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Android Apps
with Eclipse
■ ■ ■
Onur Cinar
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Contents at a Glance
About the Author................................................................................................x
About the Technical Reviewer..........................................................................xi
Introduction.....................................................................................................xii
■ Chapter 1: Android Primer...............................................................................1
■ Chapter 2: Application Architecture..............................................................27
■ Chapter 3: Eclipse Primer..............................................................................45
■ Chapter 4: Mastering Eclipse.........................................................................73
■ Chapter 5: Android Development Tools for Eclipse......................................111
■ Chapter 6: Project: Movie Player.................................................................151
■ Chapter 7: Android Native Development Using Eclipse................................185
■ Chapter 8: Project: Extending Movie Player for AVI Movies........................239
■ Chapter 9: Android Scripting Using Eclipse................................................271
■ Chapter 10: Project: Movie Player Using HTML and JavaScript..................307
■ Appendix A: Testing Android Applications...................................................333
■ Index............................................................................................................349
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Introduction
Android is one of the major players in the mobile phone market, and its market share is
continuously growing. Android is the first complete, open, and free mobile platform, and it offers
endless opportunities for mobile application developers. As with all other platforms, having a
robust and flexible development environment is the key for the platform's success.
Eclipse is the most adopted integrated development environment (IDE) for Java
programmers. And now Eclipse is the preferred IDE for Android app developers.
Android Apps with Eclipse provides a detailed overview of Eclipse, including the steps
and illustrations to help Android developers quickly get up to speed on Eclipse and to streamline
their day-to-day software development.
Who This Book Is For
This book is for both beginners and intermediate developers who would like to quickly come up
to speed on Android development using the Eclipse IDE.
What You Will Learn
This book covers the following topics:
How the Android platform works and the basics of Android application development
How to use the most popular Java IDE, Eclipse, to develop Android applications
How to install and configure Eclipse for Android development
How to leverage Eclipse with the Android Native Development Kit (NDK) for C/C++
needs
How to leverage Eclipse for scripting using Android's Scripting Layer for Android (SL4A)
How to debug and troubleshoot Android applications using Eclipse
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INTRODUCTION
Downloading the Code
The source code for this book is available to readers from http://www.apress.com.
Contacting the Author
Readers can contact the author through his Android Apps with Eclipse site at
http://www.zdo.com/android-apps-with-eclipse.
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1
Chapter
Android Primer
In this chapter, we will briefly cover the Android platform from various angles.
We will start with Android’s history, to better understand the motivations behind
its formation. Then we will explore the Android platform architecture’s fine
combination of technologies that empower the platform to deliver a superior
mobile experience. We will emphasis the multilayer Android security framework,
which employs both software and hardware to keep the platform secure. We will
briefly review the service application programming interfaces (APIs) that are
provided through the Android framework for user-level applications to interact
with the platform. Finally, we will discuss Android application deployment and
distribution.
Android History
Android Inc. was founded in Silicon Valley, California, in October 2003, with the
idea of providing a mobile platform that is more aware of the user’s location and
preferences.
Google acquired Android Inc. in August 2005 as a wholly owned subsidiary of
Google Inc. Google’s main intention was to provide a fully open platform,
backed by Google technologies, for both the users and the application
developers.
In November 2007, the Open Handset Alliance was founded as a consortium to
develop an open standard for mobile devices. Open Handset Alliance began its
journey by announcing the Android platform. In less than a year, new members
started joining this consortium.
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2 CHAPTER 1: Android Primer
Android became an open source initiative that is led by Google under Open
Handset Alliance’s umbrella. The goal of the Android open source project is to
provide an open platform to improve the mobile experience of users.
Android is the first complete, open, and free mobile platform.
Complete: The Android platform is a robust, secure, easily
upgradable, mobile platform with a comprehensive framework
and well-defined interfaces. It allows application developers to
develop and fully blend their applications into the platform. It
also provides compatibility and certification programs, so
device manufacturers can design highly compliant devices.
Open: The entire Android platform has been developed and
provided under open source Apache licensing terms. Android
does not distinguish between preloaded applications and
third-party applications. Developers have full access to device
features and services while developing applications.
Free: The Android platform does not charge any licensing,
royalty, membership, or certification fees to develop
applications on the platform. Android platform source code
and software development kits are provided free of charge to
application developers. The software development platform is
widely available on many desktop operating systems, allowing
application developers to develop applications using the
operating system of their choice.
Today, Android is one of the major players in mobile phone market. Based on
the recent market analysis, on average, 700 thousand Android devices are
activated daily, and more than 200 million devices are already activated. Android
currently has 48% of the mobile phone market share, and it’s growing rapidly.
Android Versions
The first beta of the Android platform was released on November 5, 2007. Since
then, it has been through a number of updates and bug fixes. Although bug fixes
are usually transparent from the application developer’s perspective, updates
usually mean changes and additions to the framework API. For that reason,
besides the Android platform version numbers, a second version number, called
the API level, is used to identify the framework API that is supported.
Since April 2009, each Android version has been released under a codename
based on desserts, such as Éclair, Froyo, and Gingerbread. This introduced a
third versioning scheme to the Android platform, making things even more
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CHAPTER 1: Android Primer 3
cryptic for first-time Android application developers. When speaking of Android
application development, you will often hear people say things like ‘‘my
application requires Éclair and above,’’ ‘‘this method requires at least API level
9,’’ and ‘‘my phone got the Android 2.1 update.’’ Understanding which version
and which API level they are referring to, as well as which new APIs are part of
which Android platform version, can easily become a cumbersome memory
exercise. You can use Table 1-1 as a reference to map between these three
version schemes.
NOTE: Since the Android platform is continuing to evolve, Table 1-1 may not cover
the latest platform revisions. For an up-to-date listing, refer to the API Levels section
of the Android Developer Pages, at
http://developer.android.com/guide/appendix/api-levels.html.
Table 1-1. Android Release Dates, Revisions, API Levels, and Codenames
Release Date Platform Version API Level Codename
November 5, 2007 Beta
September 23, 2008 Android 1.0 1
February 9, 2009 Android 1.1 2
April 30, 2009 Android 1.5 3 Cupcake
September 15, 2009 Android 1.6 4 Donut
October 26, 2009 Android 2.0 5 Éclair
December 3, 2009 Android 2.0.1 6 Éclair
January 12, 2009 Android 2.1 7 Éclair
May 20, 2010 Android 2.2 8 Froyo
January 18, 2011 Android 2.2.1 8 Froyo
January 22, 2011 Android 2.2.2 8 Froyo
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4 CHAPTER 1: Android Primer
Release Date Platform Version API Level Codename
November 21, 2011 Android 2.2.3 8 Froyo
December 6, 2010 Android 2.3 9 Gingerbread
February 9, 2011 Android 2.3.3 10 Gingerbread
July 25, 2011 Android 2.3.5 10 Gingerbread
September 2, 2011 Android 2.3.6 10 Gingerbread
February 22, 2011 Android 3.0 11 Honeycomb
May 10, 2011 Android 3.1 12 Honeycomb
July 15, 2011 Android 3.2 13 Honeycomb
September 20, 2011 Android 3.2.1 13 Honeycomb
August 30, 2011 Android 3.2.2 13 Honeycomb
October 19, 2011 Android 4.0.1 14 Ice Cream Sandwich
November 28, 2011 Android 4.0.2 14 Ice Cream Sandwich
December 16, 2011 Android 4.0.3 15 Ice Cream Sandwich
February 4, 2012 Android 4.0.4 15 Ice Cream Sandwich
As shown in Table 1-1, there are 15 API levels that you should consider while
developing your applications. The API level determines the size of your audience
as well, so picking this number wisely is very important while developing a new
Android application.
The Android mobile phone market is highly fragmented. By simply looking at the
release dates, you might think that most of the Android user base is running at
least Android 3.0, since it has already been around for a year; however, this is
not true. Due to the fragmentation, the release dates are far from giving a clear
view of Android versions in use. Figure 1-1 is the latest version distribution chart
from Android Platform Versions Dashboard
(http://developer.android.com/resources/dashboard/platform-
versions.html).
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