MobileArchitecture_and_Programming
- Briefly summarize the requirements and goals of the app you developed. What user needs was this app designed to address?
Some of the requirements and goals of the application that I developed were the creation of a login screen, the creation of a database shell and the displayed information on a grid, and the prompting of user permissions to send user SMS notifications that makes the app function dependent on the users response.
The needs this app was designed to address was the overall creation to display different concerts, the creation and integration of new concerts into this grid view. This was to allow not only users to register for new concerts, and give them updates to the upcoming concerts, but to allow concert holders the ability to add concerts for others to register for.
- What screens and features were necessary to support user needs and produce a user-centered UI for the app? How did your UI designs keep users in mind? Why were your designs successful?
The screens necessary to support these needs were a login screen, a screen for adding concerts, a grid view, and a screen for SMS notifications. These UI designs kept my users in mind mainly due to the actual orientation in which they were displayed, as the key role that an application UI design plays is the formatting towards a specific audience to make it the easiest to use.
- How did you approach the process of coding your app? What techniques or strategies did you use? How could those be applied in the future?
The process of coding my application started with the actual understanding of the different components needed. Once I was able to fully understand this, I then continued forward with the integration of the different screens. After that, I then worked on the different functions neccesary in order to meet the qualifications. Some of the then continuing techniques I used was the utilization of an array list to assure that I was able to locally store data, in addition to using MySQL to store information as well. I was able to accomplish both implemenetations, and was able to re-orient some of the architecture to compensate for some original oversites when it came to the design while programming. This is important because this happens regardless of how many people you have, and the ability to refractor the code and pivot from the original design maybe neccesary, especially as an engineer.
- How did you test to ensure your code was functional? Why is this process important and what did it reveal?
Testing to ensure that my code was functional resulted in a lot of black box functional testing, as I would assure that I was able to compile my code in addition to utilizing each function to assure that the exact output required. This process is incredibly important as it allowed me to debug the application and find any issues. This was harder to debug than other applications I think mainly because of the android tool that I used and potentially due to MySQL as well, because upon the compilation of the code I was not able to get distinctive answers. That being said, I was at least able to find the breakpoints to investigate the potential problem which helped lead me to the correct way to solve the issue and find the improper implentation or logic.
- Considering the full app design and development process, from initial planning to finalization, where did you have to innovate to overcome a challenge?
I mainly had to innovate when it came to the implentation of MySQL. It was difficult to initially understand the exact requirements needed and what had been actually going on when I did implement it, but understanding the difference between MySQL and say, an array and how the data is locally stored in this instance really helped me understand whatever issues I had been facing, and let me innovate in the correct manner to assure I was doing everything correctly.
- In what specific component from your mobile app were you particularly successful in demonstrating your knowledge, skills, and experience? One specific component that I was good at demonstrating knowledge in with my skills and experience I think came to the implementation of the GUI. I had never actually used Android Studio and it was interesting to program a GUI without using JAVA as that is what I am used to, but I was surprised to how easy it is, and fascinated at the multicomplexual states that you could apply due to the constraints the compiler had when reading the logic.