Android Programming Tutorial
Rong Zheng
Outline
What is Android OS
Setup your development environment
GUI
Layouts
Activity life cycle
Event handling
Tasks
Intent and broadcast receiver
Resource
What is Android
Linux-based OS
Dalvik virtual
machine running
dex-code translated
from Java
Setup
What you need
JDK 6
IDE
ADT (Android Development Tool) bundle
or
Eclipse + ADT plug-in + Android SDK
or
Android studio
Download earlier SDK versions using SDK manager if
needed
Android Virtual Device (AVD)
Android emulator allows
development w/o physical
device
Tend to be slow when launched
the first time
Can emulate network, camera
and storage
No support for WiFi, Bluetooth,
most hardware sensors
Possible alternatives:
Genymotion (previously
AndroVM), Manymo,
Demo: create a new AVD
Android App Essentials
Layout
View objects: UI widgets such as buttons, text box etc.
Positioning view objects on the screen
View group: invisible view containers that defines how the
child views are laid out
Activity
Implements the real logic behind the application
There could be multiple activities
Activity life cycle
Screen rotation
Application paused,
stopped and restarted
onCreate() called
Press home button
Activity paused, onPause
(), onStop() called;
onRestart() called when
restarted
Press back button
Activity destroyed,
onPause(), onStop,
onDestroy()
Example: Network tester
Display the network configuration
Ping google.com
Download a file from a fixed URL and determine the downloading speed
Step 1: Create an Android Project
New New Android Application
Step 2: Lay out UI
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:paddingBottom="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"
android:paddingLeft="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
android:paddingRight="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
android:paddingTop="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"
tools:context=".MainActivity" >
<LinearLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:orientation="vertical" >
<Button
android:id="@+id/netinfo_button"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Show Network Configuration" />
<Button
android:id="@+id/ping_button"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Ping" />
<Button
android:id="@+id/fd_button"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="File Download" />
<TextView
android:id="@+id/text_display"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:maxLines="100"
android:padding="24dp"
android:scrollbars="vertical" />
</LinearLayout>
<ProgressBar
android:id="@+id/test_progressBar"
style="?android:attr/progressBarStyleHorizontal"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
android:layout_margin="10dp"
android:visibility="invisible"/>
</RelativeLayout>
Step 3: From Layout to View Objects
setContentView(R.layout.activity_main) inflates a layout
and put on screen
R.layout.activity_main is a resource id
@+id/resource_id automatically creates the resource id
Wire up widgets
Get the references
public View findViewById( int id)
Set listeners
AsyncTask
Network operations typically take time to complete
AsyncTask allows operations running in the background and
publishing the results on the UI thread
Do not block the UI thread!
Do not access the Android UI toolkits from outside the UI thread
Implement a class that extends AsyncTask<Param, Progress,
Result>
Params, the type of the parameters sent to the task upon
execution.
Progress, the type of the progress units published during the
background computation.
Result, the type of the result of the background computation
AsyncTask (cont)
doInBackground(Void... params)
What to do in the background
protected void onProgressUpdate(Void... progress)
Run in the UI thread
Invoked by publishProgress in the doInBackground
protected void onPostExecute(Void result)
Run in the UI thread
protected void onPreExecute()
Set up the task
Example code
Little tricks
Can execute shell commands from Android app
Runtime.getRuntime().exec(Cmd)
Disable screen rotation
<activity android:name="com.CAS765.android.networktester.MainActivity"
android:label="@string/app_name"
android:screenOrientation="portrait">
Little tricks (contd)
User handler to cancel an AsyncTask after some time
public final boolean postDelayed (Runnable r, long
delayMillis)
Handler handler = new Handler();
handler.postDelayed(new Runnable() {
@Override public void run() {
if (downloader.getStatus() == AsyncTask.Status.RUNNING)
downloader.cancel(true);}}, 60000);
Use toast for notification
Toast.makeText(MainActivity.this, "Opps...", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT)
.show();
Intent and broadcast receiver
Intent is a mechanism in Android to allow late binding of
components within and across applications
Message passing
Intent
Broadcast intent
Your application
Intent(DO_SOMETHING)
Android OS
(any app)
Intent(DO_SOMETHING)
Broadcast receiver
Allows to register for system wide or application events
ACTION_BATTERY_LOW, ACTION_HEADSET_PLUG,
ACTION_SCREEN_ON, ACTION_TIMEZONE_CHANGED,
WifiManager.SCAN_RESULTS_AVAILABLE_ACTION, etc
1. Step1: extend a broadcast receiver class and override
onReceive(Context c, Intent intent) method
2. Step 2: register the receiver(BroadcastReceiver receiver,
IntentFilter filter)
3. Step 3: change AndroidManifest.xml to add the
permission
Example
if (mReceiverWifi == null)
mReceiverWifi = new WifiReceiver();
registerReceiver(mReceiverWifi, new IntentFilter(
WifiManager.NETWORK_STATE_CHANGED_ACTION));
description of Intent values to
be matched
private class WifiReceiver extends BroadcastReceiver {
public void onReceive(Context c, Intent intent) {
NetworkInfo info = (NetworkInfo)intent.getExtras().getParcelable("networkInfo");
mText.setText(info.getDetailedState().toString());
};
}
Resource
ADT bundle
http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html
ADT Eclipse Plug-in
http://developer.android.com/tools/sdk/eclipse-adt.html
Android API
http://developer.android.com/reference/packages.html
