Hitchhiker

Inspiration

Traveling back home during breaks can be hard for college students who don't own their own form of transportation. Many colleges have community boards that connect people who want to travel to the same location which is what inspired this app.

What it does

A user can either be a driver or a hitchhiker. A driver will give information on the date, original destination, and final destination of a trip that they are going on. A hitchhiker will insert when and where they are trying to travel and Hitchhiker will search for any drivers that are offering rides that would agree with what the hitchhiker is looking for. The Hitchhiker will pay a fee that is up to the driver. The hitchhiker can search through many filters such as amount of seats available or cost per seat to find rides that best suit them. After the driver enters what they are looking for, the app will look for any matches for the driver and show the options if their is any. If there is a match, they can ask for a ride from the driver. It is similar to searching for an Air Bnb.

How we built it

The User Interface was built on Android studio using its very helpful app building features. Classes and methods were researched and implemented to create Person and Ride objects. The project was structured across Activities, and user defined classes implemented Parcelable interface to make data transfer easier. Lastly, ArrayLists and RecycleViewer was used to display data. The whole project was coded with Java and then implemented into Android Studio.

Challenges we ran into

No one had experience with the front end development so learning android studio was a huge obstacle. No one also had experience with back development, and we spent a lot of time trying to figure out AndroidStudio. Also, we didn't know exactly how we would merge the front end and back end so we didn't exactly know how we were supposed to code at first. Luckily we figured out how everything works together throughout the process through trial and error.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We really really enjoyed learning about Toasting haha We also enjoyed getting to experiment around with app dev for the first time.

What we learned

Skills in Android Studio allowing us to create a simple app. We gained a better understanding of how front end and back end development are connected. Practical uses of implementing classes, RecyclableViewer, and troubleshooting, problem solving, and debugging skills, along with the fact that it is hard to code.

What's next for Hitchhiker

In the future, a big part we want to add is being picked up or dropped off in the middle of a drivers route. Right now, it only accounts for the driver and hitchhiker starting and ending in the same location, but we want to integrate a gps location system somehow to where our app could know that a hitchhiker is on the way towards the final destination or their final destination is in the middle of the drivers route. This would make it easier for drivers and Hitchhikers to find rides. We also want to add more filters and a messaging system in the app to help the drivers and hitchhikers communicate easier. Lastly, we also want to add toast to make the app more interesting.

Built With

• a-lot-of-tears
• android-studio
• blood
• java
• like-a-lot
• sweat