Travel Guide

Inspiration

We looked at the flaws in current map applications and saw that many public resources, such as bike stands and disabled parking spaces, were not well represented or easily searchable with current software. The data is either not there or not well categorised.

What it does

Travel Guide gives users a way to find key resources, like locations of public toilets or bike stands, simply and quickly. It also gives them the ability to share their knowledge about these locations, with a peer review evaluation system. Users can add a facility on the map and information about it, and other users can vote on whether or not the information is correct.

How we built it

We used Google Cloud Platform to host a server application, which we wrote in Java. We used a PostgreSQL database to store the data, and an Android app written in Kotlin for the user end.

Challenges we ran into

One of our team members had to leave very early on due to illness, requiring us to reassess our entire plan. Another team member's laptop was temporarily incapacitated for several hours by a rogue antivirus program. In terms of programming, learning to get around Google Cloud Platform proved challenging with various software needing to be installed on the machine (PostgreSQL, Java, FTP server etc)

Accomplishments

We overcame our setbacks to build a working prototype.

What we learned

• We gained experience using SQL through JDBC to communicate with a database.
• We learnt to use Google Cloud Platform
• We became for familiar with the Here.com SDKs.
• We are now more aware of the need for adaptability during development to limit the damage done to our final product

What next?

We have a few more features we'd have liked to have implemented in our prototype such as more types of facilities users can add to the app, photos and ratings of the facilities themselves, and a login system (the database for which is partially in place but the front end, and backend authentication system, is not). We would also like to have a client side app for iOS and perhaps the web.

Built With

• android
• java
• kotlin
• postgresql