Conscriptus (MeetUp, Trump)

screenshot (Android release candidate 15)

Troubles with service access

Web version (beta) is available for testing. Click here to view.

Android

Android have an ability to determine geographic location of the handset phone (by information transmitted from the cellular network or via GPS if possible). This is unique opportunity to start up service-based social-network application which can limit searching of service by geographic area where owner of the handset is located.

For instance, user can find out “Dentists” closest to him, “Pizza delivery”, ATM machine, fast food service, restaurants, museums, specific book in the closest book-store or library or any other service or product.

Moreover, company which specialized in service can obtain location of the user with ease and deliver service or product to the user more faster. It allows user do not remember phone numbers, which is suitable if user have a trip to other city.

One step forward, user can assign time of appointment, for instance, planning visit a dentist at the time when dentist have a free time slot. To implement this, application from User side ask a phone handset of Dentist which time is not occupied automatically, then User can select suitable time from the time sheet of Dentist.

Maintenance reception in clinics, workshops and field attendance
Looking for proposals for the sale of vehicles and real estate, temporary work and garage sales (private ads)
Group of people and objects to "slice": bus route for traffic control on the map;
ATMs, restaurants, community facilities or businesses selling goods on machines'; professional people.

Test data

How to try using application: take a look here which data are already in database. And much better, share this application with friends and try to use with their data.

History of idea

Initially I planned to start specialized application for dentists but later I found I can extend vision much wider and try to develop Contacts and time planning application. I never seen before lightweight application which can synchronize two time sheets of different person automatically (for instance, assign a visit time). I try to investigate is there application ready to implement this but I did not found. Perhaps some application exists based on Domino or Outlook (collective calendars is not an option - it is drives different business logic), but they can not function on the handset.
So, there are some screen shots form application skeleton.

I started this project myself two weeks ago when Android is presented. After two month of preparations (I finished work for current (non-Android) projects) I concentrate efforts in this project. I found two software developers skilled in Java who interested in collaboration, and they are helpful in user interface design.

It is a new platform, so I waste a time to investigate how things working.

Step by step, User must do:

Start an application
Enter keywords
Select a person/company/object from found items list
Select appropriate time in time sheet

Then, this contact is added to the Contacts list and appointment is added to the Task manager (Calendar/Alarm)

Service company or just a person, must do:

go to the "Profile" enter keywords (Pizza), working hours (8-20) and check “Available for service”
receives notification about User wants to pizza
Serviceman click on “Call” button and ask which kind of pizza User waiting for
Serviceman looks at the map and deliver pizza to the User

User interface looks like Contacts. Difference is a “Find” button allows User can enter keywords what he or she wants, for example, “ATM” or “University of ...” to find out closes ATM or students garduated same university.

Fig. 1. Find the nearest "Pizza". Server finds three companies with the keyword "Pizza", one of them is not active, the second is too far.

Fig. 2. Find the nearest dentist. The patient can visit the clinic from 10 am to 12 am, a dentist may take after 11. Annex offers time from 11 to 12, in determining both.

Architecture design

I would like indicate that my project's accent is a persons and specialists which in their practice usually find out customers by the phone and local area advertisement.

Because Android platform must have a persistent Internet connection via Wi-Fi or 3G even GPRS it is possible to do interaction with web service without “manual” visiting a web site – users do not need visit a web site to perform actions like registering, embedded application will do everything as “usual” embedded application such as Calendar or To Do (Tasks) list.

Also I need establish communication between two devices to synchronize their Calendar to set up appropriate time to visit. Android can establish a communication peer-to-peer between User and Service Provider via G-Talk service using extension of XMPP protocol. To do this, user must obtain Google's identifier at once. In current version I removed code related to P2P in reason not all user have G-Talk account so application do synchronization using remote web service.

In my opinion this application is good for cellular phone companies because social-networking on mobile phones is a most awaiting feature from the phone companies and they can adopt handset with ease for their needs by replacing stack of application.

This software can be helpful for companies and independent software developers because they can implement applications for customers needs - and it also good for users. To do this, server-side application with SOAP interfaces and some scripts are available. Moreover, conceptually all servers can be integrated in one network and pass information between sites.

Download

Download .apk (0.5M, en-US)

Download source (5M, en-US)

Download server-side (0.07M, en-US)

Future plans

Client-side application and current version of the server-side application are available as an open-source at the http://meetup.sf.net/. In the future I plans to develop more effective version for embedded small footprint servers and implement integration with existing calendar software.

User's Guide (0.7M, en-US)