Paul Hartland
paul.hartland at googlemail.com
Fri Feb 14 02:00:14 CST 2014
Stuart, I have looked at no 3 but don't want to mess with web servers at present as I just have a single PC that I use at home at present and not too clever on the security aspects etc as I know very little about networks, for a little test last year I installed apache on my machine and wrote a simple web page that people could see, but a network friend of mine said if I hadn't got an external firewall box then I am open to security risks. Anyway the reason I am looking at SMS to email or directly into database is because email will require a connection to wi-fi or mobile data where an SMS just requires a phone signal, but I have thought about a mobile app which will accept the code and message then when the user presses send, turns the mobile data on, sends the email and turns the mobile data off, but again this could result in cost to the phone user where I imagine the majority of people have unlimited texts nowadays plus you mention basic4android when I could not guarantee the phone would be android and could be blackberry, IOS, Windows phone or android, unless of course an application developed on basic4android would work on all those. Which brings me back to SMS which will convert into an email or some gateway where my application at the client site would scan every x seconds for new email and strip the contents out to a database, I did use a third party tool called SMS2Email at my last place of work for sending out SMS via email, but was hoping to avoid a third party for turning an SMS into an email. I am just stuck on the getting the data from any mobile device to the client site as the software for the client side I can develop in a couple of hours max. Paul On 14 February 2014 07:05, Stuart McLachlan <stuart at lexacorp.com.pg> wrote: > Writing the app to send the data from an Android mobile device is quite > simple with > Basic4Android. :-) > > You can do it in at least four ways that I can think of: > > 1. SMS > 2. Email > 3. HTTP Post message > 4. FTP. > > There are B4A libraries to use all of these methods quite simply, so the > hard part is getting > the data into the database at the receiving end. Solutions would be: > > 1. SMS: Either an SMS to EMail gateway , in which case t is the same > subsequent solution > as 2, or a GPRS device and SIM card to receive the SMS on the PC - that > will require 3rd > party software and an interface between that software and your database. > IOW, not simple. > > 2. Email. Device sends an email to a dedicated address. An app on the > database server > polls the mailbox, downloads any emails, strips out the content and puts > it into the database > (that's exactly how we handle the PNG National Election results - using an > application I wrote > in PowerBASIC to do the polling/data transfer) > > 3. HTTP Post message - device sends a HTTP message to a web server's > simple PHP > page which accepts the post data and drops it into a database. Code to > send the message is > very simple to write. If you have a webserver available with PHP, the > webpage is also very > simple to write. > > 4. FTP. Fairly simple to write something to transfer the data to an FTP > server. You then > use a similar approach to 2 above to poll the FTP server for new files and > download and > parse the data from the server . > > > Option 3 is definitely the simplest to implement if you have the web > server. You can put > WAMP on a machine inside your network listening on a high port number and > forward that > port on your router for a fairly solid, secure solution to getting the > data in real time ( i.e. no > need for periodic polling) > > > > > On 14 Feb 2014 at 4:55, Paul Hartland wrote: > > > To all, > > > > I am working on a little project, which if works has potential to > > become quite big. This however involves a learning curve for me in > > developing applications for mobile phones but I am sure I can get to > > grips with this. > > The way I see this working is that the user will enter a code and > > message > > on the phone application (or even just send it as an SMS which saves > > me the mobile application piece) and press send and this message will > > be stored in a MS Access or SQL Database, the part I can't see is how > > the message will get from the phone application into the database, I > > can't seem to see a way of avoiding a third party software. I > > envisaged the application to send the message as an SMS and appear in > > an email, where my server side application would scan for new emails, > > then if found would write some of the contents to the database. > > > > Is this possible to achieve without a third party software solution, > > bearing in mind that the phones sending the SMS could have a variety > > of providers as in O2, Vodafone, T-Mobile etc etc. > > > > Thanks in advance for any help on this. > > > > -- > > Paul Hartland > > paul.hartland at googlemail.com > > _______________________________________________ > > dba-Tech mailing list > > dba-Tech at databaseadvisors.com > > http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/dba-tech > > Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com > > > > > _______________________________________________ > dba-Tech mailing list > dba-Tech at databaseadvisors.com > http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/dba-tech > Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com > -- Paul Hartland paul.hartland at googlemail.com