Saving and Storing Data through Mobile-Based Applications Dedicated to Soil Protection

Abstract

Mobile applications dedicated to the protection of soil resources are increasingly common among users worldwide. What makes them popular among them is the possibility they offer in the acquisition, respectively saving and storing data from the field. We propose to do an analysis of how to save and store data, to emphasize the malleable nature of applications in relation to what software development platforms allow - in this case, the MIT App Inventor® platform. As a result of the research methodology, no less than six possible data saving and storage media were determined (TinyDB®, File®, CloudDB®, Google Sheets®, Firebase®, and DropBox®). The obtained results showed that saving and storing data depends, to the greatest extent, on the specifics of mobile devices (memory and effective storage space). Consequently, for an application made through the MIT App Inventor® platform, several types of configuration of the acquisition, processing, saving, and storage of data are possible, all of which depend both on the specifics of the devices used, as well as on the users' choices regarding the acquisition, processing, saving and storage of data.