Book Image

Android Programming for Beginners - Second Edition

By : John Horton
Book Image

Android Programming for Beginners - Second Edition

By: John Horton

Overview of this book

Are you trying to start a career in programming, but haven't found the right way in? Do you have a great idea for an app, but don't know how to make it a reality? Or maybe you're just frustrated that in order to learn Android, you must know Java. If so, then this book is for you. This new and expanded second edition of Android Programming for Beginners will be your companion to create Android Pie applications from scratch. We will introduce you to all the fundamental concepts of programming in an Android context, from the basics of Java to working with the Android API. All examples use the up-to-date API classes, and are created from within Android Studio, the official Android development environment that helps supercharge your application development process. After this crash course, we'll dive deeper into Android programming and you'll learn how to create applications with a professional-standard UI through fragments and store your user's data with SQLite. In addition, you'll see how to make your apps multilingual, draw to the screen with a finger, and work with graphics, sound, and animations too. By the end of this book, you'll be ready to start building your own custom applications in Android and Java.
Table of Contents (35 chapters)
Android Programming for Beginners - Second Edition
Contributors
Preface
Other Books You May Enjoy
Index

Making the layout look pretty


In this section, we will explore some more attributes that control the finer details of our UI. You have probably noticed how the UI looks a bit squashed in some places and wonky and unsymmetrical in others. As we progress through the book, we will continually add to our repertoire to improve our layouts, but these short steps will introduce and take care of some of the basics:

  1. Select the Multiline Text, and then expand the Padding attribute. Set the all option to 15sp. This has made a neat area of space around the outside of the text.

  2. To make a nice space below the Multiline text, find and expand the Layout_Margin attribute and set bottom to 100sp.

  3. On both TextView that are aligned/related to the buttons, set the textSize attribute to 20sp, the layout_gravity to center_vertical, the layout_width to match_parent, and the layout_weight to .7.

  4. On both buttons, set the weight to .3. Notice how both buttons now take up exactly .3 of the width and the text .7 of the...