Success story of K4 Connect’s Universal App Development with Xamarin.
Overview
K4 Connect, headquartered in Raleigh, NC, is a technology company specializing in solutions that empower older adults and individuals with disabilities by integrating cutting-edge smart technologies into a cohesive system. Seeking to enhance user experience, they approached Insight Consultants with the challenge of creating a container application. This app aimed to provide customers with a unified user interface across all their devices, both mobile and desktop.
Expertise Delivered
- Development of a hybrid webview app using Xamarin for mobile and desktop platforms.
- Implementation of a websocket-based API for accessing underlying platform features.
- Creation of a single Xamarin solution accommodating four platforms: iOS, Android, MacOS, and Windows.
- Provision of desktop installer packages for Windows and MacOS.
- Design and execution of unit tests for all bridge API commands.
- Development of a web page demonstrating each bridge API command.
- Integration of a web browser within the application, utilizing platform-specific webview technologies (WKWebView for iOS, native Chrome webview for Android, and Chrome Embedded Framework for MacOS/Windows).
- Native support for WebRTC within the webview.
- Injection of custom K4Connect CA public cert for network requests.
- Implementation of outbound resource request inspection to facilitate efficient content delivery.
Process Implemented
The solution involved creating a Xamarin shell with a WebView component, through which communication with a websocket server was established. The websocket server, integrated within the application, triggered native code execution for various operations such as utilizing the camera, accessing the file system, managing push notifications, interacting with serial ports, setting alarms, and utilizing local storage via SQLite. This necessitated the development of platform-specific native code to interface with operating system APIs, followed by thorough testing across multiple devices.
Results Delivered
- Successful creation of an application using Xamarin, compatible across multiple platforms.
- Seamless control of various devices within users’ homes facilitated by the application.
- Enhanced user experience through the provision of a unified interface across mobile and desktop devices.
- Reliable and secure communication established via websocket-based API.
- Efficient utilization of platform-specific webview technologies ensuring optimal performance and compatibility.
- Robust network security ensured through the injection of custom certificates for network requests.
- Streamlined content delivery facilitated by outbound resource request inspection and caching mechanisms.
