pages tagged android

IParkAmsterdam - opensource

Sun, 21 Sep 2014 13:40:47 +0200

A long time ago (really, it feels like ages) I wrote a small Android application to help people find less expensive parking places in Amsterdam making use of Glimworm SharkPark API and OpenStreetMaps.

Today, one year and five months after the first release, I decided to set the application free and opensource it.

The code is available at github/migtavares/IParkAmsterdam and I invite everyone to fork it and send pull requests.

I can tell you that today's morning was a fun one... lots of remembering how things were done last year.

WindsurfBuddy: equipment browser, viewer and editor

Wed, 13 Nov 2013 11:56:14 +0100

The implementation of equipment management within Windsurf Buddy is proceeding although at a pace that is not as fast as I would like.

So what's done until now?

Browsing the equipment in the database is pretty much done. A rolling tabs header and then a simple straight forward list of equipment.

Taping the plus action creates a new equipment of the type of the currently selected tab. Taping on a equipment item brings up a new activity to view that specific equipment. A long tap on any equipment of the list will toggle into the list into multiple selection mode that can be used to remove several item. Maybe in the future it will also enable exporting the selected equipment... we'll see.

Viewing each equipment is now a activity on its own instead of a floating dialog. I feel that it makes better use of screen space and being an activity allows for future integration with other applications. The layout is similar the one used for viewing contacts making it a familiar display to the user.

The little pencil action allows to launch a editing activity for the equipment being viewed.

Editing a equipment is still a ongoing implementation. Done are editing the name of the equipment as well as it's brand, collection and description. The real slaving will be over editing the very specific details of each equipment. I don't want to have a implementation that is tide to each equipment but would rather have a more generic approach.

The green plus signs right of the brand and collection selectors will be used to quickly create a new brand or collection, speeding up the insertion of new equipment.

WindsurfBuddy: equipment database

Mon, 26 Aug 2013 15:56:50 +0200

Lately I have been working on having a proper database of equipment for Windsurf Buddy and using the database engine to do most of the processing of providing the best equipment advice. Until now the equipment was a static collection of Java objects and resources.

I have several hopes on the result of development:

easier to extend suggestions: for example also provide masts advices according to the sail specifications and brand "affinity" (some sails work better with some mast brands);
user management of the equipment (adding, editing, deleting, etc);
sharing of equipment data between users and a central equipment repository (still just an idea).

The database schema for now is composed of around 20 tables - not that many but keep in mind that this is running in phones, even older Android phones too. To avoid writing lots of code that translate SQL results into Java objects (a ORM) I'm using ORMLite. Some, if not most, of the queries to the database are still almost raw SQL.

Until now it this approach work well but is still far from being comparable to the existing static objects and resources implementation. That moment is nevertheless getting closer and the next 1.5 release will start using this database for the equipment.

WindsurfBuddy: 1K+ active users

Mon, 22 Jul 2013 15:00:34 +0200

Acording to Google statistics Windsurf Buddy has pass the mark of the 1000 active users on 10th of Jully. It's rewarding to see that this small project is growing.

My thanks to the all users.

Don't forget that you can join the Google+ Windsurf Buddy.beta community and get early beta versions of Windsurf Buddy.

WindsurfBuddy: beta versions and almost ready to ship

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 19:19:59 +0200

Since the last great Google I/O 2013 its possible for android developers using deploying Google Play to distribute their applications to also release alpha and beta versions to a exclusive set of users. The way Google uses to define that set of users is using a Google+ community of a Google Groups. I decided to give it a trial with the former.

So now available at Google+ is a community of adventurous people that don't mind trying the beta versions of Windsurf Buddy: Google+ Windsurf Buddy.beta community. Feel free to join in.

Today I am going to release the beta 3 of version 1.4. If everything feels solid and working properly then I'll upgrade to production.

So what is new/different in the new version? In terms of features maybe not much has change - added support for dagger fins and removed the wind speed converter that is available as a single application with more capabilities than while a feature of Windsurf Buddy. The major change is in the UI and the underlying code.

Planed for the near future are some improvements in the algorithms used to calculate sail size and fin length. Specially when it comes to racing and speed windsurfing. Then the management of equipment has to be implemented. That is bound to be fun...

I do hope you enjoy it.

IParkAmsterdam

Sun, 14 Apr 2013 23:53:11 +0200

I've been thinking about implementing a simple Android application that uses mapping for quite a while but never found the time or the right idea to start.

Yesterday I participated in a Appsterdam event with the guys from Glimworm showing and talking about Park Shark API, the Open API they created for querying the price of parking in the city of Amsterdam.

Today, after enjoying a nice bicycle ride (first day of the year were you could go out with a simple sweater), I decided to get my hands dirty and create a small application that made use of the Park Shark API and some mapping solution.

I don't really want to use a Google Maps Android API key for this small applications and I am a big fan of Open Street Maps (OSM) for quite a long time. Searching for possible ready to go solution that would allow me to use OSM within a Android application lead me to the project OSMDroid that provides a very similar API to the Google Maps API.

The name of the application includes a beta but it's really just very preliminary code. I did have fun writing it, and had some struggles to get things going as I desire. Specially when it comes to the interaction with the map.

Wind Speed Converter release 1.5.4

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 11:36:08 +0200

A new release of WindSpeed Started to use the API key for use when contacting the Open Weather Map servers and better user notification of error when updating the weather station information.

Windsurf Buddy - continuing development

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 08:53:39 +0200

Work is on going for the next Windsurf Buddy version.

The equipment advisor is getting to be slightly more capable than the previous one, with more rule matching to make sure that only the things that make sense show up. For example if a user chooses a Beginner use case then it doesn't make sense to show windsurf disciplines like wave.

The next screenshot is just a view of my desktop while working on Windsurf Buddy. Would you believe that I have fun this way?

Another things that I have been toying is the presentation of the multi-fin information. I don't know if this right/left looks nice (the one shown in the bigger Android emulator window).

One good news in regard to fin selection: it will be possible to change the balance of the fins length -- have more control or earlier planning. I'll write more about this soon.

Windsurf Buddy - work in progress

Fri, 05 Apr 2013 16:30:02 +0200

It's has been quite a while and Windsurf Buddy is in need of some care. Specially the UI, which feels old fashion -- it has a clear Android Gingerbread feel to it.

So it was time for a revamp of the UI and to take advantage of the new features of the Android OS such as fragments and new Holo style.

It's far from finished. Much work still ahead before the next release.

The old dashboard is gone. I think it made sense at the time (so many other applications were also using it) but it became old fashion rather quickly. With good reasons actually. With this redesign when starting Wind speed the user will be presented with exactly what he is expecting to use: some good tips on what equipment to use.

The rest of the application can be reached either by using the navigation within the application bar or, for some very specific activities, by using the menu.

One feature I think I'll drop from the application is the Wind Speed Conversion but will probably integrate it with the Wind speed application. No duplication of functionality and it will be a lot easier to manage.

On the other hand.. I'm dying to squeeze some new features like adding equipment definition which would enable the user to add it's own equipment.

Migrating from Google Reader into a better world

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 08:33:35 +0100

Here at BitPipeline we do like to read our internet news on a bunch of different devices and the soon to be dead Google Reader fitted that role perfectly (thanks to the easy to use Web and Android applications).

With the dismiss of Google Reader on the horizon I set myself the task of during one weekend finding the best alternative. After reading some articles and looking at the different choices out the in the Internet the set of possible solutions was:

Feedly : too much emphasis on images and a design that might appeal to Mac aficionados but doesn't ring my bell. No API to integrate with other applications/services. Closed proprietary source.
NewsBlur : Really nice except for the abuse of intense colours in the design. Also doesn't seem to export any API. OpenSource, so should be possible to self host. Supports sharing within NewsBlur host.
Tiny Tiny RSS : (also know as tt-rss) Simple elegant design. Exports a API (can be switched on/off). Supports sharing to social Networks, to a rss feed or within the same tt-rss instance. Supports plugins. Can use the same keyboard shortcuts as Google Reader. Open source. Themable (even to the point of looking a bit like Google Reader).

Tiny Tiny RSS was a clear winner.

I had lying around a old Asus eeePC 901 and so I set myself to install gentoo and set it up to be the host of my tt-rss. This will be a post by itself - I used some of the great gentoo features to make this install and maintenance as easy and smooth as possible.

This looks like it has been good of Google to trigger this migration. Good for me, maybe not so good for Google in the long run (I am going more and more for the self hosted services option as cloud services are proving to be just vapour).