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androidandroid-c2dm

C2DM "app server" options

This is an edit of a question I asked about a week ago.

I'm working on an Android app which communicates with the users' home PCs to control some 3rd-party PVR software running on the PCs. The model is as follows...

Android app < - wifi/3g -> Windows Service <- localhost -> 3rd-party PVR software

The Windows Service is written by me (C# .NET) and acts as a proxy between the Android app and the PVR software.

What I'd like to do is use C2DM to notify users of various things - one example is if one family member sets a TV show to record, a C2DM message is sent to other family members' devices so everybody is up to date.

I now seem to have 3 possible options for how to proceed. The Windows Service is a key player in the system so plays a part in them all but I don't know what the best approach is.

  1. Use the Windows Service as the C2DM 3rd-party app server. Downside - I need to embed my C2DM credentials into the software and there will be potentially 100s of servers around the world requesting authentication tokens (not sure if Google would allow that).

  2. I have a hosted web server I could use which allows PHP/MySQL. The Windows Server would simply act as a relay but my PHP experience is minimal and I can't find any comprehensive PHP examples for C2DM.

  3. Use Google App Engine (again with the Windows Service as a relay). The problem is I don't know if Google are happy with GAE being used as a C2DM app server although I've seen a few mentions of it.

I've basically Google'd until my head hurts and keep coming back to the same tutorials and partial code examples. I know how C2DM works and actually have option 1 working in my dev environment but it doesn't seem like a good option to go public with.

So (trying to keep my question as objective as possible)...working on the principle that option 1 is not a good idea, are there any reasonably comprehensive PHP examples out there for a C2DM app server or, alternatively, does anyone know definitively if GAE is an acceptable approach?

Solution

  • With C2DM you can target the device that the message goes. So in you example the one that sets the TV show sends a message to the Windows Service to notify each one of the other users. You can do that with 1 C2DM server

    UPDATE

    I whould go with the 3rd server.But of what i can tell you are not sure about the structure. Shared now GAE later maybe finally ec2. What can you actualy do is to create a CNAME that points to the server of choice.(less hard coded). I don't think that GAE cannot be used for C2DM. It's a simple server with http requests.