Android Mobile Tracking SDK - Amazon Location Service
InstallationUsageFiltersAndroid Mobile SDK tracking functionsExamples

Android Mobile Tracking SDK

The Amazon Location mobile tracking SDK provides utilities which help easily authenticate, capture device positions, and send position updates to Amazon Location Trackers. The SDK supports local filtering of location updates with configurable update intervals. This reduces data costs and optimizes intermittent connectivity for your Android applications.

The Android tracking SDK is available on GitHub: Amazon Location Mobile Tracking SDK for Android. Additionally, both the mobile authentication SDK and the AWS SDK are available on the AWS Maven repository. The Android tracking SDK is designed to work with the general AWS SDK.

This section covers the following topics for the Amazon Location mobile tracking Android SDK:

Installation

To install the SDK, add the following lines to the dependencies section of your build.gradle file in Android Studio:

implementation("software.amazon.location:tracking:0.0.1")
implementation("software.amazon.location:auth:0.0.1")
implementation("com.amazonaws:aws-android-sdk-location:2.72.0")

Usage

This procedure shows you how to use the SDK to authenticate and create the LocationTracker object:

Note

This procedure assumes you have imported the library mentioned in the Installation section.

  1. Import the following classes in your code:

    import software.amazon.location.tracking.LocationTracker
import software.amazon.location.tracking.config.LocationTrackerConfig
import software.amazon.location.tracking.util.TrackingSdkLogLevel
import com.amazonaws.services.geo.AmazonLocationClient
import software.amazon.location.auth.AuthHelper
import software.amazon.location.auth.LocationCredentialsProvider

  2. Next create an AuthHelper, since the LocationCredentialsProvider parameter is required for creating a LocationTracker object:

    // Create an authentication helper using credentials from Cognito
val authHelper = AuthHelper(applicationContext)
val locationCredentialsProvider : LocationCredentialsProvider = authHelper.authenticateWithCognitoIdentityPool("My-Cognito-Identity-Pool-Id")

  3. Now, use the LocationCredentialsProvider and LocationTrackerConfig to create a LocationTracker object:

    val config = LocationTrackerConfig(
    trackerName = "MY-TRACKER-NAME",
    logLevel = TrackingSdkLogLevel.DEBUG,
    accuracy = Priority.PRIORITY_HIGH_ACCURACY,
    latency = 1000,
    frequency = 5000,
    waitForAccurateLocation = false,
    minUpdateIntervalMillis = 5000,
)
locationTracker = LocationTracker(
    applicationContext,
    locationCredentialsProvider,
    config,
)

Filters

The Amazon Location mobile tracking Android SDK has three inbuilt location filters.

  • TimeLocationFilter: Filters the current location to be uploaded based on a defined time interval.

  • DistanceLocationFilter: Filters location updates based on a specified distance threshold.

  • AccuracyLocationFilter: Filters location updates by comparing the distance moved since the last update with the current location's accuracy.

This example adds filters in the LocationTracker at the creation time:

val config = LocationTrackerConfig(
    trackerName = "MY-TRACKER-NAME",
    logLevel = TrackingSdkLogLevel.DEBUG,
    accuracy = Priority.PRIORITY_HIGH_ACCURACY,
    latency = 1000,
    frequency = 5000,
    waitForAccurateLocation = false,
    minUpdateIntervalMillis = 5000,
    locationFilters = mutableListOf(TimeLocationFilter(), DistanceLocationFilter(), AccuracyLocationFilter())
)
locationTracker = LocationTracker(
    applicationContext,
    locationCredentialsProvider,
    config,
)

This example enables and disables filter at runtime with LocationTracker:

// To enable the filter
locationTracker?.enableFilter(TimeLocationFilter())

// To disable the filter
locationTracker?.disableFilter(TimeLocationFilter())

Android Mobile SDK tracking functions

The Amazon Location mobile tracking SDK for Android includes the following functions:

  • Class: LocationTracker

    constructor(context: Context,locationCredentialsProvider: LocationCredentialsProvider,trackerName: String), or constructor(context: Context,locationCredentialsProvider: LocationCredentialsProvider,clientConfig: LocationTrackerConfig)

    This is an initializer function to create a LocationTracker object. It requires instances of LocationCredentialsProvider , trackerName and optionally an instance of LocationTrackingConfig. If the config is not provided it will be initialized with default values.

  • Class: LocationTracker

    start(locationTrackingCallback: LocationTrackingCallback)

    Starts the process of accessing the user's location and sending it to an Amazon Location tracker.

  • Class: LocationTracker

    isTrackingInForeground()

    Checks if location tracking is currently in progress.

  • Class: LocationTracker

    stop()

    Stops the process of tracking the user's location.

  • Class: LocationTracker

    startTracking()

    Starts the process of accessing the user's location and sending it to the AWS tracker.

  • Class: LocationTracker

    startBackground(mode: BackgroundTrackingMode, serviceCallback: ServiceCallback)

    Starts the process of accessing the user's location and sending it to the AWS tracker while the application is in the background. BackgroundTrackingMode has the following options:

    • ACTIVE_TRACKING: This option actively tracks a user's location updates.

    • BATTERY_SAVER_TRACKING: This option tracks user's location updates every 15 minutes.

  • Class: LocationTracker

    stopBackgroundService()

    Stops the process of accessing the user's location and sending it to the AWS tracker while the application is in the background.

  • Class: LocationTracker

    getTrackerDeviceLocation()

    Retrieves the device location from Amazon Location services.

  • Class: LocationTracker

    getDeviceLocation(locationTrackingCallback: LocationTrackingCallback?)

    Retrieves the current device location from the fused location provider client and uploads it to Amazon Location tracker.

  • Class: LocationTracker

    uploadLocationUpdates(locationTrackingCallback: LocationTrackingCallback?)

    Uploads the device location to Amazon Location services after filtering based on the configured location filters.

  • Class: LocationTracker

    enableFilter(filter: LocationFilter)

    Enables a particular location filter.

  • Class: LocationTracker

    checkFilterIsExistsAndUpdateValue(filter: LocationFilter)

    Disable particular location filter.

  • Class: LocationTrackerConfig

    LocationTrackerConfig( // Required var trackerName: String, // Optional var locationFilters: MutableList = mutableListOf( TimeLocationFilter(), DistanceLocationFilter(), ), var logLevel: TrackingSdkLogLevel = TrackingSdkLogLevel.DEBUG, var accuracy: Int = Priority.PRIORITY_HIGH_ACCURACY, var latency: Long = 1000, var frequency: Long = 1500, var waitForAccurateLocation: Boolean = false, var minUpdateIntervalMillis: Long = 1000, var persistentNotificationConfig: NotificationConfig = NotificationConfig())

    This initializes the LocationTrackerConfig with user-defined parameter values. If a parameter value is not provided, it will be set to a default value.

  • Class: LocationFilter

    shouldUpload(currentLocation: LocationEntry, previousLocation: LocationEntry?): Boolean

    The LocationFilter is a protocol that users can implement for their custom filter implementation. You need to implement the shouldUpload function to compare previous and current location and return if the current location should be uploaded.

Examples

The following code sample shows the mobile tracking SDK functionality.

This example uses the LocationTracker to start and stop tracking in background:

// For starting the location tracking
locationTracker?.startBackground(
BackgroundTrackingMode.ACTIVE_TRACKING,
object : ServiceCallback {
    override fun serviceStopped() {
        if (selectedTrackingMode == BackgroundTrackingMode.ACTIVE_TRACKING) {
            isLocationTrackingBackgroundActive = false
        } else {
            isLocationTrackingBatteryOptimizeActive = false
        }
    }
},
)

// For stopping the location tracking
locationTracker?.stopBackgroundService()