/where-is-the-iss-open-notify-api-capstone

Thinkful API capstone project, "Where is the ISS?" (International Space Station), which uses the Open Notify api

Primary LanguageHTML

"Where Is the ISS?" - Thinkful API Capstone Project

A responsive website that pulls data from three APIs, Open Notify (http://open-notify.org), Google Maps (https://console.developers.google.com/), and Convert Unix Time (http://www.convert-unix-time.com/) to enable users to track the location of the International Space Station (ISS) over the Earth.

User Cases

This app is for three types of users.

  1. As an amateur astronomer, I want to find the current location of the ISS in order to track the path of the ISS in real-time.
  2. As a space travel enthusiast, I want to find the time of the next pass of the ISS over my location so that I may possibly view the ISS.
  3. As an elementary school teacher, I want to find the predicted location of the ISS at a future date and time to plan for future viewings and share that with my students.

UI Flow

UI Flow handwritten draft

Wireframe _main

Wireframe _Main

Wireframe _User Cases

Wireframe _User Case 1

Working Prototype

You can access a working prototype of the app here: http://where-is-the-iss-open-notify-api-capstone.learn2code.club/

Functionality

The app's functionality includes:

  • The ability to view a video of the ISS traveling across the night sky.
  • The app shows the current location of the ISS, updated every 7 seconds.
  • The app returns the time and date of the next three passes of the ISS over a user-input location.
  • The app lists the current crewmembers of the ISS.

Technology

  • HTML

  • CSS

  • JavaScript

  • jQuery

  • The app uses AJAX JSON calls to the Open NotifyOpen Platform API to return ISS latitude and longitude, the time of the next three passes, and the names of the current crewmembers.

  • The app uses AJAX JSON calls to the Convert Unix TimeOpen Platform API to return the unix timestamp converted to an UTC formatted date and time.

  • The app uses AJAX JSON calls to the Google Maps and Google GeocodeOpen Platform API to return the map showing the current location of the ISS and return the latitude and longitude of the user-input location.

Responsive

App is built to be responsive across mobile, tablet, laptop, and desktop screen resolutions.

Development Roadmap

This is v1.0 of the app, but future enhancements are expected to include:

  • Time/Date of the next three passes shown in local time.