iOS8 Swift Hackathon by HP IDOL OnDemand - 'GO BIG, or go home' - realworldswift

Apple says that "iOS 8 is the biggest release for developers since the introduction of the App Store. It opens up new areas of iOS, allowing developers to extend the reach of their app content and functionality. It includes over 4000 new APIs to enable amazing features and capabilities."

We've taken a look at some of the upcoming features and we think that App Developers are going to have a field-day integrating IDOL OnDemand with Swift to create amazing Custom Actions, cool new Widgets for the notification center, and most of all, we're excited for the new Documents extension capabilities.  

With all this power at your fingertips, we say "Go BIG, or go home!!!"

We want you take a little more time than usual for this challenge. We're giving you 30 days to figure out how to transform the way users interact with their iPhone with IDOL OnDemand, and we urge you to create an unbelievable experience with your new app. Remember that sometimes it’s the small things and what goes on under the covers in your code that make the biggest difference to how a user interacts with their phone, so don’t underestimate the value of great user experience over excessive front-end functionality.

IDOL OnDemand is a complete solution for bringing extensive data analytics to your app and for augmenting your mobile solution using REST APIs.

Through our Early Access program, we’re exposing the capabilities of HP IDOL (Intelligent Data Operating Layer), the world’s leading on-premise human information processing engine, as a managed solution to deliver a broad selection of web services to developers.

The true power of IDOL OnDemand is evident when you start to combine the APIs. Consume IDOL OnDemand Indexing APIs to index your unstructured data from social media, mobile devices, CMS, Google docs, Dropbox, email, SharePoint or other sources. Once indexed, analyze and augment your content, using IDOL OnDemand APIs such as OCR, Sentiment Analysis, Extract Entity, Face Detection, Barcode Recognition and Text Extraction. Finally, leverage IDOL OnDemand Search APIs to find what you need and shine light on dark data with advanced search options such as Find Similar, Query Text Index, Find Facets, Clusters or Terms.

Will your app make the device an afterthought, with an experience that is so natural, the user forgets they’re actually using a phone?

Getting Started with HP IDOL OnDemand

Before you can use the API’s you’ll need to sign up for an IDOL OnDemand developer account:

http://www.idolondemand.com/signup.html

Please indicate that you heard about IDOL OnDemand through [topcoder] in the “How did you hear about IDOL OnDemand?” field:

Once your account has been verified you’ll be assigned a developer account and API Key that will allow you to make API calls.   Complete information about available IDOL OnDemand API’s can be found here: 

https://www.idolondemand.com/developer/apis

You’ll need to register for a developer account with HP in order to get access to additional Try functionality in the API console.  Use of the APIs is free and restricted to non-commercial use at this time. Commercial use and pricing will be announced in the near future.

Before you compete in an IDOL-related challenge on [topcoder] please create a topcoder-specific key in your IDOL OnDemand Account.  You can do this by Clicking on Account->API Keys from the developer home page.

Simply generate a new key and rename it to “topcoder” as shown above.   This should be the key that you use in [topcoder] challenge completion.  This will also give you visibility to Preview API’s which may not yet be in public release. 

You should be all set!

 

Final Submission Guidelines

Rules:

• The app must use IDOL OnDemand as a central part of the showcase feature(s).

• Include the "Powered by HP IDOL OnDemand" logo in the app

• You must use the Swift language in your submission.

• Submit your Xcode project. 

• You must provide a demonstration video and a blog post describing your app and how IDOL OnDemand was used as part of your showcase feature, as well as installation, configuration and testing instructions.

• Both the video and the blog post must include an explanation of how IDOL OnDemand was integrated with the app.

• Videos should be less than 5 minutes long, with audio that is easy to see, hear, and understand.  Use of Apple-provided screen emulators is encouraged.

• You should post the video to Youtube or Vimeo.  Please create your video in "unlisted" mode so it isn't searchable.

• With all videos and blog posts, remember to correctly reference HP IDOL OnDemand and the official API names.

• Please do not show or share your API key during your videos, code walk throughs, or in your blog posts. You don't want anyone using your API key and using up your free quota, right?

• You can submit multiple apps as individual submissions. If you submit multiple apps that are essentially the same code but just making a new API call each time, we will at our sole discretion collate your individual apps and treat them as one entry.

• Prize winners will be required to upload their video and blog text after the competition, and may also be contacted to work with the HP IDOL OnDemand team to make reasonable modifications before being reposted and featured on the HP IDOL OnDemand sites. Parts of your video may be combined with and reused in other promotional videos by HP IDOL OnDemand with your consent.

Judging criteria

• Developers have creative liberty on what application they build - here is how the judging will be scored

  • Use of IDOL OnDemand APIs (sound implementation and a good use of API functionality)

  • Novelty, uniqueness, and innovation

  • Usefulness to a consumer or business in the real world

  • Usability and visual appeal
     
• Winners of the competition will be announced at TCO.  There will be an extended review process for this Hackathon (10/15 - 11/19) as there could be a large number of submissions.  Although the "Appeals" and "Appeal Responses"  are typically part of a code challenge type, these phases of the challenge will not be used in this competition.  The decisions of the internal review will be final and won't be subject to adjustment or appeal. 

Employees and direct and indirect subcontractors of Hewlett-Packard Company and its subsidiaries and other affiliates (“HP”), and employees and direct and indirect subcontractors of HP’s partners (including TopCoder and its affiliates) are not eligible to participate in the challenge.