Our first application for the Android platform is AgileMedSearch, an app that allows for searching of the NCBI PubMed database. Developing the basics of this application was quite easy compared to what we were expecting. Being able to easily bind data to a scrollable listview object made creating the abstract list a very simple matter.
Determining how much information to collect from the user in a mobile application such as this is probably the most difficult part of creating the product. Since searching such a large database can include many parameters, deciding whether to include input for fields such as author, year of publication, and journal was difficult to make. Currently, we have placed a single text field for the user to enter whichever data they wish. Advanced users can add in some field details by using the generic markup, such as:
authorlast+init[auth]
While this can make very specific searching more difficult, our current assumption is that most users that are doing queries on a mobile platform would appreciate the ease of use of a single field. However, based on feedback, this may change in the future.
The main improvements we currently hope to make are some UI adjustments to make it appear a little cleaner and more elegant. We will also watch the comments here, so if you have any suggestions please feel free to post them!
Hi!
First of all, was wondering why the app wasn’t available on the android market.
Second of all but perhaps it’s a problem on my Android build, I cannot send by e-mail anything…
I wish in a close future that a easy and fast method for reading PDF appears on Android, if so, I think your app should get a “download PDF” feature.
Best Regards
Antoine.
PS : Sorry for my poor english.
Hi Antoine,
We had the application localized incorrectly on the Market, so only a few locations had it available there–this should be resolved now.
The e-mail feature is actually feeding through PubMed, it’s possible that there may be a delay from their system, or that your spam filter may be blocking the e-mail from NCBI–I’ll double check on our end to make sure it’s not something in the software.
We are currently testing the PDF/XML download feature for PubMed Central articles, and if an easy-to-integrate PDF viewer becomes available, we will definitely work on that feature more.
Thanks for the comments!