Question

I am absolutely new in Android and I only would appreciate some tips on which tools to use for my goal, because I d not have the experience which would fit best.

• I wrote an WPF Application in C# for managing events!
• I wrote an Android App for representing planned Events to the User (at the moment
  always only one –> the next)

My Goal is:

• Feed all Android Devices which have the App istalled with a String (One or two
  sentences including date, time, location,..) and one picture. This is managed out of
  the WPF Application on local desktop computer.

C#: Creating an Event object in each needed form is possible. –> Working all fine

App: I created one Layout with an TextView and ImageView –> Working all fine

So my question(s):

• Should I use Google app Engine Datastore to have always only one Entity of an Event in
  the store, which is uploaded via my WPF Application. Android App are
  loading the event each time the Layout/Activity is started.

• Should I use Google Cloud Messaging to send the String Message and App Engine to
  provide the picture?

So, I am not looking for Code, just for help about the strategy to achieve my Goal!

Thanks in advance for any help!

Answer 1

Here is one possible high level solution.

Your Android client should check for new events/pictures when relevant Activities are displayed to end users (this is important because typical push notifications make no guarantees about delivery).

You can also use GCM to notify devices that an update has occurred. However, attempting to sending an image from a GCM message is probably a bad idea. Instead, when a device receives a notification, it should contain the URL of the image, which the device can then download itself.

Also note that not all devices will work with GCM. A requirement for using GCM is a valid Google account on a device, which may or may not be present. Additionally, GCM requires you to add several permissions to your manifest (which some users may not be happy about).