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I'm relaive new to this topic so my questions are more theoretical.

I try to establish a wireless connection between a Raspberry Pi and a Smartphone to view different kinds of media (Text, Picture and Video). I have some questions regarding this about if and how this works in theory.

Is it possible for the Raspberry Pi o work on a "Standby Mode" until a client device comes near/activates it?

What are the things i need to know about the Raspberry being a server and able to communicate to other devices over WiFi? What kind of software should I use for that purpose?

Is it possible to view the File structure of the Raspberry Pi without an individual app on the smartphone (i.e. web browser)?

In case of testing the concept, which tool(s) should I use to have a relative simple way of testing conections? Is there already an (open source) project existing in hat area?

Would appreciate all / any advice.

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    Welcome to StackOverflow! You've included several different questions in here - you may be more likely to get useful answers if you can split them up into more specific individual questions. – ASGM Apr 14 '13 at 16:34

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I guess it depends on what kind of technologies you are most comfortable with. You just need to have in mind that you are working with a RPI, so it's probably better not to push it and run your full stack on it. You can always use something like Node.js and run a tiny server/API on the board, to which the devices get connected. However, there are some interesting solutions out there that work as some kind of "middleware" and allow you to offload a lot of computational and even development effort to a 3rd party.

If you are not really concerned about the "owning" the setup and don't want to waste time spinning up an entire stack you can try something like Muzzley. It will also require you to run software on the RPI (despite not being a full stack on its own), but most of the communication and interface configuration is available off-the-shelf. It provides an appropriate protocol and a library of components you can just use from the get go. On the other hand, it is flexible enough to allow you to roll out your own components.

I don't believe it will help you directly with your specific issues (standby mode, nearby device detection or file system access) - which should be solved by your own application and software stack - but it will save you a lot of time on more generic stuff by allowing you focus on that issues only.

Full disclosure: I'm part of the team working on Muzzley.

ruiquelhas
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