Android Application Development Cookbook: 93 Recipes for Building Winning Apps

Introduction

The pace of Android development has been fast and furious. Within a short time span of a few years, Android has matured into a stable platform, rivaling that of its main competitor, iOS. At the time of writing, the latest version of Android is 4.1 (aka Jelly Bean). Android 4.1 runs on both smartphones and tablets, making it the platform of choice for many developers.

This book was born out of the many frustrations I have had when developing Android applications. It is often the case that you just need a quick snapshot showing how to do a certain task, and a code snippet would be a quick fix. However, a trip to the official Android documentation often caused more confusion than help, as the code samples are not always complete. Hence, this book aims to fill the void by providing standalone examples that you can quickly “embrace and extend.”

Each recipe tackles a problem that you might face in your daily life as an Android developer — whether it’s as minor as using a Button view or as involved as implementing a Master-Detail application using fragments. You can read this book from the first recipe until the last recipe, or you can turn directly to the recipes that interest you most.

Who This Book Is For

This book is targeted at Android programmers who already have some basic knowledge of creating Android applications. It is assumed that you know how to create an Android project using Eclipse, and that you are already familiar with the structure of an Android project. ...