Mobile App Development – Android MAP524S1A Week 1 – Introduction to Android Dr. Razi Iqbal razi.Iqbal@senecacollege.ca Software and Hardware System Requirements The latest operating-system requirements: http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html#Requirements We develop the apps in this course using Android Studio https://developer.android.com/studio/ Android 11 SDK (API 30) The Android Software Development Kit (SDK) provides the tools you will need to build Android apps. It usually gets installed with Android Studio. Android Mobile Operating System The Android operating system was developed by Android, Inc., which was acquired by Google in 2005. In 2007, the Open Handset Alliance™ was formed to develop, maintain and evolve Android, driving innovation in mobile technology and improving the user experience while reducing costs. The first-generation Android phones were released in October 2008. As of April 2019, Android had 74.85% of the mobile OS market share, compared to 22.94% for iOS. Mobile Operating System Market Share Worldwide Android Features Openness and Open Source Java One of the world’s most widely used programming languages Powerful Free Common used by millions of developers (Billions devices run Java) Multi-touch Screen Gestures Built-in Apps Packages Android uses a collection of packages, which are named groups of related, predefined classes. Some of the packages are Android specific, some are Java specific and some are Google specific These packages allow you to conveniently access Android OS features and incorporate them into your apps. The Android packages help you create apps that adhere to Android’s unique look-and-feel conventions and style guidelines http://developer.android.com/reference/packages.html Android Studio Android Studio was announced at the Google I/O developer conference in 2013 and is now Google’s preferred Android IDE. Android Studio is based on the JetBrains IntelliJ IDEA Java IDE The Android Emulator The Android emulator, included in the Android SDK, allows you to run Android apps in a simulated environment within Windows, Mac OS X or Linux, without using an actual Android device. The emulator displays a realistic Android user-interface window. It’s particularly useful if you do not have access to Android devices for testing. You should certainly test your apps on a variety of Android devices before uploading them to Google Play. Android Virtual Device (AVD) Before running an app in the emulator, you’ll need to create an Android Virtual Device (AVD), which defines the characteristics of the device on which you want to test, including the hardware, system image, screen size, data storage and more. Emulator will also give you flexibility of testing your app on various emulator devices. AVD (Cont.) You can reproduce on the emulator most of the Android gestures and controls using your computer’s keyboard and mouse. The gestures on the emulator are a bit limited, since your computer probably cannot simulate all the Android hardware features. For example, to test GPS apps in the emulator, you’ll need to create files that simulate GPS readings. Android Gestures on the Emulator Gesture Emulator action Touch Double touch Long press Drag Click the mouse once. Double click the mouse. Click and hold the mouse. Introduced in Twitter® Searches app. Click, hold and drag the mouse. Introduced in Cannon Game app. Click and hold the mouse, move the pointer in the swipe direction and release the mouse. Introduced in Weather Viewer app. Press and hold the Ctrl (Control) key. Two circles that simulate the two touches will appear. Move the circles to the start position, click and hold the mouse and drag the circles to the end position. Swipe Pinch zoom Android Hardware Controls in the Emulator Control Back Call/dial button Camera End call button Home Menu (left softkey) Emulator action Esc F3 Ctrl-KEYPAD_5, Ctrl-F3 F4 Home button F2 or Page Up button Android Hardware Controls in the Emulator (Cont.) Control Power button Search * (right softkey) Rotate to previous orientation Rotate to next orientation Toggle cell networking on/off Volume up button Volume down button Emulator action F7 F5 Shift-F2 or Page Down button KEYPAD_7, Ctrl-F11 KEYPAD_9, Ctrl-F12 F8 KEYPAD_PLUS, Ctrl-F5 KEYPAD_MINUS, Ctrl-F6 Installing Android Studio Please follow instructions below on how to install Android Studio on your local machine: https://developer.android.com/studio/install Creating Android Virtual Device Please follow instructions below on how to create an Android Virtual Device sometimes also called an Emulator https://developer.android.com/studio/run/managing-avds First Android App! Lets create our first Android App.
