Android – Locating nearby Shopping Malls and their Stores using GPS/Wifi in Android

Some points to keep in mind:

• In order to use Google’s Places API, you will need to register and obtain a Google Map’s API Key.
• In class UrlSigner in the tutorial the variable descriptions are: keyString => is your Google Map api key. urlString is the url you want to sign using the api key.

• In code you will find inputKey and inputUrl. these 2 variables are just for testing purpose you can omit them if you want. You can directly write code as follows:

  URL url = new URL(urlString);

  UrlSigner signer = new UrlSigner(keyString);

  String request = signer.signRequest(url.getPath(),url.getQuery());

  System.out.println("Signed URL :" + url.getProtocol() + "://" + url.getHost() + request);

in main method of UrlSigner class.

Even i had this question on my mind today while creating similar app. Alert when two users/friends are near to each other - Android Proximity

after spending a couple of hours thinking, I thought a better way to do this :

1) Create SharedPreference / DB which holds the last Coordinates of the device which was also updated to the server.

2) Create Service which will fire once in 15 minutes requesting current location.

3) If the current location matches the Last Location retrieved from the SharedPreference and or around within proximity (depends on how much u give 30ft or more) then user is in the same place so don't upload the coordinates to the server.

4) If the user isn't within proximity or last location doesn't match current location then upload the coordinates to the server.

5) After uploading coordinates to the server, update SharedPreference too..

6) After uploading, return response of Users details from the server who are nearby the same coordinates. The User will then get notified if someone around them..