Inspiration
It has been over a year since the coronavirus emerged. Continuously, it has devastated many friends and families who have experienced the virus first-hand. It has also deeply affected many people financially, especially those with small businesses. Some had to close down, while others had major layoffs. According to Statistics Canada, small businesses are far more likely to report a significant loss of sales of at least 20%. This is unfortunately a big burden for many owners as many rely on their small businesses to provide for their families. We wanted to help them, and you, since not everyone knows where local businesses are located. We created an app that helps people discover many of the hidden gems that London, Ontario has to offer. It will help spread awareness of many of the local businesses and immensely help those in need.
What it does
The app consists of local businesses under four categories to help ease user usability. The four categories are Food & Drinks, Retail, Virtual Experience, and Miscellaneous. The functionality of this app is to help users locate various local businesses located in London, Ontario. We also implemented a rating system to help other users decide if the place will be worth-while.
How we built it
We built the app using android studio (java). We implemented google maps APIs to provide the maps view when users click on a category. We also used JExcel to extract information from an excel sheet we created that contained all of the local businesses in London, Ontario, as well as their addresses (according to London Tourism).
Challenges we ran into
One challenge that we ran into was implementing the google maps API. Since both APIs and android studio in general were new to us, we found it challenging to easily implement aspects. Things like implementing multiple marks on the map proved to be harder than it looked. Another challenge was using Android studio, it would always not respond every time we try to edit the code and since time was of the essence it was hard to maintain patience. It is also difficult to debug in android studio, so whenever we had an issue, we had to go through our entire code to try to figure out where we went wrong.
Accomplishments that we are proud of
Our team was most proud of the idea of the app and how it encourages people to support local businesses. It potentially helps the environment and especially the economic market pertaining to local business, especially which is what our app thrives to accomplish. This is also the first app we've ever made, so to see it come to life is very rewarding.
What we've learned
We learned how to apply our java knowledge to new environments like android studio. By using android studio, we also learned how many of the features work. We also learned how to use APIs and how useful they could be for projects.
What's next for SuLocal
We wish to expand our app to more cities and potentially Worldwide!
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