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)

Fragment reality check

So, what does this Fragment stuff really do for us? Our first Fragment mini-app would have the same appearance and functionality had we not bothered with the Fragment at all.

In fact, using the Fragment class has made the whole thing more complicated! Why would we want to do this?

We know that a Fragment instance or fragments can be added to the layout of an Activity.

We know that a Fragment not only contains its own layout (view) but also its very own code (controller), which, although hosted by an Activity, the Fragment instance is virtually independent.

Our quick app only showed one Fragment instance in action, but we could have an Activity that hosts two or more fragments. We then effectively have two almost independent controllers displayed on a single screen.

What is most useful about this, however, is that when the Activity starts, we can detect attributes of the device our app is running on – perhaps phone or tablet; portrait or...