iPFaces iPhone/iPod/iPad Client

Download it from AppStore

The iPFaces iPhone/iPod/iPad client application is developed using Apple’s Software Development Kit (SDK). The client parses the received form description and builds screens with standard UI controls from device’s UIKit, whereas every user is able to access the application remotely in the regular way, as they get used to the iPhone device. SDK usability provides appropriate functionality of the device’s location service or other specific functionalities in future releases, such as compass, camera and other.

All information below are the same for iPhone, iPod and iPad.

Installation & Prerequisites

Installation of the iPFaces client application via Apple AppStore is really simple, just like any other application. You need to be registered to iTunes. You can register right from your device. More information can be found on Apple’s official web site.
 

The client application is provided free of charge. Your iTunes account will not be charged and no personal information will be collected by iPFaces provider.

How to install it

  1. Find the application in the AppStore. You can search for it by entering “ipfaces”.
  2. Install it in a standard manner (like any other application).

Requirements

iPFaces was developed and tested on the iPhone OS version 3.0, 3.0.1 and 3.1 and on the iPod OS version 3.1.2. There is no guarantee that iPFaces will be able to work on older versions of iPhone OS. It is compatible with all iPhone devices with those operating systems. To use the iPFaces application it is necessary to have data connection to the Internet through a WIFI connection or data plan activated with 3G, EDGE or GPRS data connection.
 

User guide

Following successful installation of the iPFaces client application, an icon will be displayed on the Springboard. The iPFaces client application could be run by touching this icon.

If the application is run for the first time, the application address will be displayed. Valid URL to the iPFaces server should be entered (it can be changed in the iPhone’s settings). For demonstration you can leave there the address to the iPFaces example application.

If the entered address is not valid or there is an error with network connection, an error describing communication error will be displayed and the client application will be closed. If the entered URL is correct, the initial application screen will be displayed and the URL is stored into the iPhone’s settings. If the client application is run for the second time, the address from the iPhone’s settings will be used.

Configuration of the iPFaces iPhone’s client is very simple. There is only one text field for the iPFaces application address (server’s URL).

iPFaces settings page

Client Internals

The iPFaces client supports almost all basic native UI components. All of these elements are rendered on the iPhone screen and their look is customized like all iPhone elements that we can see in the OS GUI.

The Following components are supported by iPhone’s iPFaces client: form, screen, label, textfield, password, textarea, checkbox, select, option, button and image.

Another supported component is the Location Service which is used for obtaining the user’s current GPS location. It can be used, as described in the sample application, to calculate distance between the user’s position and another place in the world, or for any other purpose you can imagine. GPS component is not displayed on the iPhone screen. If you want to display GPS coordinates on the screen you can do that by using either labels or text fields.

The autorotation feature is also supported. The iPFaces application is able to change the orientation of the screen from portrait to landscape and back (depending on the actual position of the device).

Landscape screen

Portrait screen