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The syncing part of this problem could indeed be written as an iPad app, fairly trivially. Present a list of files from an FTP server, let the user select the o

The syncing part of this problem could indeed be written as an iPad app, fairly trivially. Present a list of files from an FTP server, let the user select the ones to sync, re-sync when needed, etc. The geolocate part is going to be a lot harder. iOS has the MapKit framework, which makes it easy to draw a map, and put a pin into it for your current location. But using an existing PDF as the background? I'm don't think that's doable without a monumental amount of effort. The original map data is in tiles, so it stands to reason that the PDFs would also have to be tiled appropriately. And that's just the first thing that pops into my head. If you do decide to hire somebody to write such an app, I could do it pretty easily. Here's some of my earlier work: http://www.platinumball.net/portfolio/ http://www.platinumball.net/portfolio/

jessica_moyer 15y ago
Thanks, I will get in touch this week. What would you foresee the server side looking like? I think the sync feels complicated because the app has to ask the server how much data exists for the user, check itself, allow the user to select certain permits then download it. And occasionally resync to get the latest permit info. On the map side I found a couple API's that I think will be useful. No clue how the map framework works. -Jessica
- allenbrunson 15y ago
  for the server: my first thought is to continue using your existing FTP server. If you want to restrict access, just make a username for everybody, and make app users log in to start. I haven't looked into it, but I'm pretty sure I could get a decent FTP or SFTP client going on iOS, using existing libraries. And yes, there may be a mapping solution that would make this possible, but I haven't looked into it. I have used the existing MapKit framework, though. It's good for what it is, but it's also notoriously resistant to doing anything unusual, like adding your own map tiles. If you need to do that, then you typically must discard MapKit altogether and go with something else. We should probably take this offline after this. My email address is in my profile.

jessica_moyer 15y ago

Thanks, I will get in touch this week. What would you foresee the server side looking like? I think the sync feels complicated because the app has to ask the server how much data exists for the user, check itself, allow the user to select certain permits then download it. And occasionally resync to get the latest permit info. On the map side I found a couple API's that I think will be useful. No clue how the map framework works. -Jessica

allenbrunson 15y ago
for the server: my first thought is to continue using your existing FTP server. If you want to restrict access, just make a username for everybody, and make app users log in to start. I haven't looked into it, but I'm pretty sure I could get a decent FTP or SFTP client going on iOS, using existing libraries. And yes, there may be a mapping solution that would make this possible, but I haven't looked into it. I have used the existing MapKit framework, though. It's good for what it is, but it's also notoriously resistant to doing anything unusual, like adding your own map tiles. If you need to do that, then you typically must discard MapKit altogether and go with something else. We should probably take this offline after this. My email address is in my profile.