Tendon Loader

Hey! This project has been concluded on Aug 31, 2021.

Any commits afterwards just code maintainence, including dependencies upgrade, framework upgrade, or cleanup, no new feature or support. Thank you.

Introduction

• Tendon Loader is designed to measure and help cure Achille's (uh-KILL-eez) Tendon Problems.
• Project is built for Patients (Android, iOS) and for Clinician (Web).
• Mobile Apps uses a Low-Energy-Bluetooth device called Tindeq Progressor for data measurements.

Background

• [Tendon rupture][tendon-rapture] is an injury that affects the back of your lower leg.
• It mainly occurs in people playing recreational sports, but it can happen to anyone.
• The Achilles tendon is a strong fibrous cord that connects the muscles in the back of your calf to your heel bone.

The Project

• This project contains three platforms (Android, iOS and Web) built using Flutter with Firebase.

Firebase:

• Firebase is currently registered using Spark plan. Which is free with limited read/write access and suitable for development.
• Firebase setup and initialization is managed using flutterfire command-line tool.

1. Authentication

• Uses the (email only) method to allow the User (Patient) and Admin(Clinician) to login and/or register to the app or web portal.
• User can login/register through the app (Android/iOS) only, and does not have access to the web portal (unless explicitly Granted by Clinician).
• User can only record (create) data and submit it to the Clinician through the app, and does not allowed to view, alter or delete it later.
• Admin can login/register to both (App/Web) using same credentials, can add new users (admin/non-admin) from the web portal, and can provide web portal access (if required) to existing users.
• New users/admins are created using Email and Password method, and does not contain email verification and allowed to use (non-existing) dummy email addresses.

2. Firestore Database

• Data storage for both the user and admin.
• Database and its structure formation is fully managed by the application itself, and does not require any prior creation of any component including authentication.
• Altering database structure may result in App Crash.

3. Hosting

• The web-app is hosted URLs registered for the live channel are: https://tendon-loader.web.app and https://tendon-loader.firebaseapp.com

Setup

• This Guide assumes you have installed Flutter SDK, Android Studio, Xcode (macOS), and Google Chrome
• Android build requires keystore information files to successfully build the app (even debug mode): (android/keystore.properties) and (android/tendonloaderkey.jks).
• During development, comment out following lines in app level build.gradle file and rebuild the project:

sudo npm install -g firebase-tools

firebase login
firebase init

dart pub global activate flutterfire_cli
flutterfire configure

firebase emulators:start --import=<path> --export-on-exit=<path>

// Comment out below 3 lines
def keystorePropertiesFile = rootProject.file("keystore.properties")
def keystoreProperties = new Properties()
keystoreProperties.load(new FileInputStream(keystorePropertiesFile))

// And,
signingConfigs {
    release {
        // Comment out these 4 lines
        keyAlias keystoreProperties['keyAlias']
        keyPassword keystoreProperties['keyPassword']
        storeFile file(keystoreProperties['storeFile'])
        storePassword keystoreProperties['storePassword']
    }
}

Firebase Emulator Suite (optional, recommended)

• Emulator suite consists of individual service emulators built to accurately mimic the behavior of Firebase services.
• This means you can connect your app directly to these emulators to perform integration testing or QA without touching production data.
• Learn more about initializing and running local emulators at: firebase-emulator.

Code Generation (build_runner)

• Run following command to generate sources in project root

flutter pub run build_runner build --delete-conflicting-outputs

Apple M1+ (Fix)

• The flutter_blue plugin uses google protocol buffer to compile and build artifacts.
• However, on Apple Silicon, because the plugin depends on old version of compiler protoc-3.11.4, which is for x86 architecture, presumably as of (2021).
• So as a workaround, we specify to use Rosetta 2 (intel architecture) that allows compiler protoc to run successfully.
• To update flutter_blue plugin,
  • Open project in Android Studio,
  • From the Project side panel expand Gradle Scripts,
  • Look for module level gradle.build (Module :flutter_blue),
  • Location (macOS): (/Users/<username>/.pub-cache/hosted/pub.dev/flutter_blue-<version>/android/build.gradle)
  • Open the file and make following changes:

The Error

FAILURE: Build completed with 2 failures.

1: Task failed with an exception.
-----------
* What went wrong:
Execution failed for task ':flutter_blue:generateDebugProto'.
> Could not resolve all files for configuration ':flutter_blue:protobufToolsLocator_protoc'.
   > Could not find protoc-3.11.4-osx-aarch_64.exe (com.google.protobuf:protoc:3.11.4).
     Searched in the following locations:
         https://repo.maven.apache.org/maven2/com/google/protobuf/protoc/3.11.4/protoc-3.11.4-osx-aarch_64.exe

Old solution of 2021

protobuf {
    protoc {
        // Replace this line
        artifact = 'com.google.protobuf:protoc:3.11.4'
        // With this block
        if (osdetector.os == "osx") {
          artifact = 'com.google.protobuf:protoc:3.14.0:osx-x86_64'
        } else {
          artifact = 'com.google.protobuf:protoc:3.14.0'
        }
    }
}

// Update dependency to latest version (2023).

protobuf {
    protoc {
        // Replace version: 3.11.4
        artifact = 'com.google.protobuf:protoc:3.11.4'
        // with version: 3.21.7
        artifact = 'com.google.protobuf:protoc:3.21.7'
    }

}

dependencies {
    // Same as above, replace 3.11.4
    implementation 'com.google.protobuf:protobuf-javalite:3.11.4'
    // with 3.27.7
    implementation 'com.google.protobuf:protobuf-javalite:3.21.7'
}

Bluetooth Connection

Screenshots (2021-06-25)