Weather App

Overview

Github Link: https://github.com/tnruff/csc317-weatherapp

Weather App is a Java Android mobile application that enables the user to browse weather forecast information based on the city entered, and share the current weather with their contacts by email.

It supports both phones and tablets with different layouts on both devices. Different animations will be shown on the screen based on the current weather.

Weather forecast information is retrieved from National Weather Service (NWS) API.

Team members: Thomas Ruff, Chaoneng Quan

User Interface

1. UI layout

   The initial screen shown to the user will consist of a large display of the temperature and weather for the chosen city. The default is loaded from the shared preferences. Below this main information, we can display additional forecasts for the rest of the week. Various sun/moon/cloud icons will be used for displaying the weather on each day. The main screen will then have a "Get weather" button to display the forecast for the user's current location. Finally on the main screen will be a "Share" button to allow the user to email a picture of the forecast to one of their contacts.

2. Assets

   The background of the forecast will make use of rain, sun, snow, or other applicable animations depending on the current weather. Icons will be used from Icons8 for the app.

3. Prototype UI

Technical Details

1. Fragment This app will use Fragment to support both phone and tablet devices. On a small screen size device, it will only display one Fragment at a time. On a large screen size device, it can display two Fragments on the same screen.

   1. Weather Fragment Contains the UI layout View objects
   2. Search Fragment Contains the search layout View objects

2. Content Provider

   This app will use the contacts content provider in Android to display the list of contacts, then allows the user to click on the contact to share with. After the user clicked on the contact to share, it will then get the email address for a given content to set up the intent to send an email.

3. Implicit Intent

   This app will only support sharing via email, rather than any messaging app in general. It will also support sending an image to a specific email (the email of the desired contact), rather than just a general email.

   In another word, once the user clicked on the share button and chosen the contact to share with. It will pre-fill the email body with a screenshot of the current weather, and pre-fill the destination address with the chosen contact's email address.

4. Weather API Web Service

   This app will use the National Weather Service (NWS) API to retrieve weekly weather forecast information.

   NWS API divides the US map into 2.5km grids, and each grid is a label with x and y index. To use this API we need to provide three parameters: office, gridX, gridY.

   This app will first use LocationManager object in Android to get current latitude and longitude, then use latitude and longitude to get the office, gridX, gridY information from the API, then finally use office, gridX, gridY to get weekly weather forecast information.

   Example Usage:

   https://api.weather.gov/gridpoints/{office}/{gridX},{gridY}/forecast
   

   A snippet of JSON data retrieved:

   {
       "number": 3,
       "name": "Monday",
       "startTime": "2020-11-16T06:00:00-06:00",
       "endTime": "2020-11-16T18:00:00-06:00",
       "isDaytime": true,
       "temperature": 63,
       "temperatureUnit": "F",
       "temperatureTrend": null,
       "windSpeed": "5 to 15 mph",
       "windDirection": "NW",
       "icon": "https://api.weather.gov/icons/land/day/few?size=medium",
       "shortForecast": "Sunny",
       "detailedForecast": "Sunny, with a high near 63. Northwest wind 5 to 15 mph."
   },
   

5. Animation

   Different animations will be displayed based on the current weather of the day.

   • Sunny: sun on the screen
   • Rain: raindrops on the screen
   • Windy: moving leaves on the screen
   • Snow: snowflakes on the screen

6. Project Structure

   ├── MainActivity
   ├── WeatherFragment
   │   └──  AsyncTask
   ├── SearchFragment
   │   └──  AsyncTask
   ├── ContentProvider
   └── WeatherInfo

   • MainActivity

     • Setup Fragments and the entry point of each button's onClick functions.

   • WeatherFragment

     • Contains the UI layout View objects

   • SearchFragment

     • Contains the search layout View objects

   • AsyncTask

     • Handles the web request in a different thread, and store the information retrieved asynchronously

   • ContentProvider

     • Retrieve contact email and send Implicit Intent

   • WeatherInfo

     • An object that stores the weather forecast information, including day, temperature, temperatureUnit, windSpeed, weatherIconURL, shortForecast, detailedForecast

Timeline

• Project Document - 11/16/2020

• Milestone1 - 11/23/2020

  • Main UI, Web API, Content Provider should be done
  • Estimated work hours: 5 hours

• Checkpoint Meeting - 11/30/2020

  • Finish Minimal viable product should be done
  • Estimated work hours: 5 hours

• Project presentation - 12/7/2020 and 12/9/2020

  • Final product deliver