Android - 5750

What is Android?

- Operating system - Bought and continued by Google - Open Source

Open Source & Linux

- Runs a Linux kernel - Proprietary hardware driver blobs - Custom roms

Where does it run

- Phones - Tablets - TVs - Cars - Video game console - Computers - Refrigerator - Watch

Who uses it?

- 82% Worldwide smart phone users - 1 billion+ devices shipped in 2014

Apps

- Apps run on top of virtual machine in Android (Dalvik or ART) - Virtual machine runs on top of Android OS - Everything the user sees is an app

- Phone - SMS - Contacts - Browser - Settings - Home Screen - Flappy Bird

How to get apps?

- Android application portals - Google Play - F droid - Other portals

- Download .apk directly

Developing apps

- Develop for different versions of Android - Fragmentation of device sizes, roms - Native development - Framework based development

Developing apps - Native

- Standard Java - Extra Android libraries

- User interface - Hardware - IPC

- Apps can be big or small in complexity - NDK - Develop & compile roms

Developing apps - Frameworks

- Develop apps for multiple platforms at once - HTML5/JS frameworks (Cordova, Ionic, ..) - Java frameworks (LibGDX, ..) - … the list goes on

Developing apps - Distribution

- An app = an .apk file - Install the file directly on device - Distribute on Google Play store - Distribute on alternative app portals - Profit

DHIS 2 Android

What is DHIS 2 Android?

- Aspects of DHIS 2 developed specifically for smartphones and tablets - Allows for more complex tasks in “mobile” settings - Touch screen friendly, - offline friendly, - simple and user friendly.

What’s the goal?

- Desktops not available in the field - Offline mode - GPS - Extend reach - Follow trend of technology

- Android cheap and top in developing countries - Open source

What apps exist?

- Event Capture - Tracker Capture - Aggregate Data Capture - Dashboard (beta) - Messaging (in the works)

Zimbabwe pilot and development

Agenda

- The malaria pre-elimination project - DHIS 2 Tracker development process

- Pilot and Rollout in Zimbabwe

- Challenges and opportunities

- Lessons learnt

Malaria Pre-elimination

Malaria Pre-elimination

- Program in districts bordering Botswana, South Africa and Mozambique - Few cases recorded per season - Individually followed up to household - Paper based vertical system at remote facilities - Household data collected, including GPS using PDAs - Breeding sites data collected

Challenges experienced

- Shortages of paper registers and

stationary

- Broken down PDAs and chargers

- Difficulty in locating some patients

- Some potential breeding sites not geo-coded due to crocodile infestation and thugs

- Inadequate transport

Development process

- CHAI developed electronic tools for PDAs - Vertical system / Integration - Expensive PDAs - Proprietary technology - Plain text data sending - 1 PDA per facility - Parallel UiO development

Development process

- DHIS 2 tracker prototype - Move to SDK - Pre-pilot - Global development - Customisation Workshop - Pilot - Server setup - Planned rollout

Using DHIS 2 Android in Zimbabwe

- Enables electronic capturing of data on site - Builds on existing infrastructure - Works offline - Simplifies GPS coordinate capturing - Integrated with DHIS 2 - Easy to distribute and update?

Developing apps - Native details

- Android SDK - Android Studio (IntelliJ) - Google Play account ($25)