Location Based iPhone App Development

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Built an iPhone Utility application from concept to an end product for a company in North America

Transcript of Location Based iPhone App Development

Page 1: Location Based iPhone App Development

Built an iPhone Utility application from concept to an end product

for a company in North America

Page 2: Location Based iPhone App Development

Sigma Infosolutions leveraged its

expertise on web based technologies

and iPhone SDK 3.0 to develop an

iPhone application along with its web

engine for a company in North

America.

The iPhone application now connects

its users to a comprehensive

database of utility service providers

across North America, based on the

type of service requested and the

nearest location of the user. Built on

GRAILS, the application extends

numerous customization capabilities

to both users and service providers.

The client is a funded technology product start-up with a vision to develop

iPhone applications that are meant to ease people’s lives. The client is based

in North America.

The ClientExecutive Summary

The client wanted to build an iPhone application, that will enable its business

users to connect with a comprehensive network of utility service providers

ranging from plumbers, carpenters, electricians, to many more across North

America. The iPhone application connects to a back-end web engine to

search for service providers by type of service, time, and location nearest or

preferred by the user. It will then notify the short-listed service providers

through e-mails and SMS. The service providers can then choose to get in

touch with the user either through e-mails or SMS.

The application will also allow users to bookmark favorite service providers

for future reference and also rate them on multiple parameters.

With this vision, the client approached Sigma Infosolutions to build this from

concept to an end product.

Business Case

[email protected]

ChallengesA robust end product was critical towards building a strong revenue channel.

Indian telecom service providers support limited features of an iPhone. This,

was becoming a major road block when testing the application on an iPhone.

Adding to this, many iPhone features that are critical for accurate

functioning of the application were not getting executed on iPhone

simulators.

Another major challenge faced by the team at Sigma Infosolutions was to

normalize all US time zones to ensure user request notifications reach the

service providers only during the time duration selected by them.

The application supports non-iPhone service providers, and they have an

option to send a reply back to the requesting party through e-mails. Since,

third party e-mail service providers attach their own headers to an e-mail,

this threw up another challenge at the team. The application had to be

designed to extract only the relevant information from e-mail replies, and

then pass it on the user's iPhone through Apple's push notification server.

Also, the team had to ensure timely delivery of notifications from service

providers to users and vice versa.

Obtained 100% accuracy in reverse geocoding

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Technology

The team used the following tools and

platforms to develop the application:

l iPhone SDK 3.0

l Grails

l Grails Captcha plug-in

l Grails Mail plug-in

l Grails JMesa (with filtering) plug-

ins

l Message Media SMS service

provider

l Java APNS library

Business Benefits

The client achieved the following

business advantages:

l A strong new business opportunity

l A competent and a trusted

offshore technology partner to

execute all development tasks for

future product enhancements

SolutionSigma Infosolutions had an existing skill set and processes for this

development project. It took five months for Sigma Infosolutions' dedicated

team of five to design, architect, develop, and test the 1st phase of the

application. A few of the salient features of this application are:

l Providing users and service providers to manage their profiles right

from their iPhone and also the web interface

l Inbuilt e-mail and SMS capability to allow users to send messages to

other application users

l Built 100% accuracy in identifying the locations based on the geocodes

received from iPhone

l Allows users to change the location by entering city, state, and

optional zip code to get location-wise listing of the service providers

l Successful implementation of push notifications using APNS - for both

iPhone users and service providers

l Multithreaded data fetch from the web component to iPhone

application to speed up loading

www.sigmainfo.net

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About Sigma Infosolutions

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Sigma Group, an Indian conglomerate has more than 4 decades of experience in Mining, Manufacturing & Export,

Handicrafts Manufacturing & Exports, and Software Development

Sigma Infosolutions is a TUV certified ISO 9001:2008 company

Headquartered in US with presence in India

Some of our esteemed customers include Airtel, Zyme Solutions, Yodlee, Celerity Consulting, Resolution Economics, Birla

Global Asset Finance, Fosroc Chemicals, Surgery Planet etc.

Sigma Infosolutions’ services comprises of application development, application management, IT Consulting, Offshore testing,

and Website and Portal Development

Chemicals

Multithreaded data fetch from the web component to iPhone application to speed-up loading by almost 30 percent

Sigma Infosolutions, Sigma Towers, #66/A, 13th Cross

6th Main, JP Nagar, 3rd Phase, Bangalore- 560078

Telephone: +91-80-40865100

Fax: +91-80-40865103

Sigma Infosolutions, 2082 Michelson Dr.

Suite 100, Irvine, CA 92612

Telephone: +1-714-717-1826

Fax: +1-866-405-6750, Toll Free: 1-888-861-7360