UKC

As per the title really, we're looking to make an android tablet into a how to manual with a few videos on it and wondering if this is something worth comissioning or whether there are simple ways to do it yourself or if there's an easier way to do it. All we'd want is one full screen with a few icons for each video and potentially some sort of kid mode where that app was the only thing that the tablet would do. It would be to run on a few cheapish devices.

I've not programmed anything since I was a kid which was just html and incredibly basic delphi/pascal msn messenger bombers and such like and have zero knowledge of app building.

In reply to Sharp:

Just like anything else, if you have the skills, knowledge and tools then it's relatively easy. If you have none of these then it is very complex.

Two development approaches - html5 App - which would have the benefit of being cross platform but you have limited access to Android platform features, or native java development - more complex development environment but ultimately more control over what it can do.

In reply to Sharp:

^------ This.

But I think that is a bit too simplistic. I have only been developing software for 15 years but find the world of apps bewildering. I have been writing a web app using ASP.net in my own time and compared to my comfortable world of C++, it is like learning to write left-handed. Goodness only knows how someone with no skills would fair. It can be done, but there are many lessons to learn before you can cut your teeth at the coal face. It is certainly a daunting process as there are many things that are taken for granted in even the most basic tutorials.

Good luck!

In reply to Sharp:

Why not just make some videos / animations and play them through an existing app?

All the software is readily available with very little prior knowledge.

But if you want to do it for the knowledge you gain by doing it then obviously writing your own will be better for you.

In reply to All:

Thanks for your responses, looks like it's something we'll have to pay for. I've seen various "build an app" type things which are basically like a wizard to control the aesthetics of an app without any real work, i.e. make a kids game and you choose what the characters look like. I was hoping given the relative simplicity of what I'm looking to do there might be something out there already that would allow you to tile videos and adjust colours etc. to suit our existing branding.

krikoman - if you know of a suitable app that would be great, I've not come accross anything like that for playing videos but if there was one already out there that would be ideal.

In reply to Sharp:
If you just want to host some pictures and videos you could just make a static site using either a blogging platform or plain html. Nothing you've described requires an app. You can lock down android tablets with the kids mode stuff which is in play store ( it was pre installed on my tablet).

Making an app would be quite a bit more complex. If you decide to do that make a full list of your essential requirements first

In reply to Sharp:

Mx Player

VLC for Android

Will both play videos, of course you have to make the videos first, but you can do this on a PC and then download to your tablet.

I don't know much about animation programs but I use Sony Movie Studio Platinum for video, when I need to. I don't use it very much but it's pretty intuitive.

In reply to Sharp:

MIT App Inventor 2? Something simple would be OK in this. Has multi-media capability and other bits. Not very scalable though...

Thanks for everyone's suggestions, it looks like comissioning an app may be the cleanest way to go. I'll have a look at the MIT app inventor, looks like the most feasible way of doing it.

philipivan I hadn't thought about just making a web page, that sounds like a good option. The place it'll be used is off grid so just having the videos and a webpage saved onto the deviec might work well.

krikoman thanks for the suggestions, I've used vlc and I don't think that's suitable unless there's some hidden features or possibly using a skin. The other one just looks like another media player, can't see a way to embed it in our company branding and use tile navigation to select videos.

In reply to Sharp:

+1 for App Inventor. I new nothing about app building but was able to have my first app running on my phone in an hour of opening App Inventor and having a brief look at the tutorials. It's really easy.

In reply to Sharp:

Building a static web page and serving it from the device should do the job. I've done this in the past using a kiosk app to lock down the user and a free webserver from the Android market. Then you can brush up on your HTML skills to create the pages - there are plenty of "my first HTML5 page" tutorials out there, including some to play videos.
Alternatively, building a simple app is pretty easy once you've got the IDE up and running. It's all free and there are tutorials. I did find all the IDE setup very longwinded though, with lots if separate components that I had to get working before I could finally connect to the device and have "Hello world" appear on a button click. If you can get through this, you could probably create the app you require by completing a "my first app" tutorial and then copying code samples from the web - you wouldn't actually have to learn the language to any real degree.

In reply to Sharp:
A big massive plus one for just building a website. Miles cheaper and way more flexible. Lots of people feel the need for an 'app' and there's lots of folk out there who'll build you one. A good app won't be cheap and it will need updating to keep it running across the myriad devices available these days. If it's a HTML5 site, then packaging it as an app shouldn't be hard either, if you really want that. I'd suggest that you don't.

Forget what I said about HTML or the Android IDE.
I've just had a look at App Inventor and it looks to be just what the OP is after. There's even a tutorial for playing video. I'm not keen on graphical programming, but should be fine for the OP. There's no point in getting into real code for what he's after.

In reply to Hooo:

Unfortunately looks like the size of the video is capped at 1mb which is disspointing. Looks like the web page will be the way to go

In reply to Sharp:

Agree that a web page would be the simplest way to go.

But if you want to get into writing an app then Xamarin studio is free and runs on mono / mono touch - so that's android and ios - its got nice wysiwyg editors and the like - but would still involve a little coding (.net)

You could even go down this route to produce a wrapper app for an html5 web page.

There's also things like appcelerator - which isn't free any more ( it is until you want to go live).

I'd offer to help - but am already up to my neck with work.

Marc

In reply to Sharp:

as above - webpage way easier and cheaper.

Either way, a bit of advice not mentioned is that IF you do it yourself without experience it's going to take a long time, likely have all manner of mistakes and bugs in, and regardless of what 'build your own' tool you use it will look like it's built by a rookie.

So it depends who is going to see it and whether a truly pro site/app is required or just something functional and simple. who's your target user?

If you hire someone make sure you see their portfolio, and be wary of the lower charging freelancers. I've done some time freelancing in web development and design and see lots of people accept a bid from someone saying they'll do what is clearly many hours work for £50 and then get half a bad job done for them.