SEPTRIP

WHAT IS SEPTRIP SEPTrip is an Android application designed to help users navigate the various South Eastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority’s (SEPTA) many services. SEPTrip provides not only quick access to the standard features on SEPTA’s website but also provides user enhancements to make these features even easier to access on a mobile device.

HOW SEPTRIP CAME TO BE…. We wanted to provide an easy way for tourists and others unfamiliar with the city access to information about Septa. Through research, we discovered that none of the current apps provided a “mobile-friendly” format to Septa’s information. We also discovered that none of the apps were as full-featured as we planned ours to be.

DIFFICULTIES We were slightly too ambitious with our goals for one semester All though SEPTA provides access to many of their features for developers going through all this information was difficult as there were many different formats we had to learn, such as parsing JSON data, KML data, and GTFS data as well as SEPTA’s twitter feed. The Google Maps API for Android also does not provide as many methods as the web based version so a lot of simple features had to be recreated, such as simply drawing a route on a map. SEPTA is a very large organization that has many different features. Putting these all into one program will take time.

Provides easy access to the main features of SEPTrip HOME SCREEN

At the top of all activities is the Action Bar It provides quick access to the home screen as well as the other activities. ACTION BAR

From the home screen users have quick access to the Plan My Trip feature. Users will be able to select their current GPS location or choose from their saved addresses PLAN MY TRIP

Quick access to the other important features of SEPTrip At the bottom of the screen, SEPTA’s current alerts will be cycled through. OTHER HOME SCREEN FEATURES

TRANSIT VIEW

TransitView currently displays the bus route selected TransitView will eventually display the bus data provided by SEPTA to indicate where the buses are on the route TransitView will also show the user where they currently are along the route to more easily judge a buses distance TRANSIT VIEW

General Android programming Layout design and practices on the Android platform How to use 9-Patch to design buttons Parsing XML How to draw routes with the Google Maps API WHAT WE LEARNED: JONATHAN

File Parsing given certain pre-determined formats Database Languages: MySQL and SQLite Android components: Graphics, Intents, etc. WHAT WE LEARNED: TRISTAN

“Plan My Trip” COMING SOON!