Develop Reference

How to take a webpage's content to create a native app for it? e.i not just a webview of the website

I want to create an app for a website that I don't own, like youtube or reddit. Every time I search for help, all I keep getting is how to create a webview. I've done that but that's not what I want. I want to take the website's content and create an app with it, like create my own buttons and such. I want to convert a website into an app.
I was thinking of somehow loading the website in the background and creating activities/buttons/intents that basically do what the webpage does but I don't know how to go about that or if there's a better way.
Thank you in advance.
Please let me know if clarification is needed.

Alright i got -3 votes for some reason and it has been 12 hours since i posted this question, i'm guessing the question has been consumed by the abyss of questions by now.
I made a reddit post and got some responses:
one user:
The term you’re looking for is “web scraping“ or “site scraping”. I think that’s probably what you need to research before you’re ready to handle how to make that into an app.
That’s a good starting point and once you have the content from scraping, making the app is no different than any other app.
second user:
If the website has a public (or private) API, you can use your buttons and networking calls to their API to build your client app. You are building a "YouTube client" in this case using the YouTube API.
If they dont have an API and you don't want to display their website, what you are doing is trying to reverse engineer their website and hijack the UI which is not a good practice and may even be illegal depending on the site and terms.
third user:
#second user is right on the money, but one thing I'll like to add is, the goal is to get data off of the website so that you can use in your app. An API is one (convenient) way of doing that but others are,
RSS or similar feed content (prefer this if there website supports)
HTML scraping
The above two will require you store the data somewhere else (and possible expose an API instead) because of technical reasons: you don't have access to older entries in RSS feeds and it's atrocious to keep on scraping everytime you need to access the website data. They can be done on the client (mobile app) but are best done on a server. This means you might need to get your hands dirty writing server code but you don't have to.
/thread
I'm going to do research on website scrapping and APIs to see which route i should go.
Hopefully this helped someone else.

Linking two phones/users together in Android app

Hi I am designing an Android App using Android Studio for my class and one of the requirement is that the app should link two users together as "partners" so that they can receive notifications or messages from each other. I already have google sign in available but I don't know how to link two users together. Can someone point me in the right direction to get started? Thank you.

You're looking to create an app that can connect users wirelessly and then do whatever tasks you wish to do. Now I'm not going to give you the code or anything like that, but I'm going to point you in the right direction as you asked.
The Android Developers site is a good place to start: Building Apps with Connectivity
The first two categories are closely related to your type of question, and will give you the stepping stone you need to start developing an app that fits your purpose.
Anytime you have an actual issue with coding it, StackOverflow will have countless solutions I'm sure.

What's the right approach for creating an Android app?

I have a great idea for an Android app, but as I'm only familiar with php/js, I'm uncertain of which approach I should choose for creating it. The app will be based on a google map with a lot of position markers. There won't be any fancy animations or other heavy resource-demanding activities.
As I see it there are three different options:
Read up on Java and program the whole thing in Java
Create the map activity in Java as a mapview and then use webviews for the other activities (which can easily be scripted as html5 webpages.)
Script everything as a webapp (not really an option, as this is not a real mobile app imho.
I'm most keen on using no. 2 as I'm quite familiar with html/php/js/mysql. Have to read up on the html5 specifics, though. Questions:
I need access to GPS and camera hardware. Is that acheivable in webviews?
How complicated is it to pass variables between js in webview activities and java in other activities?
How big a difference in performance can I expect if I use option 1 vs option 2?
Other thoughts?
Kind regards,
Anders

You can choose number 2, but as we are talking about an android phone, you might want to get really accurate coordinates for your map, and you can only achieve this by accessing your phone GPS, through webviews the best you can get is the location trought the device internet IP adress, wich doesnt lead to a very accurate geo position.
The best choice is a 100% java application in my opinion.

1) Yes it's possible, but as commented it will be less accurate and probably slow.
2) Not complicated. Painful if you need loads of interaction between a webview and native app. Using a Javascript Interface that can be set up from the native app. You can basically inject javascript in a webview's html.
3) Heterogeneity of performance depending on device. Because your implementation will be based on the device's browser you can expect to get really sluggish behavior for older devices. Anything to do with HTML events (Dragging, Tabbing...) will have a knock on most devices, from my experience.
4) As #vodich comments there are other party frameworks. My benchmarking on PhoneGap and other js-based options is that they're a waste of time if you are looking at developing a professional app. I haven't developed on Adobe AIR but find a pain the need to be installing plugins to get native functionality (access to sensors, camera, etc) Mobile is all about fast, responsive behaviour. HDI is your finger, user is fast, so app needs to be fast.
EDIT: So hell yeah! Java FTW!
Albert.

4.Other toughts?
Yes, if you really want to make a great Android app, you should be using only Android and specific Android UI components, and give it a native look and feel. And regarding 1,2 yes it is possible, I would say not so complicated to just integrate them, but I think you'll eventually get in big problems.

Learn Java and write your application natively.
Webviews might allow you to use your php skills to present something to the user, but it's entirely one-way - you'll not be able to interact with what's inside.
The Android developer site offers fantastic documentation and jumping from PHP to Java isn't greatly difficult, though you'll need to get used to strict typing and "real" OOP.
Other thoughts? Don't go down the PhoneGap/Cross platform toolkit road - it might allow you to write applications for multiple platforms and using your current skills, but in the end you get a subpar app that doesn't feel right on either platform and doesn't fair well as future versions of iOS and Android are released.

What is the Google Maps interactive map written in?

I just had an idea for a cool website, but it would require an application that is fairly similar to the Google Maps interactive map. I was wondering what it was made in?
Is it a Java applet or a Flash application? Or something else?
Thanks a lot

Javascript. Lots and lots of javascript, with JSON for loading new data without refreshing the entire page.
If you'd like to know more, there's quite a community revolving around Greasemonkey that specialize in extending/reverse engineering the google maps codebase.

Another option for your mapping app: Program it it Java building off NASA's free WorldWind geospatial API. You could release it either as a standalone app, or as a JApplet that runs within browsers. The latter simplifies distribution and versioning.

Google API is Javascript. It is also available in Flash.
Bing map is using the same sytem and it is available in javascript or silverlight.
You may also be interested in openstreetmap (free alternative).
If you want to build a tile system from the ground, the easier is to use flash. You will avoid cross browser issues, and easely target large audiance. (I made one long time ago before gmap was out).
If your application require a map, you can use either Map API and build your application on top of it. Be aware that some kind of application and some uses require a licence fee and the entry ticket is quite high ($10k for gmap).

For the client side they are using the Google Closure Library, with a lot of extra javascript on top.

Rolling Thunder has had the flyby capability for many years. You load a gpx file then you can fly over or just slightly above group and can control the rate you fly and can pause and look around. It works on windows or the Mac OSX. You can find the Windows version at http://www.myuniportal.com/download.html Download the Map login version and then open a Map child window the select the foot button on the Map child window. You download a gpx file then press play and it will start at one end of the trail and fly over it.

Whats the best way to start programming for my non-smartphone?

I have a general old-fashioned phone that has no special app system and uses Java (I assume ME) for the few applications you can use on it.
This is still a decent userbase and I'd like to start programming for this type of phone. I already know basic Java theory and syntax, so.. where do I get started for programming for non-smartphones?

Best programming environment for Java ME IMO is Eclipse with EclipseME. Includes lots of built-in stuff about packaging your midlets etc. The SonyEricsson wireless toolkit is great for PC-based testing and debugging, but don't forget on-device testing!
If you don't know much about Java ME's lifecycle, then get reading as widely as you can, and try lots and lots of examples. Start with the JSR-118 (MIDP2) javadocs; you'll want these open on your desktop at all times while coding.
Don't waste too much time with the form-based user-interface; I recommend either rolling your own using Canvas, or read about LWUIT.
You can do all sorts in Java ME and target a very broad range of handsets. HTTP capability is guaranteed, so you can hook up to a public web service, or create your own using something like Google Appengine.
Finally, you can release your app very easily on somewhere like Get Jar. Don't be put off by those who say "no owners of Java ME handsets want apps", you'll find the most popular user bases on this site will be users in countries such as India and Indonesia.
Good luck!

I would start with a book on J2ME and work from there.
Try Beginning J2ME: From Novice to Professional.
You could also download the J2ME SDK and play around with the example they give.
For tutorials have a look at the stackoverflow question https://stackoverflow.com/questions/584923/do-you-know-a-good-j2me-tutorial as mention in my comment.

I started with writing simple Flashlight application (choose how much seconds screen will remain lit) in NetBeans ME. And other app which I mange was Countdown with some graphics and sound. After that I found limitations too much annoying and now I'm waiting for my Android phone.
in short:
If you want to try it out - you don't need to buy books. There are plenty of tutorials around.
But, if you want to start deep development - don't waste time.