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Android - A beginner's guide About Article
Browse Code
By Felix Geilert, 18 Aug 2010
Stats Covers the basics of
4.77 (103 votes) Rate this: Android application
Revisions (9) Tw eet 23 Like 223 31 0
development (you don't
Alternatives even need an Android
phone).
Comments &
Discussions (95) Introduction Type Article

Licence CPOL

This tutorial is a starting point for developing Android apps. It will explain the very basics of the Android SDK (Software First Posted 16 Aug 2010
Development Kit) and how to use it with Eclipse. To understand this tutorial, you don't need to have any knowledge Views 1,151,698
about programming in Java, but it might be helpful for further programming to understand the basics of object
Bookmarked 291 times
orientated programming. This tutorial explains Android beginners how to create an Android Project in Eclipse, work
with resources, and create some first code.
Java Mobile Beginner
Android
Setup Eclipse and the Android SDK
If you don't already have a running environment to develop Android apps, follow the instructions at this link.

Hint: PATH means the Path Environment Variable. In Windows, you will find it under "Control Panel/System/Advanced
System Settings/Environment Variables" in the lower list box. You can check what version of Java is installed, by going
in the command line and typing java -version.

Let's Get Started

Now we want to create our first application, which is (as always) a Hello World application. First of all, start Eclipse. Then
select "File/New/Project". In the "New Project" dialog, select "Android/Android Project" and click "Next".

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Here you can set up the project. First of all, we need to give the project a name, so type "Hello World" in the name box. Tilt Ball Walkthrough
Next you have to select the Android version you want to use. Here we choose version 2.2. As we see in the last Application for Analysis of the
column, we need the API Version 8 for this Android version, so we type an "8" in the Min SDK Version box. Also, the Programs Installed on Android
project requires an application name. (Notice that this name is also used in code, so the name should have no Introduction to Android
whitespaces). Usually, you use the project name and delete all whitespaces (e.g., "helloworld" for this project). Next, you development : TouchCalculator
have to define the package of the project. We will use "com.test.helloworld" here (a package can group multiple classes; Learn How to Develop Android
for more information, see here). At least, you need a name for the activity (one App might have multiple Activities; they Application
are like a single part/screen of the app). In this example, we simply use "HelloWorldApp". How to add external library file
in Android Studio
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Keeping the Mobile Enterprise

Moving: Don't Let Surging
Mobile App Use Outpace Your
Dev Team

In-The-Wild Testing: How to

Ensure Your Apps Work in the
Real World

5 Key Phases in Creating a

Successful Mobile App

Before we can finally start our first project, we need to create a configuration. This configuration specifies under which
circumstances the app will be started. E.g., you can control the network speed the emulator/app can use. Also, you can
choose different emulators to test the app with different versions of Android or in different screen sizes. To create the
configuration, go to "Run/Run Configurations". Now click the "Android Application" tab at the side and then the New
button above the tabs. Call the new configuration "HelloWorldConfig" and select our project over the Browse button.
Now move on to the target tab. Here you can select the network speed and which emulator will be used.

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Since we haven't created an emulator till now, we need to do that first. Click the automatic control to enable the
buttons at the side and then click on the manager-button. Here, click the new button to the right to create a new
emulator. In the following screen, you can enter a name for the emulator (I have used "DefaultAndroidEmulator") and
specify the details (like Android version, SD card size, and much more). You can control every little detail of the
emulator over the hardware section.

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Once you are done with that, click "Create AVD" and close the manager window. Now we have successfully created the
run configurations. Click "Apply" and close the configurations. At least run your first Android project.

Notice: It may take the emulator some time to get started, so be patient! Also, I have cropped the image so that you
can't see the keyboard or the D-pad.

Congratulations! You just created your first App!

Coding is Fun
After we have set up everything, it's (finally) time to actually getting started with the code, because we all know: Coding
is fun!

But before we can actually jump into the Java code, we need to understand the structure of an Android Application. Go
to your Package Explorer and enlarge the "Hello World" project. You will see five folders and two files. Let's get started
with the one of these two files, the AndroidManifest file. This file contains all the information about your project, like
the icon, the name of the author. To open it, make a right click on it and choose "Open With/Android Manifest Editor".
In the upcoming tab, you can specify the package name and the version of your project. At the bottom, you will find
additional tabs. I think most of the settings you will find are pretty much self-explanatory. Note the @ in front of some
attributes. This shows that the following string is a reference to a resource. You can find the resources in the "res"
folder of your project. If you enlarge it, you will notice that it has some subfolders. To be specific, the res folder can
have seven types of subfolders: values, drawable, layout, animations, xml, styles, and raw.

Let's focus on the values folder first. Here you can store all kinds of simple resources (like strings, colors, numbers,
dimensions, arrays, etc.). By default, you will find the strings.xml file in there. When you open it (with right click, "Open
with/Android Layout Editor"), you will see that it contains two values. The first is the message you see when you run
your project, and the second is the name of your app. You can add new values if you want to use them later on in code
(or in the Manifest or Layout files). You can also create specific resources using quantifiers. If you add a - to the folder's
name, you can add a quantifier to the name. E.g., you can rename the values folder to values-en which means that the
content of the folder is only used by Android phones with English language activated. If you do not add a quantifier,
the resources are default. The default resources are used if no specific resources for the current system are found. If the
project is started, all resources will be compiled as efficiently as possible and added to the package. Also, a reference will
be created (called R) which allows you to access the resources in code. Since this is only a tutorial, I will not focus on all
the types of resources here. You can find more information on resources and quantifiers here.

At last, it is time to start coding! Go to the "src" folder. In the folder, you will find the package folder, open the
HelloWorld.java file. You will see the default code for an Android Activity:

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package com.test.helloworld; //the package we are working in

//some android packages we need to import

import android.app.Activity;
import android.os.Bundle;

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//our activity class (extendes the default activity class)

public class HelloWorldApp extends Activity {
/** Called when the activity is first created. */
@Override
//the function called when activity is created
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
//call the create fct. Of the base class
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
//load the layout specified in the layout.xml
setContentView(R.layout.main);
}
}

As you can see, we create a new activity by extending the default Android activity class. Then we override the default
onCreatefunction, which is called when the project is created. In there, we load our own layout from the resources
and also call the onCreatefunction of the base class. Now let's take a closer look at the layout file. You find it in the
layout folder under resources. When you open it, it should look like this:

Collapse | Copy Code

<linearlayout android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:orientation="vertical"
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" />
<textview android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:text="@string/hello" />
</linearlayout />

You see the root node is called LinearLayout. As you you might already have figured out, there are different types of
layouts:

FrameLayout: All controls (children) are placed in the upper left corner.
LinearLayout: All children are positioned in vertical/horizontal order.
RelativeLayout: The positions of the children are specified in relation to the other children.
TableLayout: The child elements are placed with a grid.
AbsoluteLayout: The child elements are positioned based on absolute coordinates (in pixel).

Once you have chosen a layout type, you can add child elements. In the code given, there is already a Te xtView,
which is used to display text on the screen. The current content is a reference to a resource defined in the values.xml
file. As you will see, it uses the whole width of the screen, but is only as long as it needs to, to display the content. We
might start with some small changes. Let's change the text color of the T extViewto green:
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<textview android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:text="@string/hello"
android:textcolor="#FF00FF00" />

Now, launch the project and see the changes. Next, let's add a new control called EditText:
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<linearlayout android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:orientation="vertical"
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" />
<edittext android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:textcolor="#FF0000FF"
android:id="@+id/et_Text" />
<textview android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:textcolor="#FF00FF00" android:id="@+id/lv_View" />
</linearlayout />

When we want to access the controls in code, they need to have an ID. Next we create some code for the controls. Go
to the helloworld.java file.

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@Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
//loading the layout over the resource reference
setContentView(R.layout.main);

//get the two controls we created earlier, also with the resource reference and the id
final TextView tv_View = (TextView)findViewById(R.id.tv_View);
final EditText et_Text = (EditText)findViewById(R.id.et_Text);

//add new KeyListener Callback (to record key input)

et_Text.setOnKeyListener(new OnKeyListener()
{
//function to invoke when a key is pressed
public boolean onKey(View v, int keyCode, KeyEvent event)
{
//check if there is
if (event.getAction() == KeyEvent.ACTION_DOWN)
{
//check if the right key was pressed
if (keyCode == KeyEvent.KEYCODE_DPAD_CENTER)
{
//add the text to the textview
tv_View.setText(tv_View.getText() + ", " +
et_Text.getText());
//and clear the EditText control

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et_Text.setText("");
return true;
}
}
return false;
}
});
}

We will analyze the code line by line. First of all, as before, we load the layout. Then we create a TextViewand a
EditTextvariable and load our interface objects in them (that's what we need the ID for). Finally, we add a new
OnKeyListenerto the EditTextcontrol. In this OnKeyListener, we create the method onKey, which is called when
a key is pressed, when the control is active. In the method, we perform two checks: the first to be sure that a key is
pressed down (and not released), and the second to specify the key (in this case, the center key of the D-pad). If both
checks are passed, we add the text of the E ditTextcontrol to the TextView, and finally the text of the EditText
control is deleted. Run and test the application. Great, you created your first real Android app.

Android App Design

As with every platform, Android has its own design challenges. Always keep in mind that you are developing for a
mobile platform with limited memory, disk space, and processing power. Therefore, Android automatically kills
processes (each app runs in its own process) to keep the system responsive. Processes are sorted after importance. The
most important is the currently active process, followed by visible and stated service processes. The bottommost types
of processes in hierarchy are background and empty processes. Keep that in mind when you design your application,
because you don't want its process to be killed in the middle of something. Also, you can use whatever hardware is
built into the Android phone. But notice that not all phones might have this hardware, and so not all might be able to
run your app.

That's it for this tutorial. Hopefully, you understood the basics of Android development. Since this is my first article on
CodeProject, I would really appreciate feedback!

History
18 August, 2010 - Some minor changes.
16 August, 2010 - Initial article uploaded.

License
This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)

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About the Author

Felix Geilert
Other
Germany

I started programming about 7 years ago. My fields of interest are artificial intelligence,
simulations and mobile development. Today I study Informatics at the Technical University in
Braunschweig.

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Can you help me? Jhayarr Yambao Soto 18-Dec-13 23:21

My vote of 3 Miladcls 15-Dec-13 8:50

Android Studio Guide Member 10417318 21-Nov-13 6:34

Re: Android Studio Guide Yves 6-Dec-13 4:13

great job ikhmatiar 3-Oct-13 16:59

Good tutorial. Here is a video tutorial i found very good to Lucky Singh 2-Oct-13 21:39
start with.

Simple A beginner's guide Member 10261764 9-Sep-13 0:52

Nice One!! boss prabu 10-Aug-13 0:57

My vote of 5 Dineshshp 3-Jun-13 21:09

Android Member 9975180 11-Apr-13 19:18

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