[Java for Android App Development] Jarmezrocks:
Hi,

Intro

I am currently unemployed at the moment but am contracted to assist a friend with his business and the potential for generating much bigger and greater mobile business.

Currently he has some very large clients world wide, mostly in Australian sports industry, but also in the English Premier League Football (aka Soccer)
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Story so far

The story so far is his previous developer (who has been unreliable) has been head hunted by Facebook or Twitter to work. His previous developer also took with him the source code for the applications that I have been contracted to update. I have limited skills in Java directly but have a decent understanding of Android it's self as well as minor hacking development.

I have so far managed to generate some usable Java source code through reverse engineering the application wallpapers we have. There is approximately 180 that need to be produced and all use the same basic source code. I have not successfully been able to compile the wallpapers through Eclipse? I am new to this so I have wasted endless hours attempting to debug things with no real true understanding of what is actually going on or what the problems could be?

I have used a fairly high end solution for reverse engineering the apps/wallpapers back to java code, much much more improved compared to dex2jar and using JD GUI. On comparing the output from both it is amazing just crap dex2jar and JD GUI actually are! See the attached picture below for comparison.

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Current Project Problems/Issues

I have attempted to use apktool to perform the modifications to the Application/Wallpapers, I have managed to compile them but the Wallpapers fail not in the installation process, but just shortly after at the activation prompt screen. To give you an idea on what the wallpapers are and what they do and what needs to be changed are like so:

Currently multi-frame canvas wallpapers. Touch and or shake enabled.

There has been no layouts designed for the rendering of the images at full screen? This has been ok to date because the background on most of the wallpaper images has been white to suit the theme, however now moving to a dark background the images display as a single tile in the middle of the screen at about 50% and have 50% white around the dark tile :mad:

Some of the wallpapers only need to have the number of frames increased. This has been fairly simple to do so far with some simple smali editing.​

Promised Improvements/Enhancements

We also require to have an installation prompt for the user so that they don't have to long press on the screen to activate the wallpapers, they are sent to an intro screen where they are guided to press a button and activate the wallpaper. I have a base wallpaper that I can use for this that has very similar code eg. NexusLWP.apk found here on the forums, however it does not have touch or shake enabled and only plays the frames in a continuous loop and this is not what the clients want.

I have manually gone about integrating the activation screen into the existing touch/shake enabled wallpapers. I have done extensive XML edits, smali edits and so on and the Wallpapers compile no problems at all with the latest apktool; however upon installing them. It freezes at the activation screen. It doesn't display the activation screen and then it crashes force closes? :crying: wtf? The wallpaper actually installs fine, if I set the wallpaper via long press the old way and manually set the wallpaper it works perfectly fine?

We are also contracted to produce a simple digital clock live wallpaper. I have a simple base to work from but the smali to edit it seems mind boggling :eek:​

Available Tools

I have both Eclipse IDE set up as well as the new Android studio. I have a fairly high performance emulator also that I can share with whom ever would consider coming onboard?

I also have access to other development studios and toolsets such as Visualstudio, Unity, Blender, Gnu Image Manipulation Program, Photoshop (and adobe suite) as well as other 3D rendering applications and or IDEs etc, but for most of the part won't require anymore for this project. I personally have Windows 7 64Bit, 8GB RAM duel core CPU, as my main development OS mainly because of my Windows and Spatial Mapping developments require it, but I do have several Linux Virtual Machines in both 32Bit and 64Bit. Comprehensive 32bit Cygwin installation (can have 64Bit too if needed well). AutoIT and ISN Studio
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Scenario Summary - Problems/solutions/approach?

1). ApkTool - Work with the original app, using the touch/shake enabled live wallpapers and figure out how to insert a layout to make them full screen as well as the activation prompt functionality

2). ApkTool - Reverse engineering a similar wallpaper with similar code structure and attempt to make it touch/shake enabled? So far I have not even comprehended how to do this. Side by side the code for the main engine is so vastly different I am overwhelmed with where to even start?

3). Work on the fairly clean java code that I cannot so far get to compile in either Eclipse or InteliJ Android Studio?
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My Experience / Skills / About Me

My background and qualification is as an Environmental Scientist, I have gone on to expand my skills in GIS (Geographic Information Systems) and scaled up to medium to large enterprise implementation in intranet based web mapping solutions. I have extensive experience in IT, virtualisation and enterprise architecture.

I have extensive understanding of the Windows environment and scripting. I have a basic understanding of AutoIT and hope to get the opportunity to use this to automate production of these wallpapers being that they are all based on the same or similar code.
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Legal

The data that I am working with is sensitive in nature as everything is subjected to trademark legislations and agreements put in place with sporting clubs, and their affiliates. There maybe the possibility or need for you to have to sign some legal agreements for working on the code/data directly?

All the apps will need to be signed by me as I am the custodian of the company java signature. The previous appl developer used his own key and took that with him :rolleyes: yes that means that the users who have previously purchased apps won't get updated, however we are not dealing with them directly, our client and our client doesn't care. As far as they are concerned, those users need to re-purchase the new versions, they have expressed that that is not a great concern for them and if anything they are happy users need to re-purchase:rolleyes:​

Payment Options

Depending on who is available and what I can get help with will depend on the the payment and money options? We are paid on percentage of sales sold on apps from our clients so the dollar amount is unknown? All I know is that last year for one application/wallpaper alone in 1 single month generated approximately $3800 after the client took out their share. I work on 30% on that. So for someone to assist me it would be a percentage of my 30% cut depending on the level of effort they put in to getting me off the ground?

If these are once off assisting in problem solving the existing code I am happy to work on an agreed once off payment with that person.

As mentioned i have no money my self at the moment and we have not sold any apps. The previous developer is still being paid for the apps that are currently being sold that are in need of updating. It will need to be based on someones trust in me to pay them? So if you are ok and you can trust me I will be willing to wait till the end of the season and work out total amount profit made and pay you accordingly or smaller one off payment upfront as soon as I get my first lot on money come it?

Open to other suggestions as well?​

Potential for ongoing opportunities

There is the opportunity for ongoing work for the right person to come on board. We are in desperate need of more developers because we have some even larger projects coming up.

If the selected nominee comes on board permanently it will be up to my friend who is the company owner to decide based on projects and budgets. That will be out of my hands then and will be treated differently to the current arrangements as future projects are not solely based on the same types of markets, ideas and strategies as the current ones.

We are also in desperate need of a web developer that can build highly customised websites. I have a decent experience working in Web/Server/IT set up so you would be working along side me, my friend and possibly a few others?​

Skills and Experience

Skills in Eclipse - Setup, Problem Solving compiling Errors etc

Skills in Smali code/hacking

Decent spoken and written English - English does not need to be your primary language and I am pretty patient with new comers into our XDA developer team so same would apply with this work too.​

My availability

I am located in Australia. As a potential nominee are not required to relocate, however Face to face would be great to have. I have faced the facts that I am more likely to find the right person from a far? I am used to this. I have helped establish a decent sized developer group here within XDA where we have 19+ developers that span the globe, many nationalities, several different languages. Unfortunately due to availability as well as the fact that we have minimal application developers is the reason I am posting here:

I am currently un-employed so I availability is pretty much anytime and if your not on the same time schedule I will fit in with you.​

Project timeline - YESTERDAY!!!

These wallpapers were due yesterday so to speak. Trust me if you work with me through this and we perform miracles I will ensure personally that you are well rewarded for this!​

Contact

I am available on Skype at any time so please contact me ASAP if you are keen to come on board or willing to offer your assistance to problem solve my current issues. I am happy to screencast with you via skype.

I think that is just about all the information anyone of you might need to consider? Please contact me if you have any further queries. I look forward to hearing form you. If you have questions that you might feel others would want to know to, then please post them in here rather than in a PM.​

Thanks

James