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The comprehensive developer guide to the latest Android features and capabilities
Professional Android, 4th Edition shows developers how to leverage the latest features of Android to create robust and compelling mobile apps. This hands-on approach provides in-depth coverage through a series of projects, each introducing a new Android platform feature and highlighting the techniques and best practices that exploit its utmost functionality. The exercises begin simply, and gradually build into advanced Android development. Clear, concise examples show you how to quickly construct real-world mobile applications.

This book is your guide to smart, efficient, effective Android development.

Learn the best practices that get more out of Android
Understand the anatomy, lifecycle, and UI metaphor of Android apps
Design for all mobile platforms, including tablets
Utilize both the Android framework and Google Play services



TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION xxxi

CHAPTER 1: HELLO, ANDROID 1

Android Application Development 1

A Little Background 2

The Not-So-Distant Past 3

Living in the Future 3

The Android Ecosystem 3

Pre-installed Android Applications 4

Android SDK Features 5

What Does Android Run On? 6

Why Develop for Mobile? 6

Why Develop for Android? 7

Introducing the Development Framework 7

What Comes in the Box 8

Understanding the Android Software Stack 8

The Android Run Time 10

Android Application Architecture 11

Android Libraries 12

CHAPTER 2: GETTING STARTED 13

Getting Started Developing Android Apps 14

Developing for Android 15

What You Need to Begin 15

Creating Your First Android Application 20

Getting Started Writing Android Apps Using Kotlin 35

Using the Android Support Library Package 36

Developing for Mobile and Embedded Devices 39

Hardware-Imposed Design Considerations 39

Considering the User's Environment 43

Developing for Android 44

Android Development Tools 48

Android Studio 49

The Android Virtual Device Manager 51

The Android Emulator 51

Android Profiler 52

The Android Debug Bridge 54

APK Analyzer 54

The Lint Tool 55

Monkey, Monkey Runner, and Espresso UI Testing 55

Gradle 56

CHAPTER 3: APPLICATIONS AND ACTIVITIES AND FRAGMENTS, OH MY! 57

Applications, Activities, and Fragments 58

The Components of an Android Application 58

The Android Application Life Cycle, Priority, and Process States 59

Introducing the Android Application Class 61

A Closer Look at Android Activities 61

Creating Activities 62

Using the AppCompatActivity 63

The Activity Life Cycle 64

Responding to Memory Pressure 71

Introducing Fragments 73

Creating New Fragments 73

The Fragment Life Cycle 74

Introducing the Fragment Manager 79

Adding Fragments to Activities 79

Communicating Between Fragments and Activities 85

Fragments without User Interfaces 86

Building an Earthquake Viewer Application 87

CHAPTER 4: DEFINING THE ANDROID MANIFEST AND GRADLE BUILD FILES, AND EXTERNALIZING RESOURCES 95

The Manifest, Build Files, and Resources 96

Introducing the Android Manifest 96

Configuring the Gradle Build 101

Gradle Settings File 101

Project Gradle Build File 102

Module Gradle Build Files 102

Externalizing Resources 107

Creating Resources 108

Using Resources 119

Creating Resources for Different Languages and Hardware 122

Runtime Configuration Changes 126

CHAPTER 5: BUILDING USER INTERFACES 129

Fundamental Android Design 130

Density-Independent Design 130

Android User Interface Fundamentals 131

Assigning User Interfaces to Activities 132

Introducing Layouts 132

Defining Layouts 134

Using Layouts to Create Device-Independent User Interfaces 136

Optimizing Layouts 139

The Android Widget Toolbox 143

Working with Lists and Grids 144

Recycler View and Layout Managers 145

Introducing Adapters 146

Returning to the Earthquake Viewer Application 149

Introducing Data Binding 150

Enabling Data Binding 151

Variables in Data Binding 152

Data Binding for the Earthquake Viewer Application 153

Creating New Views 155

Modifying Existing Views 155

Creating Compound Controls 159

Creating Simple Compound Controls as a Layout 161

Creating Custom Views 162

Using Custom Controls 176

CHAPTER 6: INTENTS AND BROADCAST RECEIVERS 177

Using Intents and Broadcast Receivers 178

Using Intents to Launch Activities 178

Explicitly Starting New Activities 179

Implicit Intents and Late Runtime Binding 179

Determining If an Intent Will Resolve 180

Returning Results from Activities 181

Using Platform-Native Actions to Launch Activities 184

Creating Intent Filters to Receive Implicit Intents 186

Defining an Intent Filter 186

Using Intent Filters for Plug-Ins and Extensibility 194

Introducing Linkify 198

Native Linkify Link Types 198

Creating Custom Link Strings 199

Using the Match Filter 200

Using the Transform Filter 200

Using Intents to Broadcast Events 200

Broadcasting Events with Intents 201

Listening for Intent Broadcasts with Broadcast Receivers 202

Registering Broadcast Receivers in Code 203

Registering Broadcast Receivers in Your Application Manifest 204

Managing Manifest Receivers at Run Time 204

Monitoring Device State Changes through Broadcast Intents 205

Introducing the Local Broadcast Manager 207

Introducing Pending Intents 208

CHAPTER 7: USING INTERNET RESOURCES 211

Connecting to the Internet 211

Connecting, Downloading, and Parsing Internet Resources 212

Why Build a Native Internet App? 212

Connecting to an Internet Resource 213

Performing Network Operations on Background Threads Using View Models, Live Data, and Asynchronous Tasks 214

Parsing XML Using the XML Pull Parser 219

Connecting the Earthquake Viewer to the Internet 220

Parsing JSON Using the JSON Parser 228

Using the Download Manager 233

Downloading Files 233

Customizing Download Manager Notifications 235

Specifying a Download Location 237

Canceling and Removing Downloads 238

Querying the Download Manager 238

Best Practices for Downloading Data without Draining the Battery 241

An Introduction to Internet Services and Cloud Computing 242

CHAPTER 8: FILES, SAVING STATE, AND USER PREFERENCES 245

Saving Files, States, and Preferences 246

Saving and Restoring Activity and Fragment Instance

State Using the Lifecycle Handlers 246

Retaining Instance State with Headless Fragments and View Models 248

View Models and Live Data 248

Headless Fragments 251

Creating and Saving Shared Preferences 252

Retrieving Shared Preferences 253

Introducing On Shared Preference Change Listeners 254

Configuring Auto Backup of Application Files and Shared Preferences 254

Building a Preference UI 256

Using the Preference Support Library 256

Defining a Pref