Android. Networking app to make friends list

Question

I have a Android app where every so often the user will rank an object eg looks out of 5, feel out of 5, and a name. I then store this in an object and into shared prefs. I have completed this part but im not sure how to go about the next bit.

What I want to do is make a friends list and have them receive all the stats from that person plus everytime they push the button it will send the new stats to everyone on your friends list. I also want to be able to go into each friend and look at all his stats eg I'll send Billy Bob a request he accepts and is add to my friends list. He then receives all my stats and I get his so that I can look at his stats at any time.

What I am looking for is advice on the best way to do this and where to start (I have done a bit of programming before but not a lot of networking)? I understand I could use SQLite or maybe even WebServices but I am not sure the best way to go about it.

Answer 1

You need a server component to achieve this.

• The server will hold all users and who is friends with who.
• The mobile clients must log on to the server, ant get their friends list, and their likes and dislikes.
• When users rank objects, a message must be sent to the server. The next time a friend pulls data from the server, this "ranking" is pulled down and displayed

Some keywords for your server

1. You can host it on Amazon Ec2 / Cloud foundry / Google app engine
2. You can use a lightweight container like Jetty or Tomcat
3. You can use REST / HTTP and JSON for network communication
4. You can use MySQL / NoSQL flavor for persistence.