Journal for Research | Volume 02 | Issue 03 | May 2016

ISSN: 2395-7549

Developing Custom Apps using Dynamic XML

Parsing
Mebin George
Department of Computer Science & Engineering
Amal Jyothi College of Engineering Institute Kottayam,
Kerala

Nijo Cyriac
Department of Computer Science & Engineering
Amal Jyothi College of Engineering Institute Kottayam,
Kerala

Ruben John
Department of Computer Science & Engineering
Amal Jyothi College of Engineering Institute Kottayam,
Kerala

Sohesh TS
Department of Computer Science & Engineering
Amal Jyothi College of Engineering Institute Kottayam,
Kerala

Prof. Jerin Thomas

Department of Computer Science & Engineering
Amal Jyothi College of Engineering Institute Kottayam, Kerala

Abstract
Every single day thousands of android devices are activated, the success of android owes to its simplicity and usability. This
system aims at helping users with minimum or no programming background to build their own simple android application,
which will in turn reduce the cost and makes the application friendlier. The principle behind the proposed system is simplicity
and user friendliness for minimalistic applications. Development of mobile applications brings new challenges in possibilities for
their adjustment to actual context of a user and a device. Our long-term goal is to design and implement a mobile client which
can dynamically adapt to the surrounding conditions and requirements of the user.
Keywords: Android, XML, Custom Apps, Client, Creator, Template, Layout, Parsing
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________
I.

INTRODUCTION

Mobile phones have brought about a wave of revolution in the recent years. The main phones that have sprung up in the market
are the Android devices. These devices are nowadays becoming popular among the people mainly due to their user friendliness
and cost. The devices provide performance which is in par with the various smart phones that are made by large companies. Also
the fact that being open source also provides a wide range of opportunities to the developers to come forward and develop new
applications to make the life of people easy. Many new games and applications that are both entertainment and useful have
sprung up in the online app stores. These applications however are made by developers who know how to code. The normal
people do not have this privilege. This project brings forwards a system which will help ordinary people to develop interactive
and dynamic mobile applications.
The ordinary people may have an idea to create an application for (say) their blog. Since blogs are all created free of cost, they
would only be creating a mobile application if they were familiar in Android programming. This is not the case now. So, they
should either give it to some other developer to design and implement their app or be content with just the website version. This
system helps the user overcome this problem with by making their application from a list of templates. The user can select the
details needed to create the application
II. PROPOSED SYSTEM
There are two types of applications that will be used in this system viz. the creator app and the client app. The creator app is used
by the user who wants to create the application for his website. He can setup the layout of his application from the list of all the
templates present. He sets up all the required fields and tabs that are needed for the design of his application. He then submits the
details to the server. The server stores an XML file of the details and information that the creator app had made. Whenever the
client app is run, the store displays the list of all the custom apps that were uploaded to the server. The user can download the
apps to their own app. This initiates an XML parsing operation at the server side. The values stored before will be given to the
XML parser which will substitute the default values in the template with those present on the server. This will generate the
application which the creator app had made. This app will now be locally stored on the users mobile phone. A user can
download any number of apps from the store onto their local storage device. The simplicity for the development is an attractive
feature for the common people. By choosing some information one can create an app. The apps are developed in an environment
where templates for many different designs are stored and are used as per the requirements of the user. This means that apps with
many a variety of requirements can be developed within a small time period.
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Developing Custom Apps using Dynamic XML Parsing

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Fig. 2.1: Creator App

Creator Application:
The creator application has a wide variety of features. This application makes all the changes to the created application. The
components maybe added or deleted according to the discretion of the user. The creator app can be used to manage the various
users for editing purposes. It also can change the layout of the application and the tabs. There is an inbox option wherein all the
messages and queries received from the client app will be stored which can be accessed and replies given back. The creator app
also can support new layouts and templates which will be updated in their dashboard as and when new features will be launched.
The architecture of the customer application is shown in Figure 2.1. This app collects details of the app to be created, the name,
title, colour schemes to be used and the images if any to be uploaded to any specified tabs.

Fig. 2.2: Client App

Client Application:
The client application is the one that is downloaded to the users local storage. The client application has the option of searching
the applications that are stored on the server and to switch between various apps. It has various tabs. The newsfeed tab contains
all the latest posts and updates that are made by the creator every day. The about tab show the information about the company
that created the app. The contact us tab has the options of sending a query or giving a call. If a query is sent, then the message is
sent to the inbox of the creator app. The call button can be used to get a personal interaction with the creator about his feed. The
architecture for client app is shown in Figure 2.2. The client application created will be a light weight program which does not
take much memory. All the different client apps downloaded will be accessible from a single app and only the data retrieved
from XML in server will be dynamically loaded into the default fields.
III. FUTURE WORK
The present system only has a single kind of template. More templates must be designed which can be modified according to the
need of the user. There will be a user palette which can hold various values for the designs. The user will be able to select from
the varieties of templates and designs give to him. He also will have a designer board where he can drag and drop the various
component elements and design the template according to his discretion. This new template that he created will be sent to the
server and create an entry. The developer can then select if the design is good and release it to the general public as their new
design template other that the presets already existing.
IV. CONCLUSION
The main challenge in the development of the proposed system is to emulate the behavior of multiple apps within a single
application. The solution to the said problem is to develop basic framework of the apps and the contents will have to be

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Developing Custom Apps using Dynamic XML Parsing

(J4R/ Volume 02 / Issue 03 / 009)

downloaded from the server. The problem that we are trying to solve is the difficulty to make android apps typically to generate
and android app of significant use and reliability a large team of skilled developers must work for some time. This way the
customers can satisfy their own small requirements on their own like making an app for blog or a simple internet radio app and
so on. The scope of our work is vast since every small organization will need an app for more publicity and social reach. The
simplicity for the development is an attractive feature for the common people.
REFERENCES
[1]
[2]
[3]

Pavel Kriz, Filip Maly, Provisioning of Application Modules to Android Devices.

Kriz, P., Maly, F. , Slaby, A.: Mobile oriented software architecture M client M client server. In: Proceedings of the International Conference on
Information Technology Interfaces, Croatia, pp. 109-114. ISBN: 978-1-61284-897-6. (2011)
Krejcar, O., Brida, P., Kotsopoulos, S. Miscellaneous service delivery to modern mobile devices. Journal of Computer Networks and Communications,
2013, art. no. 302502. ISSN: 20907141. (2013)

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