Android App Development Fundamentals
1. Learn the language well
When making an Android app, Java and XML are the two main programming languages that are used. Because of this, you need to know and be good at these programming languages in order to make an Android app. Some basic things about the Java programming language are:
Packages
Objects & Classes
Interfaces and inheritance
Strings and numbers, generics, and Collections
Concurrency
If you know how to use Java and XML correctly, you can make a more powerful and beautiful Android app.
2. Familiarity with the right tools and environment for making apps
Before you start making your app, it is very important to learn about the build automation tools and the integrated development environment if you are new to Android app development. You can use tools like the Android app studio IDE or Eclipse. They will help you learn the basics and a lot of other things that will make your code better. You can learn Apache Maven, Apache Ant, and Gradle because they offer a powerful set of tools to help you manage your builds.
It's also important to learn about the tools and ideas behind source control. Learn how to use git, and then set up a git-source repository (by creating an account on Bitbucket or GitHub). The Git Pocket Guide can help you learn the main ideas and terms of how the platform works.
3. Know the parts of the application
Application components are the most important parts of making an Android app. Each part is a different way that the system can get into your app. Even though each one is its own thing and does its own thing, some of them depend on each other, and not all of them are real entry points.
There are five different kinds of app components, and each one has a different job and a different "life cycle" that shows how it is made and taken away. Among them are:
Activities:
This part stands for a single screen with a user interface (for instance, an email app may have one activity showing a list of new emails, another activity composing emails, and another one reading emails). The activities in an app work together to give users a unified experience. But each of them stands on its own.
Services:
This is a part that runs in the background to do work for long-running or remote processes. It doesn't have a way for people to use it (for instance it might play music in the background while the user is in a different app).
Content providers:
This is the part of the app that takes care of a set of shared app data. Through this part, you can query or even change the data you store in the file system, on the web, or in an SQLite database (as long as the content provider allows it). This part can also be used to write and read data that is only used by your app and is not shared.
Receivers for radio and TV:
This is the part that responds to messages sent to the whole system. Most broadcast receivers come from the system. They don't have a user interface, but when a broadcast event happens, they can put a message in the status bar to let the user know. In general, it acts as a doorway to the other parts and doesn't do much else.
Parts that turn on:
Three of the four components are turned on by a synchronous message called "intent" (i.e. services, activities, and broadcast receivers). Intents also connect different parts of your app to each other at runtime, whether the part is part of your app or not.
Also read: How to Build a WordPress Website
4. Know about fragments, the Android app, threads, loaders, and tasks.
Android is a market with a lot of different devices and versions of the operating system. Note that if your device works with more devices and/or versions, it will need more testing and maintenance, which will cost more. It also works the other way around. You also need the right fonts, assets, and layouts to make sure that people get the best possible experience on all kinds of screens. You should also think about the different sensors or user interface features that Android can use. All Android apps have one or more activities, one or more fragments, and an application class.
Sometimes you may have background services that need to run all the time, and sometimes you may not. If you want to give the user a great and smooth interface, make sure the thread never gets stuck. So, everything that takes a long time (computations, I/O, network, etc.) should be done in the background asynchronously (mainly on a different thread of execution). This is why it's important to learn how to use the Java language's concurrency facilities.
5. Making the Right Choice About Tools That Are Needed
You only need a Mac or Windows PC, any kind of Linux, Eclipse, the ADT Plugin, and the Android SDK, all of which are free, to make an Android app. To learn how to set up your development environment, you can look at the installation guide on Google. It has all the information you need. When writing an app for Android, you should keep in mind some of its unique rules. Here are some of them:
Performance and responsiveness: You should always respond to user input within five seconds, or the operating system will ANR you. (ANR means "application not responding." Your only choice is to force close the app.)
Users will notice delays of more than 100ms: As was already said, the UI thread should never be stopped because there is only one of them.
Not enough money: Wake-locks, which force a device to do something even if the battery manager says it should go to sleep, should be used as little as possible. Don't poll hardware (like a GPS or accelerometer) if you don't need to. This will quickly drain the battery.
If you are interested to learn Android development then you can join an online course for android development.
Comments