Clearly Innovative Thoughts

Quick Example a basic IOS Module for Appcelerator Titanium to demonstrate geofencing. This is based on a blog posting found in .net magazine last month but thought it was a good demonstration of how simple it is to take an IOS example and port it to a module to extend the Appcelerator Titanium platform

Full source code available here in my github repository.

JUMP to 1:20 for start of Module Discussion

Full blog post with detailed walkthrough of modules created will be forthcoming, but I wanted to get the slides out as soon as possible for those who missed the event

Source code for ios cardio module presented at @codestrong  

Source code for android skyhookwireless module presented at @codestrong  

Slides available here

Full blog post with detailed walkthrough of modules created will be forthcoming, but I wanted to get the slides out as soon as possible for those who missed the event

Source code for ios cardio module presented at @codestrong  

Source code for android skyhookwireless module presented at @codestrong  

MyMilitaryLife App Spotlight: Helping Military Spouses Navigate Military Life 

See Article on Appcelerator Think Mobile Blog

See MSNBC article

Clearly Innovative Inc, a mobile development agency based in Washington DC, worked with National Military Family Association to build this platform for providing personalized curated information to military spouses based on the specific life path they are in.

Clearly Innovative utilized Appcelerator Titanium and Appcelerator Cloud Services to build an Android and IOS version of the mobile applications.

Social_plus is my updated version of social.js which includes functionality for uploading images to twitter

For those in the know, social.js is packaged with twitter, but the initial implementation doesn't allow you to push images to twitter very nicely... that made me sad.

So I pulled out my old blog post on posting images to twitter and hacked the functionality on to social.js and now we are off to the races!!

As usual, check out the code and if you have questions, hit me up on twitter. @aaronksaunders

#CODESTRONG

this is how you app.js might look

here is the complete project hosted on github 

This is a collection of GitHub Projects that contain my hacking around with Appcelerator's MVC Framework Alloy. The flexibility, structure and seperation of concerns creates an excellent platform for simple applications, but provides the structure that you need to hold together a larger project in a more manageable way.

Alloy Books Example, updated and written with Alloy https://github.com/aaronksaunders/ci.alloy.acs.books

TiBountyHunter, updated and written with Alloy https://github.com/aaronksaunders/alloy_fugitive

Beginnings of a function ACS Backbone Adapter that can be used with Alloy https://github.com/aaronksaunders/ci.alloy.adapter.two

Simple Application with tabbar and multiple windows https://github.com/aaronksaunders/SimpleAlloyPresentationApp

Beginnings of a function Stackmob Backbone Adapter that can be used with Alloy https://github.com/aaronksaunders/Alloy-StackMob-Adapter

Playing with the widget functionality using Alloy https://github.com/aaronksaunders/ci-alloy-twitter-widget

At Clearly Innovative, we build applications for clients, some clients do not want us to publicly state we have built applications for them since they have subcontracted the work to us for our mobile capabilities.

This creates an assortment of challenges for us from a marketing perspective since most new clients want to see a portfolio of work before considering Clearly Innovative for work... It is a bizzarre situation to be in a situation with a perspective client and being told we are not qualified because we dont have an app in the appstore that demonstrates a specific technology implementation with Appcelerator.

This application below is the beginning of an internal process where we will just build simple applications to demonstrate the capabilities of Clearly Innovative. Some of the apps will eventually be released into the community, but some will remain ours.

This State Department Information App is a rewrite of one of the first applications I wrote in Appcelerator almost two years ago.

Technical Features

RSS Reader and browser

Load YouTube Videos and play videos on device

Load photo collection from Flickr and view photos on device

Ability to post images, videos and links to articles on Facebook

Ability to post images, videos and links to articles on Twitter

Ability to send images, videos and links to articles through email

Uses Appcelerator CommonJS application structure

Recently, I was invited  to present on the topic of Appcelerator Titanium at MoDevDC – a large group with over 2,200 members for the mobile development community.  The focus was ‘Cross-Platform Tools – Enterprise & Government’ and I highlighted a lot of the key advantages of the platform - from time and cost savings to true native apps, high performance and enterprise features.  Below is a link to the video from the presentation (10 minutes).  (Videos from other presenters can also be found there).  Comments and questions are welcome.  In the near future, we will also be hosting webinars on how large enterprises and government organizations can rapidly, cost-effectively and securely build impactful mobile apps.

http://dc.gomodev.com/talks/app-demo-appcelerator-titanium-platform-by-brian-blankenship-clearly-innovative-inc/

More about MoDev and MoDevDC

MoDev was founded in 2009 by Pete Erickson, a local DC technologist and entrepreneur who was looking for mobile developers and decided the best way to do that was to organize a Meetup group.  Since then, his group has expanded from being DC-focused (MoDevDC) to having large conferences and other chapters around the country.  Next month in Washington, DC MoDev will host its 3rd major conference, “MoDevTablet” (http://modevtablet.com/), where Appcelerator will be one of many large sponsors.  For more about MoDev, go to gomodev.com.

About the Author

 Brian Blankenship is a Senior Mobile Solutions Provider with Clearly Innovative, Inc.  He is an experienced mobile developer, as well as a certified project manager with experience and certifications in agile development.  He has developed apps for various industries including the federal government.

Clearly Innovative, Inc.

Alloy is a new application framework by Appcelerator for Titanium.

It provides a nice MVC framework for developers that are building Titanium apps.

This is the beginnings of an Alloy app to fake a navigation group & demonstrate opening multiple windows including a modal window from a second controller.

This is a Appcelerator Titanium sample app integrated with Kinvey, to use make an account on https://console.kinvey.com

Here is my original blog posting on Kinvey, and an older github project that needs to be updated to use the Kinvey Titanium Module, it is currently using my code http://bit.ly/LySOSb

For more details on integrating Kinvey and Foursquare as a data provider, see the blog post at http://goo.gl/9dyMm.

Also, you have to update app-key and app-secret in the file app.js to your app-key and app-secret from the Kinvey console.

This example shows how to use a Foursquare Data Provider, the example is a work in progress and I will continue to update this project.

Please note that I am currently working through some issues with the kinvey appcelerator javascript module, I have sent the issues to kinvey support, but the verions included in this project has the fixes in it.

this code should run on IOS, still working IOS first then Android... Sorry Android Users

To enable Data Integration with this app, just

Create a new collection 

Select a provider (for example Foursquare) and enter credentials 

Enter your credentials, the run your app 

A few weeks ago I outlined some of the API integrations with Appcelerator Titanium I have written and open sourced for the community. I have also tried to maintain my commitment to the community by responding to QA Forum questions when I get the time... Need to maintain the top spot!

I have been blogging about Appcelerator for almost two years now and I am looking for ideas and suggestions from the community for API integrations to blog about and share with the community.

Recently, I attended the Defense & Security Mobile Symposium in Washington, DC, sponsored by AFCEA DC.  Speakers and panelists from across the DoD and agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security, the National Security Agency and others discussed the opportunities and challenges with respect to ‘going mobile’.  Here are the key themes that emerged:

1. Data Security – Cloud Storage vs. Local Data on Device

Naturally, in this business, security is always going to be paramount.  All it takes is one serious breach to undo any progress made towards sustained mobility.   That being said, just how to achieve reliable security seems to be a cloud vs. local debate – but only on the surface, because it’s never that simple – it all depends on the use case.  If the use case is a CONUS environment with high connectivity, cloud-only storage can be the general rule for highly-sensitive data.  However, in an overseas battle environment with little to no connectivity, cloud data serves no purpose as it can never be reliably retrieved or updated.  Therefore, each organization and division will need to identify the specific use case and answer this question based on several criteria such as:

Sensitivity of the data if a device is lost

Network availability and throughput

Requirements as to the timeliness of the data

In most cases, this could likely lead to some local and some cloud data rather than a single direction – each data set would just need to be put in a category based on the above criteria, and a decision made as to its persistence.

2. Device Ownership - BYOD vs. Organization-Supplied Devices

With the proliferation of consumer mobile devices, there is the natural desire for individuals to use a single device – and the type they prefer – for all mobile use.  For years, the corporate world resisted BYOD, but has largely begun to follow the trend.  In the defense & security arenas, lives are at risk.  What happens if a user decides to upgrade their device’s OS?  Will mission-critical apps still work?  How can any security settings be ensured to remain functional?  What if the user’s carrier pushes that OS update?  Does this mean that the device needs to go through weeks of a security review & recertification process before it can be used again?  This has begun to drive a need for at least two separate devices – one government device for classified use and an allowed personal device for unclassified enterprise systems (e.g., email, calendars, unclassified applications, files, etc.).  For many users, this is still seen as an improvement, as they can at least perform some duties on their personal device.  Regardless of who provides the device – one attendee posed a very interesting question: Is there any concern that these devices for classified use are being manufactured overseas?

3.  Specific Platforms vs. All Platforms

Two main operating systems – iOS and Android – have clearly emerged in the consumer and corporate worlds.  These OSs have naturally enamored defense & security users as well in their personal lives, driving discussions as to which devices will be supported.  While most representatives at the Symposium seemed to lean towards taking a ‘device and OS agnostic’ approach, there was at least one that did not feel iOS would ever support classified operations.  For the US Army, their selection of Android and DARPA’s development of its own ultra-secure flavor of Android has been no secret either.  Again, it will likely come back to the use case.  Not to mention the fact that the use case will need to consider purchasing and managing potentially hundreds of thousands of devices.  In large numbers, uniformity typically wins out due to full life cycle costs.  For unclassified applications, multiple platform approaches could still be implemented, especially in BYOD situations.  Several panelists expressed that their teams are either piloting or considering ‘hybrid apps’ (i.e., web and native apps) to help address users across multiple platforms.  This could include tools such as Appcelerator Titanium and others that allow HTML5 to be written while also delivering native behavior and native device APIs.

4.  Network Availability and Throughput

At stations overseas, in the field and even at home in the US, network availability and the ‘size of the pipe’ are constant concerns.  For example, if several thousand Marines are landing on a beach and all attempting to download the latest secure annotated maps and mission data to their mobile devices at the same time, what kind of network could support that?  Have prior arrangements been made to hijack local networks?  Are those networks compatible with our devices?  Are they sufficiently reliable?  Could they be sabotaged while we are depending on them?  Are local cell towers in danger of being ‘tapped’ while sensitive data is being transmitted through them?  For less urgent situations and for longer deployments, what will local cellular providers charge for using their networks?  Even back home we have signal ‘dead zones’, weak signal areas and trouble indoors with connectivity.   As more and more people in the U.S. and around the world become mobile device users, more and more of the spectrum will be taken up.  What course of action does the government need to take to reallocate and redistribute parts of the spectrum -  either in the event of emergencies or for the long-term?  Obviously, there are a host of questions around connectivity that must be resolved for a full set of mobile use cases to be implemented.

5.  Speeding up the Entire Lifecycle – From Procurement to Security Approval

The entire acquisition life cycle in defense and security (and the Federal government for that matter) was built on the Waterfall life cycle, which itself was largely based on the physical world (e.g., you have to architect a ship before you start to build any of it, etc.).   We have all seen examples of how that approach has led to large cost overruns and failures in systems development.  The very nature of mobile devices and mobile applications is the rapidity at which they arrive, evolve and become obsolete.  One thing that nearly all panelists at the Symposium recognized is the absolute need for the entire acquisition life cycle to adapt – at least for mobile efforts.  This includes recognizing that a procurement for a 30-day app development project cannot take 6 months – nor can the IA/C&A Security approval process.  This is driving various groups to form committees and pilot groups tasked with identifying just how to tackle this issue – while still maintaining ‘the good parts’ of the legacy processes to ensure that taxpayer dollars are spent wisely, missions are achieved and security risks are minimized.  In addition, many of the panelists mentioned that they are considering, piloting or using agile development practices rather than traditional waterfall development.  Vendors that are well-versed in agile methodologies will be most prepared to meet these needs.

6.  Integration with Enterprise Systems

As so many enterprise systems – classified and unclassified – were developed without modern mobile devices in mind, they naturally do not offer ideal connectivity to modern mobile devices ‘out of the box’.   If the full value of mobile applications is to be attained, these enterprise systems will need to be adapted to deliver mobile-consumable content and capabilities.  In some cases, this may be as simple as exposing some available APIs in JSON format via RESTful methods.  In others, this may entail connecting the enterprise system to another tool that effectively ‘bolts-on’ a mobile-friendly API.  In others, it may entail re-writing the system and developing wholly new APIs.  Knowing the mobile data needs, the source data systems and the complexity of adapting those source data systems for mobile is key to determining the overall feasibility, cost and schedule of the particular mobile initiative.  If integrating data from multiple systems, the added complexity of authenticating with multiple databases comes into play.  This could necessitate the building of a consolidated database or date warehouse to support the mobile use case.

7.  Leveraging Technology and Lessons Learned from Other Industries

As different as their missions are from other industries, the DoD and Security communities recognize that other industries have faced and tackled many similar issues – especially around security.  The Financial Services and Healthcare industries in particular are ones that have developed technologies, standards and policies that can be leveraged – at least as starting points for handling classified data.  In addition, taking a page out of the consumer market’s ‘app store’ concept, several services are planning their own app marketplaces.   These will not only make apps easier to deliver to users, but will also allow publishing by others outside of the traditional channels.  This would enable ‘grass roots’ development to meet urgent needs, create innovative solutions and to tackle unforeseen problems – naturally with some review and approval before publishing.

Final Thoughts

Overall, there are many issues to be tackled to enable full mobility in the DoD and Security Communities.  The good news is that progress is being made and that teams of cross-agency and cross-service collaborators are being assembled to keep moving forward – all with an understanding of the need to move at a different pace than in the past.

About the Author

 Brian Blankenship is a Senior Mobile Solutions Provider with Clearly Innovative, Inc.  He is an experienced mobile developer, as well as a certified project manager with experience and certifications in agile development.  He has developed apps for various industries including the federal government.

Clearly Innovative, Inc.

UPDATE: I have added an Android version of the module also, it can be found here

https://github.com/aaronksaunders/TiCardIO.Android

We have released a beta version of tiCardIO_IOS, a module for integrating CardIO with Titanium Appcelerator Applications.

Sample code and module is available in github.

Read more about cardIO here

We will release the source code for the module in the next few weeks once it is complete and tested.

I have been lucky enough to work with Appcelerator and start and build a mobile development agency minutes from my home. I go to work and get to write code and work with people that enjoy doing exciting things with mobile technology.

I believe one of the good things about Appcelerator is the community, so I like to make sure I am always giving something back.

I have recently posted 

AmazonS3 Module for IOS

Kinvey Module, pure javascript

Dropbox Module,pure javascript 

Box.net Module, pure javascript

MongoDB module, pure javascript

You can see all my public appcelerator code here in github and more in bitbucket

Not much to say....

Pure javascript dropbox API ported from a nodejs dropbox module here on github.

It was laying around since I posted this gist a few months ago, so I figured it was time to set it free.

Enjoy