Project type: Mobile
Services: Development, Design, Testing

Project Description:

The mobile jukebox application allows smartphone users download .mp3 and .jpg files from the biggest collection of Arabic music, as well as arrange music files in playlists, and listen to them on Apple iOS (iPhone, iPad) and Android devices.

Customer's Need:

The customer needed an easy-to-use application with an intuitive user interface that could function both on iOS and Android devices, provide an mp3 player with loop, shuffle and enhanced playlist layout. The jukebox had to save the download status when the connection with the server was interrupted and to enable users to download both music files and images attached to these files. The application had to be able to recognize the Arabic ID3 tags and feed news in the Arabic language from the Web site.

Main challenges:

Apple iOS devices did not display the information contained in the Arabic ID3 tags at the customer’s Web site, while we had to enable the application read those tags. Another challenge for iPhone developers was to make the application associate music tracks with images and display them in the player. It was also tricky to provide fail-safe download, so that file saving would not be completely stopped when the connection fails or the application gets closed.

The Solution:

To solve an issue with the Arabic tags, the team developed a charset decoder that enabled the application to recognize and display information in Arabic seamlessly. Also, the Altoros team developed the functionality to provide connection between .mp3 and .jpg files. Now, each track in the app is illustrated with artwork. We implemented the download state saving—in case the connection is interrupted, the download can be resumed when the application is restarted.

The Outcome:

The application is a full-featured mp3 player with the customized playlist creation functionality. The app recognizes and displays the Arabic ID3 tags and supports the Arabic news feeds. It has the unique user interface and design for iPhone, iPad, and Android versions. Other features include:

• Choosing high or low quality for downloading .mp3
• Saving several songs at a time
• “Search and Sort” by cached songs
• Grouping music by artists and albums
• An ability to delete an artist or an album from the playlist in one click