CB00881 Smart Cities

This week we set out to continue tackling the uploading of data to the Arcgis platform, it has become more of a hassle than we could've anticipated. More so when using REST for data upload. Both using the desktop application and the web map, it's as easy as cliking "add" and selecting a csv, so more tinkering is still needed. We also had a meeting with the Alberta team and they seem to be on the same page with us, as far as development goes. They're experimenting with loading the data from an Arcgis map to their own app. One main point both teams came to is about exactly what data actually has to be stored in Arcgis, and the schema we should use to have the most relevant info in Arcgis without overloading the data. Also, the ways in which we're planning to identify each place across databases. Something that might be useful to store is the type of place that each point represents, so that we can organize them into layers that group similar types together. ...

Writing all these posts down takes some time, wow. Specially if we really want to make them worth reading. But honestly, it's starting to feel like just following a strict, obligatory protocol than anything else. A bunch of the time spent writing these down could most certainly be better spent in actually doing the things we plan for, instead. Just saying. Anyways... Right now our plan is to continue on top of what we accomplished last week. Most buttons are not really functional yet, and a lot is just demonstrative. Hopefully by next week the user will be able to move across and interact in ways of adding info to our system. Also, Patrick from the Alberta University is trying to get us on a meeting to discuss some aspects of this all. So we might as well be on the look for any news. image obtained from https://tealswan.com/teals-blog/something-to-look-forward-to/

Hey there! hope you're having a nice Saturd... wait, it's Tuesday now? Hmmm then I guess this comes to you later than expected, then. Although, are you really in a state of expectation for these posts? I mean, you probably landed here just out of curiosity, or boredom. And thus the date for this is not really that important at all... okay, enough of that. We can still relate to you the facts of last week in the same way. Because, well, last week continues to be what last week was. And will forever be. We advanced the platform up a few notches, mostly with regards to use cases like logging in/signing up and navigation indicators across the different views. Here's a sneak peak: What do you think? don't you dare say that Minerva isn't the cutest thing you've seen today. We also spent some time connecting our components even further, like sending landmarks to Arcgis. This has proven to be more complicated than we thought, simply because their documentat...

Continuing on where we left off , we've changed our plan. Trying to figure out work-arounds STEPS is really no different, functionality wise, to just uploading the landmarks data ourselves to an Arcgis map. So, this week we'll divide our responsibilities as follows: Luly: front-end for our web platform Chuy: data scrapping for Edmonton landmarks Martell: sending data to an Arcgis map using Golang The whole point of this is that by the end of the week, our platform will be both more visually appealing, easy to use and functional. And with this, I think the perfect time has come, once more, to quote the wise Leonard Snart... image obtained from https://i.pinimg.com/originals/11/16/bf/1116bfb84800e4490ec2255a441452e7.jpg

This week went by quickly. Jumping from one task to the next, its end suddenly came and we were left wondering what time we had actually dedicated for this project. Turns out, we didn't. Partials took us by storm, and twisted our time management skills to their limit. Some things had to be put aside. And sadly, this project was one of them. But, breaks aren't always so bad. This helped us take a breath and gain a new, fresh look now back at it all. And that's all there is. Not much else left to say. image obtained from https://www.reviewtrackers.com/procrastination-productivity/

This week we plan to continue developing our back-end side of the project. Mostly though, we'll be centered on figuring out how to use the Steps API previously developed by the Alberta team so that we add there additional info and media for important landmarks. The thing is, right now the Steps project is structured around "sidewalks", routes. We're not yet sure how we'll add landmarks, perhaps as routes that start and end at the same coordinates? The documentation for Steps is not very clear for where we can add this information. Hopefully we'll figure out a way, or a workaround, soon. image obtained from https://searchengineland.com/founder-openstreetmap-good-better-google-maps-already-192089

As mentioned in the last post , a couple things happened this week... first, there's no final project anymore for the Software Quality and Testing course, so we can shift our focus towards the most crucial parts of the project. Not leaving testing aside, just lower priority now. We had another meeting with the Alberta team, we were instructed to focus on creating the platform through which landmarks can be added and modified, as well as some multimedia scrapping for these places. All this, through the Steps API. Some changes were made in the front-end for displaying the map with points, as well as our Go API. All looking good, much work still to be done. image obtained from http://www.quoteambition.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Teamwork-Quotes.jpg

This week we finally have a clear sight of what we need to do and how we are going to do it. Below there is the preliminar arquitecture for our project with the different technologies we are going to use: We are going to use Heroku to host the whole project, Postgress for our DB, Go for the API and VUE for our web client. Travis is used for CI and solid still has a grey area defined for it as we dont know exactly how much we are going to implement. We are also going to be splitting our work load so that each of us focuses on the different areas, Martell will be focusing on data analysis, Lucia on front-end design and implementation and Jesus on API integration. From the other courses we will have a group focusing on creating tests for our project. The Go API will probably have a TDD focused approach, while front end tests will be developed after those parts are done. On the Web development course we are focusing on the Go API and postgress integration as well as mounting the s...

This week we plan to start working on a few of the things we've been going about back and forth with the Alberta team. Specifically, and on track with what's planned to be delivered on the Web Development Lab class, a map with points shown from the Datos Abiertos Jalisco platform. This, through a very basic API. We also have planned to integrate Github with travis-CI for testing automation. Eleni (UofA) has also mentioned a few other responsibilities of our team that hadn't been considered before: ingesting/scraping data to populate the back-end database developing analytics  features so that the platform administrators can see how the platform is used, such as (for example): how many assets we have, within an area? when were these contributed? what channel and which individual is the biggest contributor? how many people did this tour? how long did it take? So when the time comes, we'll want to incorporate these tasks into our planning. ... ... ....

This week, following our meeting on Monday, our communication with the Alberta team has been more constant. They've let us in some of the details we missed from our video meeting and informed us of some specific requirements their clients have. We've also been discussing with them about which technologies we've used in the past and feel most comfortable with. This has led to some agreement on the most part, deciding that (mostly) we'll be taking on the web development side of the project and them on the mobile client. We were also presented with a general idea of what this app is planned to look like: With all this in mind, we've decided as a team to go with the following system features: visualization of points of Interest in map routes creation with multiple points of interest, in order routes can be approved or dismissed by other users information about MiBici stations for routes information about points of interested can be edited by users automat...

Today we had a meeting with the Alberta team, finally meeting them face to face. Virtually, at least. There, people from the city of Alberta gave a slight overview over what they require, giving us the following conception: - A web-based system through which people can contribute with geographical locations they think worth visiting, as well as walks that take them through certain locations. - A mobile client for guiding the user through people-generated walks. - The mobile application should work with and without internet connections. - Users should be able to create an account. - Users can have favorite walks. - There should be a Completed Walks section and a Certified Walks section. Connection and audio issues prevented us from hearing the whole thing in the meeting, but we did get a better idea of the project as a whole. We will be receiving further information about the project through a summary of the meeting provided by the students of Alberta. In the meantime, ...

This week we continued with our planning (or rather, understanding) of the project. We went a little back and forth through email with the Alberta team, and agreed on meeting this coming Monday through Google Meet. We also continued digging about what the current landscape looks like for a project like this, what its prospects could be. Our internal communication as Mexico team has continued going well, despite not really knowing yet exactly what the real-world clients in Alberta will want in the end. image obtained from http://allisonwiese.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/So-What-Are-We-Going-To-Do.jpg

This week we plan to continue researching about similar projects to what “Yeg AR” aims for, to get a better understanding of what existing products are out there already. Using the document that explains what the project is about, we identified some technologies that are proposed to be used in the project. We will research the technologies as well as how to implement them with AR. It would be great if we find sometime for us to actually chat with the students from Alberta, to agree on the requirements, specifications, tools to be used and how we’ll distribute the work. From what we’ve read in the project description, details aren’t so clear. So we’ll write down concrete questions we would like to ask them. All our team posts will be published with the teampost tag, immediately available through https://martellsmartcities.blogspot.com/search/label/teampost We created a repository for the project but depending on how we organize with the alberta team we might create a...

This semester we decided to work as a team of 3, joining some other students from the University of Alberta, Canada. We've been told their Computer Science department is very similar to ours, so it should be a cool experience for us all. Also, the project they choose is aimed for real, Canadian clients. Yet another thing added to our cross-national  endeavor. From what we've heard, the most likely projects to be selected are Walk-and-Talk or Yeg AR. Out of the two options Yeg AR seems like a more interesting proyect for the set of skills we share. We have some experience developing android applications with java, but we’re open to learn other tools like the ones stated in the document (ArcGIS and react). Our main tool of communication amongst us is telegram, and the use of discord with alberta until we are assigned a team and we can decide what tool suits the whole team. image obteined from https://www.active.com/Assets/Running/460/running-getting-faster.jpg ...