Mobile Application of Religious Activities for the Great Mosque Islamic
Center Rokan Hulu with Push Notification
Salhazan Nasution
1
, Arbi Haza Nasution
2
, Fitra Yamita
1
1
Department of Informatics Engineering, Universitas Riau, Pekanbaru, Indonesia
2
Department of Informatics Engineering, Universitas Islam Riau, Pekanbaru, Indonesia
Keywords:
The Great Mosque Islamic Center Rokan Hulu, Android Application, Push Notification.
Abstract:
The Great Mosque Islamic Center Rokan Hulu is the best national mosque in Indonesia and also as an icon
of Rokan Hulu Regency which has the nickname of the Country of Thousand Suluk. This mosque is also a
religious tourist place. Therefore, this mosque has many religious activity agendas that are in the spotlight
of the wider community. The lack of information dissemination on religious activities is a major problem
that must be overcome. Communities often get non-updated information and outdated information. Mobile
Application of Religious Activities for the Great Mosque Islamic Center Rokan Hulu with Push Notification
is the solution to these problems. This application uses the push notification method so that users easily
get information on religious activities through automatic notifications on the user’s smartphone and also as
a reminder of the schedule of religious activities. Users can also set up information on religious activity
information they want to get through the notification configuration menu. Besides, this application also has a
menu about mosques that contain information on the Great Mosque Islamic Center Rokan Hulu such as prayer
schedules, locations, descriptions, and galleries.
1 INTRODUCTION
A mosque is the Muslim gathering place for prayer,
the building in which Muslims worship God. The
function of the mosque is not only a place of pros-
tration but a mosque is the center of Islamic religious
activities. During the Prophet Muhammad SAW, the
mosque functioned as a center for educational activ-
ities, namely a place for fostering and forming the
character of the people (Kurniawan, 2014). Activities
such as celebrating Islamic holidays, discussions, reli-
gious studies, lectures, recitals, and Al-Qur’an learn-
ing places are held in the mosque. In addition, the
mosque also has a schedule of activities to be carried
out both routine activities and other religious activi-
ties carried out at a certain time.
Rapid technological development is the solution
to several problems to help human work. In this era
of globalization, almost everyone has a smartphone
to support their activities. One of the operating sys-
tems is Android. Android is a Linux-based mobile
phone operating system. Open source, the source
code is provided free of charge to developers to create
their applications to run on Android (Nugroho, 2017).
Most smartphone producing companies choose the
Android operating system for their smartphone prod-
ucts. Smartphones with Android-based operating sys-
tems are cheaper than smartphones with paid operat-
ing systems. Push notification is a service that can
provide special notifications instantly on an Android
smartphone. The push notification service can help
users get short notifications. This service is bene-
ficial in disseminating and providing information in
real-time. So, it can overcome problems in the dis-
semination of information such as information that is
difficult to obtain, information that is not up to date
and information received is outdated.
The Great Mosque Islamic Center Rokan Hulu is
the best national mosque in Indonesia and also as an
icon of Rokan Hulu Regency which has the nickname
of the Country of Thousand Suluk. This mosque is
also a religious tourist place. So, this mosque has
many religious activity agendas that are in the spot-
light of the wider community. Information about re-
ligious activities is needed by some tourists so they
can arrange a schedule of visits to the mosque ac-
cording to these religious activities. The surround-
ing community also very much wants to take part in
the religious activities carried out. Because the Great
Mosque Islamic Center Rokan Hulu is a mosque that
Nasution, S., Nasution, A. and Yamita, F.
Mobile Application of Religious Activities for the Great Mosque Islamic Center Rokan Hulu with Push Notification.
DOI: 10.5220/0009145901550162
In Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Science, Engineering and Technology (ICoSET 2019), pages 155-162
ISBN: 978-989-758-463-3
Copyright
c
2020 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved
155
is the center of religious activities at the district level.
The lack of information in spreading religious activ-
ities is a problem that must be overcome. To over-
come the lack of information dissemination of reli-
gious activities at the Great Mosque Islamic Center
Rokan Hulu, then an application for religious activ-
ity information is made using the push notification
method. So, users immediately get notifications au-
tomatically on their smartphone when information on
religious activities entered by the admin or adminis-
trator of the mosque. The Limitation of the problems
in this research is (1) This application is made for
smartphones that use the Android operating system;
supports Android 4.4 (KitKat) and the latest version.
(2) The push notification method in this application
uses the Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) service.
(3) Application management is done through the web
by the admin.
2 LITERATURE REVIEW
To complete the research process, a theoretical basis
is needed as the basis for research work. Fundamental
theories are taken from books, theses, previous stud-
ies, and scientific journals.
2.1 Web
The web is a collection of web pages, usually summa-
rized in a domain that is located on the World Wide
Web (WWW) on the internet (Jasmadi, 2004). The
web becomes a computer network-based information
media that can be accessed anywhere at a relatively
low cost. The web is a form of implementation of
web programming languages.
2.2 Android Operating System
Android is one of the mobile phone operating sys-
tems. Other mobile phone operating systems such as
Windows Mobile, iPhone, Symbian, and many more.
This Android operating system runs by prioritizing
core applications without involving third parties even
though the potential of third parties is greater. So that
third-party applications have distribution limitations
in getting original data from mobile phones, commu-
nicating between processes and the limitations of ap-
plication distribution for their platforms (Stephanus,
2011). The Android architecture consists of applica-
tions and widgets, application framework, libraries,
android run time, and Linux kernel.
2.3 Firebase
Firebase is Backend as a Service (BaaS) which is
currently owned by Google. Firebase is a web ap-
plication platform that helps developers build high-
quality applications by storing data in the format of
JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) that does not use
queries to insert, update, delete or add data to it
(Khawas and Pritam, 2018). Firebase provides a vari-
ety of services, one of which is a push notification fea-
ture called Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM). FCM
is a development of Google Cloud Messaging (GCM)
that provides services so that developers can send no-
tification messages to Android devices from servers
(Nurzam et al., 2017)).
2.4 Push Notification
Push notification is a service that is widely used for
notification via short messages on smartphones (Sid-
dik and Nasution, 2018). The application that will be
designed is an application that can send push notifi-
cations which will later be developed in various fields
according to user needs. Lack of knowledge in the
dissemination and notification of information in real-
time, the information obtained is not up-to-date, so
that in various situations and conditions the informa-
tion provided is outdated.
Push notification is one of the services that can
overcome these problems so that no more recent in-
formation is not delivered. With the use of this ser-
vice, every updated information will immediately be
sent as a notification message, so the latest informa-
tion will not be missed. Push notification service is
generally widely applied to mobile applications such
as Android and other operating systems.
2.5 The Great Mosque Islamic Center
Rokan Hulu
The Great Mosque Islamic Center Rokan Hulu is lo-
cated at coordinates n 000 53 ’44.3 ”e. 1000 18 ’31.5’.
The background of the establishment of this mosque
was based on the brilliant idea of the Rokan Hulu Re-
gent, which was due to the absence of a representative
mosque to be used as a prayer place and district-level
religious activities. One district mosque that can be
used as a center of activity as well as a symbol of Is-
lam in Rokan Hulu, moreover this area is nicknamed
the Country of Thousand Suluk. Thousand Suluk is
an area where many people carry out dhikr in a partic-
ular place (surau) which is called by bersuluk (Badan
Pengelola Masjid Agung Islamic Center Rokan Hulu,
2016).
ICoSET 2019 - The Second International Conference on Science, Engineering and Technology
156
Figure 1: The great mosque islamic center rokan hulu.
The Great Mosque Islamic Center Rokan Hulu is
an icon of Rokan Hulu district, dubbed the Country of
Thousand Suluk. The function of the Great Mosque
Islamic Center Rokan Hulu is not just a place of wor-
ship but has expanded and improved its function in
accordance with the motto of the mosque as a means
of worship, achieving blessings, and increasing spirit.
Equipped with various facilities, infrastructure, and
well planned religious activities programs, the Great
Mosque of the Islamic Center of Rokan Hulu be-
comes the center of Islamic studies and the practice
of Al-Quran values. This mosque is also a place of
formation of the Islamic community in order to build
an advanced Islamic society and become a pioneer of
the development of Islam in the international world.
2.5.1 Religious Activity Schedule of the Great
Mosque Islamic Center Rokan Hulu
The schedule of religious activities at the Great
Mosque Islamic Center Rokan Hulu is very crowded
every day. The schedule of religious activities is
as follows: (Badan Pengelola Masjid Agung Islamic
Center Rokan Hulu, 2016).
Organizing Fardhu Prayer Services, which are at-
tended by thousands of worshipers every day.
Organizing Friday Prayers. The Khatib sermon
came from Pekanbaru and the leadership of the
pesantren in Rokan Hulu Regency and at least had
a Master degree and Lc.
Organizing Islamic Day Activities. Celebration
of Islamic holidays with various activities such
as marches to welcome the new year of Hijriah,
the splendor of Ramadhan, Tabligh Akbar, vari-
ous kinds of competitions and so forth.
Organizing Islamic Da’wah and Tabligh Akbar
routinely carried out both weekly and monthly.
Carrying out routine recitation every once a week.
Organizing Educational Activities. Carried out
through da’wah, also developed in the form of
particular institutions such as Pendidikan Anak
Usia Dini (PAUD), Tahfiz High School to ISQ
Syekh Ibrahim which blends with the mosque en-
vironment.
Empowerment of Zakat, Infaq, Shodaqoh, and
Endowments.
Carry out the Recitations and Religion Lectures at
Fajr and Friday Morning.
Various Special activities during Ramadan.
3 METHODOLOGY
In this research, the first step to be carried out was
the identification of problems which later found sev-
eral issues regarding the dissemination of informa-
tion on religious activities. The second stage, looking
for suitable literature studies. The third stage, data
collection, and processing is done through observa-
tion and documentation from the Mosque Manage-
ment Agency. Then do the analysis and design phase.
After that, the system will be created and tested. If the
system works properly, then the next stage of imple-
mentation and if the system does not run as it should
then return to the analysis and design phase. The last
stage after implementation is the conclusion. The re-
search methodology can be seen in Figure 2.
Figure 2: Research methodology diagram.
3.1 General Description of the System
The general description of the system can be seen in
Figure 3, where the Mobile Application of Religious
Activities for the Great Mosque Islamic Center Rokan
Hulu with Push Notification will receive input from
the admin in the form of the latest, routine, and infor-
mation about the mosque. The user will set the notifi-
cation according to the choice of the diverse activities
Mobile Application of Religious Activities for the Great Mosque Islamic Center Rokan Hulu with Push Notification
157
topic that the information wants to get. If the user has
set a notification, then the information on religious
activities that you want to follow will be quickly ob-
tained with a notification on the user’s smartphone.
Figure 3: General description of the system.
3.2 Use Case Diagram
Use case diagrams are descriptions of a system that is
used to make it easy to explain how the system and its
components can be related. In the Mobile Application
of Religious Activities for the Great Mosque Islamic
Center Rokan Hulu there are 2 user sides, namely ad-
min and user. The user is used as an actor in the use
case diagram. Admin has full access to manage all
applications, managing the latest religious activity in-
formation, managing routine religious activity infor-
mation, sending notifications and also can add another
admin. Before performing this task, the admin must
log in into the system.
User can view information on the latest religious
activities, information on routine religious activities,
find the location of the nearest mosque, see infor-
mation about the mosque such as prayer schedules,
mosque locations, descriptions of mosques, and gal-
leries. Users can also configure notifications to select
information on any religious activities that their no-
tifications want to get. The use case diagram in this
application can be seen in Figure 4.
3.3 Display Design
Display design is a drawing process from the appear-
ance of the system created. Display or interface is
a communication mechanism between users with the
application.
3.3.1 Designing Display of Android Applications
for Users
To use this mobile application, the user should install
from the Google Play store. Users will get informa-
Figure 4: Use case diagram on application.
tion on these mobile apps and can set notifications ac-
cording to the topic of information on religious activ-
ities whose information they wish to obtain. Here is
the design of the android application for the user.
Splash Screen
A splash screen is the first display when the user
opens the application. The design of the splash
screen display can be seen in Figure 5.
Figure 5: Design of the splash screen application.
Application Main Display
The main display design of the Mobile Applica-
tion of Religious Activities for the Great Mosque
Islamic Center Rokan Hulu can be seen in Figure
6. In the main view of the application, the user
can immediately see the latest religious activity
information via the home menu.
Notification Configuration Menu
This notification configuration menu allows users
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158
Figure 6: Design of the main display application.
to choose what religious activity notifications they
want to get information through notifications as a
reminder of the activity schedule. The design of
the notification configuration menu can be seen in
Figure 7.
Figure 7: Design of the notification configuration menu.
About Mosque Menu
The about mosque menu has four submenus,
namely prayer schedule, mosque location,
mosque description, and gallery. The prayer
schedule submenu will display prayer times
according to the Great Mosque Islamic Center
Rokan Hulu. The sub-menu of the mosque loca-
tion will display the location of the mosque with
the Google Maps API. The submenu of mosque
descriptions is information about the mosque.
The mosque gallery submenu will display photos
of the mosque. The design of the menu display
about mosques can be seen in Figure 8.
Figure 8: Design of about the mosque.
3.3.2 Designing Web Views for Admin
Admin is the manager of the entire system. Next is
the web view design for the admin as manager of the
system.
Admin Login Display
The login display is a display used by the admin
to be able to enter the system and manage the sys-
tem. The design of the admin login can be seen in
Figure 9.
Figure 9: Design of the admin login display.
Send Notification Menu
Send Notification Menu is a menu used by the ad-
min to send notifications to users on the android
application. The design of the send notification
menu display can be seen in Figure 10.
4 RESULT AND DISCUSSION
Display implementation is the implementation stage
and at the same time testing the system based on the
Mobile Application of Religious Activities for the Great Mosque Islamic Center Rokan Hulu with Push Notification
159
Figure 10: Design of the send notification menu.
results of analysis and design that has been done in
the previous chapter.
4.1 Display of Android Applications for
Users
This display is a display of android applications used
for users accessing information on diversity activities
and information about the Great Mosque Islamic Cen-
ter Rokan.
Splash Screen
A splash screen is the first display when the user
opens the application. The appearance of the
splash screen can be seen in Figure 11.
Figure 11: Display splash screen.
Beranda Menu
The home menu is a menu that displays a list of
the latest religious activities at the Great Mosque
Islamic Center Rokan Hulu. Display of the home
menu can be seen in Figure 12.
Figure 12: Display of home menu.
Detailed information on religious activities can be
seen in Figure 13.
Figure 13: Detailed information on religious activities.
Notification Configuration Menu
This notification configuration menu allows users
to select religious activity notifications that they
want to obtain information through notifications
as a reminder of the activity schedule. After the
user activates the selected notification, the user
will automatically get a notification according to
the notification that has been activated. For ex-
ample, the user activates a notification for infor-
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Table 1: Likert scale for application display.
No. Category Score
1. Strongly Agree (SA) 5
2. Agree (A) 4
3. Neutral (N) 3
4. Disagree (D) 2
5. Strongly Disagree (SD) 1
Table 2: Likert scale for plugin convenience.
No. Category Score
1. Very Inconvenient 0%-19.99%
2. Inconvenient 20%-39.99%
3. Slightly Convenient 40%-59.99%
4. Convenient 60%-79.99%
5. Very Convenient 80%-100%
mation on Islamic Da’wah/Recitation activities as
shown in Figure 14.
Figure 14: Configuration notification display.
Then, if the admin sends notifications with the
category of Islamic Da’wah/Recitation through
the web admin. Then the user will immedi-
ately get the notification. The push notifica-
tion test display for the stage of receiving Is-
lamic Da’wah/Recitation notification on the An-
droid application for the user can be seen in Fig-
ure 15.
4.2 Application Testing Results
Application testing has been done by directly exam-
ining the application and also by filling out the testing
questionnaire. The number of respondents obtained
by researchers amounted to 10 people, six people
from Rokan Hulu and four people from outside Rokan
Figure 15: Display of push notification on android applica-
tions.
Hulu. The questionnaire is using the 5 Likert-scale
with a final score percentage adapted from (Sagi et al.,
2015) as shown in Table 1 and Table 2. This ques-
tionnaire was conducted to find out how well the de-
sign and usefulness of the features in the application.
Some questions on this questionnaire were adapted
from research conducted by Yasin (Yasin et al., 2013).
4.2.1 Application Display Test Results
Application display testing has done by ten respon-
dents, and these results have been collected from the
questionnaires filled by each respondent. The re-
sults of the application display questionnaire and the
results of the application benefit questionnaire are
shown in Table 3 and Table 4 respectively.
From the results of the application testing ques-
tionnaire it can be concluded that the appearance of
the application with an average value of 89% is very
convenient and for the benefit of the application with
an average value of 89.3% which is very convenient.
5 CONCLUSIONS
Mobile Application of Religious Activities for the
Great Mosque Islamic Center Rokan Hulu uses the
push notification method. This application is running
on the Android-based phone. Push notification given
in this apps is very useful, the user will get notifica-
tions about religious activities at the Great Mosque
Islamic Center Rokan Hulu; therefore no information
will be missed out. This apps also have a schedule
reminder of religious activities which can be config-
ured by the user in the android application. In addition
to disseminating information on religious activities,
Mobile Application of Religious Activities for the Great Mosque Islamic Center Rokan Hulu with Push Notification
161
Table 3: Application display questionnaire results.
No Statement
Total Answer
Total Score %
SD D N A SA
1. Attractive application display. 2 5 3 41 82%
2. App appearance is easy to understand or user-
friendly.
4 6 46 92%
3. Easy menu navigation. 4 6 46 92%
4. Color is appropriate or not excessive. 4 6 46 92%
Total 179
Average 44,75 89%
Table 4: Plugin convenience test result.
No Question
Total Answer
Total Score %
VD D N A VA
1. Menu features in the application are complete
and according to user needs.
1 6 3 42 84%
2. The home menu feature is very informative
to add information and insights to application
users.
1 5 4 43 86%
3. The notification configuration menu feature
helps users receive notification of religious ac-
tivity information as desired.
1 3 6 45 90%
4. Notification as a reminder of the schedule of
religious activities.
6 4 44 88%
5. This application is very easy to use. 4 6 46 92%
6. This application is very useful for users, espe-
cially the Rokan Hulu community.
2 8 48 96%
Total 268
Average 44,6 89,3%
users can also find out information about the Great
Mosque Islamic Center Rokan Hulu. This apps has
been tested by ten respondents, the appearance of the
application is rated ”very convenient” with an average
percentage of 89%; meanwhile the benefit of the ap-
plication is rated ”very convenient” with an average
percentage of 89.3%.
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