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APIs

Posted by Cynthia Smith
Cynthia Smith
8,031 Points

How do you build a building inspection app using GPS technology ?

I want to building an app that locates a commercial or residential building, and does interior/exterior color coded mapping to locate troubled areas as well as uploads photos and writes information collected on site to the database for report generation.

2 Answers

Brendan Whiting
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Brendan Whiting
Front End Web Development Techdegree Graduate 84,735 Points
Brendan Whiting
.a{fill-rule:evenodd;}techdegree seal-36
Brendan Whiting
Front End Web Development Techdegree Graduate 84,735 Points

This sounds like an awesome ambitious project.

If you're building a mobile app, you have a few options:

  • you can build native Android apps with Java/Android Studio
  • you can build native iOS apps with Swift/XCode
  • you can build cross platform native apps (Android and iOS) with React Native
  • you can build cross platform hybrid apps with web technology using Ionic/Cordova and HTML/CSS/JavaScript

If you already know what platform your users will be using, that can help narrow down your options. If you have experience as a developer with one of these technologies that can also influence your decision - easier to do what you know. Another factor would be how much you might want to use features that are only available in the native environment.

As far as the GPS part, what you want to look into is the Geolocation API for whichever platform you choose to build with. You'll be able to ask your user's permission and they you'll get back they're latitude/longitude coordinates. You can also use services like Google's Geocoding API - send it an address and it will send you back the lat/lng for that address. (There's also reverse geocoding - tell it coordinates and it will give you back the address).

Each platform will also let you access the phone's camera. Your users could take pictures and then take notes on the pictures. You also might be able to do some 3D scanning of the building with their phone, something like this. (I have no idea how this works).

As far as saving your data to a database, I would recommend looking into solutions like Firebase. I'm a google fanboy if you can't tell.

As with any ambitious project, I recommend starting with an MVP - minimum viable product. What's the smallest thing you can build to validate you're on the right track and test your assumptions? The Lean Startup is a great book.

Cynthia Smith
Cynthia Smith
8,031 Points
Cynthia Smith
Cynthia Smith
8,031 Points

Hi Brendan,

Thank you so much for the many resources! From your descriptions, I found tutorials on treehouse, as well as geolocation and API websites, and also this link about Google interior mapping: https://www.google.com/maps/about/partners/indoormaps/. I am ready to research this project. I don't have to actually build the app, but I am managing the project for the technical team.