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)

Lifecycle demo app

In this section, we will do a quick experiment that will help familiarize ourselves with the lifecycle methods our app uses as well as giving us a chance to play around with a bit more Java code.

Follow these steps to start a new project and then we can add some code:

  1. Start a new project.
  2. Choose the Basic Activity template.
  3. Call the project Lifecycle Demo. Of course, the code is in the download bundle in the Chapter 6 folder should you wish to refer to it or copy and paste it.
  4. Wait for Android Studio to generate the project files and then open the MainActivity.java file in the code editor.

You have created a new project with all the default settings. We will only need the MainActivity.java file for this demonstration and will not be building a UI.

Coding the lifecycle demo app

In the MainActivity.java file, find the onCreate method and add these two lines of code just before the closing curly } brace, which marks the end of the...