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PHP communicating with Mobile Device

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Aug 02.2008

I have been writing PHP for awhile, but just recently a client has asked me to do something I have never done. Using a LAMP system I have to receive data from an Internet capable mobile device equipped with an application to transmit said data in whatever form I choose. Frankly, I don’t know what form that is. I have to make sure the mobile device and the website can communicate. More specifically, I’d like to store variables passed from the phone app into my database. Whatever that takes.

Could someone please point me in the right direction or name a few applicable technologies that may be viable here.

Thanks!

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7 Comments(s) ↴

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@LuboxAug 02.2008 — Wouldn't that be the mobile device just browsing pages/posting forms on the webserver? Or am I misunderstanding?
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@auxoneauthorAug 02.2008 — The mobile device, although having access to the Internet, should communicate via the installed application on it. Like if you were playing a video game application on your phone and it was saving the highscores to some database on the Internet.
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@LuboxAug 03.2008 — Ok. Still not sure I follow. The application on the mobile device is not yours? But you can tell them to transfer the data in whatever form? Like http POST? If so, it shouldn't be a problem. Or is it using some special data transfer method? If so, you'll need it's method specification I guess ?
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@chazzyAug 03.2008 — PHP has no support for mobile applications. you cannot install PHP runtime on a mobile device. you should look into Java ME or .NET, depending on what the cell phone platform supports.
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@auxoneauthorAug 03.2008 — Thanks for the responses guys. I guess I over complicated my question. Let me rephrase. I have never done any mobile device programming, yet I am in charge of designing a PHP-based website that can receive data from the phone and save it in the database. Until just recently I didn't even know what facilities exist on a mobile phone, but it seems like (as Lubox suggested) the phone app would just make HTTP posts to some PHP page on my server. Is this basically how it's done?

The phone app hasn't been created yet, but I am expected to produce a site that should be able to interact with the phone when the app is finally written, so I was curious about which protocols are used. So, may I also send info back to the phone via HTTP posts or puts??

Whatever system I come up with, as long as it's technically plausible, will be fine for the transmission of this data back and forth. To reiterate, I need to be able to both receive and transmit data to and from a mobile device, even if my transmission is just a trigger to tell the phone itself to GET the info from my database.

Thanks again. I've been reading a lot since my original post, however I must say I am still confused as to the techniques involved. Should I be looking into SOAP?
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@LuboxAug 03.2008 — Should I be looking into SOAP?[/QUOTE]

Yes, that would most likely be the best way, given that the application on the mobile device is "soap-capable".
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@atuchAug 03.2008 — Any device with internet access should be SOAP capable. SOAP is just xml formatted in a certain standardized way. The mobile application should be able to write the SOAP request and abide by SOAP standards in order to post to your web service on the server. You can even include some kind of authentication within each SOAP request to make sure only users with this mobile application are hitting your web service.
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