Using Open APIs In Mobile Apps Activity

Title	Using Open APIs in Mobile Application Development
Overview	In this activity students will learn about Open APIs, how does it relate to open source and how to use in building a mobile application.
Prerequisites	CS2 using Java and basics of Android development.
Learning Objectives	After successfully completing this activity, the learner should be able to: Understand what an Open API is. Understand how open APIs relate to open source. Use open APIs in mobile application development Specifically use the FEMA open data API to build a simple Android accessibility application.
Process Skills Practiced

Background

This activity is meant to educate students about open APIs and how to use them in Android app development. The activity is targeted for crisis management APIs to emphasize the humanitarian aspect of HFOSS.

Directions

Part 1

1. What is an Open API? What is REST? How and why is it open ?

http://searchcloudapplications.techtarget.com/definition/open-API

1. What is the difference between open source and open API?

http://toni.org/2007/01/30/open-source-vs-open-apis/

Write a one page summery compiling your understanding of these readings.

Part 2

FEMA (The Federal Emergency Management Agency) has made some of its data public through a REST API http://www.fema.gov/data-feeds#APIs The released data sets are listed in http://www.fema.gov/data-feeds#APIs and include the following:

• Housing Assistance Owners
• Housing Assistance Renters
• Registration Intake and Individuals Household Program
• Public Assistance Funded Projects: Summary
• Public Assistance Funded Projects: Details
• Hazard Mitigation Grant Program Property Acquisitions
• Hazard Mitigation Grants
• Disaster Declarations Summaries

For example, the following http request retrieves data for Housing Assistance Owners. To test the API, run the http request on your browser. For example, the House Assistance Owners API (http://www.fema.gov/api/open/v1/HousingAssistanceOwners) when executed on the browser runs this partial record. " {"metadata":{"skip":0,"top":1000,"count":0,"filter":"","format":"json","orderby":{},"select":null,"entityname":"HousingAssistanceOwners","url":"/api/open/v1/HousingAssistanceOwners"},"HousingAssistanceOwners":[{"disasterNumber":1983,"state":"MS","county":"Adams (County)","city":"NATCHEZ","zipCode":"39120","validRegistrations":29,"averageFemaInspectedDamage":8176,"totalInspected":16,"totalDamage":130819,"noFemaInspectedDamage":10,"femaInspectedDamageBetween1And10000":3,"femaInspectedDamageBetween10001And20000":0,"femaInspectedDamageBetween20001And30000":1,"femaInspectedDamageGreaterThan30000":2,"approvedForFemaAssistance":9,"totalApprovedIhpAmount":96070,"repairReplaceAmount":69315,"rentalAmount":20347,"otherNeedsAmount":6408,"approvedBetween1And10000":5,"approvedBetween10001And25000":3,"approvedBetween25001AndMax":1,"totalMaxGrants":1,"hash":"5a7d9748949c69e2b8c8bc7d93158820","lastRefresh":"2014-12-12T01:18:19.599Z","id":"546e064687456f7b0c07de85"}

"

Now choose two different APIs, run an http request for the API on your browser and copy a couple of records from the result in your report.

This output is in JSON format.

Part 3

Develop an Android App that provides an interactive interface to search and display a data feed from the FEMA data sets. Your App should use the sample code attached to retrieve data from an API and your task will be to design and develop and App that displays this data.

Deliverable

• A report including answers for part 1 and part 2
• A .zip and .apk of your Android app.

Notes for Instructors

Assessment

Criteria	Level 1 (fail)	Level 2 (pass)	Level 3 (good)	Level 4 (exceptional)
Understands what is a Open API and how is different that open source	Little to no understanding shown; Answers are made up or unrelated; Didn't read material	Limited understanding, showing that they read some, but did not dig very deep	Showed that they have done the readings with limited understanding	Clearly explain the answer to each question with supporting examples
Testing FEMA APIs	No testing	Testing with bad results	Testing with good results	Testing multiple APIs with the correct result
Create an Android App that retrieves data from a REST API	Did not attempt to create the App	App retrieves data but data is not parsed	App retrieves data and parses the json data	App retrieves data, parses data and displays data
An interactive interface is develped to display data	Did not attempt to create an interface	Create a limited interface for the app	Create a complete inteface displaying all retrieved data	Create an efficient interface with the ability to search/filter the data

Comments

Android Development, JSON data model

Suggestions for the Open Source Project

• Suggestions for an open source community member who is working in conjunction with the instructor.