Location Based Services in Android
Android provides location framework for location based services. This framework provides a location API that comprises of particular classes and interface. These are the core components that permit developers to develop location based apps for the Android devices. The location API has little functionality like fused location provider which abstracts away the underlying location providers, geofencing that lets your application setup geographic boundaries around specific locations and then receive notifications when the user enters or leaves those areas, finally activity recognition as what exactly a user is doing.
The classes and Interfaces of Location Based Services are given below
LocationManager – Through LocationManager you can get access to the location service of the system.
LocationListener – Through LocationListener you can receive notification from location manager. This interface behaves like a listener.
Location – Through this class you can represent the geographic location returned at a particular time.
In the first step the LocationManager should be created, that will enable the apps to have access to the location services in Android. A reference to this system service can be obtained by calling getSystemService () method.
LocationManager = (LocationManager)getSystemService(Context.LOCATION_SERVICE);
It is important to identify the location provider so that it can be used to recover location details. In Android location data can be obtained from location providers. Android supports GPS and Network providers. GPS provides location data with highest accuracy and updates are obtained through the use of satellites.
Network Provider uses Wi-Fi hotspots and cell to identify a location. The provider finds out the location by querying the Google location server. It uses the IDs of the Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers. The location accuracy is between 100-1000 m. The location accuracy highly depends on the number of Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers available in the area.
Using the below mentioned codes it will be easy to check the availability of the providers,
isGpsEnabled = mLocManager.isProviderEnabled(LocationManager.GPS_PROVIDER);
isNetworkEnabled = mLocManager.isProviderEnabled(LocationManager.NETWORK_PRPVIDER);
The final step is to register location listener with the location manager. The registration can be done by calling the format requestLocationUpdates (String provider, long minTime, float minDistance, LocationListener listener). The parameters passed to this method;
Provider – You can either register with GPS or Network Provider
MinTime – Minimum time of interval between location updates, in miliseconds.
MinDistance – Minimum distance between location updates, in meters.
Listener – onLocationChanged (Location) method will be called for each location update.
When you develop mobile apps for Android devices it gives multiple opportunities for context based information than just mere traditional web apps. There is an input for context sensitive information that is the current location of the users. Google's Location API's provides much superior ways for working with location data. When you are working with location data mobile apps can provide new dimension to the user experience.
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