Android Question RDC vs REST Web Services approach

[luke2012]

Hi to all,
which is the best approach in order to implement a mobile solution with a back-end server as data source considering the following scenario :

1) For the back-end data source the Web interface (user management) isn't mandatory.
2) Users that access to the back-end is in a range from 100 : 500 (android clients)
3) The back-end data source must be accessible (Android Client) from a www address

 

[keirS]

Interesting question. I have been looking at a project with approx 100 clients recently and have come down firmly on the side of the REST approach as it's far more flexible. I will use B4J to write the REST api and that will be called from both the android clients and by php for the website.

Very impressed with B4J and it's server capabilities. It makes it very simple to put something together relatively quickly.

 

[Erel]

Both RDC and a rest solution with B4J will work fine.

RDC doesn't include any interface. If you need to access it with a browser then it will be simpler to implement a server app with B4J. See this example:
http://basic4ppc.com:51042/dbutils/index.html

 

[luke2012]

Both RDC and a rest solution with B4J will work fine.

RDC doesn't include any interface. If you need to access it with a browser then it will be simpler to implement a server app with B4J. See this example:
http://basic4ppc.com:51042/dbutils/index.html

@Erel and @keirS, thanks 4 your feedback!
@Erel, it's possibile to implement a Desktop GUI with B4J in order to allow the customer to manage the back-end data?

 

[Erel]

Yes. You can connect to RDC with a desktop app as well or you can connect to the database directly.

SQL Tutorial
[URL='http://www.b4x.com/android/forum/threads/37254/#content'][Server] Data Collection Solution - Device, Desktop and Web reports[/URL]

 

[luke2012]

Both RDC and a rest solution with B4J will work fine.

RDC doesn't include any interface. If you need to access it with a browser then it will be simpler to implement a server app with B4J. See this example:
http://basic4ppc.com:51042/dbutils/index.html

@Erel do you confirm me that using data collection solution I can do the following operations :

1) I can add new records filled by a users on an Android clients
2) Retreive informations by Web app and / or Desktop App (few sessions)
3) Update record from Web app and / or Desktop App

The last but not the least :

- Which hardware requirements I need (minimum req) to run the "Data Collection Solution" in a production environment within a scenario with about 500 Android clients * that retreive and update some records with a low update frequency ?

* The prod db could be about from 1000 to 3000 records

 

[Osi]

Are you limited to RDC or REST? There is another popular one ... SOAP.

 

[Erel]

You can do all of that with a B4J server app.

I believe that any modern computer should be able to handle very large databases with many concurrent connections.
See these numbers: [Server] Performance measures