ITCHY Project

The ITCHY Project app is a collection of citizen science projects that anyone can partake in. More information can be found in this video.

Poison Ivy on the Appalachian Trail

This project allows the user to report sightings of poison ivy on the AT. Users can report one of three types of poison ivy and optionally upload pictures with it.

More Projects Coming Soon

The ITCHY Project is new, more citizen science projects are on the way.

Adding a Project to the App

Add a Project Button

Add the following XML code to fragment_home_page.xml to create a button on the home page.

<Button  
  android:layout_width="match_parent"  
  android:layout_height="wrap_content"  
  android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal"  
  android:id="@+id/my_project_button"  
  android:text="My Project" />

Link to Main Activity

Add the following code to HomePageFragment.java to send a new instance of your project fragment to the main activity.

Button myProjectButton = view.findViewById(R.id.my_project_button);  
myProjectButton.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {  
  @Override  
    public void onClick(View view) {  
      if (callback != null) {  
	    callback.onProjectSelected(new MyProjectFragment());  
      }  
    }  
});

Create Your Project

Create a new package for all your project files and create MyProjectFragment.java that extends android.support.v4.app.Fragment . This will act as the "main activity" for your project page.

Available Tools

Instance ID

When the app is first run, an instance ID is created for the user. This ID can be accessed by calling InstanceID.getInstance().getId().

Request Handler

You can queue a request by calling RequestHandler.getInstance().addToRequestQueue(...);. An example can be seen in SettingsSyncService.java.

Room Persistence Library

The Room persistence library provides an abstraction layer over SQLite to allow fluent database access while harnessing the full power of SQLite.

Firebase JobDispatcher

The Firebase JobDispatcher is a library for scheduling background jobs in your Android app. It also allows the use of job constraints, such as setting a job to run only when the device is connected to an unmetered network and charging. An example can be seen in IvyReportUploadService.java.

Location

The main activity of the app handles location services. To get access to this object, first add to your fragment the following code:

private GetLocationListener locationCallback;

@Override
public void onAttach(Context context) {
    super.onAttach(context);

    try {
        locationCallback = (GetLocationListener) context;
    } catch (ClassCastException e) {
        throw new ClassCastException(context.toString() + " must implement GetLocationListener.");
    }

}

You can then get the location object like so:

SimpleLocation location = locationCallback.getLocation();
double longitude = location.getLongitude();
double latitude = location.getLatitude();
double altitude = location.getAltitude();

Adding Settings

First add your setting to fragment_settings.xml. The following code is an example of what it may look like.

<EditTextPreference
  android:key="pref_my_setting"
  android:title="Setting Name"
  android:summary="This is my setting!" />

If you want the server to be alerted of the setting change, add your key to the SYNC_KEYS list in SettingsFragment.java. When the setting change occurs, a request will be made with the following body:

{
	"uid": "a1a75dfe-b444-3512-d456-e7845h67895g6",
	"payloadType": "SETTINGS",
	"payload": {"pref_my_setting": "the new value"}
}