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Introduction
Android is a mobile operating system, similar to Symbian, iOS, Windows® Mobile, and others. It was initially developed by Android Inc., a company later purchased by Google. It is now owned by the Open Handset Alliance and is fully open sourced, accounting for its growing popularity. Google released most of the Android code under the Apache License. With this license, vendors can add proprietary extensions without submitting them back to the open source community. Many versions of Android have hit the market since its inception (the most recent as of Q3 2010), including the power-packed Froyo (V2.2). Android has moved beyond simply being a platform for mobile devices; the new Google TV also runs on Android.
Android uses a modified Linux® kernel and allows applications to be developed in Java™ technology using Java libraries (some of which were developed by Google for Android). While Android applications are written in the Java language, there's no Java Virtual Machine in the platform, and Java byte code is not executed. Java classes are recompiled into Dalvik executables and run on a Dalvik virtual machine. Dalvik is a modified VM for Android and optimized devices running on battery power and with low CPU.
For developers, Android SDK provides a rich set of tools, including debugger, libraries, handset emulator, documentation, sample code, and tutorials. Android applications can be easily developed using Eclipse (Android's official development platform) with the help of a plug-in called Android Development Tools (ADT). This helps leverage Eclipse's rich features, such as content assist, Java search, open resources, JUnit integration, and different views and perspectives for developing an Android app. A wide array of widgets, which are similar to Java swing widgets, facilitate in creating a rich UI for the apps. A detailed Javadoc makes the development process quite easy.
Here, we start with a guide for preparing the system for Android
development. We then touch briefly upon the salient features of an Android
application using a basic Hello World Android app. We also talk about the
files that make up an Android app and how the UI is separated
from the implementation. After going through the process of creating,
developing, and launching an Android app from Eclipse, we move on to a
discussion about a few Android widgets that help in building a rich UI (a
very important part of mobile apps). We demonstrate a few basic widgets
with the help of a sample application. We also talk about using the listView
widget in an phonebook-like application and the ways it can be
implemented. In between, we also talk about permissions that need to be
set in order to be able to have an application access some data from the
OS. Overall, a few hours on the article should enable you to
create an app implementing a basic functionality and with a nice UI.
Before beginning Android development, please make sure you have the following installed:
- Eclipse SDK — V3.5 is suggested for use with the latest Android SDK. This can be downloaded from the Galileo download page.
- Android SDK
- Android Development Tools (ADT) — This is an Eclipse plug-in. It is the equivalent of JDT (Java Development Tools) for Android Development. Please follow the detailed instructions for installing the ADT plug-in, and also for setting the location of Android SDK in Eclipse.
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