Android Developers

Application Development

admin — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 13:00:31 +0000

3 Most Important Classes

These 3 components form the building blocks for every Android Ap. (There are more advanced components also).

Context

Activity

An Android application is a collection of tasks, each of which is called an activity.

Intent

Debugging Commands

admin — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 12:24:25 +0000

Emulator Screen Orientation

CTRL + F11
CTRL + F12

Full Screen / Normal Mode

ALT+ENTER

Screengrabs

admin — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 12:18:02 +0000

In the ‘Devices’ window of DDMS use the ‘Screen Capture’ button to take a screengrab of the selected emulator or device.

Differences To iOS

admin — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 16:07:50 +0000

Buttons

Android devices have buttons, and in particular a back button Android users expect the back button to work even if you have a back icon on the screen.

Deploying An Application

admin — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 15:56:25 +0000

Ensure the application is signed. If not it will typically fail to install.

Debugging General & DDMS

admin — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 13:49:31 +0000

The buttons in the top right corner of Eclipse select the perspective mode when debugging. The Android Developer Toolkit adds the DDMS perspective. It can be used to monitor application processes as well as interact with the emulator (e.g. simulate voice calls, SMS messages, GPS location, etc)

If DDMS Perspective is not there

Click the ‘Open Perspective’ button > DDMS

DDMS (the Dalvik Debug Monitor Service)

DDMS is the debugging utility for interacting with emulators and devices.

Top Left ‘Devices’ window of DDMS

Lists the emulators and handsets currently connected.

To inspect threads

Click on the device process you are interested in (e.g. your ap) and click the ‘Update Threads’ button.

You can prompt garbage collection on a process using the ‘Cause GC’ button and then view the heap updates using the ‘Update Heap’ button.

You can stop a process using the ‘Stop Process’ button.

You can manually choose a specific process to debug using the ‘Debug’ button.

Files

Use the ‘File Explorer’ tab to move files off and onto the device / emulator.

Triggering Device Functions

You can simulate calls, SMS messages, location coordinates etc using the ‘Emulator Control’ window on the left of DDMS.

To simulate a call:

In DDMS choose the emulator to call.

In ‘Emulator Control’ input the incoming phone number, select voice and click call

Overview

admin — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 12:23:46 +0000

Files

AndroidManifest.xml

Central config file for the project. Use the tabs to see all of it’s settings.

Manifest Tab

Used for installation and upgrade purposes

Application Tab

Define ap details.

Define what activities can be run (such as the default launch one created) and other functionality and services for the ap to provide.

Permissions Tab

Used to define the ap’s permissions.

Read contacts from the phone:

android.permission.READ_CONTACTS

Instrumentation Tab

Used for unit testing using the instrumentation classes in the Android SDK.

\src folder

Contains all source code.

In here will be the MyApNameActivity.java default launch activity you setup when creating the project (and as auto added to AndroidManifest.xml)

\gen folder

Generated resousre files.

\assets folder

Required folder where uncompiled file resources can be included in the project.

\res folder

Application resources are stored in this folder. E.g. animations, drawable graphics, layout files, data like strings and numbers, raw files, etc.

\res\drawable

Application icons

\res\layout\main.xml

Layout file used to draw onscreen

\res\values\strings.xml

String resources are defined here.

Starting Designing A Project

admin — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 11:35:59 +0000

Create The Project

Open Eclipse > File > New > Android Project (or File > New > Other > Android > Android Project)

Next.

Enter the project name and select other options

Build Target:

Choose the version of android most appropriate for the devices used by the target audience (and application needs). If the ap will use Google ad-ons (E.g. Google Maps) ensure you choose the Google API’s version for the target platform instead.

Application Name:

This is the name users will see.

Package Name:

Use the standard package namespace conventions for Java. E.g.

com.mynamespacename.projectname

com.ibex.testproject

Create Activity

Check so the wizard creates a default launch activity class. Name it (e.g. MyProjectNameActivity)

Min SDK Version:

Typically set to the API level of the selected built target (i.e. can be lower than the current version if you want to support older versions of the SDK)

Press Next then Finish (ignore the Test Project unless you need one)

Setup To Debug

Open AndroidManifest.xml

Application Tab > Debuggable = true
Save.

Setup Android Emulator (Android Virtual Debugger)

Eclipse > Window > Android SDK and AVD Manager > Virtual Devices > New

Give it a name

Choose Target

SD Card Size

The SD Card image will take up space on your hard drive so make it mig enough but not unnecessary big. The min is 9MiB (1Kib=1024 bytes, 1MiB=1048576 bytes).

Skin

Controls the different visual looks of the emulator.

Create Debug Configuration

Eclipse > Run > Debug Configurations

To create a new entry Double click Android Application:

Name it

Project: use browse to select your project to debug.

Select the ‘Target’ tab > Select the AVD to use (only AVD’s suitable for your selected target will be shown)

Apply.

Close.

Launch Application In Android Virtual Debugger

Click the debug button (green bug) and select the debug configuration you created from the list.

Launch Application On A Device

Eclipse > Run > Debug Configurations

Select your debug configuration (or to create a new entry Double click Android Application)

Target Tab > Deployment Target Selection Mode > Manual (foces you to choose where to debug with emulator or device whenever you choose to debug – can change back later if desired).

Press Apply > Close

Connect the device. Press the debug button and select the device.

Setup USB Debugging On An Android Device

admin — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 11:17:09 +0000

Enable on device

Home Screen > Menu > Settings > Applications > Development > Turn On USB Debugging

(Note that different devices may have the setting in alternative places, such as USB Connection settings and may call it somethign else, such as ‘Debug Bridge’, etc).

To avoid the device going to sleep there is usually a ‘Stay Awake While Charging’ option in the development settings.

Setting Up On A PC

Use SDK Setup.exe to install the ‘USB Driver Package’.

Connect the device to the PC’s USB port.

You may need to configure windows to access the device via USB.

Logo, Brand and Android Name Use

admin — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 09:16:29 +0000

Official Android Brand Guidelines

http://www.android.com/branding.html

Our basic interpretation:

The android robot logo may be used and modified freely. The colour is #A4C639. You should attribute due to the creative commons licence, e.g.: “Portions of this page are modifications based on work created and shared by Google and used according to terms described in the Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution License.”

The Android Text logo may not be used (although other sources imply it is not copyright eligible)

Including the text “Android” in material should include the ‘TM’ symbol and should include the following footer attribution:

“Android is a trademark of Google Inc. Use of this trademark is subject to Google Permissions.”

Android Robot Logo

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Android_logo.svg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Android-logo.jpg

Android Text Logo

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Android.svg