Welcome to SmartPlastic’s documentation¶

This handbook has been carefully crafted and bottled by our developer team. It should provide any information needed to work with the app, it’s interface, and point out more relevant facts.

Furthermore, this documentation is the starting point of everybody who wants to take an active (coding) part in the project to dive in.

If you got any questions going beyond what is mentioned in the documentation, feel free to say hi to us via email (find them on the interface website).

Greetings from Germany!

Florian & Thomas

About us¶

We, Florian Hauser and Thomas Lenz, started SmartPlastic in August 2018. We have been asked to create the SmartPlastic app for the Erasmus project by one of our teachers and started thinking about it. In Germany, you can do a special scientific work called BLL (which roughly translates to Special-Study-Accomplishment) and thus earn points for your graduation. We decided to create the app and make it the subject of this scientific work we need to turn in before July 2019.

Before starting this project, we have been coding for fun using different languages, but haven’t heard of reStructuredText, haven’t have any experience dealing with server hosting nor dived into Python this deeply. As this app is literally tons of work, we are happy for every helping hand we can reach out to, and as you can see with us as an example, it doesn’t even take any precognitions. Writing or translating documentation doesn’t require any coding experience at all (besides rest markup, but that’s easy, duh), and we also need people for HTML and CSS styling the WebApp, too.

We are happy that we are dealing with a topic with such a great importance. Environmental protection is important to us, and this is how we thought of “We are not just into this, we are up for the cause.” as our project’s caption. We are looking forward to working together with great companies like the WWF or Parley during the project.

You are always welcome to start a little chat with us, just visit the interface where you will be able to find our email addresses and GitHub usernames!

Changelog¶

For more recent versions, see the GitHub releases page. Be aware that you need authorization to access this website.

v0.2.3-alpha¶

@tommylenz and @FloHauser are releasing version 0.2.3-alpha for the first test deployment on our personal test server (access it at https://smartplastic.cloud). Find additional information inside the documentation / the wiki / the milestones.

Greetings! 🥇

—Thomas

Added menu layout
Added styled header
Added icons to the nav bar
Added highlighted nav bar tabs to show in which view you are
Minor bug fixes
Minor style changes

v0.2.2-alpha¶

@tommylenz and @FloHauser are releasing version 0.2.2-alpha for using it at the joint staff training on Nov 20, 2018, in Dierdorf.

Greetings!

—Thomas

Earlier versions¶

Earlier versions are not named and thus not logged.

Joint Staff Training¶

Note

Duo to server constructions, we did not receive any emails prior to sunday evening (2nd of December). We are now able to see all emails (so there is no need to resend them) and are already working trough them - thank you for your patience.

Dierdorf, Germany, November 20. We held our joint staff training in Dierdorf, where the teachers of the Erasmus+ project came together to discuss the launch. After Jan-Micha Kroll, a former student of the MBG who created Sdui, an awesome app making school-student communication way easier, Florian and Thomas held a presentation on the state of the app, where they explained the following:

Main parts of the app to focus on
How to use the interface
How to upload and manage content
How to work together collaboratively
and more…

Below, you’ll find some further instructions on how to connect your student with us, download the beta app, or download the presentation’s files.

Contributing¶

If you have any interested students (or are an interested student), you can find the GitHub page at https://github.com/smartplastic/, it should look similar to this:

There, you can take a closer look at what we are doing right now.

Are you a teacher and want to see the project developing, see what your students are doing or are interested in Django, WebApps, or mobile app development, feel free to leave a message for us at hello@smartplastic.eu and we will add you to our github organization.

Are you a student and want to follow the project’s development or even want to take part in this? Welcome on board! Just hop on by messaging hello@smartplastic.eu and you will be added to the GitHub org as well.

Installing the beta app¶

To participate in beta-testing, follow our guide.

Downloads¶

Here you can download the presentation, explanations and the example files:
Presentation
Databases explained
Example article used
Example article's thumbnail
… or simply download all files together in a single zip-file:
ZIP file

Beta Testing¶

Currently, we provide a beta app for both the Android and iOS powered mobile phones. If you are prompted for log in credentials, use test as the username and Erasmus+ as the password. To install the beta, follow the steps below:

Android beta¶

Make sure your Android version is 5.0 or higher. You can find your version number in your phone’s settings.
Follow this link on your mobile to get to the beta entrance website. On this website, press the button to enter beta (you may need to authenticate with your Google account)
After the successfull entry, you’ll be able to find the app in your usual Play Store by searching for “SmartPlastic”. Download it, and it should appear on your home screen or the apps list. You are now able to start the app.

iOS beta¶

Make sure your iOS version is 9.0 or higher. You can find your version number in your phone’s settings: Settings > General > About > Version.
Send an E-Mail to thomas.lenz@hauserlenz.com. Please provide (1) your Apple-ID and (2) your full name.
You will be added to the beta tester group and receive an email that should look somewhat similar to the one on the right.
Click the link inside the email adress. You will be redirected to a page that offers you to enter the beta upon installing the App Testflight.
Download Testflight from your iPhone’s App Store and click the link in email again if the SmartPlastic beta doesn’t show up in the app.
Inside Testflight, download SmartPlastic. It should appear on your homescreen and feature a red dot left of the name to signal that it’s a beta application. Now you can click on the app and enjoy.

Even though the way above is the preffered way, should you run into any issues, try accessing this link on your mobile to get to the Testflight registration. After that, follow the above steps (starting with step 4) to finish installing the beta.

Troubleshooting¶

Right now, there are no known errors that could impact the installation of the SmartPlastic beta. If you face a problem, write us an email:

Message florian.hauser@hauserlenz.com for Android support …
… or thomas.lenz@hauserlenz.com for iOS support.
If you get a general question regarding the beta app and haven’t found a useful answer in the FAQ, contact hello@smartplastic.eu for any further assistance.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)¶

Help, I always get the error “Screen resolution too small” when accessing the interface!¶

We don’t support tablets and mobile phones accessing the interface at the moment. Try accessing the interface from your desktop pc.

I do not find “SmartPlastic” on the App Store/Play Store. Where is it?¶

Right now, SmartPlastic is in pre-release development phase. You are not able to download it without signing up for the alpha/beta release. To do so, refer to this article.

I can’t join your GitHub organization!¶

That’s strange. Double check wether you have turned on two-factor authentication in your GitHub settings (it’s inside the security options). If everything is alright over there, contact a developer using one of the methods described below.

I got a problem and it’s huge. I don’t know what it is, I don’t know how to explain it and I am completly lost. What do I do?¶

We are sad to hear that you ran into a problem using our software as we try to make it as comfortable to use as possible. We’d be very happy to assist you further in solving the problem. To do so, pick the method that suits best for you:

Contact us via email: Message support@smartplastic.eu and tell us as much about the problem you ran into as you can.
Contact us via phone: We do not have any main telephone contact times, but it would fit best for us Mondays from 2:30pm until 4pm - altough we are sure to find a time together if you do not have time then. Just mail us using the email above and we’ll give you our number and contact times.
Contact us via TeamSpeak: If you are familiar to TeamSpeak, this would be our prefered method of communication, as we would be able to assist you directly by sending you links or files troughout the TeamSpeak client, talk with you hassle-free and more. Mail us using the email adress named above and we’ll make you an appointment with one of our devs. After making sure that you have the latest TeamSpeak version installed (or at least ≥3.1.6), conntect to the server with the nickname SmartPlastic (add this instead of an IP or hostname when prompted) and wait until you are moved to a channel by one of our staff members.

Newsfeed¶

In your interface, it’s easy to create or modify existing articles to publish them trough the app’s newsfeed.

Creating articles¶

Follow theses steps to create an article:

Log in to your personal interface account
On the articles page, click on “Create an article” on the top right.
Enter your articles title, body and pick a thumbnail.
After you have clicked “Release”, your article should show up in the app.

Attention

Please ask someone with “manager” security level (teacher or project managers) to edit or delete an existing article.

Modifying articles¶

If you want to modify one of your articles, follow these steps:

Log in to your personal interface account.
On the articles page, scroll and find your article you want to modify.
Click on the article to open up the detail view.
On the top, click “Edit this article”.
After you have changed what you wanted to change, click “Release”.

Tracker (empty)¶

Content to follow …

Map (empty)¶

Content to follow …

Information¶

The information tab is to add static information, that separates from articles by their “timeless” status. While articles should be editorial content that have up-to-dateness, info tabs should feature content that will not change and is information not associated with special real-world events or a specific time.

In your interface, it’s easy to create or modify existing info blocks so that they are accessible inside the mobile app.

Creating info blocks¶

Follow theses steps to create an info block:

Log in to your personal interface account
On the infos page, click on “Create info” on the top.
Enter your info’s title, body and pick a thumbnail.
After you have clicked “Release”, your info block should be instantly visible online.

Attention

Only managers (e.g. teachers) are able to modify or delete other’s infos.

Modifying articles¶

If you want to modify one of your articles, follow these steps:

0. Log in to your personal interface account. You need to have at least “manager” security level or above in order to modify or delete an article that is not yours. 1. On the articles page, scroll and find your article you want to modify. 2. Click on the article to open up the detail view. 3. On the top, click “Edit this article”. 4. After you have changed what you wanted to change, click “Release”.

Registering a new account in the Interface¶

To create a new account for your students, ask them to visit https://smartplastic.cloud/accounts/register and let them fill in the information. Remind them to fill in all information in English, this is needed for the app to work correctly. The “Description” field will be displayed below every article published by the student, so it should be informative but kept short. All information, including the password, can be changed at any time. After they filled out the form and sent it to our server, they need to tell you their username, with which you are able to promote them through your admin interface access: Navigate to https://smartplastic.cloud/admin, log in with your credentials, visit the “Groups” tab and add them to the “authors” group - now they should be able to log into the interface and create articles.

Should your student have forgotten his or her password, you can reset it by logging into the admin panel, clicking on users, selecting the student and click on the form below they username.

The newsfeed tab¶

In the “News” tab you can see what we’d like to call “newsline”: A timeline of news, so to say, where you can see all of the articles published by the student groups across all countries.

The following information will be displayed with an article:

Title
Author’s name
Author’s short description
Date when the article was last modified (or created, if it hasn’t been modified)

If any information named above needs to be changed, refer to the interface doc. If you are not able to manipulate the information through the interface, contact your advisor or let him contact us on your behalf.

The tracker tab¶

In this menu you can track your so called “SmartPlastic Score”: Estimating a value for the plastic you threw away, categorizing it as easy as in three sizes: Small, Medium and Large, you can keep track of your plastic usage and strive to reduce the amount continuously. As soon as multiple scores across different countries have added up, we will publish some interesting statistics, strategies to reduce ones plastic usage and some experience reports.

The map tab¶

The map is a feature of our app that is currently under construction.

Content to follow …

The information tab¶

Upon taking a look at the info tab, users can see static information covering different topics all around the project. One topic is displayed as one “block”. Example info blocks include the following topics:

SmartPlastic app
Erasmus+
The participating schools
Waste Disposal Systems

You can add information blocks inside the interface. These infos will always be visible, although they will get grouped if there are too many. We plan to add a feature to filter for a specific name, topic or content so that you can find specific information more easily.

The settings screen¶

Right now, you are not able to adjust any settings inside the app, but we plan to add this feature as soon as possible.

Content to follow …

Published information (empty)¶

Content to follow …

Becoming a developer - Join our team¶

As this article is under construction at the moment, please refer to this artice for now.

Workflow: Step by Step¶

As this article is under construction at the moment, please refer to this artice for any unanswered questions.

Here you can get an idea of our workflow. The image below displays how we are working on the documentation for example.

A more detailed description will follow.

Team organization¶

Our team features an imperial structure that makes clear who is able to do what and points out why. Currently, our hierarchy is organized as follows. You can check what group a developer is assigned to in the team doc.

Rights	Groups
Rights	Head developer	Senior developer	Junior developer	Notes
Create an issue	Check	Check	Check
Start pull request			Check
Create branches
Merge branches
Create releases

Django admin access	Check
Interface all-access	Check	Check

TeamSpeak admin	Check
TeamSpeak mod	Check	Check	Check

Slack admin	Check	Check

App Store Connect	Check	(Check)
Play Console	Check

Server settings	Check
Server console	Check

Note

(1) Branches are assigned for special development purposes. When one wants to work on the project freely, they can feel free to fork the repo at any time. (2) Some seniors may get App Store Connect access based on their impact on the project if needed.

Hint

The head developers decide which role is assigned to whom. We will not give roes based on what others say but purely on our own impression.

Brand Guidelines (empty)¶

Content to follow …

Logo resources¶

Here you can download SmartPlastic wallpapers:
Desktop wallpaper
Mobile wallpaper

Additional content to follow!