I don't know where to start, or if I should

I’ve been a web developer for 10 years, and work as a web developer. Today my boss asks me if I can investigate making an Android specific app, but we don’t even know if what we want to accomplish is something that is easy enough that I can do it quickly and won’t cost him too much (because I get paid by the hour).

So, because web development is all I know (PHP, HTML, CSS, JS, etc) I’m reluctant to just start in with the first thing that comes up when I search for “Basic Android app” on Google. I normally hand code everything, and remember the old days of FrontPage, Dreamweaver and GoLive. I don’t mind using a WYSIWYG program to make the app, but it’s got to be compatible with Ubuntu, because that’s what I work on.

To start off with, we would need an app that just sends text messages directly to our webserver, and the webserver would send responses. Boss is used to speaking his text messages, and I assume the phone sort of handles this type of speech to text entry, no? When responses are returned from the webserver, we just need to save them on the phone. From a 1000 foot view, this is basically just a text messaging application that texts the webserver.

Is there something that already exists that would make it easy for me to do what we need, and I wouldn’t even need to create an app? I’ll all for not reinventing the wheel.

Anyways, if anyone would be kind enough to reply, I’d appreciate it.
Thanks.

If I was in your position I would Google something like text message to server. In terms of learning basic Android development I would look on the usual learning sites below. Good luck in your search!

Have a look at these and see if they may help you. Coursera is free but may not be exactly what you are looking for but may give you the fundamentals to build something you are more likely to need. A friend of mine who is a app developer said that doing app development in Android is similar to CSS style sheets but I am not sure if he is right as I haven’t had a chance to start Android yet. Udemy isn’t free but the paywall makes the quality better most of the time and Lynda is fantastic if you can find the right course.

If you put into Coursera android app it comes up with some interesting courses (would link but new users can only post 2 links sorry!)

https://www.udemy.com/courses/search/?q=android+app+development&src=sac&kw=andr&lang=en

https://www.lynda.com/Android-tutorials/Android-App-Development-Essential-Training/442863-2.html

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