Getting started with android

History of Android
 In 2007, a group of manufacturers, wireless
carriers & software developers formed the “Open
Handset Alliance”
 Some of these include
 Broadcom Corporation
 HTC
 Intel
 LG
 Motorola
 Samsung
 T-Mobile
 Google

History of Android
 The goal was to develop the next generation of
wireless platform
 The new platform would be nonproprietary & based
on open standards
 This would lead to lower development costs &
increases profits
 RIM Blackberry & Apple iOS were proprietary
platforms, so the mobile development community
eagerly waited for this new potential platform
 In 2008, the OHA announces the Android platform
and launched a beta program for developers.

History of Android
 Several pre-release versions of the Android SDK
were released
 The first Android handset (T-Mobile G1) began
shipping in late 2008

History of Android
 Almost all major manufacturers have Android
based handsets
 The following companies do not have Android
Phones
 Apple
 RIM
 Nokia

Easy Development
 Android breaks the proprietary concept of mobile
development
 Unlike with other mobile platforms, there are
virtually no costs to developing Android
Applications
 The Android SDK and tools are freely available
on the Android developer website
 http://developer.android.com
 The freely available Eclipse is the most popular
IDE for Android Development
 So basically the setup itself is very cheap

Easy Development
 The best part is the development language
 Android applications are written in Java
Language
 Java being the popular language among the
developer community
 The learning curve for developers is quite less
since they already know Java
 The main thing that they have to understand is
the SDK and Tools for development

Some pre-requisites for Android
 Java Language
 XML
 Eclipse IDE
 SDK

What is Android?
 Android is a software stack for mobile devices
that includes
 an operating system
 Middleware
 key applications
 The Android SDK provides the tools and APIs
necessary to begin developing applications.

Features of Android
 Application framework enabling reuse and
replacement of components
 Dalvik virtual machine optimized for mobile
devices
 Integrated browser based on the open source
WebKit engine
 Optimized graphics powered by a custom 2D
graphics library; 3D graphics based on the
OpenGL ES 1.0 specification (hardware
acceleration optional)
 SQLite for structured data storage

Features of Android
 Media support for common audio, video, and still
image formats (MPEG4, H.264, MP3, AAC, AMR,
JPG, PNG, GIF)
 GSM Telephony (hardware dependent)
 Bluetooth, EDGE, 3G, and WiFi (hardware
dependent)
 Camera, GPS, compass, and accelerometer
(hardware dependent)
 Rich development environment including a
device emulator, tools for debugging, memory
and performance profiling, and a plugin for the
Eclipse IDE

Applications
 Android provides a set of core applications
including an
 email client,
 SMS program,
 calendar,
 maps,
 browser,
 contacts, and others.
 All applications are written using the Java
programming language.

Application Framework
 Android offers developers the ability to build
extremely rich and innovative applications.
 Developers are free to take advantage of the
 device hardware,
 access location information,
 run background services,
 set alarms,
 add notifications to the status bar & much more
 Developers have full access to the same
framework APIs used by the core applications

 The application architecture is designed to
simplify the reuse of components
 Any application can publish its capabilities and
any other application may then make use of those
capabilities
 This same mechanism allows components to be
replaced by the user

 Underlying all applications is a set of services and
systems, including:
 A rich and extensible set of Views that can be used
to build an application, including lists, grids, text
boxes, buttons, and even an embeddable web
browser
 Content Providers that enable applications to
access data from other applications (such as
Contacts), or to share their own data
 A Resource Manager, providing access to non-
code resources such as localized strings, graphics,
and layout files
 A Notification Manager that enables all
applications to display custom alerts in the status
bar

Libraries
 Android includes a set of libraries used by various
components of the Android system.
 These capabilities are exposed to developers
through the Android application framework. Some of
the core libraries are listed below:
 Media Libraries - the libraries support playback and
recording of many popular audio and video formats, as
well as static image files, including
MPEG4, H.264, MP3, AAC, AMR, JPG, and PNG
 LibWebCore - a modern web browser engine which
powers both the Android browser and an embeddable
web view
 3D libraries - an implementation based on OpenGL ES
1.0 APIs;
 FreeType - bitmap and vector font rendering

Android Runtime
 Every Android application runs in its own process,
with its own instance of the Dalvik virtual machine
(DVM)
 Dalvik has been written so that a device can run
multiple VMs efficiently.
 The Dalvik VM executes files which are optimized
for minimal memory footprint.
 The Dalvik VM relies on the Linux kernel for
underlying functionality such as threading and
low-level memory management.

Linux Kernel
 Android relies on Linux version 2.6 for core
system services such as
 security,
 memory management,
 process management,
 network stack, and
 driver model.
 The kernel also acts as an abstraction layer
between the hardware and the rest of the
software stack

Android Development Tools
Plugin
 ADT Plugin is available for Eclipse
 It provides the following:-
 Android project wizard
 Android specific resource editors
 Android SDK & AVD (Android Virtual Device) Manager
 DDMS (Dalvik Debug Monitor Service) perspective for
debugging/monitoring apps
 Integration with Android LogCat Logging
 Automated builds & application deployment to Android
emulators and handsets
 Application packaging and code signing tools for
release deployment

Eclipse ?
 Is Eclipse Necessary for development?
 NO
 Developers can develop Android apps without
using the Eclipse IDE
 However by doing so, they are missing the ease
of development that Eclipse provides

Remember…
 When developing any mobile application, always
remember:
 Screen Size is small
 Processing power is less
 Resources should be managed properly

Getting started with android

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