Essentials of Android App Development and More Essentials

The Essentials of Android Application Development LiveLessons (Second Edition) provides developers with a hands-on introduction to Android application development, covering the most important classes and techniques.

Description

In this video training, Ian starts with the installation of Android Studio, configuring an emulator, preparing a device for development, and creating a simple “hello world” app. He then systematically covers each of the essential parts of Android application development, starting with views, activities, and fragments. Using an AsyncTask to perform background operations comes next, and then services, BroadcastReceivers, and system notifications are explained. The video continues with saving data via SharedPreferences and the file system and enhancing the UI with themes and animations and finishes with tips for becoming more efficient with Android Studio and how to submit an app to the Play Store. After watching this video series, developers will be able to create Android applications from scratch and dive into advanced Android topics.

Skill Level
Beginner to intermediate
What You Will Learn
Install and use Android Studio
Create an Android application
Customize the UI with views, themes, and animations
Run code in the background
Create and use services, BroadcastReceivers, and system notifications
Save data to SharedPreferences and the file system
Become efficient with Android Studio and submit an app to the Play Store
Who Should Take This Course
Developers who want to quickly learn the core of Android application development
Course Requirements
Basic understanding of programming and development
Familiarity with the Java programming language
Table of Contents
In Lesson 1, “Creating Your First Android App,” you download the tools used by any Android application developer and use them to create your first Android app. You learn how to run it using an emulator as well as how to run it on your own device.

In Lesson 2, “Building the User Interface,” you learn to create a user interface by using the visual tools and the underlying XML. This covers views, resources, and even the efficient use of ListView.

In Lesson 3, “Creating More Screens,” you advance your Android knowledge with an improved understanding of Activities and Fragments, two classes core to creating Android apps, and then learn to take advantage of the Android support library, allowing your app to run on a wide range of Android versions.

Lesson 4, “Running in the Background the Simple Way,” shows you how to keep your applications efficient and responsive by utilizing an AsyncTask to perform long-running tasks in the background.

Sometimes you need to perform tasks that aren't directly tied into the UI, and that’s when services and broadcast receivers come into play. Lesson 5, “Interacting with a Service,” rounds off this knowledge with an understanding of Android’s excellent notification system.

What app doesn't make use of saving and retrieving data? In Lesson 6, “Saving Simple Data,” you learn two of the most common mechanisms for doing this, including working with SharedPreferences as well as the file system.

After maturing for years, Android has become a robust platform where enhancing your user interface is vital to standing out. In Lesson 7, “Enhancing Your User Interface,” you learn to utilize styles, themes, and custom animations.

In Lesson 8, “Rounding out Your Knowledge,” you learn to use Android Studio much more efficiently, taking advantage of shortcuts and live templates. Then you submit an application to Google Play to share with the world.

More Essential Android App Development

7+ Hours of Video Instruction

More Essential Android App Development LiveLessons is a continuation of Essentials of Android Application Development, taking a deeper look at Android topics and covering features that are vital to developing excellent Android applications.

Description
In this video training, Ian starts with message loop and threading. He then focuses on Android’s sensor architecture, showing how to use the light sensor, how to determine linear acceleration, and even how to batch sensor events for efficiency. Continuing on, Ian covers SQLite databases for both direct use and use in the implementation of a ContentProvider. After that comes integration with Google Play Services, showing how to use maps and location data. Building basic custom views and then more advanced custom views follows, and the final lesson covers powerful but easy uses of RenderScript. After watching this video series, developers will be able to create advanced Android apps using a variety of features.

Skill Level
All Levels
What You Will Learn
Handle threading and communicating across threads
Efficiently use a variety of sensors
Create and query SQLite databases
Implement custom ContentProviders
Integrate with Google Play Services for maps and location data
Build basic custom views
Develop advanced custom views
Modify images with RenderScript
Who Should Take This Course
Developers who need to quickly learn advanced techniques for Android application development
Course Requirements
Familiarity with the Java programming language
Basic understanding of Android application development
Table of Contents
Lesson 1, “Working with Message Loop and Threading,” covers Android’s message loop and how to correctly use threading. This lesson shows how to use thread pools and executors and how to build custom handler objects for communicating across threads.

Lesson 2, “Using Sensors,” looks at Android’s sensor framework and how to efficiently use it. This lesson goes over all the sensors available as well as shows detailed usage of the light sensor and linear accelerometer. It also explains how to use batch readings for more efficiency.

Lesson 3, “Using SQLite Databases,” explains how to use SQLite databases for storage and retrieval needs in an Android app. The lesson looks at the concepts and then covers implementation of creating a database and querying it.

Lesson 4, “Getting Started with ContentProviders,” shows how to create a custom ContentProvider, which allows communicating data across Android apps in a structured way. It also explains how to use a custom ContentProvider from another app.

Lesson 5, “Integrating Google Play Services,” breaks down the complexities of Google Play Services. This lesson shows how to use Google Play Services for displaying interactive maps with custom markers and how to query for device location with or without the use of a map.

Lesson 6, “Building Basic Custom Views,” tackles the challenging task of building a custom view. It covers the important concepts to understand when developing a view and then shows the implementation of measuring, layout, and drawing in a custom view.

Lesson 7, “Learning Advanced Custom Views,” dives into the more challenging aspects of custom views. This lesson explains how to use advanced drawing techniques, handle touch interactions, respond to gestures, and support custom view attributes.

Lesson 8, “Modifying Images with RenderScript,” covers real-world uses for RenderScript. This lesson starts with an explanation of RenderScript and then shows how to blur images efficiently. It finishes with how to use advanced convolution to modify images in complex ways easily.