Create Direct Download link for files

Cloud storage is a very useful technology for everyone. We can access these files from everywhere. Another big advantage of cloud storage is that, the files can be shared easily. Any one with a link can download the files easily. 

One of the mostly used cloud storage service is Dropbox. it offers 3 types of accounts. Basic, Pro and Business. 

Basic

• Free
• 2 GB storage
• Simple file sharing

Pro

• $9.99/month
• 1 TB space
• More sharing features
• Option to wipe data remotely

Business

• $15/month + Tax
• Infinte Storage
• Unlimited File recovery
• Priority Support

Although ,they have real good plans. Most individuals prefer Basic account which gives 2GB free storage. There are some options available to expand this 2 GB like following them on twitter, Referring other people to dropbox etc.

Create direct download links for Files

For sharing a file through Dropbox, they will give you a unique link for each file and the link will take you to a download page, where you we can click on Download button to download a file.

This intermediate page showing can be avoided by a simple trick. With this trick, Clicking on the url will download the file directly instead of taking to the download page.

• First of all, Take the url that you have got from dropbox for file sharing. The url will be like https://dropbox.com/s/abcdefghijklmn%filename
• Now edit the url and change www.dropbox.com to dl.dropboxusercontent.com. So the resulting link will be like https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/abcdefghijklmn%filename
• Thats all. Now you can share the link to anyone,the file will be downloaded directly.

Free Calls in Kerala without Internet using Speakfree

Update (02/06/2016) : it is found that Speakfree stopped working. Calls cant be placed now. Will update more details are available

This is a post which is now useful for only the residents in Kerala, India. Mobile phones are now a part of everyone's life. People without smartphones are very rare.

 
Everyone use smartphones mainly for calling and for using internet. We know that day by day, the mobile service providers are increasing their tarrifs. There are several apps that provides free calling over internet like hike, wechat etc. Even the most popular instant messaging service provides free calling service by using internet. 

Calling using 2g internet speed is almost impossible. Beacuse there will be some delay in the calling. But peoples using 3g or Broadband services can easily use these services.

Thats where Speakfree comes into the market with free calling feature without internet. Yes, its true. You can call to any number in india for a duration of 3 minutes per call. After that, the call will be disconnected. But if you want, you can call again and again with three minutes per call. You dont need any balance or internet for using Speakfree.

About Speakfree

Speakfree is an Android application created by Sumbav Communications , Kochi. They make it possible by introducing 10-20 seconds advertisements before the call. You can call 10 calls per day each with 3 minutes duration. The calling time will be from 9AM-9PM. After placing the call by Speakfree, every caller have to listen to a 10-20 seconds advertisement. After that the call will be connected. You need internet for registering for first time. The call reciever cannot see the callers number. It will be shown as a landline number. You have to download Speakfree directly from playstore to make it work.

Download Speakfree

How to make free calls in Kerala without Internet

• Download speakfree from Play store
• Open Speakfree, select single sim or dual sim and fill all the details and click next

• Now you can see your call log. You can either place a call by using call log or by dialing the number by using the dialer

• Now you can hear a 10-20 seconds advertisement and after that the call will be connected.

Thats all.
Happy Calling

Create Android Quiz App with MySQL JSON Parsing and PHP

I have been testing my programming skills recently. So I was trying to study android by creating some simple applications by using Android studio. So, In this post i will share the code for creating an android quiz app. with this app, the user can select one answer from the four options available. The score of the quiz is also displayed at the end of the quiz.

Requirements for Creating Android Quiz app

• Computer with Android studio Installed
• Basic Knowledge about Android studio
• MySQL database (if you dont have a MySQL database, click here to learn more about free MySQL database)

About the Application

First of all. I will tell you what we are trying to achieve to give a basic idea about what we are about to create. In the Home screen you can see a button called start quiz. Now you will be redirected to a screen with a question and four options. user can select one option from the group and click submit. Now it will show the right answer in Green color text. Then, user can click next to go to next question. After completing the quiz, The score is displayed.

Setting up MySQL server for  Android app

First, we have to setup MySQL database for storing questions and answers. Open phpmyadmin and create a database. Inside the database, create a table called quiz_questions with 4 fields. The details of the fields inside the table are given below.

Enter some data to the table by using phpmyadmin. ID will be auto incremented. In the possible_answers field, Enter the options seperated by comma. In the correct answer field, enter which is the correct answer. if the third option is the correct answer, Enter the correct_answer field as 3.
Now copy the below code and paste in a notepad file. change the host, user,password and database name and save it as quiz.php .

Now upload this file to the root of your MySQL server by using file manager in your cpanel or by using FTP. Now try accessing the file by using,
http://yoursiteurl.com/quiz.php. If it is showing the data of your table successfully. Save the Url as we need it in future. Proceed with the below steps.

How to create Android quiz app

update (15/09/2017) : The apache http library is depreciated. So you have to add this compile statement in your App level build.gradle file(under dependencies)

• First of all. create a new project in Android Studio. Enter all the details. Select Blank activity, On next screen click finish
• In the activity_main.xml, paste the below code.

In the MainActivity.java, Paste the below code

Now create a new activity by right clicking on App and select New>>Activity>>Blank Activity
Name it as QuizActivity. In the activity_quiz.xml, paste below code



In the QuizActivity.java, Paste below code

In line number 185, you can see a space for a url. Paste the url for the MySQL server you created earlier. it will be like http://yoursite.com/quiz.php
Now Create another activitylike above and name it as complete
Paste the below code in activity_complete.xml


Now in the complete.java, Paste the below code


Now, Open strings.xml from res>>values>>strings.xml
Inside resources tag, paste the below code


Thats all. Now try to run the application. Hoorah..  Thats it.
if you face any errors feel free to comment below. I will try to reply as soon as possible.

Get Free MySQL database server for Android Apps

Developing an android app is not a big deal for professional programmers. But it  is a bit difficult for those who are new to this field. Nowadays, students are seeing programming as a hobby. They develop different type of simple android apps to learn more about the programming.

But, a problem for android newbies is that, most applications might require a Sqlite or MySQL database for fetching data to and from the application. Most hosting services charge about 4$ per month for mysql servers. For some, it might be difficult to find money for paying for these services. Once, i also faced similar issue. Just for my hobby purposes, i didnt want to spend money. So i decided to search for a hosting service which provides limited features for free. I have searched google for different sites, and none of the results indicate about a free server for android apps.

Free MySQL Database server for Android Apps

I had already created a WordPress site with 000webhost. Which provides free wordpress or php webhosting. In that site i have used MySQL databases for my wordpress website. So i decided to check if the free Mysql database will work for my android app.

I have checked some websites and found that In android app, the data is inserted or retrieved from a MySQL database is by using php. So i have created a new website in 000webhost with their free sub domain, and created a MySQL database.

After creating the database, i found that, i have all the details that is required for setting up my server for my android app. I have a hostname, username, password and database name. I have used these information in a php file and uploaded it to Public_html folder in my 000webhost filemanager. I used JSON parsing for getting data from the php page. And hoorah.. It worked perfectly.

Note that 000webhost is a free service and it may not contain all the premium features. But for a free service, it is worth try. Don't use this website if your app have huge traffic. It might cause the server to crash.