This is my first post here. Be nice.
I am an amateur designer/developer that might have found himself in a bind.
I am designing a very simple app for my dad. There is a bit of a time crunch, but nothing that will ruin my paycheck... Long story short, if I don't have this to him by late summer-ish, it won't be usable to him.
The app is basic, it has one screen with 32 buttons on it. The buttons have 3 states. They start at off, one press turns them on, another press makes it flash, another press goes back to off. easy, right?
So my first thought was, "I could build you this in JavaScript, and you could put a tablet in each room. Kindles are 120 bucks for 3 (cheap compared to other options that would solve his issue), and I could just host in on a webpage, and all the tablets can be left on that page." Life is always so easy in my head...
Problems 1, I had never used the newer Kindle, and didn't realize the tablet navigation was a bar at the bottom of the screen. This can't be solved unless I root it, and I'm not looking forward to voiding 12 warranties, but I may have to. ( I am also talking to a distributor on alibaba that might be able to get me different hardware, but time and quality are a factor).
Problem 2, Silk has a disgusting UI and the URL bar seems to pop down almost at random... I have been looking at alternatives, but I don't think any will be "perfect"...
So, here's my question, I have been taking a Java Course slowly over the last 2 months (online videos, so I don't really have an instructor I can get advice from) and nothing has stumped me so far... Would I be biting off more than I can chew by using Webview in JavaFX that hides the browser functionality, allowing me to create an app that an Android device (maybe kindle maybe not) will be able to boot into on start up?
One big advantage of this is I wouldn't have to rewrite the back end that I built (all Javascript, nothing too tricky). I am working on the CSS styling right now, but I don't want to move forward if you guys have any better suggestions on building a dedicated app.
Thanks, and sorry for writing a book. :)
