Team Aardvark

Hello again readers, This week we were testing our app on an actual device. Before now, we had been using Android Studio's virtual devices to test the app. Right away we had multiple problems with using the app on a real device. The map itself wouldn't pop up at first, then after that issue, the current location feature would not work on the physical device. We found the bugs that caused these issues and fixed them. The first problem that we had was that the physical devices were not able to use the current location button on the map activity. This was because it was returning null for the current location. We quickly researched the problem and found a solution by using the different kinds of location features on the device. We found the solution on  Stackoverflow . Another big problem we found was that the first time a physical device would load the app, map would load, but the app would crash if the user tried to do anything. We figured out that if the user reopened the...

Hello readers, This week we made some changes to our dispatch app and our user app.  In the rider app, we changed the number of riders entry from an editable text field to a drop-down list.  We felt this was a better option as there is a limited number of choices that the user should be able to choose from--a minimum of one and a maximum of seven. This also eliminates room for error in choosing the number of riders, as they will not be able to input values outside of the range.  Here is a screenshot of the change: Another thing we finished was the ON/OFF switch controlled from the dispatcher app. The dispatcher/driver can simply click the button to turn the ACES service on or off. It turns red when off, and green when on. This sends a trigger to the firebase database, changing the flag value to either ON or OFF. When the user goes to the main login screen and tries to login while ACES is down, they will be...

Greeting readers, This week we worked on improving the map design and finishing the Dispatcher app functions. Megan and I mostly spent our time to work on the map to improve its functionalities and design. Firstly, we improved the design and the color of the map to make it looks more appealing and smooth. We also added the bounds for Augustana College area, so when the students choose the "out-of-bound" locations, the app will not let them to do so and notify them to choose the locations in bounds. If the students choose the "out-of-bound" location.. ..., the app will notify them. Furthermore, we added a button on a top right of the screen to recognize the Current Location of the rider. If it is in the Augustana College area, we will choose it as a Start Location, and find the actual address using the Latitude and Longtitude. If it is not in Augustana College area, we will notify the riders that they are not in the ACES service area. ...

Welcome back readers, This week we worked to get the user app working in real time with a dispatcher app would use to speed up the processes of logging rides. Megan and Tan spent their time cleaning up the google maps page of the user app.  It is functional for rides that are requested with locations around campus with the auto complete feature.  They were also able to get the pins marked for the start and destination locations.(As displayed below)  Lastly we got all of the parameters finally on the display so the number of riders is now sent to the database. Once the ride is requested they are now sent to a page that displays how long it will take for their ride to come so for now we have a page that does not display a time.  Kevin and I created the layout for the dispatcher to allow them to view all the requested rides and to have the ability to add rides and remove the ride by clicking on them.  Once the ride has been requested it is sent to th...

Welcome back readers, During the 3rd week of our project, our team focused on refining the user sign-in screen, creating an about page, and adding in the multiple rider functionalities. Kevin and Tyler worked together to improve the Google Sign-in that they completed last week. The next step for our Sign-in/Home screen was to add the Augustana logo and improve the overall layout and feel of it. We made the page more appealing to our users with a header for ACES and a colorful Augustana logo. The next step was to restrict the sign-in to only @augustana.edu email addresses. By restricting the sign-in to only Augustana emails, we are able to ensure that only Augustana student are allowed to request ACES services. The implementation of this restriction was simple! All we had to add to the code was a second part to the conditional statement when the user tries to sign in. Basically, we just had to check if the email contained "augustana.edu." We decided that if it does not...

Greetings readers, This past week we began developing and testing parts of our ACES app.  We met with a dispatcher from ACES and discussed the current process and some of the improvements the group would like to see. We started working on some of the core pieces and hope to get around to the extra features once we lay the groundwork. Tyler and I worked on setting up the sign-in aspect of our app, while Tan and Megan started working on the location services and map data. We chose to use Google sign in for the user, as they will be able to access the app with their Augustana email. Here is how our sign in screen is looking so far:  This screen is used both for signing into the app and for registering an account.  Once you register with a Gmail account, the information will be saved in the app. This way the student can sign in quickly when they want to get a ride. After signing in with your email, you are taken to the next screen which brings up a map, start an...