WeatherFinder - Android Mobile app

An Android app to search weather by city name and display maps and real‑time weather info (city, country, description, temperature).

Features

• Search cities using the OpenWeather API
• Display multiple matches as a list: city, country, description, temperature
• Temperature unit conversion (°C / °F) with optional trailing zeros
• Material + Card UI; light/dark theme support

Tech Stack

• Language: Java
• minSdk 26 / targetSdk 33
• Gradle 7.4, Android Gradle Plugin 7.3.1
• UI: AppCompat, Material Components, ConstraintLayout, RecyclerView, CardView
• Networking: HttpURLConnection on a background thread (HandlerThread / Handler)

Project Structure

app/
├─ src/main/
│  ├─ java/edu/northeastern/weatherfinder/
│  │  ├─ MainActivity.java                  // Entry screen, navigates to search
│  │  ├─ WeatherSearchActivity.java         // City search, HTTP request, JSON parsing
│  │  ├─ CityWeatherListFragment.java       // Fragment showing the result list
│  │  ├─ CityWeatherListAdapter.java        // RecyclerView adapter
│  │  └─ Weather.java                       // Weather data model
│  ├─ res/layout/
│  │  ├─ activity_main.xml                  // Home layout
│  │  ├─ activity_weather_search.xml        // Search screen layout
│  │  ├─ fragment_city_weather_list.xml     // Result list layout
│  │  └─ city_weather_item.xml              // Row item layout
│  ├─ res/values/strings.xml                // Strings and API key placeholder
│  └─ AndroidManifest.xml                   // Permissions & activities
└─ build.gradle                             // Module configuration

Requirements

• Android Studio (Hedgehog or newer recommended)
• JDK 11 (compatible with AGP 7.3.1)
• Android SDK 33

Getting Started

1. Clone the repo and open it in Android Studio

2. Configure your OpenWeather API key (required)

• Option A (quick start): set your key in app/src/main/res/values/strings.xml for apiKey.
• Option B (recommended): inject the key at build time via gradle.properties/local.properties and read it from BuildConfig or manifest placeholders. The current project uses the string resource approach; feel free to switch as an improvement.

OpenWeather: https://openweathermap.org/api

3. Connect a device or start an emulator, then build and run

• Android Studio: Run ▶
• CLI:

./gradlew assembleDebug

The APK will be in app/build/outputs/apk/debug/.

Permissions

• INTERNET, ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE for network access (see app/src/main/AndroidManifest.xml).

How It Works

• MainActivity navigates to the search screen
• WeatherSearchActivity:
  • Reads the city input and performs a background HTTP request
  • Builds the OpenWeather URL with locale (lang) and API key
  • Parses the JSON response and extracts the city list
  • Shows the results in CityWeatherListFragment
• CityWeatherListFragment converts JSON to a list of Weather objects and binds a RecyclerView
• CityWeatherListAdapter renders city, description, temperature with unit formatting
• UnitConvertor provides temperature/rainfall conversions

API and Localization

• Endpoint: https://api.openweathermap.org/data/2.5/find?q={city}&lang={locale}&mode=json&appid={API_KEY}
• Language: uses the device language for the lang parameter (Locale.getDefault().getLanguage())

Screenshots

Home Map	Card View	Detailed Info

Roadmap / Ideas

• Replace HttpURLConnection with OkHttp/Retrofit and a cleaner async model
• Inject the API key at build time to avoid storing it in strings.xml
• Better error/empty/offline/loading states and retry
• Favorites/recent searches, pull‑to‑refresh
• Unit and UI tests for parsing and conversions

License

• license (MIT/Apache‑2.0, etc.).