SCBG GUIDE ANDROID APP
Technical Manual
Table of Contents
Files
Local Garden View & Plant information view
Welcome view
Mapping
Search view
GPS
Databases
Authoring Tool
Files
 Android Studio Project (Ice-cream sandwich)
 http://people.cs.clemson.edu/~smsouth/files/guidephp
o PHP script location
 http://people.cs.clemson.edu/~smsouth/scbgauthor
o Authoring tool location
PHP Scripts
 Add <name>
o Inserts a new item of the type in <name> with
provided URL arguments
 AddPlantWithRelation
o Used by the authoring tool to add a plant AND
make a holder object to match it to a location
 Get <name>
o Returns a json object pertaining to the provided
URL ID argument and <name> type
 GetImageEchoTwo
o Returns an image based on the plant ID given
(GetImage and GetImageEcho are for note
purposes only)
 Get<Location/Plant>FromID
o Returns an item based on provided ID
 GetLocationWithPlant & GetPlantWithLocation
o Uses the holder type to get an array of all the
different locations/plants associated with a
respective plant/location
Local Garden and Local Garden Child views
In the project, this view is identified as view number 1. When a user
agrees to viewing more information in the map view when entering a
certain area, they will be taken to this view.
All that this really entails is a listing of all plants associated with a
particular location. The plants are gathered in this way from the
databasemanager.getPlantsAtLocation(int id) method from the
INTERNAL databaseManager.
Originally the user is taken to the LocalGarden fragment and all the
text fields are simply filled with a default N/A. The Plant listing
button will navigate to the LocalGardenChild fragment which is
where a subsearch is made.
Again, this screen is nearly Identical to the SearchChild but instead of
using ALL plants it only uses the plants associated with the
lastGarden String array from StaticData (which is set once the user
selects to see more information). For details of the search itself, see
the description of Search.
Map View
This is the initial view that the app loads and has the
all-important map view.
The app had to be registered on googles developer console,
just use this key in the android manifest file under the value
area for the google services use case. This is for security
reasons and as such please don’t use this key for any apps
that are not the one it’s associated with.

B5:BA:D3:8F:24:5D:3A:82:46:90:64:C6:A4:9A:FF:2B:B6:3C:EB:21;guide.scbg.scbgguide
Mapping
This map is set to go straight to the main parking lot of
the gardens with coordinates (lat to long) 34.67072, 82.824206.
Since the map is under a google service it is relatively
easy to use once it has been registered through the developer’s
console. Something to note here however is that you should not
call anything from the map until it has been loaded. This is
demonstrated though the map.setOnMapLoadedCallback in the
onResume method of the Map fragment. This section is where
the locations are loaded from the Internal database and assigned
pins depending on their landmark status.
Beacons
This new feature entails having several Estimote beacons
present messages when coming into range. As shown in the
database schema there is a table associated with each beacon
with the MAC address being the identifier for each one.
Estimote does offer an alternative to MAC addresses for
identification but that requires each device to be registered on
their site. Given the app already uses enough internet it seemed
reasonable to simply handle identification independently.
Once set up in code the Estimote beacons can be very
simple to use effectively. Firstly, an adapter was set up using
their API class LeDeviceListAdapter which keeps up with
Bluetooth devices. Next is the API BeaconManager (created in
the onCreate of the MainActivity). This manager only requires
that a ranginglistener be assigned to it that implements the
onBeaconsDiscovered method. Inside of this the app runs the
rest of the code in a ui thread (to maintain responsiveness),
checking each location from the databasemanager with the
gathered beacons in range. Note that ONLY estimate beacons
are represented here so there is no worry of other devices
showing up.
After that the manager is started from the onStart method in the
mainActivity using connectToService. This method is located
at near the end of MainActivity and starts the “ranging” for
beacons that come up.
Note the stopping and unregistering of the beaconManager in
onStop and onDestroy. This prevents the app from using too
many resources for no reason when closed or unCached.
Search
Searching is NOT done via the native dialog as in the iOS
version of app. Instead search is done through a child of fragment
known as SearchChild. This child has a custom adapter with a text
changed listener applied to the main text field. When the text
changes ALL plants are filtered through common name, Genus,
species, and cultivar. Note that the Latin name printed for each
search cell does have a specific ordering to it as a Lain name
entails Genus species ‘Culivar’ with species ALWAYS being
lowercase and cultivar being in ‘’.
When a cell is selected the lastSearch array in StaticData is set
which allows the search view to be returned to and still have its
data set. This is necessary because search is a fragment and loses
its data when transferred via the navigation bar.
GPS
It would be wise to remember that the ONLY activity in the
entire project is the MainActivity, everything else is simply a
fragment of it. This results in most all sensor checks to be
located in mainActivity like GPS and Beacon support.
Remember that GPS is used to detect when a user entered
a garden. One option would be to set a proximity trigger using
a locationmanager for each of the databases location objects.
Based on past experiences trying to make a reliable proximity
alarm though API with the iOS version has let to simply
checking each location against the users current location via a
LocationListener (under listen class located in MainActivity).
This approach may be a little slower but given that the location
may only do an update every few seconds the delay shouldn’t
be noticeable to the user. This listener is assigned in the
onResume method of the MainActivity.
The external and internal databases are identical with the external being
mysql and the internal being sqlite. I recommend using mysql workbench to
connect to the external database as opposed to something foreign to it.
Host: buffet.cs.clemson.edu
Name: SCBGGuide Formal Name: SCBGGuide_jlxd
Server: mysql1.cs.clemson.edu
Username/Password: Email smsouth@clemson.edu for permission
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Location: Holds name, description, longitude, latitude, radius, landmark.
Landmark is represented as a TinyInt (mysql has no BOOL) and represents
if a location is a landmark instead of a normal garden.
Holder: This holds a location and plant match, so you can select all plants
in location or all locations with plant. (see php files GetFrom* for examples)
Plant: Holds name, family, genus, species, cultivar, img, tag, and ebp.
Family, genus, species, cultivar are keys matching separate tables (multiple
plants can have same of either). Img is a BLOB and is simple used to hold
an image representation of the plant. Ebp stands for estimated bloom period
and uses locality to match 0 – 11 to the local month representation.
Lastmod fields:
This isn’t going to be implemented for the initial assignment, but rather
globally over the summer session. The purpose of this field to let the apps
internal database send it’s date and time with its php calls. These PHP calls
will return only those fields that are newer or updated from before.
Deleted:
These are not currently in the schema but are nun the less planned to be
included like the lastmod fields. This will tell if the data field has been
deleted or not, if it has then it will be basically ignored by all other
functions.
Both lastmod and deleted need implementation to stop the app from redownloading all data over again each call. This will require substantial
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changes to both the iOS and Android apps as well as the Authoring tool, but
should be worth the effort in less data transferred.
CODE
The external database is made through the StaticData class and is
activated through multiple calls to network providing the various url
locations of the php scripts. These urls can also be found in StaticData and
can easily be changed by changing the one primary folder address only.
There is no secondary call for when the data is completed but can be set in
any fragment creation for syncing with the internal database.
The DatabaseManager class deals with this internal database though the use
of the built in DatabaseHelper. Note that this database is automatically
loaded each time the app starts so there is no need to check for its existence
each time.
Authoring Tool
The authoring tool is located at
http://people.cs.clemson.edu/~smsouth/scbgauthor.
Index.html is where locations are loaded and displayed with each having an
edit/delete/change plants button. Clicking on the single add button above all
of them will add in a blank location named “new location”.
Plant.html is where change plants will take you too and works in the same
manner as location.
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Clicking edit on either plant or location will use editPlant.html or
editLocation.html respectively; the submit button will send the update
command to the database.
All of the php files used are found at
http://people.cs.clemson.edu/~smsouth/files/Guidephp .
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