Question

I am writing a Windows application that controls an Android mobile wirelessly, such as sending sms, making calls, viewing files, retrieving sensor data, etc. I am simply using IP socket via WiFi, but client has to know the ip address to connect to the server.
I was wondering if there is a Framework/API that enable such data transfer no matter over wifi, bluetooth or any other connection methods, and also has kinda auto discovery mechanism? I heard about Intel CCF (Common Connection Framework), but couldn’t find valid reference. Do you know any others? MTP?

Thanks,
Leo

Answer 1

I wrote a small Open Source utility called cross copy to do this kind of things. While there is a web App which enables you do do inter-device copy & paste, the RESTful API below may be what you need. The basic concept is that you connect devices through a server by sharing a common code word.

I suggest you show a short generated code word (like ‘a9b3c’) in you app and open a listening request in the background (long polling):

GET   http://cross-copy.net/api/a9b3c

Then your Windows application should have a “link to device” text field where a code word can be entered. You can verify that there is a device listening by calling

GET   http://cross-copy.net/api/a9b3c?watch=listeners&count=0

If you want to send an sms from the Windows application, you just execute a PUT request onto the code word with some kind of data structure you app can understand (eg. json, xml,…):

PUT http://cross-copy.net/api/a9b3c
    { 'command' : 'send sms', 'number' : '0913342133', 'msg' : 'the message which has been typed on the pc' }