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)

Preface

Welcome to Mastering Android Studio 3, a comprehensive guide to the latest and most sophisticated Android development environment. Whether you are new to IDEs or want to migrate from another, such as Eclipse, this book uses practical examples to demonstrate how Android Studio facilitates each stage of development.

Beginning with an introduction to the workspace itself, the book then explores the wide variety of UI design tools the IDE provides, including the powerful visual layout editor, automatic constraint layout tools and animated material icons.

Once the IDE's design tools have been mastered, the book continues by exploring code development with Android Studio and its many helpful and innovative programming tools, such as code completion, template customization, and most importantly, the fantastic testing and profiling tools that are provided with Android Studio 3.

Android Studio is not just a great tool for vanilla coding; it provides all manner of additions and extensions in the form of plugins and native language support for languages such as C++ and Kotlin. It is this extensibility of the native SDK that makes Mastering Android Studio 3 such an essential skill-set for any mobile developer, and the most useful and popular of these are covered in detail to give the reader mastery of what is without doubt one of today's most exciting development tools.