Herb Reference Guide App

This app has been developed within the scope of Mobile course belonging to Metropolia Unviersity Of Applied Sciences.

Developers and Maintainers

1. Giao Ngo
2. Tai Nguyen
3. Shayne Kandagor

Project description

The app is an Android standalone herb reference book that provides plenty of information about nutrition value, health benefits, warnings and food suggestion of different types of plant to users. Besides that, there is area for users to add notes, update and delete their notes for future reference.

To enrich user's interaction and experience with the app, we added a custom-built camera with the help Android's Camera X Api, and created a specialised gallery for storing plant's images. The purpose of having camera and gallery is for those who would like to capture every images of plant they find interesting on the spot/at that moment and collect those images to the collection for keepsake.

In-app technology

• Coding language: Java
• Min sdk : 21, target sdk: 32

User target

1. The app targets at Android users
2. For healthy eaters who are curious of the benefits of specific plant items
3. For adventurous travellers (mountain hikers, bikers, campers, forest explorers) to know which plants are edible and which are poisonous before touching/eating them
4. For patients seeking for natural remedies and for medical students.

Installation of the app

1. Download the our application apk file called herb_reference_guide.apk
2. Our application logo can be recognized with green leaves logo and our application name is Herb Reference Guide.

Application manual

Plant

1. Click on the app icon. In the main Activity there are four options of the Herbs, Fruits,Vegetables and Notes.
2. When you click either the Herbs, Fruits or Vegetables you find the different types together with their images.
3. Maybe if for example you click Herbs then click Basil as a type of Herb.
4. After clicking Basil there are the Health Benefits, Warnings, Nutritional Values and Food Suggestions.
5. At the bottom right of the activity there is a floating Action button which will take you to the note Activity.

Note

1. In the Notes activity there is the list of many notes that the user has and if there are no notes then its blank.
2. If you want to add your notes then click on floating action button at the bottom right of the Activity.
3. Here you can have the title and the description of your note and press the add button to add the note to the list.
4. In the Note Activity screen you can click in one of the notes and this will enable you to Update(to add what you left out or to edit) and delete the whole note if you want to.

Camera

1. If you have installed the app for the first time you have to allow the app to use your device camera and also to store the images in the application.
2. The Camera has three floating buttons. The capture button, the flipping the camera lens button and the button that will take you to the gallery where all the images that you have captured with the camera are.
3. Once you capture an image there is a toast message that will inform you that the image is saved successfully in the local shared storage.
4. In the My Plant collection activity which is the gallery there is a floating action button on the bottom right of each image.
5. If you click the floating button of a specific image a message at the bottom will pop up asking if you want to delete the photo.
6. If you click the button on the right of the message (DELETE) then you will delete the selected photo.

Scenarios of the usage app

• For users who go for picnics, hiking in mountains and forests explorers you can use our app to find useful information about a fruit, herb or vegetable you have noticed and decided whether it can be of beneficial health-wise and whether to take it.
• For doctors and students in the medical and nutritional sector you can use our app to increase your knowledge on the important herbs, fruits and vegetables that can be recommended to patients.
• For grocery shoppers you can use our app in the market places when you notice a strange type of herb, fruit or vegetable and decide whether you can purchase it after you have scrolled through our app and gotten the Health Benefits and warnings, Nutritional Values to our bodies and the food suggestions that include the type of plant.
• For patients you can get information on how you can help cure, prevent and maintain certain diseases by the knowledge of the herbs, fruits and vegetables that our app provides.

Document test case and Javadoc

1. Document Test Case
2. Javadoc

Study sources and code references

Layout and UI components

1. RecyclerView & RecyclerView Adapter
2. RecyclerView click listener (best performance)
3. Adding Card View with a textbox
4. Floating Action Button
5. Set menu on toolbar and menu item click listener
6. App Launch Icon
7. Snackbar

Fonts, Icon and Image sources used in app

1. Font: HeadlandOne-Regular by Google Fonts designed by Gary Lonergan. And Serif Monospace by Android.
2. Icons : Unlimited usage of icons without author's permission and attribution. PublicDomain Vectors.com
3. Images: Unlimited usage of images without author's permission and attribution:
   1. Pixabay
   2. Unsplash
   3. Pexels

Backend

1. Prepopulate Room Database
2. Launching an activity for result
3. Send an object from one activity to another by intent
4. Android Studio Parcelable
5. Retrieve image path form assets folder
6. Navigation 2 parents point to 1 child activity
7. Camera X in Java
8. Camera X - Implement a preview
9. Camera X - Image Capture
10. How to request multiple permissions in android studio
11. ImageCapture.OutputFileOptions.Builder
12. Content Provider
13. Access media files from shared storage
14. Environment.getexternalstoragedirectory() deprecated in API level 29 java
15. How do I rotate bitmap in Android
16. Android media store tutorial
17. Java convert Date to String
18. Date format
19. Running Android tasks in background thread
20. Creating a thread in Java
21. Handler object
22. Programmatically relaunch/ recreate an activity
23. RecyclerView - Android Studio Tutorial Part 1
24. RecyclerView - Android Studio Tutorial Part 2

In-app displayed plant's information sources

1. 12 Best Bell Pepper Benefits + Nutritional Facts & Side Effects (stylesatlife.com)
2. Bell Peppers 101: Nutrition Facts and Health Benefits (healthline.com)
3. Herbs Encyclopaedia
4. 9 Impressive Health Benefits of Cabbage (healthline.com)
5. 12 Proven Health Benefits & Uses of Cabbage | Organic Facts
6. Cabbage Nutrition Facts and Health Benefits (verywellfit.com)
7. 10 Health Benefits of Carrots – Carotene
8. Carrot Nutrition Facts and Health Benefits (verywellfit.com)
9. Organic facts Health Benefits
10. Lettuce: Health Benefits, Nutrients, Preparation, and More (webmd.com)
11. Health benefits of basil
12. 24 Fresh Basil Recipes
13. Everything you need to know about rosemary
14. Calories in fresh rosemary
15. What are the health benefits of oregano?
16. Is mint good for you
17. Cowbane
18. Hemlock
19. Poisonous mushrooms
20. Strawberries 101: Nutrition Facts and Health Benefits
21. Strawberry recipes
22. Nutritional benefits of the strawberry
23. Blueberries
24. Health benefits of pineapple
25. 19 ways to add pineapple to your dinner
26. 10 Incredible Health Benefits of Bananas
27. 25 Recipes for Ripe and Overripe
28. The health benefits of mango

Herb Reference Guide App 's UI

UML Diagram

Herb Reference Guide Demo Video