Beginning Android Web Apps Development: Develop for Android using HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript

Beginning Android Web Apps Development: Develop for Android using HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript

by Jon Westfall, Rocco Augusto, Grant Allen
Released May 2012
Publisher(s): Apress
ISBN: 9781430239574

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Book description

With Beginning Android Web Apps Development, you'll learn how to apply HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, Ajax and other Web standards for use on the Android mobile platform, by building a variety of fun and visually stimulating games and other web applications! If you've done some basic web development, and you want to build your skills to create exceptional web apps, you'll find everything you seek in the discussions and examples in this book.

Each application you'll build in Beginning Android Web Application Development will show you solutions that you can apply to many of your own projects. Each example shares techniques and coding solutions that will inspire your own work.

You'll learn how to tie your Android apps into Twitter through two apps that you'll build: Who's that Tweet?!, a quiz game based on celebrity accounts, and I Love Ham, a coding investigation into search phrases and rhyming.

Your Android web app development skills will then proceed in another direction, as you discover the power of HTML5 in two game apps: Scavenger Hunt, which introduces you to the HTML5 GPS location API, and Spies!, a location-based application that shows you how to use CSS3, Ajax, and HTML5 within multi-player environments.

You'll also create an Android web application which checks the arrival time of buses and light-rails through the use of Portland, Oregon's open Tri-Met data API! This app is a great template for other apps you may want to build in the future, and showcases the important techniques for incorporating cloud-based apps into web games.

After reading Beginning Android Web Apps Development, you will have built real apps and developed along the way the skills you'll need to create highly interactive, professional web applications... and, your journey will be engaging and enjoyable!

What you'll learn

  • Coding solutions that you can use time and again in your own Android web apps

  • Key methods and techniques for contemporary Android web app development

  • How to take full advantage of CSS3 in the mobile environment and how to handle a multitude of screen resolutions

  • How to build feature-rich user interfaces with navigation, colors, and professional styling

  • How to add audio and video for highly interactive sites

  • How to optimize Ajax within your site

  • How to access and use the HTML location API

  • How to integrate JavaScript and JavaScript frameworks into your site

Who this book is for

For anyone starting out in Android web app development who wants to build feature-rich web apps that are optimized for the Android mobile platform. If you've got basic web development skills, you'll find the code samples and discussions in this book will take your techniques to a completely different level.

Table of contents

  1. Title
  2. Dedication
  3. Contents at a Glance
  4. Contents
  5. About the Authors
  6. About the Technical Reviewer
  7. Acknowledgments
  8. Introduction
    1. Who This Book Is For
    2. How This Book Is Structured
    3. Downloading the code
    4. Contacting the Author
  9. Chapter 1: Harnessing the Power of the Mobile Web
    1. Basics of Web Design
    2. The Mobile Web, Yesterday and Today
    3. Concepts We Like—And What’s Ahead!
    4. Coming Up
  10. Chapter 2: Twitter Applications: Who’s That Tweet?
    1. JSONP
    2. Setting Up Your Development Environment
    3. Your First Mobile Web Application
    4. Summary
  11. Chapter 3: Twitter Applications: I Love Ham
    1. The HTML
    2. The CSS
    3. The JavaScript
    4. Summary
  12. Chapter 4: Basic Planning and Structuring of Your Application
    1. Know Thy Audience
    2. Having a Plan
    3. Structuring Your Development
    4. Summary
  13. Chapter 5: Handling Multiple Screen Resolutions with CSS 3
    1. A History of Tired Eyes and Resolution Evolution
    2. The Daily Droid
    3. Media Queries
    4. Summary
  14. Chapter 6: Handling Different Browser Platforms
    1. META Tags and the Viewport
    2. The User Agent
    3. Summary
  15. Chapter 7: Building an Impressive User Experience with jQuery Mobile
    1. The Basics
    2. Adding Multiple Pages
    3. So – About Those Transitions
    4. Let’s Have a Dialog
    5. Rolling Your Own Theme with ThemeRoller
    6. Rolling it All Together: Simple Calc
    7. Summary
  16. Chapter 8: Building Visually Rich Internet Applications
    1. Finding and Using Icons and Stock Photography
    2. Web Fonts
    3. CSS Frameworks
    4. Adobe Fireworks
    5. Summary
  17. Chapter 9: HTML5 Location-Based Applications
    1. The Mechanics of Geolocation
    2. Exploring Our Sample Application
    3. Expanding Your Horizons with Maps
    4. Gaming Your Location
    5. Gaming Your Location–for Fun!
    6. Summary
  18. Chapter 10: Using Cloud Services: A Transport Application
    1. Introducing the “Move Me” Example Application
    2. Improving the “Move Me” Example Application
    3. Introducing Transit Data Resources
    4. Summary
  19. Chapter 11: Pushing the Limits with Audio and Video
    1. Audio for Mobile Web Apps
    2. Adding Video to Mobile Applications
    3. Exploring on Your Own: Music Service APIs
    4. Summary
  20. Chapter 12: Supercharging the User Experience with AJAX
    1. What Is AJAX?
    2. AJAX–of–the–Day
    3. My News!
    4. Username Availability
    5. AJAX Considerations
    6. Summary
  21. Chapter 13: Packaging Your Applications
    1. Compressing Your Application
    2. Finding a Hosting Solution
    3. File Transfer Protocol
    4. Versioning Your Software
    5. Going Native
    6. Closing Time
  22. Index

Product information

  • Title: Beginning Android Web Apps Development: Develop for Android using HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript
  • Author(s): Jon Westfall, Rocco Augusto, Grant Allen
  • Release date: May 2012
  • Publisher(s): Apress
  • ISBN: 9781430239574