Google map real time location update from server - android

I am developing an android application where I need to share location in real time. I have MySql as a server to store user location. I need to fetch location from server and update on google map. I can do this by simply calling web services to store and retrieve location by timer task. But this cause rapid battery drain , and also this not happens in real time. I want to do all this in real time, I want to move marker on the map if the user is moving. Please help me I'll be very thankful.

Both websockets and GCM may not work.
Whenever you need a real time streaming update to be pushed from the server you need to have a TCP channel connection with your server, and that's how the travel services uber or ola works.
Check how to setup a TCP server socket

If you want to get more accurate location data without the need to use a GPS. Instead, the service tries to triangulate your location by looking at the cell towers and WiFi access points around you. Then use Google Maps Geolocation API. This service is meant to save battery life and allow for better indoor location where GPS can't work.
You can also check this SO question for another solution.

I think you need to use websockets. You can also use GCM to push the location to the application. If you tell more about what technology you're using in the server side, we'll be able to tell more. Hope this helps.

Related

Tracking multiple users in real time on a live location on the map

I'm searching for the track real time live location of the multiple users. Like Ola cabs and Uber Taxi live location. I try to find so many things but didn't find anything.
I also try with the Pubnub. but not success on it.
Thanks in advance.
I suggest that you should have a WebSockets service,
So the accuracy of tracking is good & up to date,
You will use one client to send (long, lat) to the WebSockets service,
The other client will receive the latest updates from the sockets connection,
Then you show these updates on your map.
All that looks easy,
But It will require a solid backend service implementation,
To handle sockets failure,
Also a solid management of locations services on the client end,
As this will drain battery super fast.

Best back-end choice for GPS-tracking application

I'm about to create a GPS-tracking application for pizza-delivery services in my city, so that when someone orders pizza over the phone or Internet, he can see the courier that carries pizza to him on the map.
Assuming that both courier and client use Android- or iOS-based phone for transmitting/receiving current position, how can I organize a reliable connection between them? Should the courier's phone send his coordinates to my server via HTTP every 5 seconds for delivering it to client, or it will be better to set up something like p2p connection?
I don't know where to start, please help. Thank you very much.
There are open source solutions for GPS tracking. You can start from there instead of developing everything from scratch.
Traccar server (back-end for receiving location data from various devices):
https://github.com/tananaev/traccar
There are also apps for Android and iOS, but only for transmitting location data:
https://github.com/tananaev/traccar-client-android
https://github.com/tananaev/traccar-client-ios
I don't think p2p will be a good solution.
Most of the application use web services and make server calls after a definite interval of time like 10 seconds or 15 seconds refresh to get updated data on both side of apps(Client and courier).
If you want to build a real time application like other real time apps then you need to implement sockets on web and on mobile apps.
But I think in your case web services would be good enough solution.

getting latitude and longitude of an address in android using gps and without using internet connection

I want to know if gps can be used to get the latitude and longitude of an address.I've just began to work on gps on android.My problem is that if the user does not have internet connection, i want him to be able to get the latitude and longitude of an address.Can gps do that or it is only used to get current location.If not are they any other way of getting this done.I;m using google maps and i've also tried to get geocoding as mentioned in some posts,but it does not work.
From your question,
If you are using Google Map and GeoCoder class that means you must have Internet connection. And moreover when you are working with GPS, again you must have Internet Connection. If you are using GPS_PROVIDER then you required open sky type environment and for NETWORK_PROVIDER you can fetch gps details inside a room,but for both provider Internet is must.
You are missing the point of what GPS is designed to do.
Your phone's GPS doesn't do anything with an address. All GPS does is get the latitude/longitude of your current position, nothing more. The phone (via an internet connection) is able to identify your address based on the Latitude/Longitude that the GPS provides by using 3rd party provides (such as Google Maps)
It sounds like you just want to get the latitude/longitude of any address, not just for the device's physical location. That does not require GPS at all. But it needs an internet connection in order to access a provider to perform the geocoding.
A answer I provided to Does GPS require Internet? is a somewhat related to your issue. The 2nd to last paragraphs are pertinent here as well
While it requires a significant amount of effort, you can write your own tool to do the reverse geocoding, but you still need to be able to house the data somewhere as the amount of data required to do this is far more you can store on a phone, which means you still need an internet connection to do it. If you think of tools like Garmin GPS Navigation units, they do store the data locally, so it is possible, but you will need to optimize it for maximum storage and would probably need more than is generally available in a phone.
So effectively, you theoretically could write your own tool, cache data locally and query it as needed, but that not something that is easily done.

How MDM solutions track android device location?

How mdm solutions like Mass360, airwatch etc find the device location ? What are the possible ways to find android device location from a web console. I expect the result to be accurate.
I am currently using mqtt for communication between web console and android client. whenever the location changes, i send the latitude and longitude using mqtt. based on that the location is updated. But getting the latitude and longitude seems to be inaccurate and changes even if the device remains in the same location.
Help me with this. Thanks in advance.
This needs to be tracked form the agent app you are installing. Simply try to maintain the stale communication between mdm server and the agent app. You may use MQTT or any other push/polling mechanisms here. Always try to reduce the network calls and only update the location if necessary. Otherwise this will drain the battery.

Use Android GPS to detect and connect with other phones

So I asked something similar yesterday and did receive an answer to my question, however I don't really think I asked it correctly and therefore didn't receive the exact information I needed.
I'm in search of an API, some open source code, or even just a way that someone else has achieved this on the Android. I'm making an app that needs to find all other Android devices within a specified radius. For example, when you open your Android Google Maps App, and you search for say "Restaurants [ZipCode]", it uses a radius modified from your zip code and finds all of those places. The GPS gets YOUR location, and maps uses that information to find restaurants within an address close to that passed in location.
Instead, I want to be able to use the GPS to find my location (as it can now easily), but instead of finding things on a map (which is already built in), I want to be able to find other GPS enabled Android phones. I get that they will have to be broadcasting their GPS signal at the same time as well (since they don't have their data stored with some sort of central database as a restaurant would). However, I don't just want to FIND these phones, I want to send/receive data from these phones (with correct permissions obviously).
Now, I've found things like the Bump API. However, BUMP uses the phones sensors to spark this search. So basically, if you "bump" your phone with another and have the app running, it will THEN go ahead and use GPS to find the location of the other phone you just bumped with and exchange data between them. This is like EXACTLY what I want to do however in their API, they do not provide the functionality to just say, "Hey, give me all phones within a mile from me."
I've also found API's that can do exactly what I need but they have to be on the same Bluetooth range or on the same Wi-Fi network, which doesn't suit what I need at all.
Do you guys know of anything that can fit exactly what I need that already exists? Or a way to maybe modify Bump API (if you've done it), to not have to use the phone sensors and find phone information directly through GPS for phones around you? Or is there something that exists over a 3g/4g network instead of only wi-fi/Bluetooth?
Thanks guys.
Instead of frequently posting locations to an external server, couldn't the GPS realize other things broadcasting a GPS signal at a very specific time and send/receive data from them?
The only things that are "broadcasting a GPS signal" are satellites.
We would like to accomplish this without the use of an external server.
You have no choice but to use an external server, whether you like it or not, both for discovery and for later communication.
Do you guys know of anything that can fit exactly what I need that already exists?
Foursquare, Google Latitude, Yahoo Fire Eagle, and so on.
To do this via GPS, you would have to have all the phones frequently posting their locations to a network server, which could then inform them of others nearby.
Needless to say this would be opt-in only!
And it may have negative consequences for battery life, unless you make it update infrequently, which may limit its usability.
The advantage of having an explicit trigger action to both phones is that they only need to query the GPS and inform the server to find each other by location when they've both been triggered.
You would probably have to author your own application - then you could do this server-side and push things. If you're trying to push data to random Android phones - you're out of luck. Most people aren't going to want this, and probably aren't going to have the apps necessary to receive and understand it. With Bluetooth networking you'd need authorization, and most Androids don't have a capability to transfer random data by Bluetooth out of the box (though you certainly can get software to do it).
Honestly, malware and tracking are the reasons this really isn't possible, but even if they weren't, you would still need an application on the receiving devices that understand what you're sending them. And if you're widely spread enough, you'd probably want to send it to a server to disseminate anyway (for the transmitting phones bandwidth costs at least).
Develop a server application that your android app logs into. Send the GPS location every time the phone moves over a present distance. Either send a query request to the server to ask it if any other phones are in range, or get the server to inform the phone of a new device in range.
You may run into server scalability problems, so thats something to think about.
Also, this would be a big battery drain, and so your users may not be too keen to run it, not to mention the privacy element.
You need to rethink what you're trying to do. Android devices don't "transmit" any GPS signal, they are simply receivers, with signals from satellites. So the phone can easily get a location for itself, but the location of other devices is very, very private information. To get access to location for other phones, you either need to be on the same network as them (bluetooth, wifi), or you need them to use a server-based service to send locations to, like Google Latitude.
I'd be highly unlikely to sign up to a service like that. My location is very private, I share it with some people, but I cannot seem myself openly sharing it with an app, without a very, very good reason.
It seems to me that you need to build a server-based application, e.g. on Google App Engine, have people sign up, and agree to their location being sent to that server, so other phones running your app can access that information from the central store.
The question now has a very simple solution to it. All you have to do is set up a Geofence and monitor it for entry and exit of users. Geofence allows you to choose a geolocation and set a circle of desired radius around it. When someone enters or exits the location you can get notified and perform desired action.
Visit this link for further details on how to use this in Android.
All the comments from other folks about not being able to pick up the signal from others phones are correct. There is a completely different alternative system however in the network based location services. This is a model where you ask a carrier network for the location of a handset, which the carrier network needs to track for enhanced 911 service in the US (I'm unaware of how widely deployed this is in other areas, and how many different services you would need to use to cover other areas).
It's potentially a very expensive route however. And it won't just automatically work for all handsets, I believe the users will have to be opted into sharing location with your service. This is how services like Loopt had initially setup their location info so that it could be passively collected without negatively impacting handset battery life. There are some third party services that front for a cross-carrier service such as Location Labs:
http://locationlabs.com/
As well as third party location services like Skyhook Wireless, who might be able to get you some info of the sort (though I don't think what you're looking for maps to any of their existing APIs)

Categories

Resources