Android Door Announcer

Creator: User Name Status: Alpha Code Published Born On: 09:23, 23 August 2010 (CDT) Last Updated: 14:20, 24 August 2010 (CDT)

Overview

The goal of the program is to have an android phone notify the user that someone has entered the shop recently.

Currently the program is designed to monitor twitter, and pull out any posts with "Unlocking for" in the text.

This program was written in Google AppInventor, which is like legos for android developers. As it's target audience is the non-android developer, it is woefully underpowered. As such the program has many limitations and flaws, some of which resulting in false positives.

Current Bugs and Limitations

Alpha

1. Can only monitor the most recent 20 twitter posts of people being followed
   • Ideally the program would only monitor the makerslocalbot
   • Users have to gain permission to follow the makerslocalbot
2. The AppInventor Twitter interface does not provide UIDs for the twitter post.
   • If the "Unlocking for" post is still one of the most recent 20 twits by the next time the program pulls down the latest 20 twitters, then the "Unlocking for" statement will appear again.
3. Need to change icon from default to something custom
4. Twitter block reports "Follow Failed. Need to login?" when attempting to follow MakersLocalBot
   • Possibly make following MakersLocalBot something that only happens the very first time the program runs?
   • Instruct user to follow MakersLocalBot on their own, don't have program attempt to execute the follow command?
   • Have program login with a default Twitter account instead of a personal twitter account. (Probably the best option).
5. Area that shows "Unlocking for" history is not formatted well, giving random starting locations and ugly line breaks.
   • There is no tabular text layout feature, and the android label block doesn't allow for carriage returns. Could possibly address this by using 5-10 separate labels and setting them individually when a new "Unlocking for" comes in.

Alternative Approaches

1. Monitor the RSS feed rather than the twitter posts
2. Create an Ackis-to-Android interface
3. Mointor the "Unlocking for" posts in the #makerslocal channel

Download

The above QR code will provide the apk file for installation. An alternative way to load the program is to download the source .zip file, upload it to AppInventor, and then generate the .apk file yourself. Source is available on request.

Changelog

• Alpha 1281688662
  1. Corrected the Build number. Previous Build number was the project number, or something not the Build number
  2. Twitter Delay is now user definable (5, 15, 30, or 60 minutes between twitter checks)
• Alpha 16809725
  1. Added Makers Local Logo
  2. Added label to display build information
  3. Re-arranged how the text fields and labels are displayed
  4. Made it so that the Twitter username and password would be stored to TinyDB (so that user won't have to re-enter it every time)
• Alpha