GPS Tracking Systems Integration App - Is it possible?

I do web app development (coldfusion). My company wants to track the physical location of our employees (we own their phones).

It seems all of the apps out there for GPS tracking have their own GUI and back-end. What I would like is an app that runs quietly in the background of the mobile device (iphones) and periodically sends data to my web app via callback url or directly into the web app's database. It really only needs to send 3 pieces of information: phone number, latitude, longitude. Then my web app can handle map plotting and various other applications.

Is this possible? If so, is it something that would need to be approved by Apple before it can be distributed to the employees' phones? For someone who has no mobile development experience, how hard would it be to develop?

As far as I know it's possible.

If the phones are rooted you'll have no problem getting it onto them. If they're not rooted, then it's a bit tricky to do without putting the app into the market. With an apple developer certificate I believe they have some method by which you can load an unapproved app onto a phone (to allow debugging). There are some manual steps involved, possibly something like entering an ID from each of the phones when you build the app, but I can't remember exactly what.

Also I believe the official SDK only runs on OS X.

What you're trying to build doesn't sound particularly complicated. I'm pretty sure objective C is quite a bit different from ColdFusion, but if you've ever worked with a C-family language (C/C++/C#/Java/PHP) you should be able to pick it up pretty quickly. There will also be a bit of a learning curve with the SDK; expect to spend at least a few days and possibly a week or so getting that set up and working.

I found the android app GPS Web Broadcaster that appears to do exactly what I need, except that it's for android. Anyone know if an app like this exists for iphone?

Are you intend to build own application and don't need to publish on the app store? I think your problem is quite popular in iOS core concept and it was be solve rapidly if you have a object-C knowledge

I don't intend on publishing the app unless it's absolutely necessary.

I have no experience developing iOS apps. But since it seems no one has published the simple app that I require, I will have to learn.

There is a basic version of what you are looking for in a beginners coding book for linear c. Book is called "ios programming the big nerd ranch guide" by conway and hillegass. I have it on my kindle about half way finished. Check out chapter 5 on MapKit. Should be simple. Theres a free one out there already called 'find my friends'...?

JOhn