Android App Development

Muhammad Sharjeel

COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Lahore

Welcome to Mobile App Development

Mobile devices (e.g., smartphone, tablet PCs, etc.) are increasingly

becoming an essential part of human life as the most effective and

convenient communication tools not bounded by time and place.

Course Contents

• Overview of android development

• How to use the power of java to build the applications for the

android platform

• Adding various UI controls, custom layout, themes, styles

• Adding audio/video to your apps

• Making them location aware by incorporating GPS and maps

What you should know

• OOP programming concepts

• Some experience with java

• Experience with Eclipse environment (helpful)

• Knowledge of Android capabilities (helpful)

• An Android smart phone to test your Apps

Why Android

• A simple and powerful SDK

• No licensing, distribution, or development fees

• Development over many platform

Linux, Mac OS, Windows

• Excellent documentation

• Thriving developer community

What is Android?

• Android is a software stack for mobile devices that includes an

operating system, middleware and key applications

Introduction to Android

• Software platform from Google and the Open Handset Alliance

• July 2005, Google acquired Android, Inc.

• November 2007, Open Handset Alliance formed to develop open

standards for mobile devices

• October 2008, Android available as open source

• December 2008, 14 new members joined Android project

Android versions

• Android 1.5 Cupcake (API level 3)

• Android 1.6 Donut (API level 4)

• Android 2.0/2.1 Eclair (API level 6/7)

• Android 2.2 Froyo (API level 8)

• Android 2.3 Gingerbread (API level 9)

• Android 3.0 Honeycomb (targeted at tablet devices) (API level 11)

• Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (API level 14)

Combination of Gingerbread and Honeycomb

• The most recent major Android update was Jelly Bean 4.2 (API level 17), which

was released on commercial devices in November 2012

• As of 2013, over 500 million active devices use the Android OS worldwide

• Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie (Under development)

Android Architecture

• Runs on top of Linux 2.6

• Dalvik virtual machine optimized for mobile devices

• Integrated browser on the WebKit engine

• Optimized graphics with OpenGL ES

• SQLite database for structured data storage

Android Architecture

Linux Kernel

• Works as a HAL

• Device drivers

• Memory management

• Process management

• Networking

Libraries

• C/C++ libraries

• Interface through Java

• Surface manager – Handling UI Windows

• 2D and 3D graphics

• Media codecs, SQLite, Browser engine

Android Runtime

• Dalvik VM, Dex files

• Compact and efficient than class files

• Limited memory and battery power

• Core Libraries

• Java 5 Std edition

• Collections, I/O etc.

Application Framework

• API interface

• Activity manager – manages application life cycle

Applications

• Built in and user apps

• Can replace built in apps

Application Fundamentals

• Application are written in Java programming language

• Compiled into an Android package file (.apk)

• Each application runs in its own sandbox and Linux process

• Application consists of components, a manifest file and resources

• Components:

1) Activities

2) Services

3) Content providers

4) Broadcast receivers

Activities

• An activity represents a single screen with a user interface

• Most applications contain multiple activities

• When a new activity starts, it is pushed onto the back stack

• User interface can be built with XML or in Java

• Monitor lifespan through callback methods like onStart(),

onPause(), etc.

Services

• Services perform long-running operations in the background

• Does not contain a user interface

• Useful for things like network operations, playing music, etc.

• Runs independently of the component that created it

• Can be bound to by other application components, if allowed

Content providers

• Used to store and retrieve data and make it accessible to all

application

• Are the only way to share data across applications

• Exposes a public URI that uniquely identifies its data set

• Data is exposed as a simple table on a database model

• Android contains many provider for things like contacts, media, etc.

Broadcast receivers

• A components that responds to system-wide broadcast

announcements

• Examples include when the screen turns off, the battery is low, etc.

• Applications can also initiate their own broadcasts

• Broadcast receivers contain no user interface

• They can create status bar notification to alert the user

Android Manifest file

• Applications must have an AdroidManifest.xml file in its root

directory

• Presents information about the application to the Android system

• Describes the components used in the application

• Declares the permission required to run the application

• Declares the minimum Android API level that the application

requires

THANKS