Bard College Bard Digital Commons Senior Projects Spring 2017 Bard Undergraduate Senior Projects Spring 2017 Design and Implementation of an Improved Android Application for Bard Shuttle Services Chance O'Neihl Wren Bard College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/senproj_s2017 Part of the Computer and Systems Architecture Commons, Data Storage Systems Commons, Other Computer Engineering Commons, and the Systems and Communications Commons This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License. Recommended Citation Wren, Chance O'Neihl, "Design and Implementation of an Improved Android Application for Bard Shuttle Services" (2017). Senior Projects Spring 2017. 270. https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/senproj_s2017/270 This Open Access work is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been provided to you by Bard College's Stevenson Library with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this work in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights- holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/or on the work itself. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Design and Implementation of an Improved Android Application for Bard Shuttle Services A Senior Project submitted to The Division of Science, Mathematics, and Computing of Bard College by Chance Wren Annandale-on-Hudson, New York May, 2017 P a g e | 1 Abstract With the growing population of Bard College, the need for the college’s shuttle system continues to grow. As a result, enabling the Bard community to quickly and easily access the shuttle schedules and times, has also become more important in the daily of life of Bard College's inhabitants. Although Bard College has a mobile application for Android and iPhone mobile devices alike, there was a growing demand for a new improved shuttle application for Android mobile devices. This project seeks to improve the functionality, user friendliness, and availability of shuttle schedules to the Bard Community, in the form of a new mobile application. This project comprises of three parts: application design, implementation, and beta-testing. The application design consists of the design and structure of the user interface and backend database. The implementation consists of what tools were crucial to the development of the application, such as the type of database used to store shuttle information, the programming language used, and the development environment, just to name a few. Lastly, beta-testing consisted of a small group of Bard students that volunteered to use an early version of the application for a specified amount of time to provide feedback for possible changes and improvements. P a g e | 2 Table of Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................................................ 1 Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................................................... 3 Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 4 1.1 Problem Description ............................................................................................................................ 4 1.2 Project Goals ....................................................................................................................................... 5 1.3 Contributions ....................................................................................................................................... 6 Chapter 2: Background ................................................................................................................................. 7 2.1 Previous Bard Shuttle Application ...................................................................................................... 7 2.2 Resources and Tools............................................................................................................................ 8 2.3 SQL/SQLite and Online Database Connection .................................................................................. 10 2.4 Android Studio Integrate Development Environment (IDE) ............................................................. 11 2.5 Github................................................................................................................................................ 12 Chapter 3: Mobile Application Design ....................................................................................................... 14 3.1 Use Case Diagrams ............................................................................................................................ 14 3.2 SQLite Database Setup and Structure ............................................................................................... 17 3.3 User Interface (UI) Design ................................................................................................................. 20 3.4 User Interface Technical Implementation ........................................................................................ 22 3.5 SQLite Database Implementation ..................................................................................................... 34 3.6 Alarm Services Implementation ........................................................................................................ 46 Chapter 4: Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 53 4.1 Beta Tester Feedback and Limitations .............................................................................................. 53 4.2 Future Work ...................................................................................................................................... 56 Appendices ................................................................................................................................................. 58 A Functions for AlertDialogs for CampusShuttle class ......................................................................... 58 B Android Studio Interface Images ........................................................................................................ 59 C Android Studio Emulator Images ....................................................................................................... 60 D Bard College Shuttle Github Repository ............................................................................................ 62 Bibliography................................................................................................................................................ 63 P a g e | 3 Acknowledgements I would first like to thank my friends and family whose love and support for me thus far has enabled me to pursue my passions throughout my life and especially my college career. I would also like to thank Sven Anderson for teaching an amazing course on Android Application Development, without which my project wouldn’t have been possible. Lastly, I also want to extend my heartfelt appreciation and gratitude for my supervisor Khondaker Salehin who guidance, expertise, and encouragement were vital to the completion of this project. P a g e | 4 1 Introduction 1.1 Problem Description Since enrolling at Bard College, the shuttle services have played a pivotal role in the quality of campus life for not only students like myself, but teachers and other Bard College staff alike. Bard College currently offers two mobile applications for easy access to its shuttle schedule. One is present on the iPhone and the other on Android devices, with each helping to provide students and staff with a more user-friendly way of viewing the campus shuttle schedule. Both have room for various changes and improvements, but since my expertise is limited to that of the Android device platform, it will be the sole focus of my project. The current Bard College shuttle application available for Android devices is simple, user-friendly and provides up-to-date shuttle arrival and departure times based on the user’s selected start and destination point. Unfortunately, although simple and easy to use, the current shuttle app user interface needs to be updated to better fit the resolution of newer devices and android operating systems. Secondly, since the shuttle app is maintained by an individual that no longer attends Bard College in some instances it has taken weeks, sometimes months for the application to be updated to the new school year’s shuttle schedule and times, and as of 2017 the current shuttle application no longer provides any shuttle times. Thirdly, the current shuttle application only provides shuttle times for the local Campus Shuttle whose route extends from the town of Tivoli to the Hannaford’s supermarket. Although Bard College offers shuttle services to local train stations, Rhinebeck, P a g e | 5 Woodbury Commons Mall, Kingston Mall, and special shuttle schedules for the L&T program, summer and winter break, neither current mobile application give users the option of viewing their shuttle times. Lastly, Although Bard College maintains the available list of shuttle times on their transportation