Book Image

Mastering Android Studio 3

By : Kyle Mew
Book Image

Mastering Android Studio 3

By: Kyle Mew

Overview of this book

Android Studio is an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) designed for developing Android apps. As with most development processes, Android keeps resources and logic nicely separated, and so this book covers the management of imagery and other resources, and the development and testing tools provided by the IDE. After introducing the software, the book moves straight into UI development using the sophisticated, WYSIWYG layout editor and XML code to design and test complex interfaces for a wide variety of screen configurations. With activity design covered, the book continues to guide the reader through application logic development, exploring the latest APIs provided by the SDK. Each topic will be demonstrated by working code samples that can be run on a device or emulator. One of Android Studio's greatest features is the large number of third-party plugins available for it, and throughout the book we will be exploring the most useful of these, along with samples and libraries that can be found on GitHub. The final module of the book deals with the final stages of development: building and distribution. The book concludes by taking the reader through the registration and publication processes required by Google. By the time you have finished the book, you will be able to build faster, smoother, and error-free Android applications, in less time and with fewer complications than you ever thought possible.
Table of Contents (10 chapters)

Third-party plugins

There is a large and growing number of third-party plugins available, making it difficult to select a fair sample. The following sections covers a small collection of plugins selected primarily for their general-purpose usefulness.

ADB Wi-Fi

This is a JetBrains plugin and so can be found using the Browse Repositories... button of the Plugins screen of the Settings dialog:

The plugins dialog

This plugin simply allows us to debug our apps using a shared Wi-Fi connection. Despite its simplicity, this app is more than a cable-saving convenience, as it allows live debugging of many of the device's sensors that would be greatly restricted by being tethered to the host machine. Fitness and augmented reality...