Developing the Android Developer Inside You .........................................25
Assembling Your Toolkit ..............................................................................26
Android source code ...........................................................................26
Linux 2.6 kernel ....................................................................................27
Android framework..............................................................................27
Application framework ........................................................................28
Open Handset Alliance libraries ........................................................30
Java knowledge ....................................................................................31
Tuning Up Your Hardware ...........................................................................31
Operating system .................................................................................31
Computer hardware ............................................................................32
Installing and Confi guring Your Support Tools .........................................32
Getting the Java Development Kit ...............................................................33
Downloading the JDK ..........................................................................33
Installing the JDK .................................................................................35
Acquiring the Android SDK ..........................................................................35
Downloading the Android SDK ...........................................................35
Following and setting your tools path ..............................................38
Getting the Total Eclipse ..............................................................................41
Choosing the right Eclipse version ....................................................41
Installing Eclipse ..................................................................................41
Confi guring Eclipse ..............................................................................43
Navigating the Android SDK ...............................................................47
Targeting Android platforms ..............................................................48
Your First Android Application .................................... 53
Starting a New Project in Eclipse .................................................................55
Deconstructing Your Project .......................................................................61
Responding to error messages ..........................................................62
Setting Up an Emulator .................................................................................65
Creating Launch Confi gurations ..................................................................68
Creating a debug confi guration ..........................................................68
Creating a run confi guration ..............................................................68
Running the Hello Android App ...................................................................72
Running the app in the emulator .......................................................72
Checking deployment status ..............................................................77
Understanding Project Structure ................................................................78
Navigating the app’s folders ...............................................................78
Viewing the application’s manifest fi le .............................................88
Viewing the default.properties fi le ....................................................90
Chapter 4: Designing the User Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .93
Creating the Silent Mode Toggle Application ............................................94
Laying Out the Application ..........................................................................95
Using the XML layout fi le ....................................................................96
Using the Android SDK’s layout tools ...............................................98
Using the visual designer ....................................................................99
Developing the User Interface ....................................................................102
Viewing XML layout attributes .........................................................102
Working with views ...........................................................................103
Adding an Image to Your Application .......................................................104
Placing an image on the screen........................................................105
Adding the image to the layout ........................................................106
Creating a Launcher Icon for the Application ..........................................108
Designing a custom launcher icon ...................................................109
Adding a custom launcher icon .......................................................110
Adding a Toggle Button Widget .................................................................111
Previewing the Application in the Visual Designer .................................113
Changing the orientation ..................................................................114
Changing the background color .......................................................114
Chapter 5: Coding Your Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .117
Understanding Activities ............................................................................117
Working with methods, stacks, and states .....................................118
Tracking an activity’s life cycle ........................................................119
Creating Your First Activity .......................................................................122
Starting with onCreate ......................................................................122
Handling the bundle ..........................................................................123
Telling Android to display the UI .....................................................123
Handling user input ...........................................................................124
Writing your fi rst event handler ......................................................125
Working with the Android Framework Classes .......................................128
Getting good service ..........................................................................128
Toggling silent mode with AudioManager ......................................129
Installing Your Application .........................................................................133
Returning to the emulator ................................................................133
Installing on a physical Android device ..........................................135
Reinstalling Your Application ....................................................................137
Understanding the state of the emulator ........................................137
Doing the reinstallation .....................................................................137
Uh-oh!: Responding to Errors .....................................................................138
Using the Dalvik Debug Monitor Server ..........................................138
Using the Eclipse debugger ..............................................................143
Thinking Beyond Your Application Boundaries ......................................151
Interacting with your application ....................................................151
Does it work?: Testing your application .........................................152
Chapter 6: Understanding Android Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .155
Understanding Resources ..........................................................................155
Dimensions .........................................................................................156
Styles ...................................................................................................156
Themes ................................................................................................157
Values ..................................................................................................157
Menus ..................................................................................................157
Colors ..................................................................................................158
Working with Resources .............................................................................158
Moving strings into resources .........................................................158
Wrestling the image beast ................................................................160
Making your apps global with resources ........................................161
Chapter 7: Turning Your Application into a Home-Screen Widget. . . .163
Working with App Widgets in Android .....................................................164
Working with remote views ..............................................................165
Using AppWidgetProviders ..............................................................166
Working with Pending Intents ....................................................................167
Understanding the Android intent system .....................................167
Understanding intent data ................................................................168
Evaluating intents ..............................................................................170
Using pending intents ........................................................................170
Creating the Home-Screen Widget .............................................................172
Implementing the AppWidgetProvider ...........................................172
Communicating with the app widget ..............................................173
Building the app widget’s layout .....................................................175
Doing work inside an AppWidgetProvider .....................................176
Working with the app widget’s metadata .......................................181
Registering your new components with the manifest...................182
Placing Your Widget on the Home Screen ................................................184
Chapter 8: Publishing Your App to the Android Market . . . . . . . . . . .187
Creating a Distributable File .......................................................................187
Revisiting the manifest fi le................................................................188
Choosing your tools ..........................................................................189
Digitally signing your application ....................................................189
Creating the APK fi le ..........................................................................191
Creating an Android Market Account .......................................................194
Pricing Your Application ............................................................................200
Why to choose the paid model ........................................................200
Why to choose the free model .........................................................201
Getting Screen Shots for Your Application ..............................................201
Uploading Your Application to the Android Market ...............................203
Watching the Installs Soar ..........................................................................207
Chapter 9: Designing the Task Reminder Application . . . . . . . . . . . .211
Reviewing the Basic Requirements ...........................................................211
That’s alarming!: Scheduling a reminder script .............................212
Storing data ........................................................................................212
Distracting the user (nicely).............................................................213
Creating the Application’s Screens ...........................................................213
Starting the new project....................................................................214
Creating the task list ..........................................................................214
Creating and editing task activities .................................................216
Creating the adding/editing layout ..................................................217
Creating Your First List Activity ................................................................220
Getting stubby with fake data ..........................................................221
Handling user click events ................................................................222
Identifying Your Intent ................................................................................224
Starting new activities with intents .................................................224
Retrieving values from previous activities .....................................225
Creating a chooser .............................................................................226
Chapter 10: Going a la Carte with Your Menu. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .231
Seeing What Makes a Menu Great .............................................................232
Creating Your First Menu ...........................................................................232
Defi ning the XML fi le..........................................................................232
Handling user actions ........................................................................234
Creating a reminder task...................................................................235
Completing the activity .....................................................................235
Creating a Context Menu ............................................................................236
Creating the menu XML fi le ..............................................................237
Loading the menu ..............................................................................237
Handling user selections ...................................................................238
Chapter 11: Handling User Input . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .241
Creating the User Input Interface ..............................................................241
Creating an EditText widget .............................................................241
Displaying an on-screen keyboard ..................................................243
Getting Choosy with Dates and Times ......................................................244
Creating picker buttons ....................................................................244
Wiring up the date picker .................................................................245
Wiring up the time picker .................................................................250
Creating Your First Alert Dialog Box .........................................................252
Seeing why you should work with dialog boxes ............................253
Choosing the right dialog box for a task .........................................254
Creating your own alert dialog box .................................................255
Validating Input ...........................................................................................257
Toasting the user ...............................................................................258
Using other validation techniques...................................................258
Chapter 12: Getting Persistent with Data Storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .261
Finding Places to Put Data ..........................................................................261
Viewing your storage options ..........................................................262
Choosing a storage option ................................................................263
Asking the User for Permission .................................................................264
Seeing how permissions affect the user experience .....................264
Setting requested permissions in the AndroidManifest.xml fi le .....264
Creating Your Application’s SQLite Database .........................................266
Understanding how the SQLite database will work ......................266
Creating a Java fi le to hold the database code ..............................267
Defi ning the key elements .................................................................267
Visualizing the SQL table ..................................................................269
Creating the database table ..............................................................270
Closing the database .........................................................................271
Creating and Editing Tasks with SQLite ...................................................272
Inserting your fi rst task entry...........................................................272
Returning all the tasks with a cursor ..............................................281
Understanding the SimpleCursorAdapter ......................................283
Deleting a task ....................................................................................284
Updating a task...................................................................................284
Chapter 13: Reminding the User with AlarmManager. . . . . . . . . . . . .291
Seeing Why You Need AlarmManager ......................................................291
Waking Up a Process with AlarmManager ...............................................292
Creating the ReminderManager class .............................................293
Creating the OnAlarmReceiver class ...............................................295
Creating the WakeReminder-IntentService class ...........................296
Creating the ReminderService class ................................................298
Rebooting Devices .......................................................................................299
Creating a boot receiver ...................................................................300
Checking the boot receiver ..............................................................302
Chapter 14: Updating the Android Status Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .303
Deconstructing the Status Bar ...................................................................303
Viewing status bar icons ...................................................................303
Using status-bar tools to notify the user ........................................304
Using the Notifi cation Manager .................................................................307
Creating your fi rst notifi cation .........................................................307
Viewing the workfl ow ........................................................................309
Adding string resources ....................................................................310
Updating a Notifi cation ...............................................................................310
Clearing a Notifi cation ................................................................................311
Chapter 15: Working with Android’s Preference Framework . . . . . .313
Understanding Android’s Preference Framework ...................................314
Understanding the PreferenceActivity Class ...........................................314
Persisting preference values ............................................................315
Laying out preferences......................................................................316
Creating Your First Preference Screen .....................................................317
Building the preferences fi le.............................................................317
Adding string resources ....................................................................319
Working with the PreferenceActivity Class ..............................................320
Opening the PreferenceActivity class .............................................321
Handling menu selections .................................................................322
Working with Preferences in Your Activities at Run Time .....................323
Retrieving preference values ............................................................323
Setting preference values .................................................................326
Part IV: The Part of Tens ........................................... 329
Chapter 16: Ten Great Free Sample
Applications and SDKs (With Code!) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .331
The Offi cial Foursquare App ......................................................................332
LOLCat ..........................................................................................................332
Amazed .........................................................................................................333
APIDemos .....................................................................................................333
MultipleResolutions Example ....................................................................333
Last.fm App Suite .........................................................................................334
Hubroid .........................................................................................................334
Facebook SDK for Android .........................................................................334
Replica Island ...............................................................................................335
Notepad Tutorial .........................................................................................335
Chapter 17: Ten Tools That Make Your Developing Life Easier . . . .337
droid-fu .........................................................................................................337
RoboGuice ....................................................................................................338
DroidDraw ....................................................................................................338
Draw 9-patch ................................................................................................338
Hierarchy Viewer .........................................................................................338
UI/Application Exerciser Monkey ..............................................................339
zipalign ..........................................................................................................339
layoutopt ......................................................................................................339
Git ..................................................................................................................339
Paint.NET and GIMP ....................................................................................340
