How to push message in mobile app from a closest wifi hot spot

Question

Dear all,

We have build a mobile app using Bluethooth which then collect content and display it on phone when the phone is detected by a beacon device. Works nicely

Now how Customer would like to extend the app functionnality in the sense that we need to push content to mobile phone whne the phone is entering in a range of a Wifi hot spot.

We actually do not know from which side we should start this. The scneario is as follow :

1. The user enter in a big shopping center for intance. The shoping center have a public Wifi Hostsport
2. The user donwload the shopping center free app
3. Inside the shoping center there are 25 shops which have there own wifi hot spot but connected to the main entry point of th shoping center
4. When the user enter in an area of a Wifi hot spot ( for exemple the wifi of the sport shop), the I should send to user phone through the app the identified shop promotion info.
5. If the user is detected by an other Wifi shop hot sport I should the send the other type of information
6. if the user is detected by 2 Wifi host post I should send info from the closest Wifi hot spot

Does some  of you have worked on such thing and culd give me some tips or link from where to strat and how to identify the closest wifi hot spot themobile is in order to send proper content ?

Is there some architecture constraint I should care of as I do not know in advance the stores center wifi configuration

Thanks for your help and advise

regards

serge

Answer 1

Hi wakefun,

Simply read your description, sounds like a good idea, but might be difficult to implement.

1, We can definitely fire the event when the network connection has changed, but at meantime, background task has limitation for frequency: Supporting your app with background tasks

2, To check the network information :https://code.msdn.microsoft.com/windowsapps/Network-Information-Sample-63aaa201

--James

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Answer 2

Thanks for the information

I have the feelining that it is not the role of the mobile application to track which phone is where.

I have the feelinging this task should be handle by a kind of hardware which records those data in a kind of dedicated server or cloud, due to heavy data record and triggers

Then the app should lsietn to  akind of message received from the detected hostsport, and if close will receive the proper message.

Any idea on kind of hardware which can do such ?

Any idea how the phone display the message from the proper shop, is it the phone which going to pickup the data, or is it the hospot background which send the data to the phone ?

regards

serge

Answer 3

Serge, I'm not aware any hardware can do this, but we can track which phone is connecting to which router and send the notification to the that phone, this could be more reasonable and easier to implement.

For instance if the phone is connecting to Router A, the shopping center server should be able to know this device is connected and be able to know its hardware device information, after comparing with the data from database, we should be able to know which device is connect to this router and sending notification to that device seems possible.

--James

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Answer 4

Thanks for your reply,

After some research those type of hardware is call Wifi Scanner and all it does is that it collectect teh MAC adress of each identified phone and then the wifi signal. All this at real time and all those data gets stored in a local server database.

Usually the Shopping center as only one input router where visitors connect to, then I guess each shop wifi is a child of main router.

When phone connect to Public shoping center Wifi, it gets track and the phone gets  a private DHCP IP adress and MAC adress is catch by the router software.

Lets imagine we know which device is connected to the ROUTEUR A, that means it is the Router side which send messge to Phone and not phone which connect somewher to pick up message correct ?

If this is the case, which technology is used to send the message to the Phone ?
It is through IP asdress and irect socket conection or Other ?

Is is a client/server like connection which is established between the router and phone app ?

Lets imagine we want to send to the phone a url which will be display on phone, or a coupon information ?

Sorry for so many question but to raise as much Technical aspect

regards

serge

Answer 5

Hi serge,

Sorry for the late response.

If this is the case, which technology is used to send the message to the Phone ?

-> How about push notification? I don't think we can directly send some message to the Windows Phone by something like socket or etc...maybe communities will give you suggestions on that.

Your scenario is a bit complicate at this moment, I don't have any good suggestions for you at this moment, but perhaps you can consider about the location tracker by GPS instead of using Wifi...with a higher accurate.

--James

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Answer 6

Hello,

UNfortunatly GPS is not properly working indoor, this is teh reason why my Customer want to have Wifi.

What do you mean by "PushNotification" can you elaborate the scenario of how to setup this notification you ahve in mind ?

regards