Capstone presentations are in three days. Time really flies when you're debugging!

The past few days I've been having an issue I had thought I already covered. Sending data to the server was yet again not working, which is absolutely crucial to my project. After tons of researching for a solution and emails back and forth with Dr. McVey, I finally found a solution.

I was trying to send a POST request to the server, which is fancy talk for trying to send data from my app to my server. Somewhere along the way, my POST request was getting confused as a GET request I believe. A GET request is usually used for getting things from the server, which is not what I was trying to do. I could not figure out what was causing the issue! I got so sick of seeing null over and over again, but no errors were appearing. Along with this, my PHP script, which is a file on the server that catches the request and deals with the data wasn't really doing anything. To make things a little cleaner and easier to understand and to see what's happening, I decided to have my PHP script send the data from my Bus App to a file on the server. The Parent App then grabs this. Finally, a solution! Thank god for StackOverflow when it comes to weird errors like this.

I am excited but also so nervous for presentations. I have put a lot into this project so I'm excited to show off the final product and be able to share that with everyone.

As for my future after SNC, I have just about the same mixed emotions: excitement mixed with anxiousness. My plans are currently undecided, especially with all this COVID-19 stuff happening. However, I am ready to take on the uncertainty that lies ahead!

Thanks for staying tuned on my project, it was a lot of fun!

Another update!

My app is coming along. As of now, my bus app is pretty much done. There are a few unimportant finishes touches that I am leaving for now to focus on the parent side of the app. I'll be the first to admit that I am a little behind and my progress has been slower than I would have liked, but progress is being made.

Bryan's resource was very helpful. These next few weeks are crunch time for the parent user side of the app. I have a few more algorithms to write up and finish, along with designing the interface. I am going to focus on the alerts last, just in case I can't get to them. I am proud of how far I've come but recognize that I still have some work to do. I should be able to finish the majority of the parent app in this week and build a presentation in these last two weeks. Presentations were supposed to be May 2nd, but was extended until May 9th. I'm glad we were able to have an extra week since things are online. Less than two more weeks until presentation day on May 9th!

Overall, I'm excited to be finished and have something I can be proud of!

Another update!

Progress is being made. Last week Thursday we had walkthroughs, which were essentially little mini presentations about the progress we've made so far and where we may be having issues or are currently stuck. I mainly focused on the bus app. I currently have the bus app getting close to doing what it needs to do. Right now, it pings the location every second (I will change the frequency once more developed). It gives me longitude and latitude coordinates, as well as a timestamp for each ping with hours, minutes, and seconds. This was really cool to see, as simple as it looks!

I am, however, having issues with how to send the data to the server. I talked about this during my walkthrough, which actually led me to a solution! Alumni were invited to the walkthroughs via Google Hangouts (which is how we've been doing classes). One of them, Bryan, was able to help me and serve as a React Native resource, which was so awesome! I am currently working on using PHP to accomplish the server communication. I am hoping to have this done in the next week.

Another element I discussed with Dr. Pankratz was how many different parts there were and how much communication was happening. He gave me the advice to create a diagram that shows the data flow, which I thought was a great idea! I posted one on my homepage. It really helped organize the communication and what is going on.

Overall, I feel okay about my progress. I am excited for what is to come, despite a few hang ups!

Amongst the chaos happening at school, I made a small stride! I have successfully come into a bit of contact with the server! This was really exciting for me to be able to see my app doing something, even if it was simple.

These past weeks have been a lot of learning. I feel as though I learned a lot of new things. I learned how to use JSON, a way to format data. I also was able to find a few good resources for using React Native. I contacted a former student who used React Native for her capstone and am now in contact with her as well! Things have been going good, but now that the project has really kickstarted I still have lots of work ahead of me! Just trying to stay busy, which hasn't been hard lately.

I have also started writing and thinking up algorithms, with the help of my classmates, Dr. Pankratz, and Dr. McVey. These are ways to solve different parts of my program, like figuring out when a bus is at a stop. Even though it seems simple from first glance, turns out it's actually kind of difficult to implement!

Overall, I have learned so much already and am very excited to see what direction my project goes next! ​In the next few weeks, I would like to have these algorithms written up and be able to get them implemented in some way. Given the circumstances and with classes being completely online the rest of the semester, I anticipate running into some communication problems between my professors and me. Things are no longer as simple as stopping by their office with a question! To combat these problems, I plan on updating my blog much more often and sending emails when I am stuck, rather than just staying stuck.

Even though the plan has changed just a little bit, I'm still looking forward to the end product!

This week has had some minor setbacks. Unfortunately I haven't been feeling the greatest lately, so progress isn't happening as quickly as I would hope. I do, however, have a much clearer vision of what my project will be and where I should start.

Today (2/20), I met briefly with Dr. Pankratz. We discussed that a good place to start for me would be communication between the server and my app, since this is the biggest part of my project. After talking about it, this seemed like the best place to start because I know it's something I will most likely struggle with. Dr. Pankratz also mentioned that I should email a former CS student about her capstone she did using React Native so that the app could be compatible on different platforms. My goals for the next week are to get some sort of communication happening, even just sending some random numbers from server to app and to also inquire about React Native.

Hopefully I start feeling better soon. I have a good starting point so now it's finally time to get to work!

Happy Valentine's Day!

On Thursday (2/13), we had our mini poster board presentations. We got into groups and essentially brainstormed and discussed any problems or uncertainty we were having. Getting this feedback really helped me. I discussed how I wanted the user side of the app to look and got some useful feedback for that. I feel much more sure of what direction I want to go in.

Some of the feedback I received was that a progress bar with the stops labeled would be a good indicator of where the bus is without giving its location away for safety concerns. I also learned about something called React Native which would allow me to have this app be compatible on both Android and iOS. That is something I would be very interested in. I also got some feedback about how routes data should look. Dr. Pankratz mentioned that I should look into JSON.

My goal for next week is to start building the app. Now that I have a more clear direction, I feel comfortable doing that. I want to get something going. In addition, I am going to research both JSON and React Native to see how they can help me and how I can use them. Getting the feedback this week was really helpful and I feel as though I can move in a solid direction now!

Hi there!

     Welcome to my first ever blog post. Last week, we were given our topic ideas. I had my first meeting with Dr. Pankratz this past Friday (1/31). We talked about client servers, discussed how to format the route and user data, and drew up a very simple diagram of how data is going to move around between the server, bus driver, and parent.

     After meeting with Dr. Pankratz, I have so far tried to do a lot of brainstorming. I drew out the different parts of my project and laid out what it will look like from the three different points of view: bus driver, admin, and user. The biggest thing I’ve been struggling with is how to format the route data and how to ensure that not just anyone can access the app and see any route they want, parent or non parent.

     I am so excited to develop my project over the next few months. This is something I can relate to and see the use for because I grew up in a small rural area where there was virtually no communication between my parents and where the bus was. If the bus wasn’t coming, the school administration would have to call every parent along the route just to let them know. Along with that, all we were given was estimated arrival and drop off times and if the bus was late, we didn’t know how late it would be. That’s ridiculous! An app like this could be so helpful to so many families, especially those parents who have time sensitive work schedules.
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     In all, I can’t wait to advance through this project and be able to create something meaningful to me that I can be really proud of. Beginning this project is like being in preschool again: a whole lot of learning ahead of me!