Integrating Livecode native apps with Python apps via network sockets on mobile

Question

As an alternative to having to create an “external” in c/c++/objc to a new Livecode application, I have developed instead a Python network socket app that communicates with it via sockets. The reason for this is that I needed to use some functions provided by some of my “custom” Python libraries. These functions are not doable in Livecode natively at this time. The communication between the Livecode and the Python apps works just as I desire.

I have only tested this technique in a desktop app on OSX for now. When saving the standalone, I've bundled my compiled Python app in the “Standalone LC Application Settings” and the whole thing installs and works without problems.

Now, can the same task possibly be accomplished for IOS and/or Android apps? Can I bundle a compiled Python script with a Livecode IOS/Android mobile app in order to run in these devices? I'm aware of course, that Python is not installed by default in either IOS or Android. What is the best way to accomplish this then? I'm pretty new to Livecode. I've tested my Python script on Pythonista on both an iPhone and an iPad just to make sure it will run and it works flawlessly there. So, how do I package my Livecode app with my python script so they could be both installed and ran in the mobile devices?

Answer 1

How do you call your Python scripts? The Shell command is not available on mobile so I guess you would need to create an external that would call your compiled script. But then sockets isn't available either on mobile yet (will soon be afaik). But out of curiosity what is your python script doing that can't be done in LiveCode?