Android Application Development Cookbook, 2nd Edition

Over 100 recipes to help you solve the most common problems faced by Android Developers today

About This Book

• Find the answers to your common Android programming problems, from set up to security, to help you deliver better applications, faster
• Uncover the latest features of Android Marshmallow to make your applications stand out
• Get up to speed with Android Studio 1.4 – the first Android Studio based on the IntelliJ IDE from JetBrains

Who This Book Is For

If you are new to Android development and want to take a hands-on approach to learning the framework, or if you are an experienced developer in need of clear working code to solve the many challenges in Android development, you can benefit from this book. Either way, this is a resource you’ll want to keep at your desk for a quick reference to solve new problems as you tackle more challenging projects.

What You Will Learn

• Along with Marshmallow, get hands-on working with Google’s new Android Studio IDE
• Develop applications using the latest Android framework while maintaining backward-compatibility with the support library
• Master Android programming best practices from the recipes
• Create exciting and engaging applications using knowledge gained from recipes on graphics, animations, and multimedia
• Work through succinct steps on specifics that will help you complete your project faster
• Keep your app responsive (and prevent ANRs) with examples on the AsynchTask class
• Utilize Google Speech Recognition APIs for your app.
• Make use of Google Cloud Messaging (GCM) to create Push Notifications for your users
• Get a better understanding of the Android framework through detailed explanations

In Detail

The Android OS has the largest installation base of any operating system in the world; there has never been a better time to learn Android development to write your own applications, or to make your own contributions to the open source community!

This “cookbook” will make it easy for you to jump to a topic of interest and get what you need to implement the feature in your own application. If you are new to Android and learn best by “doing,” then this book will provide many topics of interest.

Starting with the basics of Android development, we move on to more advanced concepts, and we’ll guide you through common tasks developers struggle to solve. The first few chapters cover the basics including Activities, Layouts, Widgets, and the Menu. From there, we cover fragments and data storage (including SQLite), device sensors, the camera, and GPS. Then we move on more advanced topics such as graphics and animation (including OpenGL), multi-threading with AsyncTask, and Internet functionality with Volley. We’ll also demonstrate Google Maps and Google Cloud Messaging (also known as Push Notifications) using the Google API Library.

Finally, we’ll take a look at several online services designed especially for Android development. Take your application big-time with full Internet web services without having to become a server admin by leveraging the power of Backend as a Service (BaaS) providers.

Style and approach

This book progresses from the fundamentals of Android Development to more advanced concepts, with recipes to solve the most common problems faced by developers. This cookbook makes it easy to jump to specific topics of interest, where you’ll find simple steps to implement the solution and get a clear explanation of how it works.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Activities
Chapter 2: Layouts
Chapter 3: Views, Widgets, and Styles
Chapter 4: Menus
Chapter 5: Exploring Fragments, AppWidgets, and the System UI
Chapter 6: Working with Data
Chapter 7: Alerts and Notifications
Chapter 8: Using the Touchscreen and Sensors
Chapter 9: Graphics and Animation
Chapter 10: A First Look at OpenGL ES
Chapter 11: Multimedia
Chapter 12: Telephony, Networks, and the Web
Chapter 13: Getting Location and Using Geofencing
Chapter 14: Getting your app ready for the Play Store
Chapter 15: The Backend as a Service Options