This was the final project that I studied for and created on my Android Basics Nanodegree by Google and it was to be done in two parts. In the first part we were to focus on what happens behind the scenes – designing and implementing a simple database using SQLite; creating a table and then populating that table with new entries, modifying the entries and displaying the contents of the table to users. The practice app that we used in preparation for our project was an app to track pets in an animal centre in which we had to create a list of existing pets, and let the users add and edit the pets – names, weights, breed and so on. During the second part, the practice part was to build a user interface so that we could manipulate the database more easily.

The final project was to create our own Inventory app that would allow a store to keep track of it’s inventory. The brief was to:-

• Be able to store information on a SQLite database
• Integrate Android’s file system into that database
• Present information from files and SQLite databases to users.
• Be able to update information based on user input.
• And create intents to other apps using stored information.

When the database is empty there is a message on the front of the app encouraging users to enter products into the database. On clicking the “kebab” menu in the top right hand corner there is an option to add sample data for testing but the usual way to add data to the database is to click on the green button on the bottom right of the page which takes you to:-

On the “Add a Product” page you can add relevant data about your product. On this page you can enter the product name, price, quantity with the additional function of making small adjustments with “+” and “-” buttons, the supplier name and the supplier telephone number which links via an intent to the telephoning intent. The app is based on the idea of a book, stationery and toy shop so there is a drop down list to select whether the product is a Book, a toy or a stationery item.

This is what the front page of the app looks like when the database is populated:-

The type in bold shows the product name, below that is the price and below that is the number in stock. A sale is recorded by pressing the “Sale” button on the relevant item which reduces the stock number by one. If you click on the product instead, you can edit the details of the product in the case of inaccurate description, price or stock level. The “kebab” menu also allows a menu option to clear the whole database of entries. It was decided that we should only create a simple user interface because the emphasis was to create a usable database but I am sure that this app could be “prettied” and expanded to make it into of commercial value without much change to how it operates.

After I had submitted this project and tied up a few loose ends like making sure that I had been communicative enough on the Slack channels and Udacity blogs – they, quite rightly, put a lot of emphasis on community and communication – it had to wait for the verdict on my last project before graduation. We were also strongly encouraged to build our networks on LinkedIn and Facebook. I had been in LinkedIn and Facebook for some time before but my followers and the amount of people that I follow grew quite a bit as a result of this experience. I am a member of Udacity Graduate Alumni groups on LinkedIn, Facebook and Slack and it is useful to have people with a shared experience to converse with, support and receive support from.

Next time…. Graduation!!!