iPhone / iPad Application Development (Hong Kong Hiking:Search Engine)

Abstract

Smart phone applications (Apps) are very important in the 21st century. Different categories of Apps are being developed to match the needs of our society. In particular, search engine is an essential part for home PC and mobile devices. As browsing the Internet is one of the most basic functions of a smart phone, search engine provides a platform for users to browse any information they want from anywhere at anytime. In this project, the main objective is to create an iPhone application (Hong Kong Hiking) by using Objective-C, the Apple Xcode SDK and Interface Builder. The theme of the application (Hong Kong hiking) aimed at assisting the hikers to familiar with Hong Kong landscapes. It includes different searching methods to get the information of hiking routes by keywords, with details of different regions, distances. In particular, it can provide the location of the end users so that they know where they are to avoid getting lost or provide their exact position to seek help in case of emergence. By using different UI controllers of iPhone SDK, a familiar interface can be made and provide suitable interaction between users and the application. Also, the information is stored in a local server with a backend SQL database that the information pre-stored can be retrieved from the mobile device. PHP connection is being used between the server and iPhone, which also allows users to store their comments on any particular routes on the Application.