Group2-Android

Project website:

https://can-zhou.github.io/3D5B/

Group members:

Can, Cormac, Malay, Rohan, Shrey, Tom, Ujjawal, Vishant

Video Demo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oA5gN1mJLMI&feature=youtu.be

What this app is for:

Our app is a virtual meeting planner. It is designed to take time-zone details from group members and create a meeting time that suits everyone. Anyone can make a meeting. As it is done so in a very user friendly way to minimise exposure to the algorithm deciding on what time suits best. Once a meeting is created, the host can share the meeting ID to their group members which they can use to join the meeting.

The team - who did what (at high level):

• Can Zhou 19324118 zhouc@tcd.ie

  • As a technical leader, my primary goals are to ensure this project can be completed on time and let everyone have learnt something in this process.
    • I was instrumental in creating the initial work breakdown structure (GitHub, Firebase, Android Studio).
    • At times I had to wear the hat of a teacher or coach when I helped some of my peers in understanding the deliverables and how to best achieve them.
    • Wrote some template codes for them, so they can learn, use and modify my code to complete their own part.
    • All code was reviewed by me before merging the requisite into the master branch.
    • Built a project website (https://can-zhou.github.io/3D5B/) in order to demonstrate our work better.
  • As a developer
    • My major contribution was on the back-end side.
    • I designed the core algorithm for the app for finding the best possible time slot for the meetings.
    • My meetings pages, navigation bar and the adapter structure were designed and coded by me.
    • While contributing towards the backend was my main contribution, I also worked on front end screens which were of high complexity. One such example is the View List. Database design and normalisation in the firebase was also done by me.

• Cormac Doyle
  My role in this team was the role of secretary and to work with the frontend design team on layouts for the app. As secretary I attended and wrote minute reports on every meeting since the start of the project. These reports consisted of duration, attendance, issues and ideas discussed, assigned tasks, and a date and time for the next meeting. All these reports were stored in a google doc which every member had access to. I also designed the profile page layout for the current version of the app.

• Malay Tripathi

  • Managed Front end for both Booking System(T life) and Time Zone Planner (Huddle) app.
  • Did a few small things in the back end as well like email authentication,etc.
  • But the team required me in the front end, so I designed quite a few layouts in "T Life" like the Sign-in page and a few layouts in "Huddle".

• Rohan Taneja

  • Managed backend for both Booking System (T Life) and Time Zone Planner (Huddle) app
  • BookingSystem: worked on BookingActivity - booking reservation system, room booking and join the booked room
  • Huddle: worked on DashboardActivity for creation and joining meeting
  • Implemented validation algorithms where needed.
  • Firebase implementation and structure for data storage
  • Also, managed few layouts while implementation

• Shrey Wahi

  • I worked on the front end in this project and learned about some of the backend part.
  • I worked on a major part of the register page and the join meeting pages.

• Tom Mulligan

  • My job was the group leader.
  • It was my responsibility to ensure the smooth working of the group throughout the semester. As part of this, I had to coordinate with members individually, keep a balanced review of the group's overall progress and lead the group through implementing our plan in an efficient as realistic manner.
  • This role did pose challenges throughout the semester. The transition from the group of four to the group of eight required that I communicate frequently with group members and relay any queries to the overall group. The initial phase of deciding the direction that the group was to follow posed challenges in this regard. However I do think that the group dynamic did work well, with very few disagreements occurring and deadlines rarely being missed.
  • More recently, my role as group leader has become more intensive, especially in the area of maintaining a consistent level of contact via WhatsApp and Zoom. Coordinating with differing time zones and commitments have meant that organising meetings and making contact is a lot more difficult than before. However to credit the group, we have pulled through and continued with great progress recently.

• Ujjawal Aggarwal

  • Managed Frontend for Booking System (T Life) and Backend for Time Zone Planner (Huddle) app
  • Booking System (worked on Login, and profiles pages ) and Huddle (worked on Home activity, Sign Up activity and Login Activity) and Group Icon
  • Firebase Authentication and Database integration
  • Also, added some basic functionalities like Reset password, remember me and Uploading Image.
  • Helped other teammates to design the User Interface

• Vishant Mittal
  • I was a part of the front end team for this project. • I worked on a major part of the login, the sign up and the join meeting pages. • I mainly designed some of the layouts of the app. • I even designed part of the theme used in the app.

What you would do with it if we had more time:

• Enhance and clean up front end layouts
• Include an ‘Edit Profile’ feature on the profile page layout
• Add a chat feature between group members
• Ability to share meetings via social media platforms and email
• Add more locations
• Integrate with Zoom to automatically create meetings
• File sharing features within the app

Experiences:

• Can Zhou

  • Although we did not get a very good ranking in the eighth week’s presentation, we reflected in time and sought help from the professor. More importantly, we summarized the failures in the old app (such as unreasonable GitHub branch separation, defective database design, and too simple front-end design) and avoided these problems in the new app. And I have confidence that this final app is much better than the previous app in terms of design and function implementation.
  • I am grateful to my teammates. This is a challenging project especially at this special time, but we worked well together, and all have good self-learning ability. I also got many brilliant ideas from them and what they achieved really impressed me. Everyone has done some remarkable achievement in this project and I believe we all learned a lot from this project. Moreover, I would like to thank Professor Stephen Barrett who always gave us guidance and provided the time zone, this fantastic idea for our final app.

• Cormac Doyle
  I found what worked well with the team was the GitHub project with Android Studio. All members were able to work on their respective branches and then commit it to the github project for all members to view. Android Studio is also easy to use and very compatible with GitHub.

• Malay Tripathi

  • Before this module, I had zero experience working with Android Studio, but in the end, I can happily say that I have learned a lot, not just in the field of Android development but also through collaborative working. From making various Front end layouts like the sign-in page for T Life to email authentication in the Back end, I have learned and enjoyed a lot-be it Front end or Back end!
  • The best thing that I have experienced through this module is that it is self-taught which opens the door to explore the depths of this course and learn/understand things self-paced.
  • For the first time I worked in a large group of 8 people, this clearly helped me visualize things from others’ perspective. All 8 of us synced very well- my special mention will be for our Technical Leader, Can, she was very supportive and helped me whenever I needed, be it 12pm or 4am! Regardless of being in different Time zones we all put a serious effort into this Project.

• Rohan Taneja

  • Learned working in Studio IDE
  • Working on virtual enviroment to test run and debug application
  • Learned how to use version control applications like GitHub to manage the projects easily and debug issues faced.
  • New functionalities in Java programming and their application
  • Debugged the backend implementation and fixing issues faced by the team
  • Working with a diverse team having discreet knowledge
  • Handling obstacles faced working remotely in different time zones
  • Collaborating with various team members and uniform work distribution

• Shrey Wahi
  This project helped me a lot with the working of an android app. I got to learn the basics of making and designing an android application and also got to learn java from online sources and also the group members. It was all the teamwork which made it possible for us to complete the app even after being in different time zones. It was a great experience on how all the members of the group discussed their ideas on Zoom. Also I found the working of GitHub and how a team can manage to work on the same thing at the same time using GitHub. I also got to learn how easy it is to use GitHub with android studios. I worked on some of the pages for the frontend design. And also collaborated some of the pages with group members.

• Ujjawal Aggarwal

  • Learned how to work with GitHub.
  • Learned to tackle the problems of timezone, to collaborate with everyone and respect their ideas.
  • Learned a lot about Java Concepts and functionalities.
  • Learned how to integrate the Firebase with an Android Application
  • Debugging the issues coming up the project
  • Learned basic photoshop skills

• Vishant Mittal
  I have worked on many projects individually and in groups but this was my first experience working in a group for this long with these many members. Obviously, I got to know about others’ perspectives and some of their thought process which helped refine my ideas. I got to know about various platforms like android studio and github. It was mostly just google your tasks and get them working. This taught me a lot of new stuff. This project involved a lot of our time working remotely due to the ongoing pandemic. Video conferencing platforms like zoom and whatsapp were used to collaborate for the project. I think that our team successfully completing the project in spite of being in different parts of the world is evidence to the fact that the primary goal of team work was achieved.