Murach’s Android Programming

683 Pages·2015·163.61 MB·English

by  Joel Murach

murach's
2ND EDITION
Joel Murach

TRAINING & REFERENCE
muracrvs
2ND EDITION
Joel Murach
MIKE MURACH & ASSOCIATES, INC.
4340 N. Knoll Ave. • Fresno, CA 93722
www.murach.com • [e-mail]
Author: Joel Murach
Editors: Mike Urban
Ray Halliday
Android Consultant: Leo Landau
Production: Maria Spera
Books for Java programmers
Murach’s Java Servlets and JSP (3rd Edition )
Murach’ s Android Programming (2nd Edition)
Murach’s Beginning Java with NetBeans
Murach’s Beginning Java with Eclipse
Murach’s Java Programming (4th Edition)
Books for database programmers
Murach’s MySQL ( 2nd Edition)
Murach’s Oracle SQL and PL/SQL for Developers (2nd Edition)
Murach’s SQL Server 2012 for Developers
Books for web developers
Murach’s HTML5 and CSS3 (3rd Edition)
Murach’s JavaScript (2nd Edition)
Murach’s jQuery (2nd Edition)
Murach’s PHP and MySQL (2nd Edition)
Books for .NET programmers
Murach’s C# 2012
Murach’s ASPNET 4,5 Web Programming with C# 2012
Murach’s Visual Basic 2012
Murach’s ASPNET 4.5 Web Programming with VB 2012
For more on Murach books,
please visit us at www.murach.com
© 2015, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
109 87 65 43 2 1
ISBN: 978-1-890774-93-6
Content
Introduction xv
Section 1 Get started fast with Android
Chapter 1 An introduction to Android and Android Studio 3
Chapter 2 How to start your first Android app 29
Chapter 3 How to finish your first Android app 55
Chapter 4 How to test and debug an Android app 95
Section 2 Essential Android skills
Chapter 5 How to work with layouts and widgets 119
Chapter 6 How to handle events 165
Chapter 7 How to work with themes and styles 197
Chapter 8 How to work with menus and preferences 227
Chapter 9 How to work with fragments 259
Section 3 The News Reader app
Chapter 10 How to work with threads, files, adapters, and intents 287
Chapter 11 How to work with services and notifications 339
Chapter 12 How to work with broadcast receivers 381
Section 4 The Task List app
Chapter 13 How to work with SQLite databases 397
Chapter 14 How to work with tabs and custom adapters 435
Chapter 15 How to work with content providers 467
Chapter 16 How to work with app widgets 501
Section 5 Advanced Android skills
Chapter 17 How to deploy an app 523
Chapter 18 How to work with locations and maps 543
Appendixes
Appendix A How to set up Windows for this book 601
Appendix B How to set up Mac OS X for this book 619
Appendix C How to set up Linux for this book 637

Expanded contents VII
Expanded contents
Section 1 Get started fast with Android
Chapter 1 An introduction to Android and Android Studio
An overview of Android 4
Types of devices 4
Types of apps 6
A brief history 8
Versions 10
System architecture 12
How apps are compiled and run 14
An introduction to Android Studio 16
How to work with the Welcome page 16
How to open an existing project 16
How to view the user interface for an app 18
How to view the code for an app 20
How to run an app on a physical device 22
How to run an app on an emulator 22
The user interface 24
Chapter 2 How to start your first Android app
The Tip Calculator app 30
The user interface 30
How to create a new project 32
How to develop the user interface 34
How to work with a layout 34
How to add widgets to a layout 36
How to set the display text 38
How to work with resource files 42
How to set properties 44
Common properties 46
The XML for the user interface 48
Chapter 3 How to finish your first Android app
How to write the Java code 56
How to work with an activity .56
How to remove the v7 appcompat support library .58
How to get references to w'idgets .60
How to handle the EditorAction event .62
How to get and set the text for widgets .66
The lifecycle of an activity .70
How to save and restore values .72
The Java code for the app .74
More skills for finishing an app 80
How to work with the Gradle build script .80
How to work with dependencies .82
How to work with the Android manifest .84
How to set the launcher icon for an app .86
How to use the documentation for the Android API .88
VIM Expanded contents
Chapter 4 How to test and debug an Android app
Basic skills for testing and debugging 96
Typical test phases 96
How to check the layout 98
How to handle runtime errors 100
How to trace code execution 102
How to use LogCat .102
How to use toasts .104
How to use the debugger 106
How to set and remove breakpoints 106
How to step through code 108
How to inspect variables 108
How to inspect the stack trace 108
How to create emulators 110
How to create an emulator for a tablet 110
How to create an emulator for a phone with a hard keyboard and DPad 112
Section 2 Essential Android skills
Chapter 5 How to work with layouts and widgets
An introduction to layouts and widgets 120
A summary of layouts .120
A summary of widgets .120
The View hierarchy .122
How to work with layouts 124
How to use a linear layout .124
How to use a table layout .128
How to use a frame layout .130
How to nest layouts .132
How to provide a landscape layout .134
How to work with widgets 136
How to use editable text views .136
How to use check boxes .140
How to use radio buttons .142
How to use spinners .144
How to use seek bars .148
How to display images .150
How to show and hide widgets .152
How to add scroll bars .154
How to display web content .156
Chapter 6 How to handle events
A summary of listeners 166
High-level events .166
Low-level .166
events
Four techniques for handling events 168
How to use the current class as the listener .168
How to use a named class as the listener .168
How to use an anonymous class as the listener .170
Expanded contents IX
How to use an anonymous inner class as the listener 170
When to use each technique 170
How to handle high-level events 172
How to handle events for check boxes and radio buttons 172
How to handle events for radio groups 174
How to handle events for spinners 176
How to handle events for seek bars 178
How to handle low-level events 180
How to handle Key events 180
How to handle Touch events 182
The Tip Calculator app 184
The user interface 184
The Java code for the activity 186
Chapter 7 How to work with themes and styles
An introduction to themes and styles 198
Three common themes 198
How to supply different themes for different APIs 200
How to convert an existing project to the AppCompat theme 202
How to work with styles 204
How to define a style 204
How to apply a style 206
How to create a style sheet 208
How to work with themes 210
How to modify a built-in theme 210
How to modify the AppCompat theme 212
How to modify a theme depending on the API 214
How to modify the text appearance for a theme 216
A summary of built-in themes 218
How to apply themes 220
How to work with colors 222
How to define colors 222
How to apply colors 222
Chapter 8 How to work with menus and preferences
How to work with menus 228
An introduction to menus 228
How to define a menu 232
How to display an options menu 234
How to handle option menu events 234
How to start a new activity 236
How to work with preferences 238
An introduction to preferences 238
How to define preferences 240
How to display preferences 242
How to get preferences 244
How to use preferences 246
More skills for working with preferences 248
How to group preferences 248
How to enable and disable preferences 250
How to use Java to work with preferences 252
X Expanded contents
Chapter 9 How to work with fragments
An introduction to fragments 260
Single-pane and multi-pane layouts ,260
The lifecycle methods of a fragment ,262
How to use single-pane layouts for small screens 264
How to create the layout for a fragment ,264
How to create the class for a fragment ,266
How to display a fragment in an activity ,268
How to create a preference fragment ,270
How to display a preference fragment in an activity ,270
How to use multi-pane layouts for large screens... 272
How to add multiple fragments to a layout ,272
How to detect screen width ,274
How to control the soft keyboard ,276
Other skills for working with fragments 278
How' to get a reference to a fragment ,278
How to replace one fragment with another ,280
Section 3 The News Reader app
Chapter 10 How to work with threads, files, adapters,
and intents
An introduction to the News Reader app 288
The user interface 288
The XML for an RSS feed 290
How to work with threads 292
How threads work 292
How to execute asynchronous tasks 294
How to execute timed tasks 298
How to update the UI thread 300
How to work with files 302
How to download a file from the Internet 302
How to parse an XML file 304
The RSSFeedHandler class 306
The RSSFeed class 310
The RSSItem class 310
How to work with adapters 314
How to create the layout for a list view 314
How to use an adapter to display data in a list view 316
How to handle events for an adapter 318
How to work with intents 320
How to pass data between activities 320
How to view a URL in a web browser 322
How to dial or call a phone number 322
The News Reader app 324
The activity_items layout 324
The ItemsActivity class 326
The FilelO class 330
The activity_item layout 330
The ItemActivity class 334