Beginning Android

NETWORKING

The previous sections covered how to connect to the outside world using SMS and e-mail. Another way to achieve that is to use the HTTP protocol. Using the HTTP protocol, you can perform a wide variety of tasks, such as downloading web pages from a web server, downloading binary data, and so on.

The following Try It Out creates an Android project so you can use the HTTP protocol to connect to the Web to download all sorts of data.

TRY IT OUT: Creating the Base Project for HTTP Connection

codefile Networking.zip available for download at Wrox.com

1. Using Eclipse, create a new Android 3.0 project and name it Networking.

2. Add the following statement in bold to the AndroidManifest.xml file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
      package="net.learn2develop.Networking"
      android:versionCode="1"
      android:versionName="1.0">
    <application android:icon="@drawable/icon" android:label="@string/app_name">
        <activity android:name=".MainActivity"
                  android:label="@string/app_name">
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
                <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
            </intent-filter>
        </activity>
    </application>
    <uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="8" />
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET"></uses-permission>
</manifest>

3. Import the following namespaces in the MainActivity.java file:

package net.learn2develop.Networking;
 
import android.app.Activity;
import ...