2021-ARMessaging - SkyWrite

Summary

SkyWrite is an Android app that will allow a sender to select an appropriate message (eg Happy Birthday, Merry Christmas etc) to a postcode. The message will appear in augmented reality 100ft above the ground. Those with the app/service will be notified that a message exists in a nearby postcode.

WARNING: This project is no longer maintained and so it may no longer work as expected.

WARNING: The Firebase Cloud Messaging Service has an updated key and so Notifications will no longer function correctly.

2021-ARMessaging - SkyWrite

User Guide

How to run

Make sure you have a compatible mobile device
Download the apk file from here
Navigate to Settings and make sure to give permissions to install unknown apps from unknown sources
Locate the apk file in your files and tap on it to install it
Open the app and accept all permissions - if you do not have Google Play Services for AR installed already, SkyWrite will ask you to install it

Developer Guide

Prerequisites

Java 11
Gradle
Android Studio

Set up

Install the prerequisites
Clone the repository: git clone git@github.com:spe-uob/2021-ARMessaging.git

Getting Started

This project uses the Gradle build system. To build the project use gradlew build in the terminal or import the project in Android Studio.

To run tests, run gradlew test or navigate to the tests on Android Studio and run from there.

It is recommended to run the app using the Android Emulator but it is also possible to run the app on a hardware device.

Watson Text-to-Speech

SkyWrite uses Watson Text-to-Speech (Lisa voice). To create your own audio files using Watson Text-to-Speech, make sure you have curl installed and follow the instructions below:

Navigate to the IBM Cloud Catalogue and click on the menu in the top-left corner
Scroll down until you see Watson and click on it
Scroll down until you see Watson Text-to-Speech and click on it
Configure and create your resource
You will be directed to the Getting Started page. On there, click on the Manage tab on the left column
Copy your API key and the URL

Use the following command in your terminal, and replace the API key and the URL with the ones you copied previously:

On Windows:

  curl -X POST -u "apikey:{apikey}" ^
  --header "Content-Type: application/json" ^
  --header "Accept: audio/wav" ^
  --data "{\"text\":\"hello world\"}" ^
  --output hello_world.wav ^
  "{url}/v1/synthesize?voice=en-US_MichaelV3Voice"

On Mac/Linux:

  curl -X POST -u "apikey:{apikey}" \
  --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
  --header "Accept: audio/wav" \
  --data "{\"text\":\"hello world\"}" \
  --output hello_world.wav \
  "{url}/v1/synthesize?voice=en-US_MichaelV3Voice"

For more information, refer to the guide found in Getting Started

Deployment

Client-side Deployment

Since the front-end is an Android App, deployment is done via APK release. The CircleCI script includes a release-build which updates with every push to the master branch and produces an APK. Our website below contains a table of previous APK releases made during development.

Via Android Studio

If you want to build an APK from Android Studio, Android Studio documentation for release builds can be found here: https://developer.android.com/studio/run.

Via command line

If you want to build an APK from the command line, use one of the following commands:

Windows: gradlew TASK-NAME
Mac/Linux: ./gradlew TASK-NAME

Common build tasks are:

assembleRelease - for release builds (NOTE: To create a release build, you will need to sign your app with your private key. This can be done by following the instructions here)
assembleDebug - for debug builds

More information can be found here: https://developer.android.com/studio/build/building-cmdline

Server-side Deployment

Server-side deployment is recommended through IBMCloud and a Kubernetes toolchain, which can be set up using the Dockerfile and shell script provided.

Local Server Deployment

Alternatively, a local environment can be set up for personal development; the SpringBoot server running on localhost with a connection to a local PostgreSQL server will suffice.

To use your own server, follow the steps:

Update the current BASE_URL found in App/app/src/main/java/.../util/database/server/ServiceGenerator
1. For locally hosted servers, make sure to change the BASE URL to the local IPv4 address of your server, including the port 8080, e.g. "http://192.168.x.x:8080/"
Update application.properties found in DBServer/src/main/resources to use the appropriate database, username and password
Run the server locally, and check that it works by visiting the URL of your server on your browser first
Finally run the app on your phone

PostgreSQL Database

If you have any problems with the database, you can access the database by entering the following on your terminal: psql -U USER_NAME DATABASE_NAME

Here are some handy snippets of code that might help you:

DROP TABLE banners;
CREATE TABLE banners (
   postcode VARCHAR(255),
	create_at TIMESTAMP,
	message_id INT
);

DROP TABLE messages;
CREATE TABLE messages (
    id SERIAL PRIMARY KEY,
    message VARCHAR(255),
    objfilename VARCHAR(255)
);

INSERT INTO messages (id, message, objfilename) VALUES (1, 'Happy birthday', 'happy-birthday');
INSERT INTO messages (id, message, objfilename) VALUES (2, 'Merry Christmas', 'merry-christmas');
INSERT INTO messages (id, message, objfilename) VALUES (3, 'Congratulations', 'congratulations');
INSERT INTO messages (id, message, objfilename) VALUES (4, 'Good luck', 'good-luck');
INSERT INTO messages (id, message, objfilename) VALUES (5, 'Get well soon', 'get-well-soon');
INSERT INTO messages (id, message, objfilename) VALUES (6, 'Thank you', 'thank you');
INSERT INTO messages (id, message, objfilename) VALUES (7, 'Happy New Year', 'happy-new-year');
INSERT INTO messages (id, message, objfilename) VALUES (8, 'Happy Mother''s Day', 'happy-mothers-day');
INSERT INTO messages (id, message, objfilename) VALUES (9, 'Ramadan Kareem', 'ramadan-kareem');
INSERT INTO messages (id, message, objfilename) VALUES (10, 'Happy Diwali', 'happy-diwali');

Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM)

Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) is a Push Notification service that allows a server to send notifications to the users.

If you want to set up Firebase Cloud Messaging for personal use, read the following:

Client-side Set Up

SkyWrite has the NotificationFCMService class which handles incoming messages from the server and displays the relevant notifications, and so you do not need to modify any code. However, if you use a different package name to com.ajal.arsocialmessaging you will need to connect Firebase to your app. To do this, follow the instructions here: https://firebase.google.com/docs/android/setup

Server-side Set Up

To set up server-side you will need to first need to create a project on Firebase, if you haven't already done so.

The follow the steps to retrieve your configuration file with your service account's credentials:

In your project overview, look at the top-right corner, select the cog next to Project Overview, then click on Project Settings.
Click on Service Accounts at the top
Click Generate new private key to retrieve your service account key

Once you have acquired the service account key file, update the current service-account-file.json to the new json file that you have acquired.

Blog

Our blog is regularly updated on the development process.

Documentation

You can find the documentation here: https://sky-write.github.io/docs

spe-uob/2021-ARMessaging