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iosipadp2p
Scot Robinson
Scot Robinson

Reputation: 41

Need multiple iPads to communicate with each other

We are building an iPad App for an enterprise scenario. Users will be using the iPads to check in guests at special corporate events. There could be as many as a dozen iPads used for check-ins and they all need to have accurate data on who has been checked in, when and any notes that have been entered. The catch is that there will often be no internet access. So the iPads must be able to communicate with each other. All iPads will be at one location, but they could be as far as 100-300 feet apart. I suppose we can include a requirement that users need to periodically move close to each other if the distance is too far.

We are open to either a peer-to-peer solution where by the iPads actually talk to each other, or we can have a central laptop which acts as a server and the iPads all talk to the server. Any thoughts on how this can be done, what the options are, if we need to establish a wifi network, etc., etc.

Thanks in advance.

Upvotes: 2

Views: 1654

Answers (1)

Kendall Helmstetter Gelner
Kendall Helmstetter Gelner

Reputation: 75077

Since you are open to a central laptop, I would go with that and a WiFi base station that all of the iPads attach to.

Then you could have a simple server that is told when a user checks in on an iPad, and stores that in a database - if someone tries to check in again it would be easy to issue a response that the person had already been checked in.

As a backup, or instead of the server you could use Gamekit with a hosted match (unlimited devices) - as long as all of the iPads are on the same network they should be able to see each other. Then you could broadcast to all participants when someone had been checked in so that other devices would hold that info locally. It would probably be more problematic than the server but also possibly more robust.

In either case make sure that all possible error conditions (like total failure of network or server or ability to connect to other iPads) leave the iPad in a state where they can still check in guests, store who has been checked in and simply broadcast up the data when service resumes. You do NOT want guests that have a wait because of a network glitch!

Upvotes: 3

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