Beginning Android 4

by Mark Murphy, Grant Allen

Overview

Beginning Android 4 is an update to Beginning Android 3, originally written by Mark Murphy. It is your first step on the path to creating marketable apps for the burgeoning Android Market, Amazon's Android Appstore, and more. Google’s Android operating-system has taken the industry by storm, going from its humble beginnings as a smartphone operating system to its current status as a platform for apps that run across a gamut of devices from phones to tablets to netbooks to televisions, and the list is sure to grow.

Smart developers are not sitting idly by in the stands, but are jumping into the game of creating innovative and salable applications for this fast-growing, mobile- and consumer-device platform. If you’re not in the game yet, now is your chance!

Beginning Android 4 is fresh with details on the latest iteration of the Android platform. Begin at the beginning by installing the tools and compiling a skeleton app. Move through creating layouts, employing widgets, taking user input, and giving back results. Soon you’ll be creating innovative applications involving multi-touch, multi-tasking, location-based feature sets using GPS.

You’ll be drawing data live from the Internet using web services and delighting your customers with life-enhancing apps. Not since the PC era first began has there been this much opportunity for the common developer. What are you waiting for? Grab your copy of Beginning Android 4 and get started!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781430239857
Publisher:	Apress
Publication date:	03/15/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	604
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Mark Murphy is the founder of CommonsWare and the author of The Busy Coder's Guide to Android Development. A three-time entrepreneur, his experience ranges from consulting on open source and collaborative development for Fortune 500 companies to application development on just about anything smaller than a mainframe. He has been a software developer for over 25 years, working on platforms ranging from the TRS-80 to the latest crop of mobile devices. A polished speaker, Mark has delivered conference presentations and training sessions on a wide array of topics internationally. Mark writes the "Building Droids" column for AndroidGuys and the "Android Angle" column for NetworkWorld. Outside of CommonsWare, Mark has an avid interest in how the Internet will play a role in citizen involvement with politics and government. He is a contributor to the Rebooting America essay collection, and his personal blog features many posts discussing "cooperative democracy."

Table of Contents

1. The Big Picture
2. How to Get Started
3. Your First Android Project
4. Examining Your First Project
5. A Bit About Eclipse
6. Enhancing Your First Project
7. Rewriting Your First Project
8. Using XML-Based Layouts
9. Employing Basic Widgets
10. Working with Containers
11. The Input Method Framework
12. Using Selection Widgets
13. Getting Fancy with Lists
14. Still More Widgets and Containers
15. Embedding the WebKit Browser
16. Applying Menus
17. Showing Pop-up Messages
18. Handling Activity Lifecycle Events
19. Handling Rotation
20. Dealing with Threads
21. Creating Intent Filters
22. Launching Activities and Sub-Activities
23. Working with Resources
24. Defining and Using Styles
25. Handling Multiple Screen Sizes
26. Introducing the Honeycomb UI
27. Using the Action Bar
28. Fragments
29. Handling Platform Changes
30. Accessing Files
31. Using Preferences
32. Managing and Accessing Local Databases
33. Leveraging Java Libraries
34. Communicating via the Internet
35. Services: The Theory
36. Basic Service Patterns
37. Alerting Users via Notifications
38. Requesting and Requiring Permissions
39. Accessing Location-Based Services
40. Mapping with MapView and MapActivity
41. Handling Telephone Calls
42. Fonts
43. More Development Tools
44. The Role of Alternative Environments
45. HTML5
46. PhoneGap
47. Other Alternative Environments
48. Dealing with Devices
49. Where Do We Go from Here?