ECE510 Lab 9 - Android Environmental Sensor App

This Android app displays real-time environmental sensor data from Firebase and shows sensor locations on Google Maps.

Quick Start for Students

1. Clone and Build

git clone [your-repo-url]
cd ECE510_Lab9

# On Windows (PowerShell/CMD):
.\gradlew.bat :app:assembleDebug

# On Linux/Mac:
./gradlew :app:assembleDebug

The app will build and run with demo data. No special Java versions or Android SDK setup needed - Gradle handles this automatically.

2. Setup Your API Keys

Google Maps API:

1. Copy the template:
   • Windows: copy local.properties.template local.properties
   • Linux/Mac: cp local.properties.template local.properties
2. Get your API key from Google Cloud Console
3. Enable the "Maps SDK for Android" API
4. Edit local.properties and replace your_google_maps_api_key_here with your actual key

Firebase Setup:

1. Create a Firebase project at Firebase Console
2. Add an Android app with package name: com.example.ece510_exp9
3. Download google-services.json from your Firebase project
4. Copy the template:
   • Windows: copy app\google-services.json.template app\google-services.json
   • Linux/Mac: cp app/google-services.json.template app/google-services.json
5. Replace the placeholder values in app/google-services.json with your actual Firebase config
6. Enable "Realtime Database" in your Firebase project console

3. Run

Open in Android Studio or run:

# On Windows (PowerShell/CMD):
.\gradlew.bat :app:installDebug

# On Linux/Mac:
./gradlew :app:installDebug

Notes

• local.properties and google-services.json are ignored by Git for security
• App works without Firebase (shows loading state) but needs Maps API for location features
• Use the template files (*.template) to set up your own credentials
• Tested on Android API 24+ (Android 7.0+)