Online Ordering Mobile App

Menu screen.
Item quantity screen.
Check out screen.

Inspiration

We were looking to code something that was within both of our coding skill levels for the hackathon we created our project for. We tossed ideas back and forth, and decided on an Android app for online ordering.

What it does

The app displays a hard-coded menu from a sample small restaurant. Users can click on an item to order it and choose the quantity of that item they desire. When a user is done ordering, they can view an order summary before submitting their order. However, in its current form, nothing happens when a user submits an order.

Functionality we failed to implement

When a user submits an order, we wanted the app to send an email containing the order summary to a predefined account, which the small restaurant's storefront would have access to. We failed in adding this functionality in a working form before the conclusion of our hackathon.

How we built it

The app was built in Android Studio using both the Java and XML programming languages.

Challenges we ran into

We ran into slowdowns implementing ListView with a custom ArrayAdapter due to lack of knowledge in that area. However, by the end of the hackathon, we successfully implemented two different ListViews using custom ArrayAdapters.

We also ran into challenges adding functionality for the app to send an order summary via email to a small restaurant's storefront. We never overcame this challenge in the time allotted to finish the app for our hackathon.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud that we designed an app that is so ascetically pleasing and conforms to Android's GUI and Material Design guidelines. The layouts of each activity look professional and resemble that of an actual online ordering app.

What we learned

We greatly increased our coding skill in Android Studio. Specifically, we gained knowledge in using several Android GUI components, such as ListView with ArrayAdapter, TextView, Buttons and different object layouts. Also, we gained skill in navigating between different activities in Android using Intents.

What's next for Online Ordering Mobile App

At the bare-minimum, we'd like to add the ability for submitted orders to be sent via email to a small restaurant's storefront.

If we were to put more development time into this project, we'd like to add another app, which would manage storefront functions. This storefront app would receive submitted orders any user app sends and manage the menu items displayed on the user app.