Its been 2 days since my last update on my project status, as they were quite hectic. The focus of these days was to pick a good cloud service to host the user data, store data, and reviews. I will split the reviews by day:
Day 1
The entire day was invested in finding a maps API that would allow me to find a store programmatically. I started with Google Maps API; however, the features that I needed for my application were not free. I then went for the Bing Maps API, which had a simple pricing model, and detailed documentation (I found Google's pricing model somewhat more complex).
I decided to go with Bing's Maps API. The next part involved finding the right API to use. There was a wide variety; however, the one that best served my needs was the Local Search API. This one would allow me to pass in a simple query, like "Mcdonald's redwood", and it would return all the Mcdonalds in that area. The only downside is that this API only works in the United States (Sorry Canada 😔).
By the end of the day, I was able to use Java to prompt the user for a store name and location and return all the stores near or in that location.
Day 2
Originally, my plan was to use Amazon Web Services to host my platform. This is my first time working with any cloud computing platform, and I was planning on picking it up along the way. However, within 2 hours of navigating through AWS, I was lost. I then did a search on the best cloud platform for beginners and got Google's Firebase in my results, which I found much easier to wrap my head around. So I took some time to set it up, and along with it, create a blank Android Studio project to pair with Firebase
Day 3
Day 3, which is today, involved me setting up user account functionality. In order to leave reviews, I needed to have a user sign-up and login mechanism, and Firebase made it easy to set up with its Authentication system. The longest part was to create an Android interface for it.
Now
Right now, I have a functioning login and sign-up system on my app, and I am able to access Bing's Maps API. The next steps are:
- Set up a Cloud Firestore database with all the collections and documents necessary.
- Integrate the Bing Maps API functionality into the app
- Finalize the app's flow by filling in and completing middle activities.
- Integrate Twilio's API
- Improve the user interface.
This project is getting more and more exciting for me day by day, and I'm really looking forward to seeing how it turns out.
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