Follow a trip in Android

When you follow a trip, your consumer app displays the location of the appropriate vehicle to the consumer. To do this, your app needs to start following a trip, update trip progress, and stop following a trip when it completes.

This document covers how that process works.

Before you begin

Make sure you have set up the following things:

• The backend services for your consumer app are in place and your services for matching consumers with vehicles is operational.

• You have set up a map for your app.

Start following a trip

When your backend server matches a consumer with a vehicle, use JourneySharingSession to start following the trip.

The following sample code demonstrates how to start following a trip after the view loads.

public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity
    implements ConsumerViewModel.JourneySharingListener  {

  // Class implementation

  @Override
  protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

    // Create a TripModel instance to listen for updates to the trip specified by this trip name.
    String tripName = ...;
    TripModelManager tripModelManager = consumerApi.getTripModelManager();
    TripModel tripModel = tripModelManager.getTripModel(tripName);

    // Create a JourneySharingSession instance based on the TripModel.
    JourneySharingSession session = JourneySharingSession.createInstance(tripModel);

    // Add the JourneySharingSession instance on the map for updating the UI.
    consumerController.showSession(session);

    // Register for trip update events.
    tripModel.registerTripCallback(new TripModelCallback() {
      @Override
      public void onTripETAToNextWaypointUpdated(
          TripInfo tripInfo, @Nullable Long timestampMillis) {
        // ...
      }

      @Override
      public void onTripActiveRouteRemainingDistanceUpdated(
          TripInfo tripInfo, @Nullable Integer distanceMeters) {
        // ...
      }

      // ...
    });
  }

  @Override
  protected void onDestroy() {
    super.onDestroy();

    if (journeySharingSession != null) {
      journeySharingSession.stop();
    }
  }
}

class SampleAppActivity : AppCompatActivity(), ConsumerViewModel.JourneySharingListener {

  // Class implementation

  override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)

    // Create a TripModel instance to listen for updates to the trip specified by this trip name.
    val tripName = "tripName"
    val tripModelManager = consumerApi.getTripModelManager()
    val tripModel = tripModelManager.getTripModel(tripName)

    // Create a JourneySharingSession instance based on the TripModel.
    val session = JourneySharingSession.createInstance(tripModel)

    // Add the JourneySharingSession instance on the map for updating the UI.
    consumerController.showSession(session)

    // Register for trip update events.
    tripModel.registerTripCallback(
      object : TripModelCallback() {
        override fun onTripETAToNextWaypointUpdated(
          tripInfo: TripInfo,
          timestampMillis: Long?,
        ) {
          // ...
        }

        override fun onTripActiveRouteRemainingDistanceUpdated(
          tripInfo: TripInfo,
          distanceMeters: Int?,
        ) {
          // ...
        }

      // ...
    })
  }

  override fun onDestroy() {
    super.onDestroy()

    journeySharingSession?.stop()
  }
}

Update trip progress

To update trip progress details, such as the distance that the vehicle needs to travel before arrival and the estimated time of arrival, your app needs to register and configure a listener as shown in the following examples.

1. Register a listener on a TripModel object.

   Java

   // Create a TripModel instance for listening to updates to the trip specified by this trip name.
   String tripName = ...;
   TripModelManager tripModelManager = consumerApi.getTripModelManager();
   TripModel tripModel = tripModelManager.getTripModel(tripName);
   
   // Create a JourneySharingSession instance based on the TripModel.
   JourneySharingSession session = JourneySharingSession.createInstance(tripModel);
   
   // Add the JourneySharingSession instance on the map for updating the UI.
   consumerController.showSession(session);
   
   // Register for trip update events.
   tripModel.registerTripCallback(new TripModelCallback() {
   @Override
   public void onTripETAToNextWaypointUpdated(
           TripInfo tripInfo, @Nullable Long timestampMillis) {
         // ...
   }
   
   @Override
   public void onTripActiveRouteRemainingDistanceUpdated(
           TripInfo tripInfo, @Nullable Integer distanceMeters) {
         // ...
   }
   
   // ...
   });
   

   Kotlin

   // Create a TripModel instance for listening to updates to the trip specified by this trip name.
   val tripName = "tripName"
   val tripModelManager = consumerApi.getTripModelManager()
   val tripModel = tripModelManager.getTripModel(tripName)
   
   // Create a JourneySharingSession instance based on the TripModel.
   val session = JourneySharingSession.createInstance(tripModel)
   
   // Add the JourneySharingSession instance on the map for updating the UI.
   consumerController.showSession(session)
   
   // Register for trip update events.
   tripModel.registerTripCallback(
     object : TripModelCallback() {
       override fun onTripETAToNextWaypointUpdated(
         tripInfo: TripInfo,
         timestampMillis: Long?,
       ) {
         // ...
       }
   
       override fun onTripActiveRouteRemainingDistanceUpdated(
         tripInfo: TripInfo,
         distanceMeters: Int?,
       ) {
         // ...
       }
   
     // ...
   })
   

2. Configure the listener for your trip using TripModelOptions.

   Java

   // Set refresh interval to 2 seconds.
   TripModelOptions tripOptions =
         TripModelOptions.builder().setRefreshIntervalMillis(2000).build();
   tripModel.setTripModelOptions(tripOptions);
   

   Kotlin

   // Set refresh interval to 2 seconds.
   val tripOptions = TripModelOptions.builder().setRefreshIntervalMillis(2000).build()
   tripModel.setTripModelOptions(tripOptions)
   

Stop following a trip

Make sure that your app stops following a trip when it is no longer needed, such as when trip is marked COMPLETE at the backend by the driver. Stopping journey sharing avoids unnecessary network requests to Fleet Engine and prevents memory leaks.

Use JourneySharingSession to stop following the trip as shown in the following sample code.

public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity
    implements ConsumerViewModel.JourneySharingListener  {

  // Class implementation

  @Override
  protected void onDestroy() {
    super.onDestroy();

    if (journeySharingSession != null) {
      journeySharingSession.stop();
    }
  }
}

class SampleAppActivity : AppCompatActivity(), ConsumerViewModel.JourneySharingListener {

  // Class implementation

  override fun onDestroy() {
    super.onDestroy()

    journeySharingSession?.stop()
  }
}

Handle trip errors

The onTripRefreshError method surfaces errors that occur during trip monitoring. Error messages follow the Google Cloud Error standard. For detailed error message definitions and all the error codes, refer to Google Cloud Errors documentation.

Here are some common errors that can occur during trip monitoring:

Handle Consumer SDK Errors

The Consumer SDK sends trip update errors to the consumer app using a callback mechanism. The callback parameter is a platform-specific return type ( TripUpdateError on Android, and NSError on iOS).

Extract status codes

The errors passed to the callback are typically gRPC errors, and you can also extract additional information from them in the form of a status code. For the complete list of status codes, see Status codes and their use in gRPC.

// Called when there is a trip update error.
@Override
public void onTripUpdateError(TripInfo tripInfo, TripUpdateError error) {
  Status.Code code = error.getStatusCode();
}

// Called when there is a trip update error.
override fun onTripUpdateError(tripInfo: TripInfo, error: TripUpdateError) {
  val code = error.getStatusCode()
}

Interpret status codes

Status codes cover two kinds of errors: server and network-related errors, and client-side errors.

Server and network errors

The following status codes are for either network or server errors, and you don't need to any take action to resolve them. The Consumer SDK automatically recovers from them.

Client errors

The following status codes are for client errors, and you must take action to resolve them. The Consumer SDK continues retrying to refresh the trip until you end journey sharing, but it won't recover until you take action.