MOBILE APPLICATION – PRELIM Official IDEs

 Android Studio (Android)

Mobile Operating System  Xcode (iOS)
 An operating system built exclusively for  Visual Studio (Windows Phone)
mobile devices (smart phones, tablets, PDAs,
etc.) Android Studio
 Responsible for defining mobile features and  Official IDE for Android app development
functions including keypads, application  Based on IntelliJ IDEA (a Java IDE)
synchronization, and text messaging Includes:
 Code templates
Current Software Platforms  Layout editor (with support for drag and
 Android (Google) drop theme editing
 iOS (Apple)  Built-in support for Google Cloud Platform
 Windows Phone (Microsoft)
 Others: Blackberry OS (RIM), Firefox OS Xcode
(Mozilla), Sailfish OS (Jolla), Tizen (Linux  Used to build apps and run them directly on
Foundation), Ubuntu Touch OS (Canonical Apple devices
Ltd.)  Uses Swift (a programming language created
by Apple for iOS, OS X, and watchOS
Android development
 Owned by Google
 Open source OS (allows developer to access Visual Studio
unlocked hardware and develop new  Fully-featured, and extensible IDE for creating
programs) mobile applications for Windows, Android,
 Most dominant smart phone platform and iOS
Includes features such as:
iOS  Universal Windows Platform development
 Owned by Apple Inc.  Cross-platform mobile development
 Distributed exclusively for Apple hardware  Multiple languages support
Powers iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch
 Second largest mobile OS Factors to Consider Before Developing Mobile Apps
 Multiple platforms and devices
Windows Phone  Screen size
 Developed by Microsoft  User interaction
 Home screen made entirely of Live Tiles  Screen density
 Full support for Microsoft Office  Integration with phone functions
 Limited CPU/memory/battery resources
Benefits of Mobile Apps
 Convenience Application Fundamentals
 Interactivity
 Personalization  Android Apps – created using the Java
 Speed programming language
 Productivity  Android Package (.apk) – contains all the
contents of an Android app and is used to
Integrated Development Environment (IDE) install the app
 a programming environment that has been
packaged as an application program Application Components
Typically consists of:  Essential building blocks of an Android app
 Code editor
 Compiler
 Debugger
 GUI builder
 Four Types of App Components: Intent
 Activities  represents an app’s “intent to do something”,
 Services usually to start another activity
 Content providers  An asynchronous message that activates
 Broadcast receivers three of the four component types: activities,
service, and broadcast receivers
Activity  Binds individual components to each other at
 Represents a single screen with a user runtime
interface
Example (Email app): Application Workflow
 Activity 1: Showing a list of new emails  Setup
 Activity 2: Composing an email  Development
 Activity 3: Reading an email  Debugging and Testing
 Publishing
Service
 A component that runs in the background to PHASE 1: SETUP
perform operations or to perform work for  Setup your development environment
remote processes  Setup AVDs and devices for testing
Example:
 Music playing in the background while the PHASE 2: Development
user in a different app  Create your application

Content Provider PHASE 3: Building, Debugging and Testing

 Manages a shared set of app data  Build and run your application
 Allows other apps to request or even modify  Debug your application
the data  Test your application
Example (Content provider that manager’s
user’s contact information): PHASE 4: Publishing
 Any app with proper permission can  Prepare your application for release
request part of a content provider to read  Release your application
and write information about a particular
person. Android Development Tools
 Android Software Development Kit (SDK)
Broadcast Receiver  Android debug bridge (adb)
 Responds to system-wide broadcast  Gradle and the Android plug-in for gradle
announcements  Android Developer Tools
 Creates a status bar notification to alert the  Android Studio
user when a broadcast event occurs  Android Runtime (ART)
 Initiates a service to perform some work
based on the event Android Development Tools
Example of broadcast:  Android SDK – contains the necessary tools to
 a broadcast announcing that the battery is create, compile, and package Android
low applications
 Android debug bridge (adb) – is a tool that
Manifest File allows you to connect to a virtual or real
 Declares the app’s components Android device
 Identifies any user permissions that the app  Gradle and the Android plug-in for Gradle
requires Gradle – an advanced build toolkit that
 Declares the minimum API level required by manages dependencies and allows you to
the app define custom build logic
 Declares hardware and software features  Android Developer Tools (ADT) – a plugin for
used or required by the app the Eclipse IDE that extends the capabilities of
Eclipse
  Android Studio – official IDE for Android App Android Application Module
development  The container for your application’s source
 Android Runtime (ART) – the managed code, resource files, and application level
runtime used by applications and some settings
system services on Android  Such as the module-level build file, resource
files, and Android Manifest file
Setting Up Virtual Devices  Contents are built in to the .apk file that gets
Three ways to setup a virtual device: installed on a device
 With AVD Manager
 From the Command Line (for stand- alone Test Module
SDK tools)  Contains code to test your application project
 Using the Emulator (virtual mobile device  Built into test applications that run on a device
that runs on your computer)
Library Module
Android Virtual Device (AVD)  Contains shareable Android source code and
 An emulator configuration that lets you model resources that you can reference in your
an actual device by defining hardware and Android projects
software options  Cannot be installed onto a device
Consists of:
 A hardware profile App Engine Module
 A mapping to a system image  Allows implementation of functionality such
 Other options as:
 A dedicated storage area on your  Backing up user data to the cloud
development machine  Serving content to client apps
 Real-time interactions
Using Hardware Devices  Sending push notifications through Google
 Android-powered devices have developer Cloud Messaging for Android (GCM)
options that allow you to:
 Enable debugging over USB
 Quickly capture bug reports onto the
device
 Show CPU usage on screen
 Draw debugging information on screen
 Simulate app stresses or enable
debugging options

Managing Projects
 Android project – contains everything that
defines your Android app, from app source
code to build configurations and test code

Module
 First level of containment within a project that
encapsulates specific types of source code
files and resources
Types of Module
 Android Application Module
 Test Module
 Library Module
 App Engine Module