Quick Tour
METROID: An Android application to help users with public transportation.
Metroid is a route planning application meant to help users with public transportation systems worldwide. Our ambition is to make Metroid, a must have for Android users traveling around the globe. We are committed to support as many cities as possible. Metroid has been designed with extensibility in mind. It is able to support any public transportation system provided that the right map is available.
Metroid is based on maps. A map encapsulates all data about a city : transportation lines, frequency, stops... Metroid maps are based on a very simple text based format. The map data will be mainly contributed by the community. A special utility has been created to turn the map data into a compact and efficient format to be transfered and used on android devices. Based on that open approach, virtually every city in the world will be supported. At the moment 7 cities are supported : Paris,San Francisco,Milan, Washington and Atlanta. Many more to come.
Features
Metroid main features are :- City Transportation System
- Transportation lines for each city
- Stations list for each line
- Itinerary Planning:
- Station name auto Completion
- Travel Duration estimation
- Integrated Map Download Utility
- Extensible Maps database via our automated map builder;
- Pratical, clear and very intuitive User Interface
- Google Maps integration (itinerary mapping)
- Itinerary sending by SMS
Quick Tour
The main activity is a MetroidMain. It is a portal activity that gives access to the main features of Metroid :- Itinerary planner
- Preferences activity
- Local maps folder
- Online Maps Repository
Itinerary Planner
This activity loads the previously used city's map and allows users to get the best route between two stations of the map. From this activity, one can :
- Plan a route
- Browse the city's transportation lines and stops
- Get back to the main screen
Route planning
Clicking the corresponding button, or choosing the related menu make Metroid display a cancelable dialog in which you'll need to enter a departure station, and an arrival one. No need to know the full name of the stations name; Just type the first two letters of the station's name, and th text entry will display the relevant names. Clicking on the "Search" button will get you back to the preceding screen. Metroid will then compute the best route between the two stations. The resulting is then displayed along with information like travel time and number of connections.
Browse the city's map
The next button, or menu leads you to the Metroid Map Browser. First Metroid shows the list of the transportation lines in the city. Clicking on any item of the list will then redirect you to that line details page. Line details include line name, frequency and number of stops displayed at the top of the page, and the list of the stops on that line. In an analogical way, for each station in the list, you can access it details by simply clicking on it. Station details include the name, the number of lines passing by (diaplayed at the top); and a clickable list of lines passing by. It goes so on and so fourth. At any time, you can get back by pressing the return key of your handset.
Setting your preferences Menu
Preferences setting on Metroid take in account three main points:
- The default language : Available language are displayed in a spinner, and you'll just have to pick one. The language you set there will be used to display any kind of informations or indications while using the Metroid Software. This property is set to "English" by default.
- Favourite city : The City you choose here, is the one which will be loaded by default when you click on the "Itinerary Planner" in the main Activity. The city map's list are built by scanning the folder in which your map files are. This bring us to the third point: "The default map directory"
- The default map directory: All your map files should be located there. It's the default location for you downloaded map file via the Metroid Map downlaoader. Remember that Metroid scans only that directory for retrieving available maps on your mobile phone.
Open Maps directory Menu
Metroid allows you to browse your stored maps. A complete list of map files from the directory specified in the preferences is displayed on this page. Clicking on any item of the list will load the map in the itinerary.
Get new maps online Menu
Metroid Provide a "Metroid Downloader" for downloading maps from the online repository located at http://metroid.ycsoft.org. In the Main Activity, the "Get new maps" button will redirect you to a search form, where you can type the city and the transportation mean(metro, bus) you're looking for. When you're done click on ok, and you'll get to the results page, where avalaible matching maps are displayed in a list. Just click on an item of the list, and it'll start dowloading the map, into your map directory(you can change the Maps folder in the Preferences activity). A progress dialog shows the progress of the download. You can hide it and continue using metroid, or stop the download by pressing the cancel button. At the end of the download, press the close button to close the dialog.