== Game App ==
This group will be working on the game app for this year's game and developing and maintaining the infrastructure for the team website.

Team Mentor:
* [mailto://blairlc@verizon.net Blair Chisholm]

Student Members:
* [mailto://benjialbert2@gmail.com Benji Albert]
* [mailto://genius.ryan.bowers@gmail.com Ryan Bowers]

Resource Downloads:
* [http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html Android Studio]
* [http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/jdk8-downloads-2133151.html Oracle JDK Platform]

References:
* [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6gx4Cwl9DGBsvRxJJOzG4r4k_zLKrnxl thenewboston Android Programming YouTube tutorials]

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Tips:

General:

* Use Android Studio!  It is by far the easiest way to create Android Apps!

* Go through the android developer tutorial!  It goes over everything you need from creating a GUI to saving data.

GUIs:

* Do not use Android Studio's drag and drop widget feature to create a GUI because it hardcodes values instead of using ratios
  which is bad practice! (this would make the app appear differently on different devices based on the screen size).

* Use XML to create static layouts (layouts that will stay the same) and Java to create dynamic layouts (layouts that will or may change).

Saving Data:

* Save to the external storage and not internal (Android names part of internal storage as external storage so that a device without
  physical external storage will always be able to store data in "external storage".  Beware of this!)

* When you create a new file, you have to tell the Android operating system that there is a new file.  If you do not do this, it will
  appear as if the program is running smoothly until you try to access the files on a computer; the files do not show up on device viewer!
  I was able to tell Android that there was a new file created using this code:
       ApplicationContextProvider.getContext().sendBroadcast(new Intent(
       Intent.ACTION_MEDIA_SCANNER_SCAN_FILE, Uri.fromFile(writeFile)));
  where writeFile was the file I just saved.  (The full code can be seen in through this Wiki here:
       http://wiki.raidtech.net/browser/gameapp/app/src/main/java/net/raidtech/first/gameapp

* Use a library like GSON which makes serialization and deserialization a breeze!

* Although GSON will make a JSON file, you still need to represent the code in a human readable format!  For this, I use CSV which I create
  without the help of a library.  I saved individual matches in CSV files and I created a file called SUPER_FILE which combines the CSV files
  into one large spreadsheet.  This spreadsheet shows every team and all the teams' statistics so someone can quickly retrieve general information.