sending location from client to server and drawing on google maps

Question

I have to make a project based on server client communication.To elaborate the server first sends a message to the client .On recieving the message the client sends its exact location to the server every 5 seconds .the server meanwhile updates this information on the map and draws this position as lines of displacement. My problem occurs here: How to send message to/from server or client without any money. How the server recieves this information to get the latitude and longitude and how to draw without losing the previous information.

Answer 1

Not a very easy to understand question but if I follow you, you want to push a trigger from server to client (Android) which then begins responding with it's location. What you do with that data on the server is then up to you.

To send a message from server to client you'll need Google Cloud Messaging (GCM): http://developer.android.com/google/gcm/index.html

This enables you to "push" a short instruction from server to registered Android device. Upon receiving this push your Android device should start a Service which will connect to a location listener and send updates to the server via REST.

I suggest you look at the example in GCM demo mentioned in the link above. Once you've mastered GCM for sending push messages you can expand your service to report locations: http://developer.android.com/google/play-services/location.html

You'll need server side code for:

• registering the client device id
• pushing a message from server to GCM
• REST webservice to receieve location updates

There are plenty of demos out there for both technologies. This should cover what you're looking for. Good luck.