Silicus helps Non-profit Organization develop its collaboration and blogging software application for the Google Android mobile interface

About the Client

The client provides free websites that connect people experiencing a significant health challenge to family and friends, making each health journey easier. Powered by generous donors, the client’s websites offer a personal and private space to communicate and amplify love, hope and compassion when health matters most.

The client’s website offers the following features to users:

• Patient care journal to update family and friends
• Guestbook for messages of love and support
• Photo gallery
• Free online support for using the service

The Challenge

Having enjoyed immense popularity over its PC based and iPhone specific web-sites, the client was planning to develop a similar one for the Google Android platform. The client was looking for a strong Google Android software development partner to help complete the development within the stipulated time frame.

The client selected Silicus for our past track record in delivering high quality software applications on the Android platform.

Silicus developed the software application from scratch as the iPhone code or design could not be re-used. However, the iPhone functionality and UI were used as a benchmark during software development.

Silicus used the Eclipse IDE along with the Android Development Tools (ADT) plug-in for software development. The built-in Android emulators were used for unit testing and validation. Silicus used the client’s in-house developed API’s for developing the framework and structure of the application. The API made it easier to develop in a standardized manner in a way the client wanted. The Android software developers accessed the API’s through a set of URL’s that were shared by the client. Custom Java code was written to cover different functional areas within the mobile application.

The client wanted the software to be compatible with Android 2.2, the latest release, and backward compatible with versions 1.5, 1.6 and 2.1. This presented a challenge as there was no backward compatibility for Google Android, and also push based notifications were not supported by version 1.5. Our Android mobile development experts decided to develop the application in 1.6 so that it could run on versions 2.1 and 2.2. Compatibility with version 1.5 was handled through the “permissions” functionality written in an xml file. The mobile software developers had to use different emulators for each version of the Android SDK – 1.5, 1.6, 2.1 and 2.2.

Another challenge faced by the mobile software developers was ensuring the mobile application was displaying on different mobile phone screen sizes and resolutions. This was implemented again through “permissions” and by not introducing any dependencies during run-time. The logic for the permissions was written in an xml file, where-in images and graphics would be fetched from different folders for different screen sizes.

User preferences and application settings were stored in a shared preferences section. These settings were stored within the mobile software application itself and were local to the application. Once the application is uninstalled, these would get removed as well.

Silicus architected the mobile application to communicate with the online server through JSON requests. The user would need to have either GPRS or Wi-Fi as an internet connection medium in order to send and receive JSON requests to the server.

• Languages – Java
• Platform – Google Android SDK
• Tools – Android Development Tools, Android Emulators, Eclipse plug-in for Android
• Application Logging – Log4j JAR file
• Bug Tracking - JIRA

Reaching out to a wider audience

The client’s free websites have touched the lives of millions of people who were connected to a loved one amidst a serious health event. The client’s objective in 2010 was to meet more of the tremendous need that exists for its service.

By creating the application on the Google Android platform, Silicus helped the the client reach out to more people, providing Hope, Healing and Connection through a free website.

Faster Release Time

Our expertise and track record of developing mobile applications for the Google Android platform ensured that all challenges were resolved and the application was delivered within the pre-defined timelines.

Reliable and high quality development

The strong process driven software development methodology adopted by Silicus ensured that frequent deliverables were made to the client during development. The deliverables were sent in the form of .apj files. The client’s software QA team would test the deliverables and log errors in JIRA, which was accessed and resolved by the Silicus mobile software development team.