Have any of you app developers faced this situation: You have an app that needs to download data from the Internet, but don't want to add the Internet permission to your application, because it may deter some users from installing the app. Moreover, the data may be large and may need to be saved to the SD card, which requires yet another permission. You also need to ensure that a network is available currently, which means more permissions (WiFi state, etc).
Here's my proposed solution: *A URL fetch service* This will be a simple app which accepts URL fetch requests from other applications and fetches them (HTTP GET) from the internet as a background service. Upon completion, the data can be returned to the application as a string or optionally saved to the SD card (and served via a content provider). Since this is based on a callback, the network need not be currently available. The service will (optionally) queue the request and fetch whenever a network is available. Another useful feature would be avoiding duplicate requests. For example, an app may want to fetch some data periodically, say every two hours. But if the network is not available for two days, then only one request should be made when the network becomes available, not 50! This could be done by letting the app assign a unique id to the request. Requests that have the same id will over-write other requests from the same app with the same id. *Logging and Filtering* >From the user point of view, there is tremendous advantage in having a centralized URL Fetcher, because she will be able to Log the requests that go through it, and also filter some requests. For example, she could filter an app that she doesn't want to be updated (for whatever reason). *Distribution:* The app will be open-source and made available on all App markets and also as a direct APK download. The only hurdle to this idea that I can see is that the app will have to be installed separately by the user. The problem will be reduced over time as more and more apps use this service. So the chances of the app being already present will increase. Also, custom and vendor supplied ROMs might pre-package this app, so it will be present by default. __________________________________ Your thoughts? -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Developers" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en
