alfa iMediaSuite

Problem

alfa MediaSuite is a cross-media editorial system. It allows creating and modifying news content and then sending it using different channels: either online, mobile, by SMS, or E-mail. Our task was to add a new channel: iPhone device.

Solution

iMediaSuite is an iPhone Application. It introduces a new channel for MediaSuite and displays alpha MediaSuite content on iPhone. Such applications are needed due to the fact that news representation in iPhone-browser can’t provide such conveniences as custom application.

iMediaSuite communicates with the server via Web-Services. We designed the application in a close contact with our customer. While we developed iPhone-client, our partners modified server according to specific requirements of communication with iPhone.

iMediaSuite implements 2-way communication: it can receive content from the server, as well as sent it to the server. Different types of content are supported: text, photo, video, and audio. In order to display video we developed a universal player that supports an extended set of video formats. Also we developed a module for presentation of image galleries; special attention we paid to satisfy contradictory requirements of memory saving (essential for large images) and fast display during scrolling. iMediaSuite supports offline mode: user can download all interesting information, and view it later offline.

During development of communication module we solved a task of optimization of large data transfer via slow Internet connection.

Features

The main feature of the application is possibility of convenient representation of information provided by news sites not accessible by standard Internet browsers. iMediaSuite application can be used to view content. It’s possible to change the appearance of application from the server.

Possibility to download all the news, then view offline.

Users can generate their own content and send to the editor [editorial board] (easy to use message viewer, built-in iPhone-style picture galleries).

Technical implementation

Designed application

Communication with the server via Web-Service: news downloading, and reports uploading (transfer of large data amounts over a slow Internet connection)

Development of image gallery: the main difficulty was the lack of memory, so we used an image cache.

We designed a communication module with automatic caching of responses (after switching into offline mode application uses the cache), and jobs cancel mechanism (user selected a different function).

We designed a universal player that is able to play an extended set of video formats.

Also we developed a module for content creation. With this module user can create own content including text, audio, video or photo and send it to editor [editorial board].