Tennis Partner Search

General Idea

Using a mobile phone in real-time, the Tennis Partner Search (TPS) application enables a tennis player to search for available other players to get together for playing. The app requires user to create a user account and, besides the creation of their username and password, enter their mobile phone number (required, to enable contacting while on-the-go), address (to enable selection based on an arbitrary distance), ability level,distance he/she is willing to drive for playing, year of birth, gender, and preferred type of play.

The data are stored in a database for future use.

Every user can search for other prospective partners using either a Quick Search or Advanced Search.

• • The Quick Search is based on the user's default parameters (that are defined in his/her user account). After the search is run, a list of compatible and available other players is displayed on the screen and the user can select which players he/she wants to contact via a text message (SMS) for an initial contact, including the preferable court facility that can also be designated.

  • The Advanced Search enables a user to set search criteria that are different from his/her default criteria that have been defined in his/her user account. The settings in the Advanced Search module are not stored, but rather used only once (i.e. temporarily). After the search was run, prospective tennis partners are listed on the screen and the user can select multiple names to contact them via a text message (SMS), including the possiblity to suggest the preferable tennis facility that is within the selected range.

In either of the above search modules, the user can choose whether the geographical reference is user's home location (the one that is defined in the user account) or current location (which is based on the GPS reading of the user's actual location).

Home screen of the application comprises the following modules:

• • Edit Account: enables user to edit the data in his/her user account,

  • Search: enables the user to search for prospective tennis partners,

  • Report Error: enables the user to report any possible bug in the application to the application admin or to suggest new features, or to inform the admin on the tennis facilities users would like to have included in the database for search

Main Features

• • Create Account

A user creates his/her username and password and enters his/her default information:

• • • first name

    • last name

    • address (i.e. street name and number)

    • city

    • postal code

    • country

    • gender

    • year of birth

    • ability level: beginner, intermediate, advanced

    • gender preference

    • (willing) travel range: how many kilometers the user is willing to travel from his location to meet the partner for playing

    • play type: singles, doubles, match, practice, just hitting, any

• • Quick Search

This module enables a quick search for prospective players without having to set any parameters except

• • • the travel range basis the search is based on (i.e. whether the home location or the current location)

    • meeting preference (how soon?), which is one of the following options:

      • as soon as possible

      • in 2 hours

      • in 3-5 hours

      • in the afternoon

      • in the evening

      • tomorrow

    • preferable tennis facilities can be selected before sending an SMS to select users

• • Advanced Search

In this module, the user can set search criteria differently from the ones that are stored in his/her user account (enables a broader search). These settings will not override the settings defined in the user's account. The following criteria must be set:

• • • travel range basis: whether the home location or current location

    • travel range: i.e. how many kilometers a user is willing to drive to meet the prospective partner for playing

    • ability level: beginner, intermediate, advanced (only one option is selected)

    • play type: the user selects some of the following options: singles, doubles, match, practice, just hitting, any

    • gender preference: the users selects between the following options: male, female, either

• • Contacting Selected Players

From the displayed list of prospective players, the user selects as many prospective partners as he/she wants, and also suggest the preferable tennis facilities for their play (optional). Only those tennis facilities that are within the designated travel range and compliant with the selected travel range basis. To save user effort, the text (SMS) message is automatically generated and sent, reading that this user (by his/her name, age, and ability level) would like to play with the selected user in the designated time interval at the optionally designated tennis facilities. If the receiving players want to reply, they will see the senders mobile number in the heading of the SMS (text message) and be able to reply just as with any SMS conversation or the users can make a direct phone calls, having the senders phone number.

Development Facts

• • July 2011: for touch phones that are based on Symbian^3 and Android

  • Due to the Nokia's abandonment of Symbian OS, further development of TPS for Symbian has been stopped

  • reduced functionality: it is likely that TPS will have different behavior and/or reduced functionality in case it is run either one of the following cases:

    • nontouch phone

    • Symbian S60

  • for full functionality, a mobile device should have:

    • touch screen

    • GPS receiver

    • connection to mobile or Wi-Fi network

  • March 2015: TPS application is published on Google Play Store (Android-based mobile devices)

Download

• TPS 2.3

Project Presentation

Suggest New Tennis Facilities to be Added to the TPS Database

There are two possible ways:

• • Filling out a short web form which is available here

  • Registering as a user in a Tennis Center Finder (TCF) web application and filling out a web form in it (it is a longer way, but it also enables user to quickly search for available facilities by various criteria)

Known Issues

Symbian (this version is no longer maintained and this is left merely as a reminder on the development issues at that time)

• • the app closes after contacting selected players (by sending the automatically generated SMS)

  • the courts list under the Advanced tab is not updated automatically after changing the travel range value, but the user needs to click on Home Location again after which the list is refreshed

Android

• • no issues are currenlty known