Android Basic Course

2012 University of Science HCM City

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Module 1: Android Overview
M.Sc. Bui Tan Loc
btloc@fit.hcmus.edu.vn

Department of Software Engineering,
Faculty of Information Technology,
University of Science Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam
Android Basic Course
2012 University of Science HCM City
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Objectives
After completing this module, you will have learned:
Android Features
About Android Architecture/Android software stack
That the Android SDK includes developer tools, APIs, and
comprehensive documentation
About types of Android applications
About Android application component model
About Android application building blocks

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Android Basic Course
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Contents
What is Android?
Why Android?
Features
Android Architecture/Android Software Stack
Overview of the Android development environment
Types of Android applications
Android application components
Android application component model
Android application building blocks
Android design guidelines
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Android Basic Course
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What is Android?
Android is a software stack for mobile devices that
includes an operating system, middleware and key
applications. The Android SDK provides the tools and
APIs necessary to begin developing applications on the
Android platform using the Java programming language.
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Why Android?
Listen from the project creators/developers (2.19 min)
Nick Sears. Co-founder of Android
Steve Horowitz. Engineering Director
Dam Morrill. Developer
Peisun Wu. Engineering Project Manager
Erick Tseng. Project Manager
Iliyan Malchev. Engineer
Mike Cleron. Software Manager
Per Gustafsson. Graphics Designer.
etc

http://youtu.be/6rYozIZOgDk

You will hear statements such as currently it is too difficult to make new products
open software brings more innovation choices lower costs more applications such
as family planner, my taxes, understand my wife better,

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Android vs. Competitors 04/2011
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0
100,000
200,000
300,000
400,000
500,000
600,000
Symbian Android Research In
Motion
iOS Microsoft Other Operating
Systems
2010
2011
2012
2015
http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1622614
Android Basic Course
2012 University of Science HCM City
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Features
Application framework enabling reuse and replacement of components
Dalvik virtual machine optimized for mobile devices
Integrated browser based on the open source WebKit engine
Optimized graphics powered by a custom 2D graphics library; 3D graphics
based on the OpenGL ES 1.0 specification (hardware acceleration optional)
SQLite for structured data storage
Media support for common audio, video, and still image formats (MPEG4,
H.264, MP3, AAC, AMR, JPG, PNG, GIF)
GSM Telephony (hardware dependent)
Bluetooth, EDGE, 3G, and WiFi (hardware dependent)
Camera, GPS, compass, and accelerometer (hardware dependent)
Rich development environment including a device emulator, tools for
debugging, memory and performance profiling, and a plugin for the Eclipse IDE
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Android Basic Course
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Android Architecture/Android Software Stack
Java
C++
Kernel
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Android Basic Course
2012 University of Science HCM City
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Applications
All applications, both native and third-party, are built on
the application layer by means of the same API
libraries. The application layer runs within the Android
run time, using the classes and services made available
from the application framework.
Applications = Native Apps + Third-Party Apps + Developer Apps
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Application Framework
The application framework provides the classes used to
create Android applications. It also provides a generic
abstraction for hardware access and manages the user
interface and application resources.
The application framework that lets you produce a
replacement contact manager or phone dialer can let you
expose your application components to let other
developers create new UI front ends and functionality
extensions, or otherwise build on them thanks to
Android Application Architecture.
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Android Application Architecture
Android Application Architecture is a set of services and
systems, including:
Activity Manager: Controls the life cycle of your Activities, including
management of the Activity stack.
Views: Used to construct the user interfaces for your Activities.
Notication: Manager Provides a consistent and nonintrusive
mechanism for signaling your users.
Content Providers: Let your applications share data.
Resource Manager: Supports non-code resources like strings and
graphics to be externalized.
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Android Libraries
Android includes a set of C/C++ libraries such as:
A media library for playback of audio and video media.
A surface manager to provide display management.
Graphics libraries that include SGL and OpenGL for 2D and 3D
graphics.
SQLite for native database support.
SSL and WebKit for integrated web browser and Internet security.
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Android Basic Course
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Android Runtime
What makes an Android phone an Android phone rather
than a mobile Linux implementation is the Android run
time. Including the core libraries and the Dalvik virtual
machine, the Android run time is the engine that powers
your applications and, along with the libraries, forms the
basis for the application framework.
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Android Runtime
Core libraries: While Android development is done in
Java, Dalvik is not a Java VM. The core Android
libraries provide most of the functionality available in
the core Java libraries as well as the Android-specic
libraries.
Dalvik virtual machine: Dalvik is a register-based virtual
machine thats been optimized to ensure that a device
can run multiple instances efciently. It relies on the
Linux kernel for threading and low-level memory
management.
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Linux Kernel
Core services (including hardware drivers, process and
memory management, security, network, and power
management) are handled by a Linux 2.6 kernel. The
kernel also provides an abstraction layer between the
hardware and the remainder of the stack.
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Overview of the Android development environment
Supported OS:
Windows, Mac OS X, Linux
Pre-requirement:
JDK
1. Installing Editor:
Eclipse (Eclipse classic version is recommended)
2. Installing SDK Starter Package (SDK Manager):
Note that you need to refer to the SDK directory (In Windows OS,
this called set path)
3. Installing ADT plugin for Eclipse:
Configuring Eclipse to work with SDK Manager
4. Using SDK Manager to add platforms and other
components:
SDKs, documents, sample source codes, etc.

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Overview of Android SDK versions
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Platform Version API Level VERSION_CODE Notes
Android 4.0 14 ICE_CREAM_SANDWICH Platform Highlights
Android 3.2 13 HONEYCOMB_MR2
Android 3.1.x 12 HONEYCOMB_MR1 Platform Highlights
Android 3.0.x 11 HONEYCOMB Platform Highlights
Android 2.3.4
Android 2.3.3
10 GINGERBREAD_MR1
Platform Highlights
Android 2.3.2
Android 2.3.1
Android 2.3
9 GINGERBREAD
Android 2.2.x 8 FROYO Platform Highlights
Android 2.1.x 7 ECLAIR_MR1
Platform Highlights Android 2.0.1 6 ECLAIR_0_1
Android 2.0 5 ECLAIR
Android 1.6 4 DONUT Platform Highlights
Android 1.5 3 CUPCAKE Platform Highlights
Android 1.1 2 BASE_1_1
Android 1.0 1 BASE
Android Basic Course
2012 University of Science HCM City
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Types of Android applications
1. Foreground: An application thats useful only when its in
the foreground and is effectively.
2. Background: An application with limited interaction
that, apart from when being congured, spends most of
its lifetime hidden:
Ex: SMS apps
3. Intermittent: Expects some interactivity but does most
of its work in the background.
Ex: chat, email apps
4. Widget: Some applications are represented only as a
home-screen widget.
Ex: clock, weather apps
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Android application package
Android applications are written in Java.
An Android application is bundled by the aapt tool into an
Android package (.apk)
.apk
Java
Code


Data Files
Resources
Files
res/layout: declaration layout files
res/drawable: intended for drawing
res/admin: bitmaps, animations for
transitions
res/values: externalized values
strings, colors, styles, etc
res/xml: general XML files used at runtime
res/raw: binary files (e.g. sound)
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Android application components
1. Activities (user interaction): UI component typically
corresponding to a screen.
Ex: any screen.
2. Services (service provider): Background process without
UI
Ex: mp3 player. Messages can be sent from and to a service.
3. Content Providers (data provider): Enables applications
to share data
Ex: Contacts are provided to all applications.
4. Broadcast Receivers (system event listener): Responds
to external events, can wake up your process
Ex: Phone rings, network activity established, time controlled.
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The Android application manifest
Each Android project includes a manifest le,
AndroidManifest.xml, stored in the root of the project
hierarchy. The manifest lets you dene the structure
and metadata of your application, its components, and its
requirements.
It includes nodes for each of the components
(Activities, Services, Content Providers, and Broadcast
Receivers) that make up your application and, using
Intent Filters and Permissions, determines how they
interact with each other and with other applications.
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Android application component model
Application (.apk)
Process
Activity Activity
Activity Activity
Content Provider
Service Service
Broadcast Receiver
Intent
Result
Remote Method(AIDL)
Query/cursor
Broadcast Intent
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Android application building blocks
Android application building blocks = Android application
components + Intents + Widgets + Notifications
5. Widgets: Visual application components that can be
added to the home screen. A special variation of a
Broadcast Receiver, widgets let you create dynamic,
interactive application components for users to embed
on their home screens
6. Notifications: Notifications let you signal users without
stealing focus or interrupting their current Activities.
Theyre the preferred technique for getting a users
attention from within a Service or Broadcast Receiver.
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Android Basic Course
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Android application building blocks
7. Intents (Activating Components):
An inter-application message-passing framework. Using Intents you
can broadcast messages system-wide or to a target Activity or
Service, stating your intention to have an action performed.
Three of the four component typesactivities, services, and
broadcast receiversare activated by an asynchronous message
called an intent.
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Android Basic Course
2012 University of Science HCM City
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Android design guidelines
In many ways, designing an Android application is the
same as designing for any other mobile app. Android
applications follow the same user experience rules that
all mobile applications should follow.
When you develop Android applications, you should follow
the Android design guidelines. This is important when
you want to publish your applications on Android Market.
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Questions or Discussions
Why do people say about Android:
java, but not java?
Linux, but not Linux?
More capabilities with native libraries?

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Android Basic Course
2012 University of Science HCM City
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References & Further readings
Android Basics:
http://developer.android.com/guide/basics/what-is-android.html
http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/fundamentals.html
Installing the SDK:
http://developer.android.com/sdk/installing.html
Android API Levels:
http://developer.android.com/guide/appendix/api-levels.html
Android application model:
http://gcu.googlecode.com/files/android_application_model.ppt
Android design guidelines:
http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/lib/12061.pdf
http://developer.android.com/guide/practices/ui_guidelines/index.
html
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Android Basic Course
2012 University of Science HCM City
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References & Further readings
Professional Android 2
Application Development, Reto
Meier, Wiley Publishing (2010)
Introducing the Development
Framework, Chapter 1
Types of Android Applications,
Chapter 2
What Makes an Android Application,
Chapter 3

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