API for android/iphone apps?

Are you thinking of generating 2 .dll type components i.e. 1 for ipad and 1 for android that can use a 3rd api loaded on each platform?

It is like using an apple and an orange to create a pear. The 2 items internally are totally dissimilar.. Also Apple has severe restrictions on what they do and do not allow

On Android you need to use the Android developer's kit and create an app in the Java that runs on Android.  The is also a sub-flavor that you can create apps using a kind of visual basic (that compiles to android' java).

On iPhone you need to write your app using the iPhone's Object C programming language.

There is another solution where you only need to write 1 app and it is way simpler and will even work really old Nokias and other phones that support browsers.

Why not consider writing a web-based app running on a server where users can login or have unique URL switches. Once a user has logged in you redirect to a page where you ask the user to bookmark the page.  They can then locate the bookmark somewhere on their phone's home pages.

At some time in the future you can then develop front-ends for both android and iPhone. Which use the same webservices back-end

Somebody else may have a better suggestion, but hope this helps:~).

celtitian.

Could you please elaborate on your question.
I don't really understand it.

Do you try to find a way to write code, that can run on an iphone and on an android phone?

If you write a web application if should be able to run on both platforms.

What tasks should this API perform.
To whom should the strings and parameters be passed?
To a remote server?

I have a feeling you are talking about something like a webservice, with clients on iPhone and Android.

The simplest would be to develop REST webservices using any platform like WCF for .NET or Mono, Groovy for java or even PHP.

Consuming REST wouldnt require elaborate stuff on the client end and the simple HTTPClients on both iOS/Android would do.

I know one tool that is still in development that promises what you seem to be looking for.  Currently Delphi XE2 lets you build on Windows and cross compile to Mac, IPad and IPhone.  The next version (XE3) is supposed to also allow cross compile to Linux and Android devices.

Have a look at Creating your first Android application ... :

http://www.datasprings.com/resources/articles-information/android-sdk-example-application-sample-code


Gary

I think I didn't explain myself correctly.

@ambience is on the right direction.

I am creating a sort of small web service, just for university. Im still in the design phase so I haven't chosen a programming language yet, most likely i'll be selecting php, but not sure yet.

Its gonna be a kind of "server" on a website, that given an IP address and another parameter, will return a string value, that can be called either from a web browser, from another website or a mobile APP.

For instance, we are receiving four parameters:
param1 (IP): "192.168.0.1"
param2(ref value): "123456"
param3(clientID): "87654"
param4(password): "abcde"

And after using that information and processing it, we will return another value, ie:
return:"101010"

The service should be able to be used from an iphone or android application (but not only!), thats why i want to know.

And of course, i'm gonna have many other questions related to this project.

I hope i have explained myself better now :)

I would think that HTML5 would cause more than few issues since the adoption of portions of HTML 5 is not that standardized.  What parts of HTML 5 could you rely on?

I am not being sarcastic in asking this.  It may be my own ignorance that led to the question.  Please enlighten me if this has become a non issue!

The more i read the more confused i am with this :S