Azure Mobile Services with Android

Question

I am very new to both Android development & Azure Mobile Services. I have a decent knowledge of Java so Android development is not proving to be too difficult. Although, I am struggling to gain a good knowledge of working with Azure Mobile Services.

I have little knowledge of REST API's but will be able to learn quite quickly if required. My main concerns/questions are as followed:

Can I build my Android app by using Mobile Services Data & API's alone. i.e the simple table values and the basic CRUD API's?

If not, how should I approach building the application?

I want to cater for multiple column queries, table relationships (1 .. n , inheritance) and I also would like to use JSON objects as parameters for a more lightweight communication rather than passing my full Java objects.

Also, is the possibility of setting up an SSL available?

Any help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

thanks for trying out Azure Mobile Services. Here is a good tutorial on how to get started with Android.

To answer your questions specifically:

• Generally a CRUD API for data storage and a custom API for arbitrary REST calls should be all you need for a straightforward app, and those are all offered in the box with Mobile Services. The one thing we don't offer today (but are considering) is support for duplex messaging (WebSocket), which you might need if you are building a realtime app or game.
• Mobile Services does not support object trees on the client, but you can still have them in your server database. You just have to write some custom code to "flatten" the hierarchy before you send it to the client.
• Every mobile service supports HTTPS by default. We do not currently allow you to do a custom SSL cert.