Radar

Radar
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Event description
zap access points
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Inspiration

To be able to have access to all events anywhere in real time and within your location. The events will be displayed based on the users location.

What it does

Using your location, it will determine all events that are currently planned within a certain time frame. The area that it will show will be ~2-5km in radius and is modifiable. It will use real time data as the main aspect but also showcase static data. We will also have a filter to allow the user to choose what kinds of events (or data) they prefer to see.

How we built it

We are building this using Android Studio locally and SVN on a remote AWS(Amazon Web Services) server.

We used the following data sets: Calender of Real Time Events: https://www.donneesquebec.ca/recherche/fr/dataset/calendrier-des-evenements-en-temps-reel/resource/7a44d80d-526b-4b76-9fa2-a1de5acf271e?view_id=99c43197-2aaf-42fa-99ef-e7bcceb5a578

ZAP Access Points: https://www.donneesquebec.ca/recherche/fr/dataset/zap-points-d-acces

Challenges we ran into

Greg: Synchronization was one of the most difficult.

Jean-Simon: It was my first time on Android, so it was hard to learn the Android API at the same time as creating the App. It was also my first time on SVN, so everything was completely new, which added quite a challenge.

Regis: It was the first time that I attended a computer science event and I was challenged by how to use Json data and how to parse it. Everything was new to me and it helps me to know what we deal with outside of school. It is also the first time that I use SVN.

Ian: I had a challenge learning how to parse JSON data. I had to find the 'javax.jason' library and learn how to use it to read in complex JSON objects with different structures.

Emilie: The most challenging thing for me during this event was getting the resolutions and image formats to function with the XML file. It was also my first time using GIMP to create graphics , which was a great learning experience.

Taylor: I faced challenges in the layering using tags that were not in the visual editor.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Greg: Synchronizing the asynchronous requests with the rest of the application so that we can use real-time data.

Jean-Simon: We are very proud to have successfully come up with an Android app that works even though we had no experience with Android before.

Regis: I am happy that I was in charge of using Real time Data on our Android Application.

Ian: I am proud of the back end code we developed that reads in data from a variety of sources and converts it to a unified data format that the front end can use easily.

Emilie: I was able to create a full set of corresponding graphics for implementation in our applications.

Taylor : I am proud of the checker method that I created to limit the points created on the map.

What we learned

Greg: I learnt how to use the Android API and how to use asynchronous HTTP GET requests and synchronize them with the rest of the application.

Jean-Simon: We learned a lot about how to develop mobile apps and how to synchronize projects, and there is still much to learn.

Taylor : I learnt how to code in XML along with learning Android Studio to create a GUI. I also learnt how to deal with GPS co-ordinates in Java.

Regis: Everything was new to me, and I am proud that we have now a successful Application.

Ian: We learned about open data formats and structures, and the variety of new data sets that are now available.

Emilie: What I learnt during this hack-a-thon was how to take full advantage of programs like GIMP to create graphics for an Android application

What's next for Radar

In the future, we will be adding more choices other than simple events. These can include all sorts of different data sets. This will also mean adding specific functionality for data that is not of a real time format which has already been done for the ZAP services data set. A time restriction along with a more comprehensive individualization mechanism would also be easily integrated. We would also like to work on have partnerships with local companies so that they can post they sales on our app and we can add the option "sales nearby", it would be a way to make our application profitable as local companies would pay for such.