SEPTrip: The Ultimate Android App for Navigating SEPTA Services in Southeastern Pennsylvania
SEPTrip is an intuitive Android application designed to help users easily navigate the extensive services of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority (SEPTA). With quick access to core features from the official SEPTA website and mobile enhancements, SEPTrip serves both tourists and locals unfamiliar with the city's transit system. Our research indicated that prior apps lacked user-friendly mobile formats and comprehensive features. Though developing SEPTrip posed challenges, including parsing various data formats, we are committed to providing seamless transit planning with features like GPS location selection and real-time bus tracking.
SEPTrip: The Ultimate Android App for Navigating SEPTA Services in Southeastern Pennsylvania
E N D
Presentation Transcript
What is septrip • SEPTrip is an Android application designed to help users navigate the various South Eastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority’s (SEPTA) many services. • SEPTrip provides not only quick access to the standard features on SEPTA’s website www.septa.com but also provides user enhancements to make these features even easier to access on a mobile device.
How Septrip came to be…. • We wanted to provide an easy way for tourists and others unfamiliar with the city access to information about Septa. • Through research, we discovered that none of the current apps provided a “mobile-friendly” format to Septa’s information. • We also discovered that none of the apps were as full-featured as we planned ours to be.
Difficulties • We were slightly too ambitious with our goals for one semester • All though SEPTA provides access to many of their features for developers going through all this information was difficult as there were many different formats we had to learn, such as parsing JSON data, KML data, and GTFS data as well as SEPTA’s twitter feed. • The Google Maps API for Android also does not provide as many methods as the web based version so a lot of simple features had to be recreated, such as simply drawing a route on a map. • SEPTA is a very large organization that has many different features. Putting these all into one program will take time.
Home screen • Provides easy access to the main features of SEPTrip
Action bar • At the top of all activities is the Action Bar • It provides quick access to the home screen as well as the other activities.
Plan my trip • From the home screen users have quick access to the Plan My Trip feature. • Users will be able to select their current GPS location or choose from their saved addresses
Other home screen features • Quick access to the other important features of SEPTrip • At the bottom of the screen, SEPTA’s current alerts will be cycled through.
TRANSIT VIEW • TransitView currently displays the bus route selected • TransitView will eventually display the bus data provided by SEPTA to indicate where the buses are on the route • TransitView will also show the user where they currently are along the route to more easily judge a buses distance
WHAT WE LEARNED: JONATHAN • General Android programming • Layout design and practices on the Android platform • How to use 9-Patch to design buttons • Parsing XML • How to draw routes with the Google Maps API
What we learned: tristan • File Parsing given certain pre-determined formats • Database Languages: MySQL and SQLite • Android components: Graphics, Intents, etc.
Coming Soon! • “Plan My Trip”