Book Image

Android Programming for Beginners - Third Edition

By : John Horton
Book Image

Android Programming for Beginners - Third Edition

By: John Horton

Overview of this book

Do you want to make a career in programming but don’t know where to start? Do you have a great idea for an app but don't know how to make it a reality? Or are you worried that you’ll have to learn Java programming to become an Android developer? Look no further! This new and expanded third edition of Android Programming for Beginners will be your guide to creating Android applications from scratch. The book starts by introducing you to all the fundamental concepts of programming in an Android context, from the basics of Java to working with the Android API. You’ll learn with the help of examples that use up-to-date API classes and are created within Android Studio, the official Android development environment that helps supercharge your mobile application development process. After a crash course on the key programming concepts, you’ll explore Android programming and get to grips with creating applications with a professional-standard UI using fragments and storing user data with SQLite. This Android Java book also shows you how you can make your apps multilingual, draw on the screen with a finger, and work with graphics, sound, and animations. By the end of this Android programming book, you'll be ready to start building your own custom applications in Android and Java.
Table of Contents (30 chapters)

Android intents

The Intent class is appropriately named. It is a class that demonstrates the intent of an Activity class from our app. It makes an intent clear and it also facilitates it.

All our apps so far have had just one Activity, but many Android apps comprise more than one.

In perhaps its most common use, an Intent class allows us to switch between Activity instances. But of course, Activity instances are made from classes with member variables. So, what happens to the variable's value – the data – when we switch between them? Intents handle this problem for us by allowing us to pass data between Activity instances.

Intents aren't just about wiring up the Activity instances of our app. They also make it possible to interact with other apps too. For example, we could provide a link in our app for the user to send an email, make a phone call, interact with social media, or open a web page in a browser and have the email app, phone call app, social...