enterprise mobile web development with drupal - taxi dispatch case study

Taxi Cab Confessions – we did it with Drupal!

@prometsource

@akucharski

Acquia Webinar

Agenda

Acquia Webinar

Objectives

How Drupal was leveraged for rapid development of the base dispatch application

Why Drupal was the right choice for integrating with native and hybrid mobile apps

Where Drupal can be used for enterprise mobile application development

Acquia Webinar

Promet Source background

Company Background Founded in 2003

30 + employees

Offices in Chicago IL, Sunnyvale, CA

Company Offerings Promet Source

Web Development

Mobile Application Development

Acquia Webinar

Promet Mobile Work

M.DOT sites (Drupal)

Responsive Design and Theming (Drupal)

Mobile Application Development Native development for:

IOS

Android

Hybrid development with Phonegap

Acquia Webinar

About Me

Presenter:Andrew Kucharski

Co-PresentersChris Bartlett

Rachel Jaro

Acquia Webinar

Mobile Application Opportunities

By 2013, mobile phones will overtake PCs as the most-common Web access device worldwide

Transportation CIO’s made Mobility one of their top priorities for next two years

Acquia Webinar

Project Background

 Green cab of Madison is an eco-friendly taxicab service with a hybrid vehicle taxi fleet and shared ride service

Green cab needed a dispatch solution for their new fleet of cars equipped with iPads

Acquia Webinar

Requirements and Challenges

Build a Dispatch system to establish two way ride request communication with iPads in cars

Month and a half timeline before launch

Zone based ride calculation

Cars to provide up to date location to dispatch

Acquia Webinar

Proprietary Technology Options

Acquia Webinar

Green Cab business choices

Option 1 – go with proprietary hardware solution

Option 2 – build a custom code application

Option 3 – build the application using Drupal

Acquia Webinar

Our Approach

Use Drupal as Dispatch Center

Use iPads as mobile dispatch unit

Use PhoneGap as application development platform

Acquia Webinar

Benefits of Using Drupal

Fast development cycle

Services Module

Security built in

Immediate prototyping

Acquia Webinar

Mobile SDK – to go native or Hybrid

Acquia Webinar

Use Hybrid Development Platform – we chose PhoneGap

Acquia Webinar

Application Functionality

Save Ride Request

Schedule a Ride Request for future time and date

Zone based ride cost calculation

Dispatch Taxi for Pick up

Drivers to Receive and Accept or Decline request

Update Driver during request with new information or cancel request

Display location of fleet on a map

Acquia Webinar

Call Screen

Pull down menu allows Users to assign calls to drivers.

User can click on any call to view in entirety & make revisions.

Acquia Webinar

Dispatch's Driver map

Hold curser over orange dot to display cab number.

All iPads have GPS tracking to manage cab’s location.

Acquia Webinar

Implementation

Dispatchers running GreenLightDispatch

*Photo by WrielessWeek™

Acquia Webinar

Zones and Open Layers

Acquia Webinar

Receiving calls on ipad

When Driver arrives to the pick up location, they will touch ‘Load’ or ‘No Load’

based on whether Rider gets into cab.

Acquia Webinar

Additional Benefits

Data Plan only – use skype for voice communication

Credit Card Processing via Little Square

Accept Credit Card information

Receive communication from dispatch

Vehicle Fleet management

Driver management

Acquia Webinar

Architecture

Drupal Services

Acquia Webinar

The solution – Green Light Dispatch

Notable Modules http://drupal.org/project/openlayers

http://drupal.org/project/services

http://drupal.org/project/cck

http://drupal.org/project/views

http://drupal.org/project/date

Acquia Webinar

Services to the rescue!

3 components of Services module

server modules – receive and render request

authenticatation modules – authentication Extended authentication model to use both key and drupal authentication

services modules – process and return data Extended the services module to minimize data transfer

Acquia Webinar

Challenges

Google Maps API limit Oversight during development

Limit Wireless Traffic Extended services module to make our own calls

Testing

Performance Issues Performance improvement of 500% by limiting views

Acquia Webinar

Code distribution to iPads

Three ways to get code to your Apple device IOS SDK

App Store

Enterprise Program

Enterprise program allows for over the air updates to devices

Acquia Webinar

Next Steps

Native Client App for iPhone and Android Uses location to populate ride request

Ability track you taxi once ride is assigned

Ability to SMS customers

Automatic Driver routing

In-app navigation (fastest route, traffic avoidance)

Simulate metered functionality via GPS tracking

Financial Reporting

Acquia Webinar

iPad Application Case Study

Dispatch software built on open source technology running on iPad applications instead of proprietary hardware. Featured by Apple and AT&T

iPad powered location and fleet tracking system - running the fleet of cabs in Madison

Product featured in Wireless week magazine: http://www.wirelessweek.com/Articles/2011/04/Devices-Green-Cab-iPad-Dispatch-System-Computers/

Acquia Webinar

Upcoming Consumer App

Acquia Webinar

Drupal as a multiplatform CMS

Questions?www.prometsource.com

andy@promethost.com

Twitter: @akucharski

We are hiring!