obtaining routing information from a service? - General Questions and Answers

Hi I have been looking for an answer to this and have got no where. I am creating an application that will use 2 sets of gps coordinates to work out a distance and time, I could just use the direct distance and add in some delay but preferably I would like to make use of some online service which could do some routing for me. The obvious option is google maps but does any one know how to obtain the information I want? all i really want is the distance via the roads but if they also have a time then even better.

just bumping once in case anyone has an answer? btw is there a way i could set up my own service where i would have a website that would accept a http request then use the data it receives to visit a web page i.e. google maps and then somehow extract the information from the screen and send it back to the application?
is this kind of thing possible? easy?

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Tracking your childs phone ?

Forgive me if this isn't the correct forum, but I've read several of post regarding finding YOUR OWN phone if it's lost or stolen, but I'm looking for a download that would allow me to recieve a SMS from anyone and it would give me the latitude and longiture of THEIR phone, such as a child or spouse, which I could then input those coordinates into a mapping program like Google Earth and see their exact location. I understand this technology might somehow be tied to the target phones IMEI number. Does anything exist or work like I've described ?
Thanks, ridge57
ridge57 said:
Forgive me if this isn't the correct forum, but I've read several of post regarding finding YOUR OWN phone if it's lost or stolen, but I'm looking for a download that would allow me to recieve a SMS from anyone and it would give me the latitude and longiture of THEIR phone, such as a child or spouse, which I could then input those coordinates into a mapping program like Google Earth and see their exact location. I understand this technology might somehow be tied to the target phones IMEI number. Does anything exist or work like I've described ?
Thanks, ridge57
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Does the program have to be hidden? If not, you can use Google Maps with Latitude, or GPSed and pull up a last location any time (Google Maps will even give a best estimate via cell tower triangulation when no satellites are available). You can set either to autolaunch.
It doesn't have to be hidden, but it can't be anything that would require a data plan. Thanks.
seen they offering such parent spy-phones here
where the parent can send special sms's to get gps
locations and get send all their sms's send back as sms's
it was not based on wm though
great way to teach kids about responsibility and trust though
AT&T actually offers it as a service on family plans, but I don't know about other carriers.

Help with App

I am attempting to write my first android app - L.A. Fitness. It will allow you to pull data from the L.A. Fitness website (really nothing special) the real feature that I want is a widget that shows last login time information.
Basically L.A. Fitness stores badge scan information on their site. I want to pull this somehow and show it so that I know the last time I signed in. The problem is that I am spending to much time in the gym and it is bad for body building.
I will also have a map inside that pinpoints the location of L.A. Fitness' close by and give directions.
So... My problem is that I do not know how to pull data from the website. I was told that L.A. Fitness would have to have an API but I dont understand why this is necessary for data from the web. I also dont know how to pass credentials so I guess all in all im lost.
really... no one
I personally haven't played with the SDK a lot myself, but your best bet would be some kind of feed that they have. XML or RSS or something like that. This could be easily implemented into a widget.
You could try to crawl the site. Read the HTML pages and interpret that. But this is usually against the TOS. You are usually not allowed to rip data from their pages and use it in your application. You may need written consent from them, otherwise they can sue you.
BR,
Adrian Vintu
Other people tried spidering web pages. You can search for help here
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and here
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BR,
Adrian Vintu

Anyone know a good cell tower tracker?

I've been searching the market and couldn't find this.
I need an app that allows to track where the phone is (instant location only) and sends this information to a website (no sms or email).
Something like GPS Tracker from InstaMapper LLC, but if possible using cell tower location and working only on request from the person viewing the location (no interaction from the phone), to save battery.
All I found was the gps tracker and real time gps tracker, but I found they are always sending the location and spend a lot of battery doing so.
Does anyone know of any better app for this?
I know this is not what you are asking for, but... You could set up something like this using Tasker. (There is a trial version available from the dev's website.) Unfortunately, you would have to set up your own website to accept the location data.

[Q] need ideas for having a live feed of car trip via gnex camera

So I'm driving across the US for a move next month, and the idea crossed me to use my dash mounted Galaxy Nexus to kind of provide a live feed of our trip (so family and friends had a chance to join us via a website).
I found a app that did simply that, (IP Webcam), but I don't have a public IP on my phone (T-Mobile USA). EDIT: Called T-Mobile. No way for me to have a public IP through changing my APN or anything like that. So I'd have to push the video to another server.
I could capture video, optionally compress, and push it to a web server somewhere else in small chunks, that would host the website. This would allow a lot more functionality, as the web server would always be available (unlike a phone driving in the middle of nowhere), could also receive and host gps info, allow people to view any particular point in the video, etc, but It would require a lot more set up. I'd need to have my phone save the video in chunks, and try to send chunks whenever possible, and then set up the webserver to do whatever.
Just wondering if anyone can think of other cool ideas or knows of existing software that would help with this project..
Thanks in advance!

Basic N00b advice needed

First, I hope this is the right place where I am posting the question. I am in the fire service and I would like to create an app for droid, that would read a basic text message and display a lookup information from a xls document For instance, the text message would display the address for a call. The app would use the information from the text and display a map page number and a short text phrase (running route to the address). I.e the text message says : House Fire: 101 Main Street. The app would look up that address in the excel document, and display the attached information, which would be 101 Main street: Left of Central Ave, Right on Martin Ave: Map 305. Any ideas on where to start? Or maybe app like this exists already? Thanks in advance!
Hi, it's a very broad question so it is very hard to answer. The answer depends on so many factors:
- Do you have any experience programming?
- Have you experience designing/developing mobile applications?
- Do you specifically need to use xls documents? (what you want is better suited to use built-in maps app. i.e. take the text from the text message, parse it a bit for keywords if you want different actions to be keyed in on, and then pass a search string to the maps app).
If you have no experience with developing mobile apps, I'd suggest going to google and searching for simple mobile development languages and frameworks. Stick to ones which use scripting languages. Or you can go to freelance websites and pay someone to make such an app for you. If its very simple, they shouldn't charge you more than a couple hundred.
slivingston said:
First, I hope this is the right place where I am posting the question. I am in the fire service and I would like to create an app for droid, that would read a basic text message and display a lookup information from a xls document For instance, the text message would display the address for a call. The app would use the information from the text and display a map page number and a short text phrase (running route to the address). I.e the text message says : House Fire: 101 Main Street. The app would look up that address in the excel document, and display the attached information, which would be 101 Main street: Left of Central Ave, Right on Martin Ave: Map 305. Any ideas on where to start? Or maybe app like this exists already? Thanks in advance!
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From what I am understanding here, you want something that will disperse Calls in the form of app alerts, with the two main purpose being alerting the recipient of the location, and also of the directions to said location... Yes?
to start with, figure out what exactly needs to be done and why and put it in writing
The first step would be to write down exactly what you're looking for this app to do and any other pertinent requirements (needs to work offline, speed requirements, hardware to support, etc.).
What you're describing so far sounds like a service provided by major online map providers such as Google, Bing, etc. If you have an address, you just key it in as a destination, and then if you have the fire station pre-filled in as your departure point, you'll get map directions generated right there. Is this what you're interested in? If so, then you can just open a browser when you receive a message and go to Google Maps or to the maps app directly from the phone and do it there.
If some of the details that you've provided are hard requirements (text message being an incoming SMS, .xls data store, precise data requirements, zero downtime tolerance, very fast response times, etc.) then the best place to start would be finding an acquaintance who can write phone apps (maybe some kid from a local high school or college?) and explain/show what you want done to them in detail and have them estimate how complex this work would be. After than you either hire that person to do the work or pressure them to do it for you as community service .
If you don't have the right people in your network or they're unwilling to do the hard lifting, then you should reach out to a contractor and have it done commercially. It's the same approach: explain what you need done exactly, then get an estimate, etc. Based on what you describe, it shouldn't be too complicated or expensive.
I don't recommend you do it on your own unless you have tons of free time and/or are specifically looking to learn how to write apps. You'll end up spending a lot more time than this project costs on the market, and if you're not really into it, it might seem quite frustrating for what seems like should be a very simple thing.

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