App creation, process for dummies?

[st3v3]

I have to look into an App build soon, #becauseTechnology.

But i'm clueless as to what would be needed development side.

What it should do sounds simple, I act as a courier and take a parcel from point A in town, to point B 4 miles away.
Whoever is booking this errand would need to be able to give a collection address, collection time and a delivery address, probably give specific notes in a Notes box/field too.

Nothing fancy needed, to my mind it's just an enquiries form which is sent and arrives in email form to a Gmail account.

Is anyone able to advise me how simple or complex this is and maybe a ball park figure to expect?

Thanks.
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Roger wrote: Women don't get damp for clingy puppies. Get some better happy pills, hit the gym & buy a medallion the size of a dinner plate. Job done

[duhawkz]

have a look at https://www.coursera.org/course/androidpart1 to start with

You can download the android development kit for free, the actual coding for the app should be fairly straight forward to get the basic functionality you want.

essentially it just a form with a post action

you might hit some complexity around doing things like postcode > address look ups and things like that, if wanted to include that sort of functionality. and it will probably require the use of a 3rd party api which may cost you.

you will also need to think about where your app is going to post the data, are you going to create a back end api or server to receive it, have it email you etc.

developing for iDevices is slightly more complicated, in that you have to register as a developer and pay a fee to apple for the privilege if you want get your app published the app store i think it's about £99 or there abouts
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"The guy is a worthless cunt and I honestly believe I would be a slightly happier person if he died." - Chris-Red

[duhawkz]

are you wanting the app to work out the prices and things for you, based on the distance etc.

because that would be a bit more complicated. you could have price table you look up against. so thing pretty basic like

1 - 2 mile £2
3 - 5 mile £4 etc.

but then you would need some way of working out the distance between the 2 points for that you may need to hook into something like the google maps api, again that may cost you depending on the number api calls your app is make.
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"The guy is a worthless cunt and I honestly believe I would be a slightly happier person if he died." - Chris-Red

[Jayy]

You can achieve this fairly easily using a hybrid app which is basically an Android container / iOS container with a mobile site loading inside it.

Android is much easier, you could use something like Phone Gap. There's no verification process but iOS you will need an Apple Developer license and to wait for them to accept your app before it going live on itunes.

You could also pay a company to distribute the app for you on iOS if you don't want to go through the Apple dev process.

https://build.phonegap.com/faq

[st3v3]

I have found 'appypie', a site that seems basic WYSIWYG and let me do a decent freebie trial version for the moment to help me narrow down the process.

All I want it to do is take a name, email, phone number and have a 'notes' box so customers can describe precisely what they need - they click send then it emails me the form and I email back with a confirmation and info (job cost etc).
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Roger wrote: Women don't get damp for clingy puppies. Get some better happy pills, hit the gym & buy a medallion the size of a dinner plate. Job done

[Jayy]

I would build that as a responsive web page with a form. I would then use a service like Phone Gap to drop that page in to a "shell/wrapper" for Android / iOS / Windows, etc.

[Jayy]

Question : Why does it HAVE to be an app?

What's wrong with a a nice form UI on a responsive page so anyone can jump on the URL and do it?

[ScaredyCat]

[st3v3]

Doesn't 'HAVE' to be an app but realistically everyone has access to content in 2 or 3 swipes, why not have something as convenient as possible?

It's hard to break through a market where nothing yet exists, and I plan to use the simple bike courier app as learning curve.

I posted in Aunty BCF last year about a shop/food delivery thing I did, part of that will expand to cover certain misc home deliveries (phones/laptops/ebay purchases etc) and because of certain legal implications I can't do that directly, it has to be done through a second company then maybe later on integrated.

So, for now I'm looking at a functioning office collections app then long term I will use what I learned to go about another one which handles more in the way of 'just-eat'.

A browser based form is maybe simpler, but a customer based app is personal, it's there on their phone so they're invested in it and it becomes a default use. That's vital.
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Roger wrote: Women don't get damp for clingy puppies. Get some better happy pills, hit the gym & buy a medallion the size of a dinner plate. Job done

[Jayy]

Ok, well do what I said then, build it in html/css/jQuery on a mobile website and wrap it in iOS / Android / Windows shells using Phonegap. It's the easiest way to do it and you can update the app remotely via the website.