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  • Android Programming with Kotlin for Beginners
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Android Programming with Kotlin for Beginners

Android Programming with Kotlin for Beginners

By : John Horton
3.7 (19)
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Android Programming with Kotlin for Beginners

Android Programming with Kotlin for Beginners

3.7 (19)
By: John Horton

Overview of this book

Android is the most popular mobile operating system in the world and Kotlin has been declared by Google as a first-class programming language to build Android apps. With the imminent arrival of the most anticipated Android update, Android 10 (Q), this book gets you started building apps compatible with the latest version of Android. It adopts a project-style approach, where we focus on teaching the fundamentals of Android app development and the essentials of Kotlin by building three real-world apps and more than a dozen mini-apps. The book begins by giving you a strong grasp of how Kotlin and Android work together before gradually moving onto exploring the various Android APIs for building stunning apps for Android with ease. You will learn to make your apps more presentable using different layouts. You will dive deep into Kotlin programming concepts such as variables, functions, data structures, Object-Oriented code, and how to connect your Kotlin code to the UI. You will learn to add multilingual text so that your app is accessible to millions of more potential users. You will learn how animation, graphics, and sound effects work and are implemented in your Android app. By the end of the book, you will have sound knowledge about significant Kotlin programming concepts and start building your own fully featured Android apps.
Table of Contents (31 chapters)
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Preface
Preface
Who this book is for
What this book covers
To get the most out of this book
Get in touch
Free Chapter
1
1. Getting Started with Android and Kotlin
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1. Getting Started with Android and Kotlin
Why use Kotlin and Android?
The beginner's first stumbling block
How Kotlin and Android work together
Setting up Android Studio
What makes an Android app?
The structure of Android's code
Our first Android app
Deploying the app so far
Frequently asked question
Summary
2
2. Kotlin, XML, and the UI Designer
2. Kotlin, XML, and the UI Designer
Examining the log output
Exploring the project's Kotlin code and the main layout's XML code
Adding buttons to the main layout file
Leaving comments in our Kotlin code
Coding messages to the user and the developer
Writing our first Kotlin code
Frequently asked questions
Summary
3
3. Exploring Android Studio and the Project Structure
3. Exploring Android Studio and the Project Structure
A quick guided tour of Android Studio
Project Explorer and project anatomy
The Basic Activity project
Exploring the Android emulator
Summary
4
4. Getting Started with Layouts and Material Design
4. Getting Started with Layouts and Material Design
Material design
Exploring Android UI design
Layouts
Creating the Exploring Layouts project
Building a menu with LinearLayout
Wiring up the UI with the Kotlin code (part 1)
Adding layouts within layouts
Making the layout look pretty
Wiring up the UI with the Kotlin code (part 2)
Building a precise UI with ConstraintLayout
Laying out data with TableLayout
Summary
5
5. Beautiful Layouts with CardView and ScrollView
5. Beautiful Layouts with CardView and ScrollView
Attributes – a quick summary
Building a UI with CardView and ScrollView
Themes and material design
Creating a tablet emulator
Frequently asked question
Summary
6
6. The Android Lifecycle
6. The Android Lifecycle
The life and times of an Android app
A simplified explanation of the Android lifecycle
How we handle the lifecycle phases
The lifecycle demo app
Some other overridden functions
The structure of Kotlin code – revisited
Summary
7
7. Kotlin Variables, Operators, and Expressions
7. Kotlin Variables, Operators, and Expressions
Learning the jargon
More on code comments
Variables
Operators and expressions
The express yourself demo app
Summary
8
8. Kotlin Decisions and Loops
8. Kotlin Decisions and Loops
Making decisions in Kotlin
Repeating code with loops
while loops
do-while loops
Ranges
For loops
Controlling loops with break and continue
Sample code
Summary
9
9. Kotlin Functions
9. Kotlin Functions
Function basics and recap
Making functions flexible
Summary
10
10. Object-Oriented Programming
10. Object-Oriented Programming
Introducing OOP
Basic classes
Visibility modifiers
Constructors
Basic classes app and using the init block
Introduction to references
Summary
11
11. Inheritance in Kotlin
11. Inheritance in Kotlin
OOP and inheritance
Using inheritance with open classes
More polymorphism
Classes using the Inheritance example app
Summary
12
12. Connecting Our Kotlin to the UI and Nullability
12. Connecting Our Kotlin to the UI and Nullability
All the Android UI elements are classes too
Kotlin interfaces
Using buttons and TextView widgets from our layout with a little help from interfaces
Nullability – val and var revisited
Summary
13
13. Bringing Android Widgets to Life
13. Bringing Android Widgets to Life
Declaring and initializing the objects from the layout
Creating UI widgets from pure Kotlin without XML
Exploring the palette – part 1
Lambdas
Exploring the palette – part 2, and more lambdas
The widget exploration app
Coding the widget exploration app
Running the Widget Exploration app
Converting layouts to ConstraintLayout
Summary
14
14. Android Dialog Windows
14. Android Dialog Windows
Dialog windows
The Note to self app
Summary
15
15. Handling Data and Generating Random Numbers
15. Handling Data and Generating Random Numbers
A random diversion
Handling large amounts of data with arrays
A simple mini-app array example
Getting dynamic with arrays
ArrayLists
Arrays and ArrayLists are polymorphic
Hashmaps
The Note to self app
Frequently asked questions
Summary
16
16. Adapters and Recyclers
16. Adapters and Recyclers
Inner classes
RecyclerView and RecyclerAdapter
Adding RecyclerView, RecyclerAdapter, and ArrayList to the Note to Self project
Running the app
Frequently asked questions
Summary
17
17. Data Persistence and Sharing
17. Data Persistence and Sharing
The Android Intent class
Adding a settings page to Note to self
Persisting data with SharedPreferences
Reloading data with SharedPreferences
Making the Note to self settings persist
More advanced persistence
Backing up user data in Note to self
Frequently asked questions
Summary
18
18. Localization
18. Localization
Making the Note to self app Spanish, English, and German
Running Note to self in German or Spanish
Summary
19
19. Animations and Interpolations
19. Animations and Interpolations
Animations in Android
Animations demo app – introducing SeekBar
Frequently asked questions
Summary
20
20. Drawing Graphics
20. Drawing Graphics
Understanding the Canvas class
Using the Canvas class
The Canvas Demo app
The Android coordinate system
Creating bitmap graphics with the Bitmap class
Manipulating bitmaps
The Bitmap manipulation demo app
Frequently asked question
Summary
21
21. Threads and Starting the Live Drawing App
21. Threads and Starting the Live Drawing App
Creating the Live Drawing project
Looking ahead at the Live Drawing app
Coding the MainActivity class
Coding the LiveDrawingView class
The game loop
Threads
Implementing the game loop with a thread
Running the app
Summary
22
22. Particle Systems and Handling Screen Touches
22. Particle Systems and Handling Screen Touches
Adding custom buttons to the screen
Implementing a particle system effect
Handling touches
Running the app
Summary
23
23. Android Sound Effects and the Spinner Widget
23. Android Sound Effects and the Spinner Widget
The SoundPool class
Sound demo app introducing the Spinner widget
Summary
24
24. Design Patterns, Multiple Layouts, and Fragments
24. Design Patterns, Multiple Layouts, and Fragments
Introducing the model-view-controller pattern
Android design guidelines
Real-world apps
Device detection mini app
Configuration qualifiers
Fragments
Our first fragment app
Fragment reality check
Frequently asked question
Summary
25
25. Advanced UI with Paging and Swiping
25. Advanced UI with Paging and Swiping
The Angry Birds classic swipe menu
Building an image gallery/slider app
Kotlin companion objects
Building a Fragment Pager/slider app
Summary
26
26. Advanced UI with Navigation Drawer and Fragment
26. Advanced UI with Navigation Drawer and Fragment
Introducing the NavigationView
Examining the Age Database app
Starting the Age Database project
Exploring the auto-generated code and assets
Coding the Fragment classes and their layouts
Using the Fragment classes and their layouts
Summary
27
27. Android Databases
27. Android Databases
Database 101
The SQL syntax primer
The Android SQLite API
Coding the database class
Coding the Fragment classes to use the DataManager class
Running the Age Database app
Summary
28
28. A Quick Chat Before You Go
28. A Quick Chat Before You Go
Publishing
Making an app!
Carrying on learning
My other channels
Goodbye and thank you
29
A. Other Book You May Enjoy
A. Other Book You May Enjoy
Leave a review - let other readers know what you think
30
Index
Index

Setting up Android Studio

Setting up Android Studio is quite straightforward, if a little time-consuming. Grab some refreshments and get started with the following steps:

  1. Visit developer.android.com/studio/index.html. Click the big DOWNLOAD ANDROID STUDIO button to proceed:
    Setting up Android Studio
  2. Accept the terms and conditions by checking the checkbox, and then click the DOWNLOAD ANDROID STUDIO FOR WINDOWS button:
    Setting up Android Studio
  3. When the download is complete, run the file you just downloaded. It has a name that starts android-studio-ide…, while the end of the name of the file will vary based on the current version at the time of reading.
  4. Click the Next > button to proceed:
    Setting up Android Studio
  5. Leave the default options selected, as shown in the following screenshot, and click the Next > button:
    Setting up Android Studio
  6. Next, we need to choose where to install Android Studio, as shown in the following screenshot:
    Setting up Android Studio

    The install wizard recommends 500 MB of free space, but you probably noticed from the previous screen that 2.1 GB was suggested. However, there are even more requirements later in the installation process. Furthermore, it is much easier if you have all your Android Studio parts, as well as your project files, on the same hard drive.

    For these reasons, I recommend having at least 4 GB of free space. If you need to switch drives to accommodate this, then use the Browse.. button to browse to a suitable place on your hard drive.

    Tip

    Note down the location that you choose.

  7. When you are ready, click the Next > button.
  8. In this next window, choose the folder in your start menu where Android Studio will appear. You can leave it as the default, as follows:
    Setting up Android Studio
  9. Click Install. This step might take some time, especially on older machines or if you have a slow internet connection. When this stage is done, you will see the following screen:
    Setting up Android Studio
  10. Click Next >.
  11. Android Studio is now installed – kind of. Check the Start Android Studio checkbox and click the Finish button:
    Setting up Android Studio
  12. You will be greeted with the Welcome screen, as shown in the following screenshot:
    Setting up Android Studio
  13. Click the Next button.
  14. Choose the Standard install type, as shown in the following screenshot:
    Setting up Android Studio
  15. Click the Next button.
  16. Choose whichever color scheme looks nice to you. I chose IntelliJ, as shown in the following screenshot:
    Setting up Android Studio
  17. Click Next.
  18. Now you will see the Verify Settings screen:
    Setting up Android Studio
  19. Click the Finish button. Android Studio will now commence some more downloads, which could take some time.
  20. When Android Studio is ready, you will have the option to run it. At this point, click the Finish button. Android Studio is most likely ready. You can leave it open if you are carrying straight on with the next section, or you can close it and then reopen it when instructed to in the next section.

Final step – for now

Using your preferred file manager software, perhaps Windows Explorer, create a folder called AndroidProjects. Make it at the root of the same drive where you installed Android Studio. So, if you installed Android Studio at C:/Program Files/Android, then create your new folder at C:/AndroidProjects.

Or, if you installed Android Studio at D:/Program Files/Android, then create your new folder at D:/AndroidProjects.

Tip

Note that the screenshots in the next section show the AndroidProjects folder on the D: drive. This is because my C: drive is a bit full up. Either is fine. I did the install tutorial screen captures on a borrowed PC with plenty of space on the C: drive, because that is the default for Android Studio. Keeping it on the same drive as the Android installation is neater and could avoid future problems, so do so if you can.

Notice that there is no space between the words Android and Projects, and that the first letter of both words is capitalized. The capitalization is for clarity, and the omission of a space is required by Android Studio.

Android Studio and the supporting tools that we need are installed and ready to go. We are now really close to building our first app.

Now, let's look a little bit at the composition of an Android app.

End of Section 5
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