Location is not being sent to trustees along with emergency message

[pandilladivya]

Location is not being sent to the trustees for most of the messages which are sent when come get me request is selected.

Current behavior of the app

This problem occurs because the location retrieved from the LocationHelper class returns null most of the time.
To give users a better safety feature that passes the location to the trustees when they are in danger, we need to pass the location instead of Call ASAP to get my Location message which is sent if the location retrieved is null.

Expected behavior of the app

@sandarumk @Buddhiprabha
Kindly review this issue and please let me know if i should fix this.

Thank you :)

[sandarumk]

It take time to retrieve location. One possible fix is to start taking the location when the app starts (has been suggested before.). But if we start the location service every time the app starts it will consume battery. Circle of trust is one of the many features of the app. So we shouldn't burden the users with that. That is why the location service starts only when you click circle of trust. If you have another suggestion on how to get the location rather than the one I suggested before or have any other fix or suggestion for this, please comment here. We can go through that and decide whether it should be implemented or not.

[sandarumk]

Further more this has been reported before. Please go through the closed issues as well when you are reporting a new issue. It will give you a good idea on how the app progressed.
#230

[pandilladivya]

@sandarumk

The thing i was trying to point out is that when user clicks come get me.....the emergency message being sent to trustees is without the location.

So, I have modified the LocationHelper class and made sure that on each message the location is also being sent to trustees so that they can immediately go to aid the person in emergency.

The following is the gif which shows the modified version of the app.

Pardon me if I'm wrong.
Kindly review

[sandarumk]

Can you explain the fix which you made to the location helper class?

[pandilladivya]

Method I:

Initially check if we have internet through network provider
If we're connected to internet we can use LocationManager.NETWORK_PROVIDER or LocationManager.GPS_PROVIDER to get the latest location.

In the current version of the application , we are registering for location updates using the named provider, and a pending intent where the minimum time interval between location updates is 0 milliseconds,and the minimum distance between location updates is 0 meters. Instead we can change them to 1 minute and 10 meters(say) so that we can avoid getting null values.

Also we're not using Network Provider which can be implemented as most of the users have Internet access sometime or the other
Even if we cant use internet....a better implementation i.e. Method II can be applied

Method II:

Google introduced new way of getting device location using the Google Play Services.
A newer api called FusedLocationApi was introduced which connects with GoogleApiClient and gives us the best location available which is very fast and accurate.

In detail explaination of Method II can be found here
http://www.tothenew.com/blog/googles-fused-location-api-for-android/

[sandarumk]

Using network provider reduces the accuracy. Increasing the minimum update time interval to 1 minute would increase getting null values. But FusedLocationAPI might be a good option.

[sandarumk]

It would be great if you can evaluate FusedLocationApi and let us know whether we can use it or not. What we need to achieve is high accurate location with less time. If the phone cannot get a location at the time of sending data, it is safe to send sms without any location details. If FusedLocationApi returns an older value similar to LocationManager.getLastKnownLocation(LOCATION_PROVIDER); it will be useless in this scenario.

[pandilladivya]

Sure thing :)
l'll work on it and will let you know the result.
Thank You!

[sandarumk]

Before sending the PR please state your findings (evaluation of the FusedLocationAPI) here for future reference.

[sandarumk]

Any update on this? Just to be clear, before working on this and sending the PR, i want you to evaluate the FusedLocation API and state your findings here to make sure that it matches our purpose.

[pandilladivya]

I apologize for being late, I was tied up with my exams.
I did some research on FusedLocation API and have read various articles about this API and I'm finding different reviews from different people.
So please give me some more time so that I can implement this, test it and will state my findings

[ashu-dadhich]

@sandarumk if this issue is implemented wouldn't it be better if we send the address of the location along with the coordinates. As it would be more beneficial.

I have a working solution for this and would love to help if @pandilladivya has no problems with it since its her issue.

Thank you

[pandilladivya]

@top-gun007, Sorry for the late reply... I didn't notice this message.

I have a working solution for this but I have used Network Provider.
Now I am trying with FusedLocationApi.
Its almost done but I have some dependency problem... I'm trying to resolve that and mostly i will state my findings in a couple of days.

If the solution you have is with FusedLocationApi, then you can state your findings here. Or If your solution is not with this Api you can discuss your solution :)

[ashu-dadhich]

@pandilladivya my solution includes both FusedLocationApi along with address of the location based on the coordinates part already implemented.
So If you want I can help.