Developing Android Applications

Java Programming (Optional)

• Basic Syntax
• OOP
• Collections
• Exceptions
• Multitasking

Introduction to Android™

• Copyrights and legal stuff
• Rationale and history
• Hardware
• Software versions
• Architecture
• The Android VM
• Apps!
• Current Android platforms
• Telephone and tablet

The Development Environment

• The emulator environment
• A first project from Android Studio
• Creating the AVD from Android Studio
• Running our project

Use of Java in Android

• OO concepts review
• Java language review
• Introduction to Android classes
• Android components
• Other Android classes
• Application security
• The Manifest File – Public API

Developer Tools

• SDK tools
• Android Debug bridge – adb
• Android Device Monitor
• The shell
• logcat
• Android lint
• SD card
• What about a real device?
• Android Device Chooser

UI – Layouts and Views in XML

• Activities
• Views
• Layouts
• Use of XML for UI components
• Widgets
• Storing and using literal values

UI – Layouts and Views in Java

• Layouts, Widget ids and R.java
• Using literal values (revisited)
• Handling events
• Getting and setting view values
• ListViews

UI – Menus

• Menus
• Menus in XML
• The code for option menus
• The code for context menus

UI – Activity life-cycles

• The 'back stack'
• Activity life-cycles and call-backs
• Saving state
• Persisting state
• Launching a new activity
• Declaring activities in the manifest file

Services and Receivers

• What is a Service?
• The IntentService class
• Declaring Services in the manifest file
• Status Bar and notifications
• Broadcasts and Broadcast Receivers

Content Providers

• Standard providers
• Querying and changing data
• Use of URIs
• The query() method
• Inserting, deleting and updating data
• Querying and retrieving data on another thread
• Writing your own content provider

Network Access

• Overview
• Checking connectivity
• Internet access
• Bluetooth
• Introduction to Wi-Fi Direct and NFData Access
• Internal Storage – private data
• External Storage – public data
• Persisting state with SharedPreferences

SQLite

• What is SQLite?
• SQLite data-types
• SQLite table definitions
• SQLite data manipulation
• Using SQLite in Android
• Using SQLite
• Using SQLite with a Content Provider
• Using ADB and sqlite3

Devices and External Services

• Telephony
• Using a camera
• Location, location, location: GPS (and friends)
• Introduction to Google Maps

Further UI Topics

• Designing for hardware variety
• Using multiple layouts
• Fragments
• The Action Bar

Testing

• What should I test?
• Testing platforms
• Android JUnit extensions
• UI Application Exerciser Monkey
• monkeyrunner
• Other tools

Publishing

• The publishing process
• Signing
• The Android Studio Export Wizard
• ProGuard
• Versioning
• Google Play
• The Android Developer Console

Beyond Java

• Other development techniques
• Native Code
• Native Development Kit – NDK
• Mono – C#
• Scripting Layer for Android – SL4A

• Previous knowledge and experience of Java is assumed, and some knowledge of XML is required
• For those without a previous knowledge of Java, the first day of the course (optional) will cover basic Java topics
• Experience of using Android at a user level is not assumed but will be an advantage, as will previous experience of Android Studio