The Combat Kit from Bad Ass Corporation

This project originated from members of the Danish Eclipse Association, called Eclipse.dk, at the Tutorial Day event called Android development in Eclipse, held in Copenhagen 19th. of January. 2011 at the IT-University of Copenhagen, where we went through the creation of an advanced Android application called Combat Kit from the fictive company called the Bad Ass Corporation.

Based on a request from the Tutorial participants, we have made the code available as open-source.

We are several Eclipse.dk members that have continued to handle bug fixing and added new features. Having great fun ;)

The ideas behind the project

Having done lots of tutorials the "standard" way, we wanted to shuffle the board a little. First, we would like to make a more complete tutorial sample application that uses many of the cool Android features, and focusing on more fun and action. So that when you've been through the tutorial, you would have a taste of enlightenment and a smile on your face. And here I think we succeeded.

The Purpose

Equip the combat troopers with the top of the gun, bad ass combat device. Making them able to effectively communicate intelligence with HQ and fellow troopers. Find their target quickly and have a wide range of destructive weapons.

Android features touched in this application

Tab host and tab controls
SQLite database creation and queries
YouTube Intent
Google Geo and StreetView Map Intents
Setting weapon as Wallpaper
HTML, javascript and JQuery integration
GPS Location and HTTP fetch of static Google Maps
Preferences and adding your own custom preference control / widget / view
Camera integration with sound and video recording and sending the media via GMail, Bluetooth...
Vibration
Image gallery
Text to Speech speaks the title of selected tab
Integration to Contacts (via picker and also custom layout of contacts list)
HOME-Screen Widget, integrating to base application preferences
And much more...

YouTube Video

Here's a video recorded of an Android Phone running the application:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPuUVaDefx0

Screen walk-through

See the Getting Started Wiki page, to get up and running with the source code.

Have fun, we do... ;)

Did you participate in the "Android development in Eclipse" Tutorial Day, in Copenhagen?

If so, then please read this...We have done some performance changes to the UI update behavior in the WeaponWidget (on the HOME-screen).

The WeaponWidget.java was not made as it should have been, in concern to updating the UI. The Timer task and the very frequent update of UI (every 500 milliseconds), could after some time could slow down the mobile and drain the battery (not really best-practice).....All of the inefficient code is now gone and replaced with a far more effective solution ;)

No more heavy and frequent UI updates or battery draining. UI updates are now only when using the Next and Previous buttons and when the user selects a new weapon in the weapon gallery. All actions triggers pending intents to notify the widget of changes.