duffin22 / project01

#ADI Churro - Project 01

##My Recipe Book

The app is a virtual recipe book. Users can document their favourite homemade meals, along with the required ingredients and a rating for future reference.

The screenshots above show the three activities of my app. These are the Home Screen (where users can view all of their recipes), the Add Item Screen (where users add new recipes) and the Edit Item Screen (where users can edit the rating, title, and ingredients for their recipe at a later date.

To see a short video demonstration of my paper prototype, [click here.] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfShw1BgMKY)

###Project Requirements ####### For this project, I was tasked with creating my very first Android app that runs on a real Android device! The main goal of the project was to gather knowledge in using Android Activities, Intents, Layouts & ListViews over the course of a week. The more specifc requirements were as follows:

• Implement a paper prototype for your app.
• Your app must contain ListViews and/or GridViews
• Your app must implement at least two Activities
• Data must be passed from one activity to another
• Users can add/edit/delete items in each list
• Display in both landscape and portrait orientations

###Summary ####### My first experience of creating a fully functioning android application from concept to finished product was thrilling. The feeling of being able to look at something that I have created, that does what I want it to and is easy on the eye is fantastic. I've had highs and lows over the short space of time, but I can already say that pushing to develop great applications is an addiction for me.

###Step 1: Planning ####### The first step was to formulate an idea. For me, a big part of the decision making process for each project is to include features that will push me to learn new skills for my future career. With that in mind, I set a goal in this task to successfully utilize the user's local camera application to show images within my app.

The idea I settled on was to create a virtual recipe book. Users will be able to document their favourite home made meals by taking photos of them, adding a list of ingredients and rating the meal for future reference.

###Step 2: Paper Prototype ####### As someone with a passion for all things crafty, I was excited that paper prototyping was to be part of the process. I found this very useful, easily being able to make changes and change usability without having to modify big blocks of code. A short video demonstration of my paper prototype can be found [here.] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfShw1BgMKY)

###Step 3: Creating Activity Layouts ####### As a new android developer, I felt that this would be the best place to begin. I stand by that decision, however I have learnt that the fine tuning is something that I should leave until core functionality is in place. I ended up undoing a large amount of work that I had done at the beginning of the week, and my resulting xml layout files are a little untidy.

###Step 4: Creating Intents Between Activities & Adding Functionality With Java ####### This is where the magic happens. The most important tool that I will have in my pocket as an android developer. I feel with the project that I jumped into the Java too quickly - only creating a basic class structure and brief pseudocode before going for it, all guns blazing!

This resulted in large areas of repition, and some redundant code. Overall, I am delighted with the functionality that I added and how it appears to a user; however as a developer, I made my life a lot harder than it needed to be!

###Step 5: Fine-Tuning And Bug-Fixing ####### For me, the final stage in the process was to test the app as an impartial user, and add in any functionality that I would expect. This was enjoyable, and I feel it led to an aesthetically pleasing app!