rather than as phonegap or similar) to deliver dashboard/analytics information (see: <a href="http://digital-campus.org/developing-an-analytics-dashboard-for-mater..." target="_blank">http://digital-campus.org/<WBR>developing-an-analytics-<WBR>dashboard-for-maternal-care/</a> for more info). The advantage for us is that we can allow users with or without Android devices (such as managers/supervisors in the health bureaus) to access this on their normal desktop/laptops, even if they have an intermittent internet connection since the data is cached in the browser. Admittedly, this dashboard is quite simple/read-only and doesn't require access to device GPS, camera etc, but this approach (using a mixture of native/shell wherever is most appropriate) seems to be working well for us so far.
> > Cheers,
> > Alex
> > On Wednesday, May 9, 2012 2:26:20 AM UTC+2, Sanjay wrote:<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
> > Hello,
> > this is more of a general question - does anyone have an opinion on whether ODK could be re-created using
> > something like PhoneGap (<a href="http://www.phonegap.com" target="_blank">www.phonegap.com</a>)? This would allow ODK to reach more platforms- iphone, blackberry etc. - I have heard
> > you can use sensors to make use of the phone's native GPS and Camera.
> > On Wednesday, May 9, 2012 2:26:20 AM UTC+2, Sanjay wrote:<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
> > Hello,
> > this is more of a general question - does anyone have an opinion on whether ODK could be re-created using
> > something like PhoneGap (<a href="http://www.phonegap.com" target="_blank">www.phonegap.com</a>)? This would allow ODK to reach more platforms- iphone, blackberry etc. - I have heard
> > you can use sensors to make use of the phone's native GPS and Camera.
The code is still in early stages as things rapidly change day to day.
Once the design has been more formalized and most of the design
choices have been worked out so the code converges we will be sharing
it. Currently the code may look radically different in 3 days and we
are in the prototype and refine mode right now.
On Fri, Aug 24, 2012 at 6:12 AM, Vivek Singh <vsi...@thoughtworks.com> wrote:
> Is it possible to see the code for this somewhere?
> Thanks
> On Thursday, July 26, 2012 10:18:31 PM UTC+5:30, Mitch wrote:
>> It is still very early stages. We're trying to settle on what the HTML should look like for the form and how a new XLSForm would generate that.
>> It will run on Android 2.2 and newer. I haven't thought much about how to publish data back into Aggregate, so that is broken at this point. It may or may not publish using the OpenRosa standards -- we may instead decide to use the synchronization API we have developed for ODK Tables, which this would be released with.
>> Anything I gave you would unstable and I could not provide any support on upgrades to more stable versions.
>> We are aiming to have something in an early beta condition by September. Ping me as that gets closer, and I can point you to that code. But expect migrations to be somewhat painful if you decide to try out the beta.
>> Mitch
>> On Wed, Jul 25, 2012 at 9:09 PM, <bill...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Mitch, where are you on this? I would be very interested in trying it out.
>> On Wednesday, May 9, 2012 11:08:28 AM UTC-6, Mitch wrote:
>> > I'm actually prototyping a HTML5-based variant of ODK Collect.
>> > PhoneGap (now the Apache Cordova incubator project) is not yet stable enough for building reliable Android apps. The native-features interfaces also seem to be more complex than appears necessary; I think it may be trying too hard to handle platforms that don't provide substantially all the HTML5 embedded browser functionality. There is some talk of a Cordova 2.0 which might be leaner and more appropriate.
>> > More problematic, I've found that our Android 2.x Droid phone cannot support jQuery or jQuery mobile-based HTML5 apps -- they end up crashing deep in the bowels of the webpage renderer. Android 4.0 works somewhat better. Gesture detection (swipeleft, swiperight) within the javascript is a problem with both phones.
>> > So for the prototype I've switched to zepto.js and jqTouch libraries, which work on 2.x upward, and an ODK-specific callback mechanism for accessing the native functionality.
>> > Mitch
>> > On Wed, May 9, 2012 at 1:16 AM, Alex Little <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:al...@alexlittle.net" target="_blank">al...@alexlittle.net</a>></span> wrote:
>> > I would like to see a more shell apps approach, but as already pointed out the technology is not quite there yet to be a dependable replacement for native apps (maybe in the near-ish future?).
>> > On the project I'm working on (<a href="http://opendatakit.org/2011/10/using-odk-to-improve-maternal-care-in-..." target="_blank">http://opendatakit.org/2011/<WBR>10/using-odk-to-improve-<WBR>maternal-care-in-ethiopia/</a>) using ODK, we have started to use an HTML5 app (run in the mobile browser rather than as phonegap or similar) to deliver dashboard/analytics information (see: <a href="http://digital-campus.org/developing-an-analytics-dashboard-for-mater..." target="_blank">http://digital-campus.org/<WBR>developing-an-analytics-<WBR>dashboard-for-maternal-care/</a> for more info). The advantage for us is that we can allow users with or without Android devices (such as managers/supervisors in the health bureaus) to access this on their normal desktop/laptops, even if they have an intermittent internet connection since the data is cached in the browser. Admittedly, this dashboard is quite simple/read-only and doesn't require access to device GPS, camera etc, but this approach (using a mixture of native/shell wherever is most appropriate) seems to be working well for us so far.
>> > Cheers,
>> > Alex
>> > On Wednesday, May 9, 2012 2:26:20 AM UTC+2, Sanjay wrote:<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
>> > Hello,
>> > this is more of a general question - does anyone have an opinion on whether ODK could be re-created using
>> > something like PhoneGap (<a href="http://www.phonegap.com" target="_blank">www.phonegap.com</a>)? This would allow ODK to reach more platforms- iphone, blackberry etc. - I have heard
>> > you can use sensors to make use of the phone's native GPS and Camera.
>> > On Wednesday, May 9, 2012 2:26:20 AM UTC+2, Sanjay wrote:<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
>> > Hello,
>> > this is more of a general question - does anyone have an opinion on whether ODK could be re-created using
>> > something like PhoneGap (<a href="http://www.phonegap.com" target="_blank">www.phonegap.com</a>)? This would allow ODK to reach more platforms- iphone, blackberry etc. - I have heard
>> > you can use sensors to make use of the phone's native GPS and Camera.
