Unlocking Android

Unlocking Android

by Frank Ableson, Charlie Collins, Robi Sen
Released April 2009
Publisher(s): Manning Publications
ISBN: 9781933988672

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Book description

NEWER EDITION AVAILABLE

Android in Action, Third Edition is now available.

Unlocking Android: A Developer's Guide provides concise, hands-on instruction for the Android operating system and development tools. This book teaches important architectural concepts in a straightforward writing style and builds on this with practical and useful examples throughout. Based on his mobile development experience and his deep knowledge of the arcane Android technical documentation, the author conveys the know-how you need to develop practical applications that build upon or replace any of Androids features, however small.



About the Technology

Android is an open source mobile phone platform based on the Linux operating system and developed by the Open Handset Alliance, a consortium of over 30 hardware, software and telecom companies that focus on open standards for mobile devices. Led by search giant, Google, Android is designed to deliver a better and more open and cost effective mobile experience.



About the Book


What's Inside
  • Android's place in the market
  • Using the Eclipse environment for Android development
  • The Intents - how and why they are used
  • Application classes:
    • Activity
    • Service
    • IntentReceiver
  • User interface design
  • Using the ContentProvider to manage data
  • Persisting data with the SQLite database
  • Networking examples
  • Telephony applications
  • Notification methods
  • OpenGL, animation & multimedia
  • Sample Applications


About the Reader

Unlocking Android: A Developer's Guide prepares the reader to embrace the platform in easy-to-understand language and builds on this foundation with re-usable Java code examples. It is ideal for corporate and hobbyists alike who have an interest, or a mandate, to deliver software functionality for cell phones.



About the Authors

Frank Ableson is a prolific software entrepreneur with a focus on mobile and embedded technology. Frank is very active in the mobile software marketplace as he works with leading mobile companies including Handango, Airtime Management, and UnwiredTools.

Charlie Collins is a software developer and author. Charlie has over 12 years of experience with Java and is interested in many areas of Java development including: SE, EE, mobile and embedded, and alternative languages on the JVM. Charlie is the co-author of GWT in Practice and has written various online articles. Charlie has also been an ardent open source supporter for many years and has contributed documentation and patches for several open source projects. Charlie is the co-creator and maintainer of GWT-Maven, and is also currently a Maven Mojo committer.

Robi Sen is a Managing Partner at Twin Technologies, LLC where he spends most of his time helping deliver next generation Rich Internet Applications to Twin Technologies customers. Robi also has experience in the wireless space and has recently worked on projects focusing on electronic warfare and electronic counter measures.



Quotes
Valuable, useful.
- Dick Wall, Senior Engineer, Former Android Advocate for Google, and Java Posse Co-Host

For newbies and experts alike, this book is like a lighthouse.
- Kevin Galligan, CTO, Medical Research Forum

Chock-full of valuable code and tips.
- Scott Webster, AndroidGuys Editor

Take your app from zero to running in no time flat.
- Charles Hudson, Aduci

Highly recommended!
- Horaci Macias, Avaya

Table of contents

  1. Copyright
    1. Dedication
  2. Foreword
  3. Preface
  4. Acknowledgments
    1. Frank Ableson
    2. Charlie Collins
    3. Robi Sen
  5. About This Book
    1. The Audience
    2. Roadmap
      1. Part 1: The Essentials
      2. Part 2: The Programming Environment
      3. Part 3: Bringing it All Together
      4. The Appendices
    3. Code Conventions
    4. Software Requirements
    5. Author Online
  6. About the Cover Illustration
  7. 1. What is Android?—The Big Picture
    1. 1. Targeting Android
      1. 1.1. Introducing Android
        1. 1.1.1. The Android platform
        2. 1.1.2. In the market for an Android?
          1. Mobile Operators
          2. Android vs. The Feature Phones
          3. Android vs. The Smartphones
          4. Android Vs. Itself
        3. 1.1.3. Licensing Android
      2. 1.2. Stacking up Android
        1. 1.2.1. Probing Android’s foundation
          1. Building on the Linux Kernel
          2. Running in the Dalvik Virtual Machine
      3. 1.3. Booting Android development
        1. 1.3.1. Android’s good Intent-ions
        2. 1.3.2. Activating Android
          1. Activity
          2. Service
          3. Broadcastreceiver
          4. Content Provider
        3. 1.3.3. AndroidManifest.xml
        4. 1.3.4. Mapping applications to processes
      4. 1.4. An Android application
      5. 1.5. Summary
    2. 2. Development environment
      1. 2.1. The Android SDK
        1. 2.1.1. The application programming interface
        2. 2.1.2. Core Android packages
        3. 2.1.3. Optional packages
      2. 2.2. Fitting the pieces together
        1. 2.2.1. Java Perspective
        2. 2.2.2. DDMS Perspective
        3. 2.2.3. Command-Line tools
          1. Android Asset Packaging Tool
          2. Android Debug Bridge
      3. 2.3. Building an Android application in Eclipse
        1. 2.3.1. Android Project Wizard
        2. 2.3.2. Android sample application code
        3. 2.3.3. Building the application
      4. 2.4. The Android Emulator
        1. 2.4.1. Skins
        2. 2.4.2. Network speed
        3. 2.4.3. Emulator profiles
      5. 2.5. Debugging
      6. 2.6. Summary
  8. 2. Exercising the Android SDK
    1. 3. User interfaces
      1. 3.1. Creating the Activity
        1. 3.1.1. Creating an Activity class
        2. 3.1.2. Exploring Activity lifecycle
          1. Understanding How Processes and Activities Relate
          2. Activity Lifecycle
      2. 3.2. Working with views
        1. 3.2.1. Exploring common views
        2. 3.2.2. Using a ListView
        3. 3.2.3. Multitasking with Handler and Message
        4. 3.2.4. Creating custom views
        5. 3.2.5. Understanding layout
        6. 3.2.6. Handling focus
        7. 3.2.7. Grasping events
      3. 3.3. Using resources
        1. 3.3.1. Supported resource types
        2. 3.3.2. Referencing resources in Java
        3. 3.3.3. Defining views and layouts through XML resources
        4. 3.3.4. Externalizing values
        5. 3.3.5. Providing animations
      4. 3.4. Understanding the AndroidManifest file
      5. 3.5. Summary
    2. 4. Intents and services
      1. 4.1. Working with Intent classes
        1. 4.1.1. Defining intents
        2. 4.1.2. Intent resolution
          1. Action and Categories
          2. Data
        3. 4.1.3. Matching a custom URI
        4. 4.1.4. Using Android-provided activities
      2. 4.2. Listening in with broadcast receivers
        1. 4.2.1. Overloading the Intent concept
        2. 4.2.2. Creating a receiver
      3. 4.3. Building a Service
        1. 4.3.1. Dual-purpose nature of a Service
        2. 4.3.2. Creating a background task Service
      4. 4.4. Performing Inter-Process Communication
        1. 4.4.1. Android Interface Definition Language
        2. 4.4.2. Exposing a remote interface
        3. 4.4.3. Binding to a Service
        4. 4.4.4. Starting versus binding
        5. 4.4.5. Service lifecycle
          1. Service-Started Lifecycle
          2. Service-Bound Lifecycle
          3. Service-Started and -Bound Lifecycle
          4. Cleaning Up When a Service Stops
        6. 4.4.6. Binder and Parcelable
      5. 4.5. Summary
    3. 5. Storing and retrieving data
      1. 5.1. Using preferences
        1. 5.1.1. Working with SharedPreferences
        2. 5.1.2. Preference access permissions
      2. 5.2. Using the filesystem
        1. 5.2.1. Creating files
        2. 5.2.2. Accessing files
        3. 5.2.3. Files as raw resources
        4. 5.2.4. XML file resources
        5. 5.2.5. External storage via an SD card
      3. 5.3. Persisting data to a database
        1. 5.3.1. Building and accessing a database
        2. 5.3.2. Using the sqlite3 tool
      4. 5.4. Working with ContentProvider classes
        1. 5.4.1. Understanding URI representations and manipulating records
          1. Querying Data
          2. Inserting Data
          3. Updating Data
          4. Deleting Data
        2. 5.4.2. Creating a ContentProvider
          1. Defining a Content_Uri and Mime_Type
          2. Extending Contentprovider
          3. Provider Manifests
      5. 5.5. Summary
    4. 6. Networking and web services
      1. 6.1. An overview of networking
        1. 6.1.1. Networking basics
          1. Nodes
          2. Layers and Protocols
          3. IP
          4. TCP and UDP
          5. Application Protocols
        2. 6.1.2. Clients and servers
      2. 6.2. Checking the network status
      3. 6.3. Communicating with a server socket
      4. 6.4. Working with HTTP
        1. 6.4.1. Simple HTTP and java.net
        2. 6.4.2. Robust HTTP with HttpClient
        3. 6.4.3. Creating an HTTP and HTTPS helper
      5. 6.5. Web services
        1. 6.5.1. POX—Putting it together with HTTP and XML
        2. 6.5.2. REST
        3. 6.5.3. To SOAP or not to SOAP, that is the question
      6. 6.6. Summary
    5. 7. Telephony
      1. 7.1. Telephony background and terms
      2. 7.2. Accessing telephony information
        1. 7.2.1. Retrieving telephony properties
        2. 7.2.2. Obtaining phone state information
      3. 7.3. Interacting with the phone
        1. 7.3.1. Using intents to make calls
        2. 7.3.2. Helpful phone number–related utilities
        3. 7.3.3. Intercepting calls
      4. 7.4. Working with messaging: SMS
        1. 7.4.1. Sending SMS messages
        2. 7.4.2. Receiving SMS messages
      5. 7.5. Summary
    6. 8. Notifications and alarms
      1. 8.1. Introducing Toast
      2. 8.2. Introducing notifications
      3. 8.3. Alarms
        1. 8.3.1. Alarm example
      4. 8.4. Summary
    7. 9. Graphics and animation
      1. 9.1. Drawing graphics in Android
        1. 9.1.1. Drawing with XML
      2. 9.2. Animations
        1. 9.2.1. Programmatically creating an animation
          1. Animating Resources
        2. 9.2.2. Introducing OpenGL for embedded systems
          1. Drawing Shapes in OpenGL ES
          2. Three-Dimensional Shapes and Surfaces with OpenGL ES
      3. 9.3. Summary
    8. 10. Multimedia
      1. 10.1. Introduction to multimedia and OpenCORE
      2. 10.2. Playing audio
      3. 10.3. Playing video
      4. 10.4. Capturing media
        1. 10.4.1. Understanding the camera
        2. 10.4.2. Capturing audio
      5. 10.5. Summary
    9. 11. Location, location, location
      1. 11.1. Simulating your location within the emulator
        1. 11.1.1. Sending in your coordinates with the DDMS tool
        2. 11.1.2. The GPS Exchange Format
        3. 11.1.3. The Google Earth Keyhole Markup Language
      2. 11.2. Using LocationManager and LocationProvider
        1. 11.2.1. Accessing location data with LocationManager
        2. 11.2.2. Using a LocationProvider
        3. 11.2.3. Receiving location updates with LocationListener
      3. 11.3. Working with maps
        1. 11.3.1. Extending MapActivity
        2. 11.3.2. Using a MapView
        3. 11.3.3. Placing data on a map with an Overlay
      4. 11.4. Converting places and addresses with Geocoder
      5. 11.5. Summary
  9. 3. Android applications
    1. 12. Putting it all together–the Field Service Application
      1. 12.1. Field Service Application requirements
        1. 12.1.1. Basic requirements
        2. 12.1.2. Data model
        3. 12.1.3. Application architecture and integration
      2. 12.2. Android application tour
        1. 12.2.1. Application flow
        2. 12.2.2. Code road map
        3. 12.2.3. AndroidManifest.xml
      3. 12.3. Android code
        1. 12.3.1. Splash Activity
        2. 12.3.2. FieldService Activity, part 1
          1. Prefs Class
        3. 12.3.3. FieldService Activity, part 2
        4. 12.3.4. Settings
        5. 12.3.5. Data structures
          1. Job XML Description
          2. Jobentry
          3. Joblist
          4. Joblisthandler
      4. 12.4. Digging deeper into the code
        1. 12.4.1. RefreshJobs
        2. 12.4.2. ManageJobs
        3. 12.4.3. ShowJob
        4. 12.4.4. CloseJob
      5. 12.5. Server code
        1. 12.5.1. Dispatcher user interface
        2. 12.5.2. Database
        3. 12.5.3. PHP dispatcher code
        4. 12.5.4. PHP mobile integration code
      6. 12.6. Summary
    2. 13. Hacking Android
      1. 13.1. The Android/Linux:junction
        1. 13.1.1. Tool chain
        2. 13.1.2. Building an application
        3. 13.1.3. Installing and running the application
        4. 13.1.4. Build script
      2. 13.2. A better way
        1. 13.2.1. The static flag, revisited
        2. 13.2.2. Linking
        3. 13.2.3. Exit, not return
        4. 13.2.4. Startup code
      3. 13.3. What time is it?
        1. 13.3.1. Daytime Server application
        2. 13.3.2. daytime.c
        3. 13.3.3. The SQLite database
        4. 13.3.4. Building and running Daytime Server
      4. 13.4. Daytime Client
        1. 13.4.1. Activity
        2. 13.4.2. Socket client
        3. 13.4.3. Testing Daytime Client
      5. 13.5. Summary
  10. A. Installing the Android SDK
    1. A.1. Development environment requirements
    2. A.2. Obtaining and installing Eclipse
    3. A.3. Obtaining and installing the Android SDK
    4. A.4. Obtaining and installing the Eclipse plug-in
    5. A.5. Configuring the Eclipse plug-in
  11. B. Signing and installing applications on an Android device
    1. B.1. Recapping the Android Debug Bridge
    2. B.2. Digital signatures
      1. B.2.1. Keytool
      2. B.2.2. Jarsigner
    3. B.3. Cleaning up for distribution
      1. B.3.1. Important manifest elements: label, logo, version, SDK level
      2. B.3.2. Test, test, then test again
      3. B.3.3. An End User License Agreement
      4. B.3.4. Nice extra: data import and export
    4. B.4. Publishing to the Market
      1. B.4.1. The Market rules
      2. B.4.2. Getting your application in the Market
      3. B.4.3. Automatic Market updates
      4. B.4.4. Why the Market matters
    5. B.5. Other distribution means

Product information

  • Title: Unlocking Android
  • Author(s): Frank Ableson, Charlie Collins, Robi Sen
  • Release date: April 2009
  • Publisher(s): Manning Publications
  • ISBN: 9781933988672