Programming Android

Preface

The purpose of this book is to enable you to create well-engineered Android applications that go beyond the scope of small example applications.

This book is for people coming to Android programming from a variety of backgrounds. If you have been programming iPhone or Mac OS applications in Objective-C, you will find coverage of Android tools and Java language features relevant to Android programming that will help you bring your knowledge of mobile application development to Android. If you are an experienced Java coder, you will find coverage of Android application architecture that will enable you to use your Java expertise in this newly vibrant world of client Java application development. In short, this is a book for people with some relevant experience in object-oriented languages, mobile applications, REST applications, and similar disciplines who want to go further than an introductory book or online tutorials will take them.

How This Book Is Organized

We want to get you off to a fast start. The chapters in the first part of this book will step you through using the SDK tools so that you can access example code in this book and in the SDK, even as you expand your knowledge of SDK tools, Java, and database design. The tools and basics covered in the first part might be familiar enough to you that you would want to skip to Part II where we build foundational knowledge for developing larger Android applications.

The central part of this book is an example of an application that uses web services to deliver information to the user—something many applications have at their core. We present an application architecture, and a novel approach to using Android’s framework classes that enables you to do this particularly efficiently. You will be able to use this application as a framework for creating your own applications, and as a tool for learning about Android programming.

In the final part of this book, we explore Android APIs in specific application areas: multimedia, location, sensors, and communication, among others, in order to equip you to program applications in your specific area of interest.

By the time you reach the end of this book, we want you to have gained knowledge beyond reference material and a walk-through of examples. We want you to have a point of view on how to make great Android applications.

Conventions Used in This Book

The following typographical conventions are used in this book:

Italic

Indicates new terms, URLs, email addresses, filenames, and file extensions

Constant width

Used for program listings, as well as within paragraphs to refer to program elements such as variable or function names, databases, data types, environment variables, statements, and keywords

Constant width bold

Shows commands or other text that should be typed literally by the user

Constant width italic

Shows text that should be replaced with user-supplied values or by values determined by context

Tip

This icon signifies a tip, suggestion, or general note.

Caution

This icon indicates a warning or caution.

Using Code Examples

This book is here to help you get your job done. In general, you may use the code in this book in your programs and documentation. You do not need to contact us for permission unless you’re reproducing a significant portion of the code. For example, writing a program that uses several chunks of code from this book does not require permission. Selling or distributing a CD-ROM of examples from O’Reilly books does require permission. Answering a question by citing this book and quoting example code does not require permission. Incorporating a significant amount of example code from this book into your product’s documentation does require permission.

We appreciate, but do not require, attribution. An attribution usually includes the title, author, publisher, and ISBN. For example: “Programming Android by Zigurd Mednieks, Laird Dornin, G. Blake Meike, and Masumi Nakamura. Copyright 2011 O’Reilly Media, Inc., 978-1-449-38969-7.”

If you feel your use of code examples falls outside fair use or the permission given here, feel free to contact us at [e-mail].

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Acknowledgments

The authors have adapted portions of this book from their previously released title, Android Application Development (O’Reilly).

Drafts of this book were released on the O’Reilly Open Feedback Publishing System (OFPS) in order to get your feedback on whether and how we are meeting the goals for this book. We are very grateful for the readers who participated in OFPS, and we owe them much in correcting our errors and improving our writing. Open review of drafts will be part of future editions, and we welcome your views on every aspect of this book.