Note: This is an archived post from my previous blog. It can also be found on WaybackMachine. -John
Background
Two weeks ago, a friend and I visited the OpenData Enschede Hackaton. The municipality has a project making a platform for serving data to the public, an overview of the datasets can be found here. I sat down with the address dataset and converted it into an SQLite database, and started working. Now I feel like the app is ready for trials, so I am making the beta available here. You need Android 2.3 or higher (due to restrictions in the database size in the earlier versions) to run it and the app itself requires 6.6 MB and it also stores the map on your sdcard, taking up 1.93 MB there.
Download EnschedeLocator Beta [.apk]I’m not going to monitor how many people download it, but if you do and have some notes, tips, flattering or offensive remarks, please let me know in the comments, twitter, email or any way you see fit.
I have tested this app with my own Samsung Galaxy S I9000, if you use a different phone and experience strange behaviour, please let me know. Description
The app features a map and address database stored locally on the user’s device, allowing for simple offline navigation in Enschede. Screens
EnschedeLocator main screen
EnschedeLocator type streetname
EnschedeLocator mapView
Usage
Start typing in street name. Suggestions for streets pops up, select your destination street.
Select the house number from the spinner wheel and touch the Go-button.
An OpenStreetMap of Enschede displays with your location (the balloon) and that of your destination. A compass needle, getting data from your device’s orientation sensor and your location, is pointing in the straight-line direction of your destination.Tips
Make sure your location on the map is correct before embarking on your adventure in the night.
If the compass needle seems wonky, move your device in a figure-eight like this. If it still seems wonky, don’t base your journey on it.Source code
The source code will be released on Github. The map
The map comes from OpenStreetMap and is prepared as described in an earlier post. To save space, only one zoom level (15) is selected, this is were the starting level in the app as well. To add more zoom levels, just follow the steps in the aforementioned post and put the resulting .zip file in the /sdcard/osmdroid/ folder of your phone. Note
The app stores the map in /mnt/sdcard/osmdroid/Enschede.zip, if it doesn’t already exist. To completely uninstall app, you must first clear data and uninstall from your application settings, then remove the osmdroid folder from your sdcard.