Donals Android Dev Blog

Thesis Complete!

2009-04-24T09:04:00.002+01:00

Have polished off my thesis and uploaded it to moodle. overall I'm happy with it, It feels like a proper document and overall seems to be ok, I am not happy with what I done on the practical side of things and would have liked to have written more in the design & implementation section about additional features of Android that i would have loved to have featured in the application.

Unfortunately time ran against me and it just was not possible, I beleieve I do however have a framework application that will allow me to expand the feature set of the application quite easily and implement proper rich functions in the future.

I will continue on with the project despite the end of the college term and will continue to update my website http://www.donalrafferty.com

Draft complete

2009-04-17T19:10:00.000+01:00

After having to stop practical development on my application prototype with it not being up to my standard at all I got to work on the document and have finished the first full draft today, appendix have yet to be added but the bulk of the work is done and I'm pretty happy with what I have, awaiting lecturer feedback to see if that happiness is justified

Getting close to the finish line but still miles to go!

2009-03-15T23:27:00.000Z

ok bit of an update,

The application itself is beginning to take shape all be it a little slowly, I have all the parts I need to make the application but just cant seem to find a good bit of free time to work on it.

The write up is due soon as well and I haven't even thought about it, so things are gonna get a bit hairy for the next few weeks I would say!

under pressure!

2009-03-08T23:40:00.002Z

well after a quiet start to semester two after some of me being lazy and getting hit with a sickness that stopped me from working on anything for a week and a half suddenly a lot of work has piled up.

I however have managed to get an app put together, that incorporates the main functions that I want and it works, however on further testing it appears it doesn't work as well as I thought and with the work load it has taken a back seat again.

Hopefully though when I get the assignments of this week over and done with I can find time to iron out the problems

Another overdue update!!

2009-02-16T20:49:00.004Z

Got myself a G1 phone last week so I have been playing with that and it has actually impressed me a lot more than I though it would, I had read up on all the issues it had but am still very impressed with the phone, it is lacking the finesse of the iphone but still I'd back latter releases to address the issues.

The most important thing is that it holds Android and allows me to deploy my application live (hopefully)

I used the phone to test the Gps indoors but as I had suspected I could not get a single so my mapping of the corridors of dkit idea using the gps is out.

in its place is my idea to use the Gps to direct users to specific car parks in Dkit and display parking information such as payment required depending on the time of day etc..

In development terms I have been playing around with Gui's and mapping apps and such and have all the pieces I need to create my app, its just getting them to work together now and i fear I may not create a silky enough app to do the Android platform justice!

Feedback on Interim Report

2009-01-24T15:38:00.003Z

So I got my interim report feedback sheet back and got %71.2 which is pretty good, i am happy with it, although I know i could have done better. The main issue was that I had not lay down the outline of what my application will actually do or any design at all. I was aware of this and becomes of time constraints I didn't get it it.

I am feeling a bit anxious at the minute because I feel I am a bit behind in what I would have liked to have done by this stage and think I should get my ass in gear a bit more

Back to the grind

2009-01-20T09:16:00.002Z

Back in college yesterday, Haven't posted anything over the holiday period at all because basically I didn't do anything, not due to the lack of interest in the project just because it wasn't possible.

But I'm back at college now and starting to get going again, the first few weeks or so will be all about getting stuck into the programming of the application, design and implementation, so while I have an idea in my head as to what I want I am going to have to implement and test and play around with things to see how it goes.

I plan to update my website this week too - http://www.donalrafferty.com

one piece of the puzzle

2008-12-01T20:03:00.002Z

So the interim report was submitted today, its the first piece of the puzzle as I like to see it, I was happy enough with the PDF document I submitted although I didnt get to proff read it as much as I would have liked. I had changed some stuff but the college PDF converter completely messed up the conversion so I left it as it was so I hope it was ok.

Next is the presentation so I have to find time to prepare my slide show for that. I feel completely rushed and I'm in no way happy with most of this semesters work either within the project or other modules.

I'm not particularly good at presentations either so I'm not really looking forward to this one as although I feel like I have covered alot of research on Android I also feel that with more time I could also cover alot more in alot more detail.

So I unsure about the presentation at this point

Post Supervisor Meeting Report

2008-11-28T12:11:00.002Z

Meeting went pretty well, Dermot just edited some of the text to re word it better and make it fit better within the context of my project.
I also have to talk a bit about the use of xml to create views in Android and why it is used or what benefits it has.

There is not too much additional work to be done to get it just right so I'm pretty happy with it and hopefully its good enough to help me aim for a distinction.

The deadline approaches

2008-11-28T09:28:00.002Z

So the deadline for submission of the interim report is on monday and I have finally tidied up everything I have done in the report and the literature review. I have a project meeting with my supervisor now at 10 and I'm looking forward to seeing what he thinks about the content of my report.

Hopefully there will be no major issues with it as due to the time constraint and the amount of other work we have I wont have much time to edit the document substantially over the wekend, so hopefully I haven't made a total mess of it. My main concern is that the content is valid and meaningfull and that I haven't left something major out.

I'll post the feedback Dermot gives me after the meeting.

Literature Review Update

2008-11-24T23:15:00.003Z

Currently working on finishing up my literature review, for today I decided to dedicate my time, to reviewing what I had, tidying it up and adding finishing touches to parts that required them. To finish off the review I am looking at a current Android application that exists and what I would like to take from it.

After I finish that then I need to redo my proposed solution as it is completely disjointed at the minute and also tidy up my plan for progress and add my references and appendices.

all in all I'm semi happy with what I have at the moment, unfortunately I missed a meeting with my supervisor last friday but I with a meeting this friday, hopefully Dermot will address any problems with the interim report and I can fix them over the weekend ready for submission on monday

The sands of time are ebbing away....

2008-11-19T09:06:00.002Z

This week is an absolute disaster, with mounting projects and time running out I don't think I can devote as much time to my main project as I would have liked, I had planned to create a little application that uses Androids location API but I may not have time for that now. I also feel I'm rushing my interim report a bit and not getting a chance to edit it as I would like.

Just to remind myself I have to do the following projects along with the main project

-Create a Blackjack Java Applet
-Create a mobile app that uses RMS data storage
-Create and improve upon a Pong Java Applet
-Create an Email client using RMI
-Create a Timetable Application using Scrum Development process

And then there's the project too.

So its gonna be a hectic 2 weeks or so

Overdue Update

2008-11-14T12:28:00.002Z

Been awhile since I posted, Projects backlog has taken over and its been hard to find time to update this blog, my website is also long over due an update too but this blog will have to do for now.

I have been working on both my literature review and learning Android.

I am nearly finished creating a Sudoku game for Android and I have also found an open source application that uses the location API of Android that I will hopefully get a chance to play around with.

I am about half way through my literature review, It has good content on the types of development platforms there are, the opportunities for mobile applications, a bit about Android, I just have to write a bit more about what I want to do it and how I will achieve that

SuperVisor Meeting Report

2008-10-24T11:20:00.002+01:00

After a meeting with my supervisor Dermot, I now have some points to focus on for the project.

I have decided to look into location aware applicationss, research the area and whats being done in the area, I have looked up a sample android program called breadcrumbs that uses androids location api and I plan to base my application on something similiar.

Breadcrumbs allows the user to use a gps system to get around but it displays pictures of the area to show the user where to go.

For the next week or so I have tasked myself with

-Researching Wireless/Mobile areas
-Reading IEEE and ACM articles
-Research development platforms
-getting/reading Android Books

Mini Update

2008-10-13T09:32:00.000+01:00

So I've downloaded the Android SDK along with the plug in for eclipse, I have played around with it a bit and looked at some of the demo's and examples that come with the SDK.

This is all software side though so I plan to concentrate more on reading up on research related topics this week, I have found an ebook that I will probably buy to have a read and a few blogs to start with, of course I will have to find more academic stuff to make sure my research is adaquate and accurate.

My project website is also up and I'm happy with the design of it now, you can keep an eye on it at http://www.donalrafferty.com

Project Research

2008-10-07T14:39:00.000+01:00

I have provided my project proposal on my Android application proposal, so just waiting to hear if it is accepted or needs to be changed.

In the propsoal I have only vaguely described that I wanted to create an android mobile application, So this week I decided to look into what kind of application I could create, I went to the ADC Galler which is a description of the top applications that were programed for Android during a competition for developers.

I found a program that allows users to take pictures and create a route of pictures so people can visually see where they have to go to get to a destination in a building or on the street. I thought this was a nice idea so I have decided to look into a slightly less complex version and maybe create an application that will allow students find areas in the DKIT building.

So I plan to look into the API's I may require to do this and anything else I may require along the way

Project Proposal

2008-09-29T11:36:00.000+01:00

I have decided that I will do my project on googles new programming platform known as Android.

I will try to create a mobile application using the open source Android platform that google has developed specifically for its new G1 mobile that is set to rival Apples Iphone.

I hope to create an application and also compare the android platform to the MIDP platform that we will be learning in the mobile platform development module in our course.

First Post!

2008-09-17T19:24:00.000+01:00

This is my blog where I will be posting information about my 4th year software development project, its a substantle year long project where I have to create a piece of software and document everything along with it.

This is part of the documentation process I suppose, I'll be posting issues and hopefully successes along the way.

For now I must come up with an idea to do my project on, which is proving to be harder than I believed.

Hopefully I'll have that sorted soon