Cloud-based Context-aware Mobile Applications and Framework for Hajj and Umrah Management

Hajj and Umrah are holy events performed by millions of Muslim pilgrims every year. Management of such events is a real challenge. This paper proposes a modular framework for the distributed management of those events. In this framework, a cloud-based global server is used to communicate general information with a pilgrim mobile application. On the other hand, each campaign is assigned a cloud-based campaign server for communicating its campaign-specific information with its corresponding pilgrim applications. In both cases, information is communicated in each pilgrim language. The pilgrim application can also provide small-size static information. Additionally, a campaign manager mobile application allows each manager to define rules for communicating campaign-specific information in a context-aware fashion even though those managers typically lack programming capabilities. Constraints are enforced on the developed rules to help avoid errors. The system provides location-based services unachievable using Google Maps. Empirical evaluation has shown extreme satisfaction of past and potential pilgrims with the capabilities of the pilgrim application and the high usability of the manager application.