We have just checked: Up till now, there is no world record in fast developing of native mobile apps! We can’t absolutely guarantee, that there is a world record now, but anyway: we are fast! But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
With xamoom we take the challenge: We want to take away the complexity of location-based mobile services. We want you to be able to start in the quickest and easiest way possible. Here’s the evidence for how fast and easy our service really is. We are ready to accept the challenge: How complicated is it to work on the platform that we open-sourced last week? Therefore, we ask the question: How much time does it take to set up an information system for a tourism community with xamoom? This example comes from one of our most demanded sectors.
The answer (and yes, it sounds incredible): 130 minutes. These two good hours include setting up the mobile web including GPS geofencing and two simple apps for iOS and Android. Two hours and ten minutes? Yup! To prove this, we have created some screen-casts – here is the YouTube playlist. Whoever is interested can download the source code of the apps (iOS or Android).
Can’t believe it? Here comes one after the other.
1. Preparations
To admit, we have prepared everything needed beforehand: access to an empty xamoom system (as if you had just ordered it), texts and images for the demos (© Klagenfurt tourism), as well as API keys for Google Maps etc.
It is clear to us, that the content and a great user interface is often the biggest problem. But as soon as the technology is out of the way, there is more time left over to focus on the content and the developers will also have more time to focus on the user interface and advanced features (e.g. offline caching).
In addition, a professional, Raphael Seher, takes the challenge: He knows the SDK inside out – after all, he developed it. One hour (like in our videos) for developing an app is probably only possible with our professional; half a day, however, together with reading and burrowing into the documentation and the source code is realistic. Even without Raphael Seher.
2. Setting up a mobile info-system for the mobile web
To start the system and create some content we need less than 15 minutes. The start of a personal system and filling it with content (in our case for a tourism community) needs no expert knowledge nor a developer. A modern browser and basic CMS experience are enough. For more support check our manual on help.xamoom.com.
In 15 minutes we have created and located the content for three pages and two news articles. And that in two languages (English and German). Additionally, a menu was put together and the colors were slightly adjusted. Also, GPS geofence is already available on the mobile web. Production and roll-out of the smart labels (QR or NFC) can be done during the app development time. As a surplus, taxonomies have been created with which we later organize the app’s content: “sightseeing” for the sights, “news” for the latest posts, and “menu” for the side menu.
So we admit: Not all the functions are shown, but everything that you need at the start. Here’s the 14:38 minutes long evidence of us having passed the challenge with flying colors:
3. The apps
It wasn’t an HTML-container that was developed, but native apps for iOS and Android. xamoom CMS was used as back-end, as the SDKs are based on its APIs.
The structure of the apps is, of course, simple.
- In the news-feed all the pages that were marked with the tag “news” are shown: On click, the article will be opened inside the app.
- The map view shows a map with all the spots stored in the back-end that are tagged as “sightseeing”
- The saved content screen shows all the sights that the user has already found or visited. You could call it ‘sights collection’. The visited sights stay in the app for later rereading.
The only difference between the apps is the iOS using the SDK integrated option for scanning QR-codes. The Android app typically uses the NFC-tags to find the right content at the right location.
Here’s the video for Android (59:21 minutes):
And the iOS version (56:55 minutes):
4. The result
The apps won’t win a design award, but they do their job. That’s how the Android app looks like:
And here is the iOS version:
5. Conclusion
We have seen a lot of different CMSs and worked with many mobile SDKs with different functions. Without exaggerating: None of them is as fast, usable and straight-forward as xamoom. Please do correct us, if we are wrong!
However, let us point this out again: The two hours and ten minutes have shown above equal the net working time. The preparations, as well as the building and deploying time, is not included.
The screen-casts shown here are just a quick start. The full documentation of the SDKs and the reference implementations (pingeb.org apps) are much better to get into the system. You can find all the links on xamoom.github.io.