Book Image

Android Development Tools for Eclipse

By : Khirulnizam Abd Rahman, Sanjay Shah
Book Image

Android Development Tools for Eclipse

By: Khirulnizam Abd Rahman, Sanjay Shah

Overview of this book

<p>The increase in Android's popularity with every passing day cannot be understated. This has resulted in a large programmer base willing to contribute to its success. Eclipse has a powerful IDE and has been adopted widely by programmers across the globe. The focus of ADT is to use existing familiar territory and ease development of Android applications. In this sense, ADT provides a one stop solution for Android application development.</p><p>Android Development Tools for Eclipse is a step-by-step guide that provides you with hands-on, practical, and to the point discussion and steps for using Eclipse tools for developing, debugging, and signing Android applications for distribution. It also teaches you to incorporate advertisements to monetize your applications. Every concept and its usage has been demonstrated in this book by implementing them via real world applications.</p><p></p><p>Android Development Tools for Eclipse starts with the installation of ADT, and then discusses important tools before guiding you through Android application development from scratch, demonstrating different concepts and implementation before finally helping you distribute your applications in the Android market. You will start the development of your first application, explore project structure, and add different widgets including multimedia ones.</p><p></p><p>You will learn everything about developing, debugging, testing, distributing, and monetizing your Android application using Eclipse ADT.</p>

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Android Development Tools for Eclipse
Khirulnizam Abd Rahman | Sanjay Shah
Jul, 2013 | 144 pages
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Table of Contents (10 chapters)
Preface
Preface
What this book covers
What you need for this book
Who this book is for
Conventions
Reader feedback
Customer support
Free Chapter
1
1. Installing Eclipse, ADT, and SDK
1. Installing Eclipse, ADT, and SDK
Introducing the Android platform
What is Android?
Preparing for Android development
Linking the Android SDK to the Eclipse
Summary
2
2. Important Features of the IDE
2. Important Features of the IDE
Project explorer
Code editor
Graphical user interface designer
Properties window
Debugging pane
Dalvik Debug Monitor Server (DDMS)
SDK manager
Android virtual device manager
Running the Application
Getting help
Summary
3
3. Creating a New Android Project
3. Creating a New Android Project
Creating a new Android application project
String resources
Using the graphical layout designer
The XML layout code editor
Widget interactions through the source code editor
Toast message
Running the application on the emulator
Running the application on an Android device
Summary
4
4. Incorporating Multimedia Elements
4. Incorporating Multimedia Elements
Adding a TableLayout
Adding the image resources
Adding ImageView
Adding ImageButtons
Assigning the widget's ID
ImageButtons and handling event
Adding audio
Adding another screen in the app
Adding HTML to WebView
Intent and Activity
The final product run and test
Summary
5
5. Adding RadioButton, CheckBox, Menu, and Preferences
5. Adding RadioButton, CheckBox, Menu, and Preferences
Creating a new project
Adding a RadioGroup, RadioButton, and a TextField
Adding a CheckBox
Adding a menu
Defining the Strings
Defining the Preference screen
Hook up
Run the application
Summary
6
6. Handling Multiple Screen Types
6. Handling Multiple Screen Types
Using wrap_content and match_parent
Fragment
Running the application
Optimizing for tablet
Persisting the state information during the state transition
Summary
7
7. Adding an External Library
7. Adding an External Library
Creating an account at the AdMob website
Running the application
Summary
8
8. Signing and Distributing APK
8. Signing and Distributing APK
APK – Android package
Preparing for release
Using the Eclipse ADT for release
Publishing to Google Play
Summary
9
Index
Index

Preparing for release

After the hard work of coding and testing the application needs to be packaged for release. Packaging involves the following steps.

Compilation for release

This is the very first step towards release and distribution. It comprises of setting a package name in the application's manifest file, configuring application attributes, and compilation before release. They involve the following steps:

  • Choosing appropriate package name: Once the application is released it cannot be undone hence, the need to dwell upon and choose a suitable package name. The package name can be set in the application's manifest file.
  • Disabling debugging: We need to make sure we disable debugging before we release it. To disable debugging, comment or remove the Log() method call in the code. Also, debugging can be disabled by removing the android:debuggable attribute from the <application> tag.
  • Pointing out the application icon: Every application needs to have an icon of itself. Please...
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