Database Users

Materials For Learning Android Development?

Hey guys, I'd like to learn how to develop for the Android OS.
What materials would to recommend that start from a beginner level that fully explain every step? Examples and learning tasks would be excellent too.
Was shown Professional Android 2 Application Development by Reto Meier which I'm considering buying, but will it be too advanced to start with?
Thanks for any help.

Im looking for exactly the same thing, although i do know a bit of java, it would be nice too have some comprehensive guides.

video learnings
xtensivearts.com have posted 11 series on how to do development on android
and
follow this link for an hour tutorial on android development http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8XseabG5j0&feature=player_embedded
and u can find many more videos on related section

First you need to learn java
Here:
http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/getStarted/index.html
http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/java/index.html
http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/essential/index.html
http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/collections/index.html
http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/ui/index.html
http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/deployment/index.html

Depends on how beginner you are
What sort of programming experience do you have? Are you familiar with Java?
It's probably worth taking a look at some of the examples at the Dev Guide section of the Android Developer site (developer dot android dot com). If you're comfortable with that you should be fine to use Professional Android 2.
The book assumes you're a fairly experienced developer who is comfortable with Java (or at least experienced with similar OO languages), but that you have little to know knowledge of Android or mobile development.

houseonfire said:
First you need to learn java
Here:
http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/getStarted/index.html
http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/java/index.html
http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/essential/index.html
http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/collections/index.html
http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/ui/index.html
http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/deployment/index.html
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You shouldn't include that first link in my opinion
About the Java Technology
Java technology is both a programming language and a platform.
The Java Programming Language
The Java programming language is a high-level language that can be characterized by all of the following buzzwords:
# Simple
# Architecture neutral
# Object oriented
# Portable
# Distributed
# High performance
# Multithreaded
# Robust
# Dynamic
# Secure
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's just sounds like marketing and someone stroking themselves.
[Second link]
http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/java/concepts/object.htm
I'm so ****ed... does anyone any where ever teach things in a manner that shows how things work, besides the bull****???
I'm never going to learn at this rate. Seems like their are peices of the puzzle people don't understand, which i fully understand and have no patience for.. and the stuff every one grabs onto easily is that stuff i can't find taught
[Next page]
http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/java/concepts/class.html
For some reason I doubt if I plug that code in its just going to flat out work...
Any tutorials that teach in a fashion that says... hey this is what you need to know..
There are variables, classes and this is what needs to go into place for them to work.
In the real world, you'll often find many individual objects all of the same kind. There may be thousands of other bicycles in existence, all of the same make and model. Each bicycle was built from the same set of blueprints and therefore contains the same components. In object-oriented terms, we say that your bicycle is an instance of the class of objects known as bicycles. A class is the blueprint from which individual objects are created.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Who CARES??
I want to see the tools and see what needs to be in place for them to work and how to work them.
This turtorial isn't for me
I need a no bull**** tutorial for newbies that flat out says these are the things you needto know how to utilize and this is how you utilize them, in explainable code that works, that isn't missing code someone assumes ill know to put there.
I'm coming to the conclusio that the most difficult part about developing is finding out where you need tolearn from and a good resource to teach you in your own learning style.
I'm a genius in an area everyone is retarded in and a retard in an area that makes the rest of the world seem to have genius about something im missing..

I'd recommend the book called Hello, Android.

I was thinking the same thing... i just can't afford to spend any more money on something that isn't going to teach me in my style...
I'm afraid something might be wrong with the area of my brain that handles communication, language and the english language because there seems to be something about specific things that i just can never grasp unless shown piece by piece a couple of times.
nobody seems serious about showing me anything eer.. they just want to tell me :/
[edit\
Starting here.. ill just tough through what I can but im certain ill be asking some basic stupid questions because there will be something ill be having trouble wraping my head around
2.1 The Big Picture
Let’s start by taking a look at the overall system architecture—the key
layers and components that make up the Android open source software
stack. In Figure 2.1, on the next page, you can see the “20,000-foot”
view of Android. Study it closely—there will be a test tomorrow.
Each layer uses the services provided by the layers below it. Starting
from the bottom, the following sections highlight the layers provided by
Android.
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Click to collapse
**** it, i just skipped to the creating menus section.... who in the world has time for people wanting to jolly themselves by talking a bunch of bull****?
I need to know "how" not "why"...damn it,

Bunnnyman said:
I'd recommend the book called Hello, Android.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The example code for enabling the menu button to pop up a menu appears to be incomplete.
I might be stupid but im not that stupid...

Hey Devs, what's the best way to learn Android development?

I've been playing around with the App Inventor for the last few days. I like it, it's fast, it's pretty easy, and I find it fun. The problem is though, right now you can't publish apps to the market.
Throw in the fact that you can't make very robust or professional apps with the App Inventor and I've been thinking of trying the more traditional route.
But where do I begin? I've got the Android SDK, Java JRE, and Eclipse all installed and ready to go, but that's where I'm stalled.
I've got zero programming experience. Should I pick up a book for Android development? Should I start just developing for Java and move onto Android later? I've got a few ideas for applications, some for businesses, some for users, some paid and some ad-driven. I've got the ideas, but lack the knowledge to implement them.
Even the official Google Android tutorials seem a little over my head, like they were made for people that are already knowledgeable in programming.
There is so much information out there, it's hard to find a good "Starting from zero" point / tutorial.
Thanks for the suggestions!

You're going to want to become experienced with Java and then move into Android.
There is some good information on the web. I learned some of the basics from this guys videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hl-zzrqQoSE
I also picked up a book thats called Head First Java that is supposed to be really good and noob friendly, with easy to remember examples and challenges. I am nowhere near experienced, but I have been doing research on it for a while.

Beginning Android Development

I'd probably try Beginning Android 2 This edition covers Android 2.0+.

Those both require some experience with Java. You have to start with Java first.

engagedtosmile said:
You're going to want to become experienced with Java and then move into Android.
There is some good information on the web. I learned some of the basics from this guys videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hl-zzrqQoSE
I also picked up a book thats called Head First Java that is supposed to be really good and noob friendly, with easy to remember examples and challenges. I am nowhere near experienced, but I have been doing research on it for a while.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 on Head First Java. Several people have suggested it. Also, there was a thread where someone had posted information, but I have searched and can't find it. I will try again later.

Thanks for all the input! I'll pick up a copy of heads first java.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

Help building an app

Hi everyone, apologies in advance if this is the wrong place to post this.
I just landed a nexus 10 and wanted to know if anyone would be interested in working together on an application. I run an art studio and essentially need an application that would tie all my departments together (gallery, enrollment, studio, etc) so that all departments could see the same relevant information across one app. For anyone interested I can go into greater detail. This would initially be more proof of concept and perhaps an opportunity for new developers to learn.
There's a possibility in the future this will be implemented across nexus devices in the studio for which my goal is to naturally pay the developers for their hard work. As it stands this is a personal effort on my end to see if we can work together and learn. Thanks everyone!

[Q] Which platform and what implementation method to choose

Hi,
New here and generally new to the mobile application development scene. I just begun my thesis for my last year and one of its components is to develop a mobile version of the "program" that we're working on. Since I have no idea where to start and what platform/tools/method to use I'm asking here for advice. The teacher gave me some papers to study on and I must say I'm quite confused.
First let me give you a fast explanation of what I'm trying to achieve. What I'm making is an application for online voting on the decisions the student council takes. What this means is that instead of having to meet up every other week the members of the council will be able to post their ideas and proposals online, people will be able to ask questions and then they will be able to vote for whomever they want. This will be accessible from both a PC and a mobile device. One of the most important factors here is the security of the application/program since it is paramount that no votes are lost, counterfeited, deleted, changed or w/e. After that we're also gonna need database support since everyone will have their personal account and other than that it's gonna be somewhat like a small forum.
So the idea at first was to develop this in applet form (not sure if my terminology is correct on some stuff please correct me if i'm wrong) and embed it into a web site, accessible by everyone. However the professor that's overviewing the project also asked to make it so that people can use this from their mobile devices, so here we are. I've read on the different implementation methods (like native and web based) etc. and I also read up on cross platform development tools like phonegap and titanium and that's where the confusion starts.
First of all we want this to be accessible by almost everyone regardless if they're using iOS, Android, Symbian etc. If that's impossible at least iOS and Android is mandatory. Starting from there, native development tools are probably a no go since they require different versions of the program for each OS and possible device type. On the other hand the cross platform approach apparently doesn't offer good security (not exactly sure where that weakness comes from) and that is something we're trying to avoid. However I'm not sure if I've understood this correctly and I might be misinterpreting. Anyway, concluding it seemed to me that developing this as a web-application seems to be the best decision. If I go that route what exactly am I looking to do? Where do I start? Do i just make stuff in java and make a webpage via HTML 5 and add stuff in? I'll look online for tutorials on this but I'm not exactly sure where to start so I'm asking here.
Thanks in advance!

Unless there's a specific reason for wanting mobile apps then I'd recommend doing this as a website, making it responsive so that it's mobile friendly. That way it will play with all the mobile platforms, and all PC based OSs, with just 1 code base. Then the only choice you have to make is the server side code, which is what would handle all the database access and security etc.. The most obvious choices for that are PHP or C#/VB.Net. Both the platform and your own preference are what should make that decision.
Either way, whether you make a mobile app or a responsive website, you'll still need a server to do the data access and security for you. There's tons of good resources and I couldn't recommend Stack Overflow any higher than I do. Just make sure, if you ask any questions on there, that you know how to ask a good question, or you'll get downvoted and the question closed!
I hope this helps - good luck

If you want security in your mobile app as the most prominent feature, you'd have to rely on Native codes(Java/Objective-C). Cross-platform tools are no good when security does matters. Also it normally takes much less time to create some app in Native code than to create it in cross-platform tools, since most of the UI are at your disposal. Acc. to my personal experience cross-platform thing is good if you already have a previous source code available and are trying to port it on mobile.(Such as having a HTML website and trying to port it on phonegap will make sense)
That's just my opinion, other people may disagree with this.
Making a mobile friendly website is another choice as explained in previous post.

Archer said:
Unless there's a specific .... or C#/VB.Net. Both the platform and your own preference are what should make that decision.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Might elaborating a bit on why use C#? Is it better when it comes to coding server side stuff? We were discussing what language to use with my professor and since he teaches OOP via Java he favors it a lot. However if it has drawbacks compared to the .NET stuff I'd like to know so that I can discuss it with him.
Also this project is part of a thesis and I'm pretty sure the professor wants to add the mobile application part just for the research and development process. It seemed to me that it was redundant too but I'm gonna guess he won't take no as an answer... Gonna have to discuss it more
Thanks for the replies so far!

jokeaccount said:
Might elaborating a bit on why use C#? Is it better when it comes to coding server side stuff? We were discussing what language to use with my professor and since he teaches OOP via Java he favors it a lot. However if it has drawbacks compared to the .NET stuff I'd like to know so that I can discuss it with him.
Also this project is part of a thesis and I'm pretty sure the professor wants to add the mobile application part just for the research and development process. It seemed to me that it was redundant too but I'm gonna guess he won't take no as an answer... Gonna have to discuss it more
Thanks for the replies so far!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did think it may be a case of him wanting you to do some mobile work, as well as web work. It does make sense if it's meant to be for the purpose of learning and experience.
I mentioned C# purely as an example of a server-side language, like PHP. You should really look at using whatever you're most comfortable and/or familiar with. I do use C# on a daily basis as a server-side language and it's very simple to write methods that take post data and return whatever is required (usually a JSON response), whether it be a web service with exposed public functions, or a generic handler. There's tons and tons of ways of doing it so you need to really decide what suits you and the environment you'll be working in.
I'm not familiar with using Java as a server language so I can't comment on that.

beginners guide to android development

Hi Guys
So I am quite familiar with the world of android, having been a user across all versions since froyo.
I have a few different idea's for applications, which I think could be moneymakers! that said, I actually need to learn the development side of android.
Currently I can do reasonable "basic" projects in vb.net 2010, written a few applications, but from what I gather, you cant use VB.NET in android.
I don't have the "capital" to invest in a course, so I am looking for free alternatives, which could give me a leg up!
I have so far programmed in WYSIWYG on .NET2010, so would be ever grateful if you can point me in a real "idiot proof" tutorials and education course!