CPSC 110-08: Computing on Mobile Phones Spring 2012 Broadcast Hub

CS Principles

• 1: The student can use computing tools and techniques to create artifacts.
• 3: The student can use computing tools and techniques for creative expression.
• 4: The student can use programming as a creative tool.

Preliminaries

We will build the app described in Broadcast Hub Tutorial, an app that serves as an SMS texting hub for a network of cell phones. Phones, which needn't be Android phones nor smart phones, can register with the hub, and then will receive broadcast messages that are sent to the service by other members of the network.

In preparation you should complete the following homework.

To build this app you will need a phone with a SIM card or a phone that has the Text Plus app installed.

If you do not have an Android phone that has texting, you can still participate in this activity by using your personal phone (with texting) to join the broadcast hub and help us test the app.

Introduction

The Broadcast Hub app was originally developed by Carlie Kralj as a class project in Dave Wolber's class at the University of San Francisco. (Her page provides a nice template that you might wish to use to present your creative projects.)

Broadcast Hub uses the following App Inventor components:

• Texting: This component processes incoming and outgoing text messages.

• TinyDB: This component allows us to store the automatic response in a persistent database.

Broadcast Hub Tutorial

We will work together through the Broadcast Hub tutorial. By the end of class, we should have a version of this app working on the phones that have texting capability.