Week 7

Drop down menus were added this week for the General Info and How to Get to sections of the app. As a programmer, it takes less work to set up a drop down menu than to set up a menu interface, at least in the style we've been using.

Each interactive item set in a mobile app requires its own class. A class defines instances of objects that have properties and methods of that class. For example, the class "Book" would define the methods and properties of all "Book" objects. An object is a structure of data. Each object has to be constructed before it is used. That is, a method needs to be referenced to set up the object before anything can be done with the object in the program.

In the current menu-interface style, each clickable item on a menu must have its own separate class. When the item is clicked, it references that class. This opens a new menu with more classes for its items. For the Freshman 101 section, each class uses a XML setup to display a checklist.

However, for the General Info and How to Get to sections, this approach would not work. Each place or office has its own set of information and directions, and it would be impractical to create a new class for each and every place mentioned in the app. Instead, when the user reaches the section's sub-menu and clicks on a category, he will be taken to a drop down menu for that subtopic. Clicking on a place will expand the menu to display the information or directions, and clicking again will minimize the menu.

Figure 1: Example of the drop down menu interface.

Figure 1 shows an example of the drop down menu interface. This is the Sports subtopic of the How to Get to section. The directions for travelling to each destination are in the expandable portion of the drop down menu.