Description

Created project that gets the latest location of the ISS satalite ever 1 second and presents it to the UI

What I learned

• How to get latest updates and continuously update UI screen
• HTTP vs HTTPS apis have different permissions by default
• In Android Studio HTTPS (encrypted) is allowed but HTTP (unencrypted) is blocked unless explicitly permitted
• HTTP API calls require cleartext traffic in Manifest
• Polling: repeatedly asking the API for updated data at a set interval.
• To poll data you can use either this: while (currentCoroutineContext().isActive) or this while(true)

HTTP API calls requre usesCleartextTraffic in AndroidManifest file

<application
  android:usesCleartextTraffic="true"

Also if you need to poll your api you would need to do this in your viewModel

    fun pollISSLocation(){
        viewModelScope.launch {
            // this while loop uses inActive which returns true when coroutine is alive
            // used for polling or getting periodic update from api call where data is constantly changing
            while (currentCoroutineContext().isActive) {
                try {
                    val data = repository.getISSLocation()
                    _uiState.value = ISSLocationState.Success(data)
                } catch (e: Exception) {
                    _uiState.value = ISSLocationState.Error(e.message ?: "Unknown error")
                }
                delay(1000)
            }

        }
    }

Proof

Screen.Recording.2025-12-16.at.6.15.03.PM.mov

API Docs

https://publicapi.dev/open-notify-api