I have a Java program that I wrote. Fairly simple, uses Swing and accesses a database to do some inventory updates. Currently my employees just use a laptop to run it and everything works fine. The problem is that i need something more mobile so my employees can walk around while using it instead of walking back and forth from product to the computer.

I am looking for advice for which tablet to get. If possible, I would like to use a Nexus 7 or an iPad since I already have those on hand. From what I have read however, that is not going to happen.

I do not want to rewrite programming that works, but I want to move it to a simple/small device.

I am currently researching and any help I can find would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

I am not aware of any tool to transform your Java code to Java code working on Android. You are unfortunately stuck either reimplementing it for a mobile OS or reimplementing it into a web application. I would suggest the latter, as it avoids having to implement two versions, one for iOS and one for Android.

as ^ stated, you must re-write code. sounds like it's pretty straight forward if it's small.



you can also use a cross-platform mobile framework. i tried titanium appcelerator recently, but there are many available. if he's only comfortable with java, then native android is probably his easiest approach.

But then the same code can't be used for desktops as well.
A web application wouldn't suffer from this.

i assume you're trying to get away from a keyboard. i never used windows 8. can java programs run on there fine? if so, you can try one of those pseudo-tablets like the thinkpad twist. i'm sure there are others too. but you can't simply use your plan java program on android/ios, so you'll have to look for something with a windows / mac / unix desktop version.

if you're ok with a keyboard, maybe even a netbook? i've seen some small enough to put in a purse. but if the app is simple, i'd just rewrite it tbh



just saiyan it's an option. dont know enough about his app to make a good recommendation. for all i know, he's updating a local database on the computer and he's in a warehouse where he won't have any internet/wifi.

This post was edited by carteblanche on Apr 9 2014 07:50pm

Thanks for the ideas! The web application sounds like my best option since that would make it very flexible and we have wifi in our warehouse. I'm decent with designing webpages and writing php, but I know very little (to nothing) about hosting these programs.

How hard would it be to host a web application on my local computer where my SQL Server is already running? I setup the SQL Server so I can access it anywhere. Do I need to completely dedicate a computer to host a website/web application?

Processing is Java based and can convert Android.

Unfortunately Swing and Processing don't work well together

Do a web page that makes some calls to a web service and then the web service uses your java application. (If i understand your needs and this is for collecting data) The program can then return some values through your web service to your tablet if you need display; If no, then it is even more simple.

sorry for bad english. You can pm me if you have questions.

I suggest you use Vaadin with Touchkit. Vaadin is a web application framework that runs on java, and Touchkit is a Vaadin addon that lets you create cross-platform, mobile versions of your application (however Vaadin web apps run fine on a tablet, without Touchkit)

https://vaadin.com/home

Well if you already have a local computer available in your warehouse there would be no problem running a java based web application with access to your sql db Don't know about PHP but most likely It's the same for PHP.