Can Livecode be an external for non-livecode apps?

Are you developing an External using the LiveCode Externals SDK?

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harper58
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Can Livecode be an external for non-livecode apps?

Post by harper58 » Mon Aug 22, 2016 9:14 pm

Can Livecode be written as an external for Android, or iOS apps? I started a standalone app which I would like to turn into an external/plugin for apps written in other languages. It tracks GPS coordinates and exchanges info with a server via JSON. I would like to be able to provide an API for exchanging info with my external and I would like the external to be bundled with the non-livecode app so the end user only needs to download and install one app.
Thanks.

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Re: Can Livecode be an external for non-livecode apps?

Post by andrewferguson » Tue Aug 23, 2016 12:19 pm

There isn't really a way, as far as I know. From your description I am not sure if you are using LiveCode to access the mobile device's native GPS, but if you were just using it to process data and convert it one way or another, then you could use LiveCode server and have the mobile app send requests to the server in order to trigger functionality and transfer data.

Sadly, there is no other way to integrate the LiveCode program and the app.

harper58
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Re: Can Livecode be an external for non-livecode apps?

Post by harper58 » Thu Aug 25, 2016 12:04 pm

Thanks for the reply. Yes my app tracks the mobile devices GPS. I'm trying to minimize server traffic by downloading a list of coordinates and only contacting the server when the GPS is within a certain range of one of those coordinates. Can a separate, Livecode app be bundled with another app so that it only appears as one download to the end user?

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Re: Can Livecode be an external for non-livecode apps?

Post by FourthWorld » Thu Aug 25, 2016 4:35 pm

What does the other app do? There was an embedded LiveCode option available some time ago, and perhaps you could contact the company to see if it's still available. But that would seem a complicated solution if all you need is to use the location APIs. Seems much simpler to either build the whole app in LiveCode, or in something else. But then again, I don't know what this other app does so I'm unable to offer any guidance more specific than that.
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harper58
Posts: 22
Joined: Tue Dec 16, 2014 7:58 pm
Location: Louisville, KY

Re: Can Livecode be an external for non-livecode apps?

Post by harper58 » Fri Aug 26, 2016 1:59 am

The other app isn't one particular app. I want to provide a standardized way to work with any other app. Apps written by other people in other languages. i want to provide a list of locations within a range of the phone's location. Someone else has already taken care of the server part. I want to minimize the traffic between the phone and the server. It sounds like the only option is to have the other app take care of the location tracking and communicate directly with the server.

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