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Smart Office: Development of a Mobile Application for Android with Firebase

Services Oriented to GroupMe Messaging

Conference Paper · September 2018

DOI: 10.5220/0007235204540461

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 Smart Office: Development of a Mobile Application for Android with
Firebase Services Oriented to GroupMe Messaging

Liliana Enciso1,2 , José Guarnizo2 , Edisson Torres2 and Pablo Alejandro Quezada-Sarmiento3
1 Grupo Investigación IoT - Network Communications on Smart Environment, Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja, San
Cayetano Alto, Loja, Ecuador
2 Departamento de Ciencias de la Computación y Electrónica, Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja, San Cayetano Alto,

Loja, Ecuador
3 Escuela de Informática y Multimedia, Universidad Internacional del Ecuador, Quito, Ecuador

Keywords: GroupMe Messaging, Firebase, Chat, Android, Smart, Mobile Application.

Abstract: The courier service GroupMe is born for the need to manage instantaneous messages for groups of persons
in particular, especially the chat the public enjoys good reputation in general. Nevertheless, it plays a funda-
mental role in the growth and Internet expansion. The applications of courier service GroupMe have taken
big part of the market and have turned into a tool of work more and more used in personal, professional,
social ambiences and into emergency situations. The mobile application under the name of the messaging
FriendsChats GroupMe: Account with a service provided by Google called Firebase, which allows you to
store the information in the cloud quickly and safely. In view of the fact that applications that offer the same
service of communication have been developed with primitive tools such as the cloud storage (no security),
for this reason it is advisable to implement Firebase, the same that provides read / write rules, avoiding new
safety rules. The project was carried out in O.S. Android with the participation of two specialists: a functional
development and another one of the interface. Implementing Firebase to Android, any information that is
entered in the database is synchronized with different devices with the application.

1 INTRODUCTION communicate. There are also conferences in group,

are instant and can be sent to multiple contacts at the
The Messaging GroupMe is one of the ways of com- same time. Mentioned in the blog (Apple, 2015)
munication with friends immediately via the Internet. Based on studies of market, will be used these de-
Cited in the paper (Trigo and Martı́n, 2006). It must vices to be able to create the application mentioned
be borne in mind that should not be compared with above. Today, around 49% are Smartphone devices.
the Email (EC), as these are very different tools for Mentioned in the report (Nielsen, 2012), the which al-
communication. Published in (A. and G., 2017). lows for greater expansion in the use of the developed
One of the big differences between GroupMe and application. Published in the article (Vidal, 2012).
EC; is that with the GroupMe you can witness to We analyzed the services offered Firebase, as it
friends, that is to say it is known when you are con- is since it came on the market has been very welco-
nected in the instant, in contrast with the EC, it would med by many developers, because that offers reliabi-
have to wait for the recipient to go to the mailbox and lity, security and speed in the handling of information.
review the messages. The same thing happens in other Quoted in the blog (Alvarez, 2016).
applications like (Enciso et al., 2018), (Enciso et al., In the present is proposed to carry out a applica-
2017). tion of GroupMe (group messages), integrating the
Currently, GroupMe has given a shift toward mo- services of Firebase and TinyBD. Giving the struc-
bile applications, cross-platform applications or web ture and functioning of the databases in real time. Re-
services that require no application to operate, obtai- ferente to blog (Anton, 2015).
ned from the article (Guru, 2016). It is not intended do an application with such mag-
GroupMe allows communication with all con- nitude as WhatsApp or Messenger, applications with
nected systems, playing exactly in favor of those who a large global market; but if, an app that allows com-

454
Enciso, L., Guarnizo, J., Torres, E. and Quezada-Sarmiento, P.
Smart Office: Development of a Mobile Application for Android with Firebase Services Oriented to GroupMe Messaging.
DOI: 10.5220/0007235204540461
In Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies (WEBIST 2018), pages 454-461
ISBN: 978-989-758-324-7
Copyright © 2018 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved
 Smart Office: Development of a Mobile Application for Android with Firebase Services Oriented to GroupMe Messaging

munication between a certain group of people, offe- dor) as for example, education, health, tourist sites,
ring optimization in message response time, privacy etc. (Bravo and Faican, 2017). There is great si-
and security of storage in the cloud. Similar features, milarity with doneSitios, since it has an informative
mentioned in (KDE, 2012). ”chat”. for the development of the application will
The specific objectives are, redacted in (Rodriguez implement the service of Firebase in order to develop
and Lagos, 2016): a similar application for the transmission of informa-
• Developing a mobile application which allows the tion of a synchronously with a large group of clients.
registration of users in the internal database of the
movil. the TinyBD. 2.1 The Unified Modeling Language
• Incorporate the services of Firebase, for the syn- (UML)
chronization of information between users.
The UML is one of the tools most exciting in the
• All information that is sent and received will be world of systems development.
stored in the cloud of the Firebase. This allows us to generate designs that capture the
The scope of this project is the development of a ideas for the development of an application. In the
mobile application, incorporating the services of Fire- figure 1. The Use Case Diagram, in which details the
base (reading and writing), and the application will be functional structure of the application.
developed on Android (functions and the application
interface), so that the same is correctly well done and
be pleasing to users.

2 RELATED WORK
Windows Live Messenger: Enables communication
between two or more users, with the arrival of the
Messenger it was possible to chat, speak or make vi-
deo calls between two computers. (Trigo and Conde,
2006). Using the main idea of Windows, was analy-
zed tools to help perform the same function, but of
Figure 1: Description of the actions of the system.
a more secure and efficient, which provide Firebase
with safety rules.
Once Messenger began to get a great market, 2.2 The GroupMe
Vyrros Andrew development IMessage and des-
cribe: That is a messaging service developed at Ap- The messaging GroupMe, includes messages in real
ple,supports that users send more than 300 billion time and allows in group communication between the
messages per day using IMassage. (Trautschold and clients. In the application developed, all persons that
Mazo, 2012). The problem I had was that it did not are registered will be able to see all messages that
have storage tool information in the cloud, any mes- have been sent and whether they will be able to ans-
sage that was received, was stored in the device’s in- wer those messages (Room, 2012). And some im-
ternal memory. Firebase provides ample storage size portant developments during these times, which are
for that customer information is always available. detailed in (D. and H.G., 2010):
Google launched its long-awaited messaging ser- • It was the implementation in the DISH (Programd
vice called Google talk: Which seeks to other people Logic for Automatic Teaching Operations) used at
the way you choose, you can be: email, instant mes- the beginning of the decade of 1970.
saging or voice, is a service similar to that currently • It appeared on the internet in November 1996.
offers Skype. (Mercurio and SAP, 2005). It was one
of the first applications that were developed with the • The service of GroupMe offers a window where
service of Firebase, to control the rules of users, ena- you write the message in plain text, icons or emo-
bling encryption when you register the client and the ticons.
de-encryption when retrieving customer profile infor- • It differs from the chat and other tools of conver-
mation. sation in which access is immediate and perma-
DoneSitios: It allows you to give benefits and nent at the click of a button of the navigation of
solutions on the concept that know about (Ecua- the site.

455
ITSCO 2018 - Special Session on Internet of Things and Smart Communities

that help in the preparation of the project of Android

Studio(Studio, 2008).

Code 1: Complement google-services.

1 buildscript {
2 dependencies {
3 c l a s s p a t h ’ com . g o o g l e . gms :
g o o g l e −s e r v i c e s : 3 . 0 . 0 ’
4 } }

(a) Architecture two layers of Firebase In the code 1. We describe how to include add-ons
to Android, obtained from the manual (Developers,
2016):

Line 1: Contains the main package the all of code,

which allows you to add rules to file build.gradle.
Line 2: We incorporate the dependency package
to the file.
Line 3: We include the add-in google-services.

Code 2: Complement Gradle.

1 a p p l y p l u g i n : ’ com . a n d r o i d .
application ’
(b) The organizational structure of FriendsChats
2 android { }
Figure 2: Technologies implemented. 3 dependencies {
4 c o m p i l e ’ com . g o o g l e . f i r e b a s e :
2.3 Firebase f i r e b a s e −c o r e : 9 . 6 . 1 ’
5 / / ADD THIS AT THE BOTTOM
Firebase was founded in 2011 by Andrew Lee and Ja- 6 a p p l y p l u g i n : ’ com . g o o g l e . gms .
g o o g l e −s e r v i c e s ’
mes Tamplin, is the new and improved Mobile de- 7 }
velopment platform in the cloud. It was acquired
by Google in October 2014, and from there has gi- In the code 2. It is described how to include
ven new features. Information retrieved from the arti- dependencies that will be used in Android, obtained
cle (A.B., 2011). from the manual (Developers, 2016):
In the Figure 2.a. The functional architecture of
the Firebase, has a architecture two layers (client/- Line 1: Corresponds to the file app/build.gradle.
server) starting from a customer to transmit informa- Line 2: It is incorporated the packages of An-
tion to the server, which transmission is made in bi- droid.
directional lines. Borja summarized, That the same Line 3: It is incorporated the dependency package
requires a client GroupMe that performs the service, to the file.
also is different from the email. There are messaging Line 4: Compile the service of Firebase.
programs that serve as a great help for your shipment Lı́nea 6: You add the line apply plugin to enable
arrives instantly. the main features of the GroupMe, the add-in GRADLE.
the mentioned in the article (Bravo, 2016).
Figure 2.b. Presents the basic structure and orga- 2.4.2 Safety Rules in Firebase
nization of GroupMe, implementing in Firebase. It
can be seen that the data go in bi-directional and that The rules of security are used to protect the data of the
all message passes through the firewall to be filtered. application developed; Firebase has three types for
verification of the security, found in the channel (De-
2.4 Add Firebase to Android sarrolloWeb.com., 2016b).
We must remember that these security levels must
2.4.1 Add the SDK have the same data model you are working on the pro-
ject.
If you want to integrate libraries of Firebase to one For the purpose of the application developed will
of your projects, you must perform some basic tasks need the rules of writing and reading for users; these

456
 Smart Office: Development of a Mobile Application for Android with Firebase Services Oriented to GroupMe Messaging

rules are organized in the form of a tree. Adapted 2.5.1 Supporting Features of App Inventor
from the virtual manual of (DesarrolloWeb.com.,
2016a). When building applications for Android; Works with
two tools, detailed in the official page l (Riego, 2017):
Code 3: Rules of reading and writing. 1. App Inventor
1 { 2. App Inventor Blocks Editor
2 ” rules ” : {
3 ” . read ” : true
2.5.2 Operation of an Application in App
4 ” . write ” : true Inventor
5 }
6 } The Android program is based on events, that is, an
action has to occur for the corresponding reaction to
The editions of the rules will have to be take place. Recovered from (Dı́az, 2016).
done manually from the official page of Firebase Figure 3. The diagram for the execution of the events
https://firebase.google.com/?hl=es-419 go to console, carried out by Android is explained.
once inside we will modify the rules of Firebase,
giving them true values for editing by the user, in the
co de 3, It describes the activation of the rules of
reading and writing that will own the users:

Lı́nea 2: Pack of rule.

Lı́nea 3: Reading rules are given a true value.
Lı́nea 4: Reading rules are given a true value.
Once these simple steps are completed, it will no
longer be needed to return to the Firebase page. Now Figure 3: Execution Diagram on Android.
we will focus on the project that was developed in
Android Studio and App Inventor. Explained in the In the case of programming in other languages,
video (DesarrolloWeb.com., 2016a). such as Arduino, programming is based on a cycle in
which the code is executed in a linear fashion. Within
the cycle it is checked if the action has occurred, thus
2.5 APP Inventor executing what corresponds. Recovered from (Dı́az,
2016).
APP Inventor is an application of Google Labs, for
the creation of applications for Android devices (Net, Figure 4. The diagram for the execution of the
2015). This application has been one of the great actions in Arduino is explained.
innovations of the last years on the part of Google,
because it has allowed the newest programmers to
make their own applications with different objectives.

It is necessary to have an account that the appli-

cation would not serve to the creation of application
that contains a great magnitude since for reasons that
only supports a limited number of services. Retrieved
from comments by (TuAppInventor, 2016).

Some characteristics that can be exploited in the

course of their use are:
Figure 4: Execution Diagram on Arduino.
• The creation of simple applications, suitable for
any Android operating system. 2.5.3 In the Translation of Android Studio to
• Easy importation of add-ons that we want to im- App Inventor
plement.
In the App Inventor tutorial proposed by Luis Dı́az
• Dynamic blocks holding the Android code. explains that in the development of the interface that

457
ITSCO 2018 - Special Session on Internet of Things and Smart Communities

will own the application for the user, the developer 1. We pack the Android studio project.
can make use of the Various elements of App Inven-
2. Load into App Inventor.
tor tool, from buttons and text boxes to elements that
allow modifying the way the elements are displayed 3. Initialize the App Inventor server.
and displayed. Detail in the instructive (Dı́az, 2016).
Figura 7.a. It details the process for developing the 3.1.1 Components
application with the App Inventor tool, which compi-
les the code from the Android server, previously loa-
ded.

3 RESULTS
During the execution of the present project, an ade-
quate application has been developed to identify the
main operation of GroupMe with the services of Fire-
base.
However, the respective investigations of the tools
and services that would be used in the present project
have been carried out, which were detailed previously.
The GroupMe application was initially developed
in the Android Studio IDE, it developed the source
code, in which it was implemented and actived the de- Figure 6: Components retrieved from the Android server.
pendencies and the rules that will allow the adecuate
use of in the compiler. In figure 6, the components loaded automatically
Figure 7.b. Some of the registered users are pre- when you create the project coupled with the packa-
sented in the respective tests made to the prototype ging that was previously translated from the Android
of the application. Pepe and toni, users are appreci- studio IDE, the image shows that the entire applica-
ated, and at the same time the encrypted information tion will be enclosed in a Screen, for the reason that
of each user is presented. only work in a window.
Figure 5. The results of the compilation are appre-
ciated with one of the users entered, once it is obtai- 3.1.2 Interface
ned information of the user it is said that the user rules
are activated. For the case of the division of the sections we will use
the layouts, which are identified with the icon with
two white circles and a green strip, which can be seen
in figure 8. These are used to give styles Presented by
sections as shown in the figure. 9. In which the field
with the label USUARIO, has two icons and a label,
which forms a single section, and this will facilitate
for the manipulation in the modeling of the applica-
tion.

3.1.3 Code for App Inventor

For the presentation of the code that has our applica-

Figure 5: Firebase compilation results for the import. tion we will make it in three parts and explain the use
of the services that were used for the execution of the
project:
3.1 Translation of the Source Code
1. TinyBD Code. - Used for storing and registering
In the translation of IDE Android Studio a App In- users.
ventor, 3 simple steps were taken: 2. Firebase Code. - Used for the storage of the infor-
mation sent.

458
 Smart Office: Development of a Mobile Application for Android with Firebase Services Oriented to GroupMe Messaging

(a) Funcional structure of App Inventor incorporating Android (b) Defaul users in the creation of the data
Studio (Java).
Figure 7: App Inventor structure and default users.

Figure 9: TinyBD Code.

Figure 8: Final interface of the application.

3. Notificación Code. - Used for synchronization

with Firebase, which will notify when there is mo-
vement in the base of Firebase.
TinyBD Code: figure 10, it presented the struc-
ture Testing on mobile devices and in the same ways
Of the code, with which the application could stock
and register new users
Firebase Code: figure 11, the connection with the Figure 10: Firebase Code.
Firebase service is appreciated, which will send the
data obtained from the cloud each time the notifier mation in the database of Firebase and will proceed to
has a positive value. execute the code of Firebase to proceed the synchro-
Notificación Code: figure 12, the code that is pre- nization of the presented messages.
sented runs constantly until it receives a positive va-
lue, the positive value occurs when it receives infor-

459
ITSCO 2018 - Special Session on Internet of Things and Smart Communities

Figure 11: Code which notifies the Firebase service that

there is activity to synchronize.

3.2 Application Execution and Testing

Once the development process is completed, the com-
pilation and construction of the application proceeded
testing on mobile devices and in the same ways in
emulators for S.O. Android.
Final application icon: The icon was appreciated
in Figure 13. Icon created and retrieved from the page Figure 14: Try number 2.
http://iconion.com/es/.

4 CONCLUSIONS
All the objectives and requirements established
Figure 12: Application Icon. throughout the development of the project have been
fulfilled. The main one was to create a mobile ap-
3.2.1 Application Testing plication for Android capable of offering the group
communication service.
For application testing, it was performed on the follo- The developed application allows the sending and
wing devices: reception of flat texts that allows the communication
between the users. For the storage of the information
• Mobile device - Samsung Ace Lite 4. it will do with the Google Serves tool called Firebase.
• Device virtual machine (emulator) - BlueStacks 2. In addition, the application has been validated
with the device Samsung Ace Lite 4 and console emu-
Figure 14. The implementation of the application
lator BlueStacks. You need a connection to mobile
is presented in the virtual machine, with the username
data or a wifi connection for the synchronization be-
’Diana’.
tween the device and the Firebase BD. All this de-
monstrates the use of new technologies that arise in
this generation. Since Google distributes some free
services for developers in a way that can be used for
studies, hobbies, or for monetary reasons.
It is important to note that FriendsChat allows pe-
ople to be in contact with each other. It also helps us
to work, work, ideas, form a meeting, and it is a very
economical and effective way.
Finally, with the culmination of the project we
learned to develop a project from beginning to end,
going through all its phases, acquired new knowledge,
or expanded many of them on Java, Android, mo-
del client-server, SQL, and other necessary skills that
have been required during all phases.

Figure 13: Try number 1.

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