1. ANDROID APP FOR HIVETRACKS.COM SERVICE
Matthew Lingelbach
Mike Hancock
Daniel Wilson
Michael Salley

2. WHAT IS HIVETRACKS? Created by Dr. James Wilkes and Mark Henson
Connects the seemingly incompatible worlds of computer science and beekeeping
Enables users to keep and maintain records of beehives
Hive conditions are recorded in “Inspections”
Weather
Health and happiness of bees
Food and medicine
Physical condition of hive
Free Internet-based service that replaces paper notebooks, faulty memories, and proprietary software packages

3. BRIEF DEMO OF HIVETRACKS WEBSITE

4. ANDROID DEVELOPMENT
Android applications are written in Java, relying on special libraries to interface with the phone
Standard Java constructs don’t always work; input and output are special Google-packaged constructs
Android language uses Template Method design pattern
Google-designed simulator runs within Eclipse
Capable of simulating all versions of the Android OS, for testing purposes
Prevents having to develop “blind” and then test on an actual mobile device
Learning curve: Before writing the app, we had to become familiar with
Specific Android constructs and classes within Java
XML layouts, used to construct GUI interface

5. OBJECTIVE Goal of the project:
To develop an Android app with the following capabilities:
Allow existing users to log into the HiveTracks site
Allow user to select a hive and initiate an Inspection
Collect Inspection data from the user, and submit the Inspection back to the database
Though Inspections were the primary focus of the app, it was also necessary to create a means of browsing through the user’s yards and hives to select the correct inspection target
A “back-end” server side system was also needed to handle transactions between the mobile environment and the HiveTracks systems.
Developed primarily by Mark Henson and presented ready-to-use

6. DETAILS OF IMPLEMENTATION
A series of XML documents were created to produce the GUI displays for the app.
Separate page for each inspection step
Login screen capable of accepting the user’s name and password
Browsing screens for selecting a yard and then a hive for inspection
After the group discussed the requirements, Mark developed a back-end interface between the HiveTracks servers and made it available for the Android app to “connect” through
Group developed the app itself; a “controller” that guides the user through the inspection wizard and handles the submission of the inspection to the HiveTracks database
This app, the “Final product”, would eventually be submitted to and downloaded from the Android Market; all the other files and layers are contained within it.

7. DEMONSTRATION OF APP

8. WHAT NEXT? At present, the app has the following capabilities:
Log into the HiveTracks system as a specific user
The user can browse existing yards and hives in the process of preparing for an inspection event
The GUI interface including inspection pages and menus has been implemented and linked together
Next semester, the following steps remain to be completed
Finish the data collection routines which will create and submit an Inspection object to the server
Refine the GUI displays for better appearance
Implement better navigation between the “pages” of the app