Android App Development For Dummies

by Michael Burton

Overview

The updated edition of the bestselling guide to Android app development

If you have ambitions to build an Android app, this hands-on guide gives you everything you need to dig into the development process and turn your great idea into a reality! In this new edition of Android App Development For Dummies, you'll find easy-to-follow access to the latest programming techniques that take advantage of the new features of the Android operating system. Plus, two programs are provided: a simple program to get you started and an intermediate program that uses more advanced aspects of the Android platform.

Android mobile devices currently account for nearly 80% of mobile phone market share worldwide, making it the best platform to reach the widest possible audience. With the help of this friendly guide, developers of all stripes will quickly find out how to install the tools they need, design a good user interface, grasp the design differences between phone and tablet applications, handle user input, avoid common pitfalls, and turn a "meh" app into one that garners applause.

• Create seriously cool apps for the latest Android smartphones and tablets
• Adapt your existing apps for use on an Android device
• Start working with programs and tools to create Android apps
• Publish your apps to the Google Play Store

Whether you're a new or veteran programmer, Android App Development For Dummies will have you up and running with the ins and outs of the Android platform in no time.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781119017929
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	03/09/2015
Series:	For Dummies Books
Pages:	432
Product dimensions:	7.30(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Michael Burton is the Head of Mobile Engineering at Groupon and creator of the popular RoboGuice programming framework for Android. He's the author of the OpenTable, Digg, TripIt, and award winning Groupon Android apps, and has addressed conferences around the world.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

About This Book 1

Conventions Used in This Book 2

Foolish Assumptions 2

How This Book Is Organized 3

Part I: Getting Started with Your First Android Application 3

Part II: Building and Publishing Your First Android Application 3

Part III: Creating a Feature-Rich Application 3

Part IV: Android Is More than Phones 3

Part V: The Part of Tens 4

Icons Used in This Book 4

Beyond the Book 4

Part I: Getting Started with Your First Android Application 7

Chapter 1: Developing Spectacular Android Applications 9

Why Develop for Android? 9

Android Development Basics 12

Hardware Tools 20

Software Tools 22

Chapter 2: Prepping Your Development Headquarters 25

Developing the Android Developer Inside You 25

Assembling Your Toolkit 26

Tuning Up Your Hardware 30

Installing and Configuring Your Support Tools 31

Installing Android Studio 31

Installing Java 7 33

Adding SDK Packages 33

Navigating the Android SDK 34

Specifying Android Platforms 34

Using SDK Tools for Everyday Development 35

Part II: Building and Publishing Your First Application 39

Chapter 3: Your First Android Project 41

Starting a New Project in Android Studio 41

Responding to Errors 45

Setting Up an Emulator 47

Running the Hello Android App 49

Understanding Project Structure 52

Chapter 4: Creating the User Interface 65

Creating the Silent Mode Toggle Application 65

Laying Out the Application 67

Adding an Image to Your Application 71

Creating a Launcher Icon for the Application 75

Previewing the Application in the Visual Designer 77

Chapter 5: Coding Your Application 79

Understanding Activities and the Activity Lifecycle 79

Creating Your First Activity 84

Working with the Android Framework Classes 88

Installing Your Application 92

Material Design 96

Uh-Oh! (Responding to Errors) 98

Thinking Beyond the Application Boundaries 103

Chapter 6: Understanding Android Resources 107

Understanding Resources 107

Working with Resources 110

Different Strokes for Different Folks: Using Resource Qualifier Directories 114

Chapter 7: Turning Your Application into an App Widget 119

Working with App Widgets in Android 120

Working with Intents and Pending Intents 122

Creating the App Widget 127

Placing Your Widget on the Home Screen 137

Chapter 8: Publishing Your App to the Google Play Store 139

Creating a Distributable File 139

Creating a Google Play Developer Profile 145

Pricing Your Application 148

Getting Screen Shots for Your Application 149

Uploading Your Application to the Google Play Store 150

Watching the Number of Installs Soar 153

Part III: Creating a Feature-Rich Application 155

Chapter 9: Designing the Tasks Application 157

Reviewing the Basic Requirements 157

Creating the Application’s Screens 159

Chapter 10: Creating the Task Detail Page 181

Creating the TaskEditActivity 181

Linking the List View to the Edit View 183

Creating the TaskEditFragment 185

You Put the Fragment in the Activity and Shake It All Up 193

Updating the Styles 194

A Special Bonus 196

Chapter 11: Going a la Carte with Your Menu 199

Understanding Options and Context Menus 199

Creating Your First Menu 200

Creating a Long-Press Action 207

Chapter 12: Handling User Input 211

Creating the User Input Interface 211

Getting Choosy with Dates and Times 214

Creating an Alert Dialog 225

Validating Input 230

Chapter 13: Getting Persistent with Data Storage 233

Finding Places to Put Data 233

Understanding How the SQLite ContentProvider Works 236

Creating Your Application’s SQLite Database 237

Using ContentProvider URIs 241

Dealing with CRUD 244

Implementing the Save Button 250

Implementing the List View 253

Reading Data into the Edit Page 261

Chapter 14: Reminding the User 265

Seeing Why You Need AlarmManager 266

Asking the User for Permission 266

Waking Up a Process with AlarmManager 267

Updating a Notification 274

Clearing a Notification 274

Rebooting Devices 275

Chapter 15: Working with Android Preferences 279

Understanding the Android Preferences Framework 280

Understanding the Preference Fragment Class 280

Creating Your Preferences Screen 283

Working with the Preference Fragment Class 285

Working with Preferences in Your Activities at Runtime 289

Part IV: Android Is More than Phones 293

Chapter 16: Developing for Tablets 295

Considering the Differences between Phones and Tablets 295

Tweaking the Tasks App for Tablets 296

Configuring a Tablet Emulator 301

Creating a New Product Flavor 302

Creating an AndroidManifest for Phones 303

Creating an AndroidManifest for Tablets 305

Making the TaskListAndEditorActivity for Tablets 307

Building the Tablet App 310

Adding the App Callbacks 312

One More Thing 313

Chapter 17: Supporting Older Versions of Android 315

Understanding AppCompat 316

Updating the build File 317

Adding the Toolbar 318

Using the AppCompat Theme 319

Testing Your App 321

Working with Right-to-Left Languages 323

Fixing the Add Task Menu 325

Fixing the Window Options 326

Using Newer APIs 329

Using Android Lint 330

Chapter 18: Wearing the Tasks App 333

Preparing Your Development Environment 335

Creating a New Wear App 339

Publishing the Data from Your Phone 350

Running the App without Android Studio 355

Packaging the App 356

What’s Next? 356

Chapter 19: Look Ma, I’m on TV! 357

Understanding Guidelines for Building TV Apps 357

Building and Manifesting Changes 358

Adding the BrowseActivity 360

Creating the TV Browse Fragment 361

Creating the CardPresenter 368

Running Your App 371

Adding and Editing Items 372

Creating Backgrounds 373

Creating More Filters 375

Chapter 20: Moving beyond Google 381

Working around Google Features 381

Setting Up the Fire SDK 382

Setting Up Your Fire or Emulator 383

Publishing to Amazon Appstore for Android 386

Part V: The Part of Tens 393

Chapter 21: Ten Free Sample Applications and SDKs 395

Android Samples 395

The Google I/O App 396

K‐9 Mail 396

GitHub Android App 396

Facebook SDK for Android 396

Notepad Tutorial 397

U+2020 397

Lollipop Easter Egg 397

Android Bootstrap 398

The AOSP 398

Chapter 22: Ten Tools to Simplify Your Development Life 399

Android Lint 399

Android Systrace 399

RoboGuice and Dagger 400

Translator Toolkit 400

Hierarchy Viewer 401

UI/Application Exerciser Monkey 401

Git and GitHub 401

Picasso and OkHttp 402

Memory Analyzer Tool 402

Travis‐ci 402

Index 403