Book Image

Android 3.0 Application Development Cookbook

By : Kyle Merrifield Mew
Book Image

Android 3.0 Application Development Cookbook

By: Kyle Merrifield Mew

Overview of this book

<p>Android is a mobile operating system that runs on a staggering number of smartphones and tablets. Android offers developers the ability to build extremely rich and innovative applications written using the Java programming language. Among the number of books that have been published on the topic, what&rsquo;s missing is a thoroughly practical, hands-on book that takes you straight to getting your job done without boring you with too much theory.<br /><br />Android 3.0 Application Development Cookbook will take you straight to the information you need to get your applications up and running. This book is written to provide you with the shortest possible route between an idea and a working application. <br /><br />Work through the book from start to finish to become an Android expert, or use it as a reference book by applying recipes directly to your project.<br /><br />This book covers every aspect of mobile app development, starting with major application components and screen layout and design, before moving on to how to manage sensors such as internal gyroscopes and near field communications. Towards the end, it delves into smartphone multimedia capabilities as well as graphics and animation, web access, and GPS. <br /><br />Whether you are writing your first app or your hundredth, this is a book that you will come back to time and time again, with its many tips and tricks on the rich features of Android 3.</p>
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
Android 3.0 Application Development Cookbook
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Dividing the screen into fragments


So as to cater for the larger screens found on tablet devices, Android introduced the android.app.fragment package with version 3.0 (API level 11). Fragments simplify the process of designing and displaying multi-pane screens and are similar to layouts and view groups but provide some of the functionality of activities.

This recipe will demonstrate how to open a fragment from a list and how to control content.

Getting ready

Start a new Android project in Eclipse, making sure that the target build is API level 11 or higher by including the following tag to the <manifest> element of the manifest file:

<uses-sdk
  android:targetSdkVersion="11" />

How to do it....

  1. The main layout for this example is a horizontal, LinearLayout containing a ListView and a fragment. The complete main.xml code looks like the lines below but substitute the package name in the class declaration with that of your own project:

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
    <LinearLayout...