The main reason of having WordCamp mobile app is because the Central WordCamp Website is although responsive can be viewed on the mobile web, it doesn’t store the data offline. The mobile app is definitely time saver as all the important things are clubbed together. The WordCamp App will be useful for the attendees and also for the enthusiastic people around. By the WordCamp app, the user can directly get to know about the WordCamps near his area and the latest info about the schedules and speakers. Also notifications can be shown to the user for the WordCamp he/she is attending. Post WordCamp feedback form can also be shown to get response from the user. Twitter updates about the WordCamps all over the world.
Technical Details: The backend of the app will be using the WP-API which is to be used by all the WordCamp website now onwards. So whole data will be received in JSON format and it can be parsed using JSON parsers. After parsing the json data, the information is to be stored within the local database so that the users can view the app when there is no network available. The concept on fetching the information can be clearly understood from this page . Having the website link of the wordcamps we can directly get the Schedule from there. As ActionBar tabs are backward compatible using the v4 and v7 android libraries the app will support Android 2.2+ devices.
Main features which can be developed in the duration of GSOC are as follows:
1.Upcoming WordCamps: The information of the upcoming wordcamps can be fetched using the WP-API. Initially name,place,date will be stored for all wordcamps along with its logo. There would be an option of Reminder, which will remind the user for the corresponding WordCamp. Moreover if the user selects any wordcamp than new fragment will be loaded which will show more information of the wordcamp selected. Schedule, speakers, location are the 3 main tasks to be shown for the wordcamp.
By the location, the user can get to know the place on the map and also the get directions on how to reach.
2. WordCamps nearby: The user’s location can easily be known via GPS. So showing the wordcamps being organised in the user’s country will be more useful for the user. There wouldn’t be much need for the user to search due to this reason.
3. News: The current central wordcamp website has specific page of News. So using the WP-API, we can easily fetch the news and show it to the user. The detailed news will be shown only after the user selects the corresponding news.
4. Schedule: The schedule of the WordCamps is the most important aspect which every attendee would like to know. All the wordcamps, sorted by date will be shown to the user. So the next upcoming WordCamp will be shown first along with its latest updates.
5. Updates: We can show live twitter updates of WordCamp happening all over the world for getting latest happenings.
The main issue is to update the news,wordcamp information asynchronously. We can use GCM but still for the primitive version of the app we can asynchronously download the data in the background so that when the user opens the app he/she doesn’t have to wait for loading new data.
Also when a new wordcamp in the nearby area is detected, we can show notification to the user regarding it.
Some of the screenshots:
More possible features which can be added:
i. Take the end-of-event survey while everything is fresh in attendees mind.
ii. WordCamp ticket booking
iii. Social Interaction among the attendees PRE/POST event.
Update : The development of WordCamp App has been started.
Contribute to this Open Source project – https://github.com/wordpress-mobile/WordCamp-Android


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