SEP - Mobile Event App Project

This mobile event app project is my first android application. During the process of learning and development, I noticed that android development covered large variety of knowledge including app architecture, UI design, data management and etc. It is really hard to build a good application in such a short time.

So, I will keep update and improve this project on this repo.

Currently Working On

Welcome for advice or feedback on this project. Leave messages in the repo or reach out to me by other means.

• Web server and Admins side

  • use Shared Preferences
  • Firebase later on

• backend server

  • DIY session management
  • end points in the REST API
  • database: MongoDB (on Azure)
  • the server will be hosted on Heroku

Update History

• Add backend server: 7.28

  • Currently working on it and the project skeleton link: https://github.com/YikaiQian/sep-backend

• Add comments: 7.21

• UI update: 7.20

  • Redesign the UI of 'general event info' page using NestedScrollView. Contents of event info are added to the fragment programmatically since the number of weeks and the number of sessions per week is not fixed.
  • Customize the Color Theme: Material design palette
  • Add Snackbar messages to improve user experience

About the project

This project is focused on the functionality and architecture and. The app UI is more or less primitive which will be improved next.

Functional Requirements

Most functional requirements are met. Filter function is finished. The chatting and admin functions will be implemented next.

Application Details

The app has one main activity which contains multiple fragment that user can navigate to view the general event info, list of sessions, and the to-attend list. Those three main fragments are organized with the Buttom Navigation bar.

Organizing app screens in one activity with multiple fragments facilitates the ability of Navigation Component which simplifies the logic.

Data Management

• A Local Json File res.raw.all_sessions provides raw stubbed data

• Repository pattern is adopted to hide the the data source from the rest of the application.

• A Repository class is responsible for fetching the data. So, it is easy to migrate the local data source APIs to Web Service APIs. Only the Repository class is going to be changed.

• SQLite Database: User data such as to-attend sessions are stored in the database.

If the Web Service API is provided, those user info can be stored on the server and later fetched from different endpoints. That's more efficient than load all data at once. Large files such as images can also be cached at local storage to speed up the app.

ViewModel

A ViewModel is used to manage the data shared by multiple fragments. The ViewModel contains Mutable LiveData that publish updated data to those fragments when the data change.

Navigation

• Navigation from login activity to main activity is realized by Intent.
• Navigation between different fragments in main activity uses Navigation Architecture Component.

Display Data

• Add UI components and layout programmatically
• ListView & RecyclerView
• Adapter
• Data Binding

The UI of general event info fragment is constructed programmatically so that it can display nested lists of contents and add customized filters to the data. i.e. display sessions by week and display multiple weeks of data

ListView and RecyclerView are used in the project in order to display a list of sessions in a fragment and handle the navigation to the detail fragment when one of the session is selected.

Adapter classes specify how each item is displayed in a ListView or RecyclerView. It also provides an interface to handle the click event and pass the data of selected item to the main fragment.

Data Binding + viewModel = Display data directly in XML file

External Libraries Used

• Room: Manage Android SQLite Databases
• Moshi: Parse the Json file
• Glide: Display images from url
• Material UI Components: Unified and powerful theming (button, card, font)

Next Step

• Optimize the UI design

• Dive deep into basic concepts of Android such as view, context, Fragment and architecture components.

• Setup a Web Server and implement the admin function

• Refactor the code and add some necessary comments

Some References

• Kotlin Bootcamp: https://codelabs.developers.google.com/codelabs/kotlin-bootcamp-welcome/#0

• LinkedIn Learning:

  • Kotlin Essential Training
  • Android Development Essential Training: Your First App with Kotlin
  • Android Development Essential Training: The User Interface with Kotlin
  • Android Development Essential Training: App Architecture with Kotlin
  • Android Development Essential Training: Manage Data with Kotlin
  • Android Development: The Navigation Architecture Component

• Material Design code lab: https://codelabs.developers.google.com/codelabs/mdc-101-kotlin/#0

• Room Database: https://developer.android.com/training/data-storage/room

• Android ListView Tutorial: https://www.raywenderlich.com/155-android-listview-tutorial-with-kotlin