How the Android Gps Tracker Client Works
April 23rd, 2014 | Nick Fox

I finally had the time to rewrite the android client and to get the background service working as I’ve wanted to for a long time. GpsTracker is now based on work I had done previously on my other website, mycelltracker.com. The big difference between the old mycelltracker app and the new GpsTracker is the introduction of Google Play location services.

With that I want to go into an in-depth discussion of how GpsTracker now works on Android devices. We’ll start by looking at the structure of the application beginning with the five classes used in the app. I’ll first give a brief description of each. Here are the class files on github if you want to follow along:

GpsTracker android client class files on github

How to set up the Gps Tracker MySql database using phpMyAdmin
April 21st, 2014 | Nick Fox

This problem has plagued a lot of people. I even made a video in 2008 explaining how to use phpMyAdmin. I just watched it again and it’s still relevant 6 years later. Check out the video on my youtube channel, it’s only four minutes and will help:

Google Map GPS Cell Phone Tracker and PhpMyAdmin

The following are the written instructions for those who prefer it. The first thing you need to do is create a new database. When you have the name of the database, make sure and change it in the php connection file:

Gradle build problem with Android client
April 3rd, 2014 | Nick Fox

Hey Everyone,

I’ve been getting reports of gradle build problems with the Android project. The file in github is the most up to date and should be used now:

https://github.com/nickfox/GpsTracker/blob/master/phoneClients/android/GpsTracker/build.gradle

Please note there are two gradle.build files, you need the one in the GpsTracker directory.

Please let me know if you encounter any other problems.

Recent outages on websmithing
March 1st, 2014 | Nick Fox

Hey everyone, I want to apologize about the recent outages on websmithing.com. I was installing an ssl certificate so that I could serve https and installing it was a bit of a challenge.

Developers please note that this website is now using https and all test urls need to be changed on the phone or they won’t work.

https://www.websmithing.com/gpstracker/updatelocation.php

Search for this string in the phone source code.

Nick

Gps Tracker nominated for “Project of the Month” on Sourceforge!
January 24th, 2014 | Nick Fox

I was very happy to learn that GpsTracker was one of the top 9 downloaded projects on Sourceforge and was nominated for “Project of the Month”.

If you have checked out the project and like it, would you please log into Sourceforge and vote for GpsTracker:

http://sourceforge.net/p/potm/discussion/vote/thread/7d522915/

VOTE: gpsmapper

voting ends February 2, 2014

Thank you very much!
Nick

Help! I lost my cell phone.
January 21st, 2014 | Nick Fox

First off, I’m sorry that you lost your cell phone. That is a bummer. At this point, I’m sure you have retraced your steps and have tried calling your cell phone to see if someone kind hears it and picks it up. You can call your cell phone from your computer using Google voice if you do not have access to another phone:

https://www.google.com/voice

Quick Start Guide for Gps Tracker
January 20th, 2014 | Nick Fox

There are 2 parts to the gps tracker application. The server and the clients. The server part needs to be installed on a public web server. It can be installed on a local machine and clients can be tested over wifi so strictly speaking, you do not need a public facing web server but for our purposes, we will assume you have one. There are 2 different servers, one is for asp.net and sql server and the other one is for php and mysql. You do not need to install both. How do you choose which one to use?

Version 3 of Gps Tracker has been released!
January 14th, 2014 | Nick Fox

gpstrackerI’m happy to report that version 3 of GpsTracker has shipped. This is a major change and the application now supports tracking of android, ios, windows phone and java me/j2me cell phones using google maps. What the application does is track cell phones periodically using gps, wifi and/or cell towers. It allows you to track a phone every minute or every 5 minutes or whatever you want and display it on a google map. You can view the tracking in real time or view previously saved routes.