android-location-tracker

Android Simple Location Tracker is an Android library that helps you get user location with a object named LocationTracker

Installation

Add this to your build.gradle file

repositories {
    maven {
        url "https://jitpack.io"
    }
}

dependencies {
        compile 'com.github.quentin7b:android-location-tracker:3.2'
}

Don't forget to add the following permissions to your AndroidManifest.xml

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION" />

Be aware of Android Marshmallow's new permission system

<permission-group
	android:name="android.permission-group.LOCATION"
	android:label="A label for your permission"
	android:description="A description for the permission" />

Use

As its name says, it's a simple library. To create a tracker you just need to add the below code in your Android Activity/Service

// You can pass an ui Context but it is not mandatory getApplicationContext() would also works
// Be aware if you target android 23, you'll need to handle the runtime-permissions !
// see http://developer.android.com/reference/android/support/v4/content/ContextCompat.html
if (    ContextCompat.checkSelfPermission(ctx, Manifest.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION) != PackageManager.PERMISSION_GRANTED
    && ContextCompat.checkSelfPermission(ctx, Manifest.permission.ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION) != PackageManager.PERMISSION_GRANTED) {
        // You need to ask the user to enable the permissions
} else {
    LocationTracker tracker = new LocationTracker(ctx) {
    	@Override
    	public void onLocationFound(Location location) {
    		// Do some stuff
    	}
    };
    tracker.startListening();
}

And it's done, as soon as a location has been found, it will call the onLocationFound() method and you can do the job.

Provide custom use

You can call a LocationTracker with custom parameters. To do this, use the following constructor

LocationTracker(Context context, TrackerSettings settings)

As an example:

LocationTracker tracker = new LocationTracker(
	context,
	new TrackerSettings()
    		.setUseGPS(true)
    		.setUseNetwork(false)
    		.setUsePassive(false)
    	) {

	@Override
	public void onLocationFound(Location location) {
		// Do some stuff when a new GPS Location has been found
	}
};
tracker.startListening()

This, will call a location tracker that is looking ONLY for GPS updates. Network and Passive updates will not be catched by the Tracker.

Providers AND metrics custom use

LocationTracker allows you to define some custom metrics like

• The minimum time interval between location updates, in milliseconds
• The minimum distance between location updates, in meters

To specify those parameters, LocationTracker you can set more settings. Here is an example of call:

TrackerSettings settings =
        new TrackerSettings()
            .setUseGPS(true)
            .setUseNetwork(true)
            .setUsePassive(true)
            .setTimeBetweenUpdates(30 * 60 * 1000)
            .setMetersBetweenUpdates(100);	     

LocationTracker tracker = new LocationTracker(context, settings) {

	@Override
	public void onLocationFound(Location location) {
		// Do some stuff when a new location has been found.
	}
};
tracker.startListening();

In this case, when a location is found, the tracker will not call onLocationFound() again during 30 minutes. Moreover, if the distance between the new location and the older one is less than 100m, onLocationFound() will not be called.

Be aware that the time parameter's priority is higher than the distance parameter. So even if the user has moved from 2km, the tracker will call onLocationFound() only after 30 minutes.

Manage the tracker

By default, after a LocationTracker is created, it automatically starts listening to updates... and never stops. LocationTracker has two methods to start and stop listening for updates.

If you want to stop listening for updates, just call the stopListening() method. For example, if you need a one shot position, you can do that:

LocationTracker tracker = new LocationTracker(context) {

	@Override
	public void onLocationFound(Location location) {
		// Stop listening for updates
		stopListening()
		// Do some stuff when a new GPS Location has been found
	}
};
tracker.startListening();

You can also do it in the onPause() Activity method if you want.

@Override
protected void onPause() {
	if(myTracker != null) {
		myTracker.stopListening();
	}
	super.onPause();
}

REMEMBER! A LocationTracker never stops untill you tell it to do so.

You may want to start listening for updates after all. To do that, LocationTracker has a public method named startListening(), call it when you want.

For example, in the onResume() Activity method:

@Override
protected void onResume() {
	if(myTracker != null) {
		myTracker.startListening();
	}
	super.onResume();
}

Overriding

LocationTracker implements Android's LocationListener interface.

By default, it does nothing but logging.

Excepts the onLocationChanged() method, you can override all the LocationListener's metods, so here is the list:

• onProviderDisabled(String provider)
• onProviderEnabled(String provider)
• onStatusChanged(String provider, int status, Bundle extras)

Contact & Questions

If you have any questions, fell free to send me a mail. You can also fork this project, or open an issue :)