1. what is essex scheduler? 2. why android? 3. software design 4. application graphics 5. releasing...
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![Page 1: 1. What is Essex Scheduler? 2. Why Android? 3. Software design 4. Application graphics 5. Releasing to Google Play 6. Application maintenance Essex Scheduler](https://reader033.vdocuments.mx/reader033/viewer/2022051819/551ae4ea55034606048b5b1f/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
1. What is Essex Scheduler?
2. Why Android?
3. Software design
4. Application graphics
5. Releasing to Google Play
6. Application maintenance
Essex Scheduler
![Page 2: 1. What is Essex Scheduler? 2. Why Android? 3. Software design 4. Application graphics 5. Releasing to Google Play 6. Application maintenance Essex Scheduler](https://reader033.vdocuments.mx/reader033/viewer/2022051819/551ae4ea55034606048b5b1f/html5/thumbnails/2.jpg)
What is Essex Scheduler
• Free Android application for members of the University of Essex:o Quick access to timetables
o View assignment deadlines
o Quick access to useful University of Essex resources.
o Personal events.
o Useful home screen widget that displays the next event without having to open the application.
• Over 700 unique users with 890 device installations
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What is Essex Scheduler
• Why not just use the myEssex timetable?o Old data is used if there is no internet connection, otherwise is
overwritten by new data when the user refreshes.
o Higher readability on mobile devices.
o 'FindYourWay' and Course Materials Repository functionality.
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Why Android?
• A more open platform for developers than iOS.
• Releasing the final application is easy.o Application will be on the market in less than two
hours in most cases.
• We're only students - iOS development is more costly; the application is free with no adverts.
• Testing is simple - use any Android device or emulators.o Essex Scheduler can be installed on 2264 devices.
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Software Design: Android Activity Lifecycle
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Software Design: Sample Timetable Session
User Details Start page
Timetable Page
Download source code
Parse HTML to Java objects
Handle user input
back
Browser
Course Materials Repository
FindYourWay
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Software Design: Libraries
• ACRA (https://github.com/ACRA/acra)o Posts detailed crash reports to a Google Drive form.
• Google Gson (https://sites.google.com/site/gson/Home)o Used to serialize objects to and from JSON (to store timetables and
deadlines data).
• Java CIFS Client (http://jcifs.samba.org/)o Used to enable NTLM authentication with HTTP.
• JSoup (http://jsoup.org/)o Simple-to-use HTML parser.
• Google Analytics (https://developers.google.com/analytics/)o Provides detailed usage statistics.
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Application Graphics
• University colours - red, purple and gray.
• Application is light on graphics, most of it is only themed with colours.
• Menu icons and logo were outsourced.
• Each icon comes in four different resolution for different screens.
• Two images for each button - pressed and unpressed states.
• DashBoardLayout class used to design menu screen.
• Standard Android icons (found in the SDK) used in the menus.
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Application Graphics
• Android mainly uses XML as syntax for layouts: <ListView android:id="@android:id/list"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:background="@android:color/transparent"
android:divider="@color/essex_purple"
android:dividerHeight="1dp"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:drawSelectorOnTop="false"/>
<TextView android:id="@android:id/empty"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:background="@color/list_background_grey"
android:text="@string/no_data_found"
android:textColor="@color/essex_purple"
android:gravity="center_horizontal|center_vertical"/>
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Releasing to Google Play
• $25 one-off payment required to create a publisher account on the Android market.
• Easy and quick (application is available within a few hours of uploading).
• Version control is very straightforward to use.
• Provides detailed statistics.
• Good feedback system (ratings, reviews) - hint hint
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Publishing Experience
• Once the application has been published the developer console allows publishers to o easily update and push a new version to current and future users,o see ratings and reviews:
filter ratings and reviews based on version, device, see future version suggestions.
• Developer console is not enough to use as debugging; we used ACRA (Android Crash Report for Android)o Reviews should provide an insight but they are not crash reports;
no stack trace!o Alternative is Crittercism.
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Application Maintenance
• Tested with our own myEssex account with perfect results.
• Unfamiliar ACRA crash reports after release.
o First year students - plagiarism warning displaying on OCS meant no deadlines to parse.
o Changes to Android 4.2 API broke user authentication.
o Deadlines source code was sometimes being parsed wrong - different users with different circumstances. Other courses used different titles for assignments. Some modules has no assignments.
o Changes to OCS meant new, different types of authentication. Now NTLM, used to be otherwise.
o Several crash reports each day; mostly the same error from different devices.
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Stack Trace
Custom data supplied by ACRA, requested by developer.
Environment details.
Typical Crash Report (ACRA library)
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Additional or Upcoming Features implemented after launch
• (Implemented) 'FindYourWay' integration
o Long press an event to find a route to the classroom.
• (Implemented) View module detail
o Long press an event to view the course materials repository for the associated module.
• (Upcoming) View multiple weeks of scheduled timetable events using swipe gesture.
• (Upcoming) Export event / Mass - export events to Google calendar.
• (Upcoming) Listen Again information.
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Timetable View Deadline View
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Questions