[Haskell-cafe] Google Summer of Code Proposal - Communicating with mobile devices

[Kristopher Micinski]

Marcos,

Great to see you've revised a copy of this.  I've often felt that push
communication to devices has a very continuation-y flavor, and I think
having something in a web framework to express this would be great.

It looks like a large part of your time may be spent developing demo
apps, which is too bad, since ideally (for a Haskell project) you'd
want to spend as much time as possible writing in Haskell :-).
Perhaps you could write a fleshed out demo app for one environment
(iOS, Android, etc..) and then shallower examples for the rest.  (In
theory of course, you don't even need to write sample apps for most
platforms, since the push API should be an abstraction layer above
that...).

Should this project make it through to be one of Haskell's GSOC
projects, I'd be happy to chat with you about your development.

Kris

On Thu, May 2, 2013 at 8:53 PM, Marcos Pividori
<marcospividori at gmail.com> wrote:
> Greetings,
>
> I am a Computer Science student from Argentina. I am interested in working
> this summer in a project related to Haskell for the Google Summer of Code. I
> have been discussing my idea with Michael Snoyman in order to have a clearer
> idea. Now, I would like to know the community interest in this project.
>
> I want to develop a server-side library in Haskell for sending push
> notifications to devices running different OS, such as Android, iOS, Windows
> Phone, BlackBerry, and so on.
>
> To pass a subject, I have recently worked with Yesod (a Web Framework based
> in Haskell) developing a server to comunicate with Android-powered devices
> through Google Cloud Messaging. (It is available:
> https://github.com/MarcosPividori/Yesod-server-for-GCM – It is a Spanish
> commented version because it was a project for my University, I will replace
> it for an English version in the next weeks)
>
> To develop this project, I have read a lot about this service and Yesod
> libraries, and I developed two programs, a server written in Haskell and an
> Android application for mobile phones. Also, I developed an EDSL to write
> programs which exchange information with the devices.
>
> I would be really grateful if you could give me your opinion about this
> project and the proposal. I want some feedback in order to know if this
> would be a useful tool and what you would like to get out of it.
>
> Communicating with mobile devices
>
>
> Abstract
>
> The aim of this project is to develop a server-side library in Haskell for
> sending push notifications to devices running different OS, such as Android,
> iOS, Windows Phone, BlackBerry, and so on.
>
> The fact is that every company is developing Push Notification services, and
> these are very similar. Then, I want to find the fundamental concepts to
> construct a library which enable to configure the options for the different
> services and send messages easily.
>
> When I say they are very similar, I refer to the fact that they all are
> asynchronous, best-effort services that offers third-party developers a
> channel to send data to apps from a cloud service in a power-efficient
> manner. The most popular are:
>
>    - Google Cloud Messaging (Android)
>
>    - Apple Push Notification Service (iPhone / iPad)
>
>    - Microsoft Push Notification Service (Windows Phone)
>
>    - BlackBerry Push Service (BlackBerry)
>
>    - Windows Push Notification Services (Windows 8)
>
>    - etc.
>
> Once we have this libraries, I will investigate the possibility of mainting
> a "back and forth" communication between a server and mobile devices and I
> will develop a library to handle this.
>
>
> Motivation and expected benefits
>
> I think this idea would be very useful because it will allow all Haskell
> developers to open to a new world of mobile devices and to build useful
> programs/services that interact with them.
>
> Pushing data to smartphones provides users with instant access to desired
> updates as they happen, such as news and weather, sports scores, stock
> prices and other time-sensitive content. The push services provide an
> efficient way to quickly push timely information updates to many smartphones
> at once, in a centrally managed and controlled manner.
>
> Generally, you can also be very selective in who you send information to,
> including individual customers or many customers (multicast).
>
> This services minimizes the impact on the smartphones battery life. Instead
> of actively checking for new data, the applications can remain closed. Once
> the data is delivered, the application can be launched in the background to
> process it as needed.
>
> This processes offer an alternative to other less efficient methods, such as
> polling, where a device regularly polls an application server to see if new
> content is available.
>
> The main differences between the services, refer to details as: the maxim
> payload length, the quality of service, queueing the messages or not, and
> the time limit for this, the way the messages are handled in the devices,
> etc.
>
> As all the libraries to access to these services are developed in Java, I
> thought that it would be a good idea to offer an option to Haskell
> programmers. Taking advantage of the similarity of these services, I could
> develop a very adaptable library which fits the necessities for each one and
> at the same time offer an abstraction to the user.
>
>
> Deliverables.
>
>
> * An API library to build and send messages including:
>
>    - GCM and a demo Android app.
>
>    - APN and a demo iOS app.
>
>    - Microsoft Push Notification Service (Windows Phone) and a demo app.
>
>    - Documentation for all the code developed. Including the explantation on
> how to use the server
>
>      library and how to try the demo apps.
>
>
>
> * A library to handle a "back and forth" comunication between a server and
> mobile devices. Tools to mantain a state of the connection and manage with a
> lot of devices at the same time. A Yesod app example of the use of this
> library and a demo app for each OS (Android, iOS, Windows Phone, etc) to
> manage this communication.
>
>
>
> * Optionally:
>
>    - an API for communication through BlackBerry Push Service (BlackBerry).
>
>    - an API for communication through Windows Push Notification Services
> (Windows 8).
>
>
>
> Technical Considerations
>
> In the developing of the APIs for the communication through Push
> Notifications, I will aim to develop a good abstraction and find the
> properties in common between the differents services in order to develope an
> customizable tool but at the same time with a common structure.
>
> I want to let the user build messages and send these in a simple way
> following each protocol. Also, I will abstract the process of registering
> the devices in the server and let the user manage the different
> registrations behind a similar abstraccion.
>
> To develop a “back and forth” comunication between a server and mobile
> devices, I will investigate the different possibilities of maintaining a
> state of the connection. It could be through the use of cookies stored by
> the clients or maintaining some extra information in the server which would
> enable it to identify the different connections and provide the appropiate
> services.
>
>
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