Book Image

Android Programming for Beginners - Third Edition

By : John Horton
Book Image

Android Programming for Beginners - Third Edition

By: John Horton

Overview of this book

Do you want to make a career in programming but don’t know where to start? Do you have a great idea for an app but don't know how to make it a reality? Or are you worried that you’ll have to learn Java programming to become an Android developer? Look no further! This new and expanded third edition of Android Programming for Beginners will be your guide to creating Android applications from scratch. The book starts by introducing you to all the fundamental concepts of programming in an Android context, from the basics of Java to working with the Android API. You’ll learn with the help of examples that use up-to-date API classes and are created within Android Studio, the official Android development environment that helps supercharge your mobile application development process. After a crash course on the key programming concepts, you’ll explore Android programming and get to grips with creating applications with a professional-standard UI using fragments and storing user data with SQLite. This Android Java book also shows you how you can make your apps multilingual, draw on the screen with a finger, and work with graphics, sound, and animations. By the end of this Android programming book, you'll be ready to start building your own custom applications in Android and Java.
Table of Contents (30 chapters)

Exploring the file and folder structure of the Basic Activity project template

The next-simplest project type with an autogenerated UI is a Basic Activity project. This is the same type of project that we created in Chapter 1, Beginning Android and Java. Feel free to open that project up now, but it is just as quick to generate a new one, and we can then also examine it without any of our alterations and additions clouding the discussions.

Proceed as follows:

  1. Run Android Studio and left-click the Start a new Android Studio project option.
  2. The window that follows is the Select a Project Template window. Select Basic Activity and click Next.
  3. In the Configure Your Project window, set up the project as follows:
  4. Click the Finish button, and we will run the app to see what we have achieved.

Now, we can dig into the files. We won't look at everything in the same detail that we did for the Empty Activity project; instead, we will just look at the interconnectedness...