Thursday, January 16, 2014

My Camino Pilgrim Android app in Google Play Store

I finally finished my Android app!!! It's called Camino Pilgrim, it's free, and it is now available in the Google Play Store here Camino Pilgrim App on Google Play Store.

I decided to make an app after my own trip on the Camino de Santiago.  While planning for the trip, I had a hard time fixing and finalizing a schedule.  During the trip, I was worrying about places to stay and facilities available. I was also always wondering what town I was in and how far to the next town.

Hopefully, this app will answer those issues.  I will also put this same page on the app website linked here: Camino Pilgrim App Blog.

I have provided some sample itineraries in the app of 31, 32, 34 and 35 days (from my own trip here, adding the Muxia leg, as this was my original plan, except I did not have the extra day that time).  You can make your own schedule based on any of these itineraries -- add a rest day, combine 2 days, insert an in-between day, add an extra day.  Using the base itineraries or your own itinerary, you can look at the localities or towns that you will pass by and approximate distances to there. You can check out the lodgings at a town, together with information such as costs, beds, opening times and seasons, and even see it in a map in relation to where you are.

Here are some screenshots, but the best thing is to try it out yourself, and let me know how it goes.

Here is the main page, showing a sample itinerary:


Here are the itineraries you can choose from, by clicking on the spinner:


Here is how you create your own itinerary based on one of the system-provided itineraries. You need to click on the Hiker with the + sign. You may also specify your start date and a schedule will automatically be created for you:

Here is how you edit the itinerary. You can just long-click on each of the items, in this case, the itinerary stages:

Then you will have your own itinerary and schedule with the dates of your trip!

If you need to know more about your locality stops of your Itinerary/Schedule day. The next screen shows that:



Clicking on the Map icon (the globe icon) shows you the locality stops in the stage. Clicking on the Overlay Camino Trail (the route icon), will put a simplified version of the Camino Frances route over the map. Clicking on the Show my location (the direction icon) will show you where you are if you have the GPS enabled (even if you are not yet on the Camino :-) ).



And clicking on a locality will show you the lodgings available.


Clicking on the Map (the globe icon) or clicking on one of the Lodging names (i.e. Refuge Municipal) will display a map with the available lodgings in the locality.  If you clicked on the lodging name, it will be shown in orange as in the screenshot below:


I tried to make the app as intuitive as I could. You can also change the settings such as the default itinerary name (defaulted to "Camino Pilgrim"),  the default Measurement units (defaulted to "metric") and the default map (defaulted to "Google Maps Online"). You do this by clicking on Settings (click the 3 dots on the lower right hand side):


Please note that showing the online maps requires a data connection. If you are using your phone, it may use up your bandwidth.  Please remember to turn OFF mobile data on your phone if you do not want to use it! Maps take up a lot of data. This can be done in Android by choosing Settings, going to Mobile tag, then setting Mobile data OFF.

You may use any of three map types: Google Maps online, OpenStreetMap online and OpenStreet offline.  If you want to use the offline option -- what I suggest is that while you are in a place with wifi, browse over the map sections you will need to use. This caches the particular map data on your phone and will show the map sections even if you are offline (note that even if you choose this option but you have data roaming on, the online maps will be downloaded, so again, please remember to turn OFF mobile data on your phone!)

Ok then, I think this is enough to get you started.  Have fun and Buen Camino!

No comments :

Post a Comment