14 March 2011, 18:46

Hi Folks,

I have a couple of items that I am looking to add to MaharaDroid as I get around to them.

1.7 adds additional language support and QR code config support (fairly trivial) .. on the google code project site / in test. The QR code config is just something I have done for another app so implementing in MaharaDroid also.

1.8 currently targeting off line support (ability to save for later upload). Perhaps also to be able to sync with Mahara when back online .. this would require tighter integration with Mahara and likely lead to the beginings of development of APIs (such as proper authentication via Oauth) for mobile, etc clients. Any resulting APIs would obviously be available for anyone interested in writing an iPhone app .. 

Is there anything that others would like to see? Any other core features that mobile users would like ot perform?

Cheers,

Alan 

15 March 2011, 20:38

Hi Alan,

I did not try the existing app so don't know whats there.

It would make sence to me if one could upload an image, audio or video into something linked to a specific view (even if its just a folder or that is organized a little bit) and also perhaps some way to capture thoughts via text and place them into the portfolio.

I would even break down and buy a mobile phone for that :)

15 March 2011, 23:10

Hi Dirk,

Basic artefact upload from a mobile device is there (with an Android app MaharDroid in the Android Market). That's the fundamental starting point. We are looking to build on that with feedback from the community.

Currently the Android experience is .. browse and find content on your phone then 'Share' it to Mahara. Currently it just gets uploaded to a 'default' folder but you have the ability to add a title, description and tags. Notably there are no Mahara 'read' APIs just yet . this is a key area of extension. The current app just pushes to the Mahara server.

Some screenshots (and a link to Kristinas youtube howto) can be found here http://http://code.google.com/p/maharadroid/

Being able to interact with Mahara on a mobile device would be great (and I personally believe with the proliferation of cheap smartphones such as Android supporting these devices needs to be on the roadmap). Interest is building to make a solid start on this and it would be good to get a better understanding of what functionality is seen by others as being valuable. 

Cheers,

Alan

20 March 2011, 23:09

Thanks for the reply.

Today I experimented a bit with my new phone. My son and I were pretending to be on a school trip to the zoo. We took many photos and some short video clips.  While having a snack, we decided to upload some pictures and videos to the http://master.dev.mahara.org

A couple observations:
1) It was all very easy and I like the simplicity of the app. Simplicity impresses me and as a teacher I would want my studnets to work with the files at a later date anyways.
2) I could imagine that users might want to upload to different group spaces.
3) File quota gets used up quickly.

25 March 2011, 19:42

Hello Dirk,

Thanks for testing. I also like that you use the Android-built-in "Share" functionality because then a user doesn't have to remember to go to the app in order to upload a file.

Thank you also for your suggestions below for compressing images. That's an interesting suggestion and also makes it apparent that it is necessary for students to go through their files ocassionally and throw the ones out that aren't part of a porfolio as Mahara can often (due to quota) not be used as file storage / backup for the harddrive, but as system where selected artefacts are kept.

Cheers

Kristina

16 March 2011, 0:43

Hi Alan,

Some thoughts from NZ educators for the wishlist for a mobile app are the following:

• being able to upload any file from the device to Mahara
• being able to wait with the upload until you are in a free wiki spot (you cover that in your roadmap for 1.8)
• being able to txt / microblog messages to Mahara similar to what you can do with posterous: You send an email to your blog and it's published there

The feedback we have gotten so far is mainly concerned with uploading artefacts when they are created from the device they are created on without having to wait till they have computer access.

I think it would be cool to have in addition to that and Dirk already mentioned a bit of that:

• being able to decide into which folder you want to put the file you are uploading
• get a list of your existing file folders so that you can specify the folder you want to upload files into
• tag files individually and in bulk
• being able to embed video and audio content from the phone in a page. That's not something for the mobile app to do, but for the media player. Or if the media player is not an option, if we could find a way to convert the video / audio coming from the phone into mp4 and mp3 respectively, that would be awesome.

Cheers

Kristina

20 March 2011, 23:14

I like the idea of file compression before upload. Maybe there could be a default 'quick upload' and a 'full size' for later or more select files? I realy like the fact that Mahara keeps full file size of images but perhaps for mobiles a upload conversion makes sense?

23 May 2011, 22:31

Hi Alan,

multi file upload support would be great. I tried the Astro file manager app to make a zip file but then it would not let me 'share' it to MaharaDroid. Perhaps the app could have a built in zip functionality. Just a thought.

23 May 2011, 23:57

Hi Dirk,

I'm just about ready to roll out MaharaDroid 1.7 (latest screenshots http://code.google.com/p/maharadroid/).

Version 1.7 includes:

• multi file upload support
• improved file support (I will check .zip .. no reason why we shouldn't support zip files)
• 'save' functionality for later upload (with preference setting for upload over wifi/mobile data, etc).

Until we have light-weight / mobile APIs design for authentication, etc I can't do any back-ground uploading, etc. But hopefully the ability to save and upload later will be a start.

I just have some translations (thanks team) to include then I will push to the market.

Cheers,
Alan

Note that the multi file upload capability requires Android 1.6 not 1.5 so a compatibility breaker for some on 1.5.