2 Introduction to Mono for Android

556 Pages·2012·21.95 MB·English

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PROFESSIONAL
™
ANDROID PROGRAMMING WITH MONO®
FOR ANDROID AND .NET/C#
FOREWORD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxiii
INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxv
CHAPTER 1 Introduction to Android, Mobile Devices, and the Marketplace . . . . . . . .1
CHAPTER 2 Introduction to Mono for Android . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17
CHAPTER 3 Understanding Android/Mono for Android Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
CHAPTER 4 Planning and Building Your Application’s User Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
CHAPTER 5 Working with Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
CHAPTER 6 Binding Data to Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .131

CHAPTER 7 Working with the File System and Application Preferences . . . . . . . . 183
CHAPTER 8 Programming with the Device Hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .207
CHAPTER 9 Using Multimedia — Audio, Video, and the Camera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .237

CHAPTER 10 Talking to Other Applications and Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .269

CHAPTER 11 Developing Background Services and Asynchronous Code . . . . . . . .289
CHAPTER 12 Canvas and Drawables: Building Custom Android Graphics . . . . . . . .323
CHAPTER 13 Working with Location Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .371
CHAPTER 14 Internationalization and Localization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .393
CHAPTER 15 Sharing Code Between Mono for Android,
MonoTouch, and Windows Phone 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .417
CHAPTER 16 Preparing and Publishing Your Application to the Market . . . . . . . . . .445
CHAPTER 17 Android Tablets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .469
APPENDIX A Tips for Developers and the Future of Mono and Android . . . . . . . . . .495
INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 507
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PROFESSIONAL
Android™ Programming with Mono® for
Android and .NET/C#
Wallace B. McClure
Nathan Blevins
John J. Croft IV
Jonathan Dick
Chris Hardy
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Professional Android™ Programming with Mono® for Android and .NET/C#
Published by
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
10475 Crosspoint Boulevard
Indianapolis, IN 46256
www.wiley.com
Copyright © 2012 by Wallace B. McClure, Nathan Blevins, John J. Croft IV, Jonathan Dick, Chris Hardy
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
Published simultaneously in Canada
ISBN: 978-1-118-02643-4
ISBN: 978-1-118-22215-7 (ebk)
ISBN: 978-1-118-23581-2 (ebk)
ISBN: 978-1-118-26075-3 (ebk)
Manufactured in the United States of America
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To my wife, Ronda, daughter, Kirsten, and son, Brad
— Wallace B. McClure
To my lovely wife and accomplice, Crystal; my
beautiful daughter, Kitara; and my son, Tristan, whom
we’ve just welcomed into this wondrous world.
— Nathan Blevins
To my wife, Valerie, and my sons, Jack and Conor
— John J. Croft IV
To my wonderful wife, Jennifer, for all of her support
in everything I do, and her tolerance for my geeky and
gadgetry obsessions!
— Jonathan Dick
To my wife, Cara for, once again, putting up with the
long nights; to my parents, Hazel and Bob; and to my
sister, Kate
— Chris Hardy
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CREDITS
EXECUTIVE EDITOR BUSINESS MANAGER
Bob Elliott Amy Knies
SENIOR PROJECT EDITOR PRODUCTION MANAGER
Kevin Kent Tim Tate
PROJECT EDITOR VICE PRESIDENT AND EXECUTIVE GROUP
Victoria Swider PUBLISHER
Richard Swadley
TECHNICAL EDITORS
Stephen Long VICE PRESIDENT AND EXECUTIVE PUBLISHER
Jordan Cobb Neil Edde
PRODUCTION EDITOR ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER
Daniel Scribner Jim Minatel
COPY EDITOR PROJECT COORDINATOR, COVER
Gayle Johnson Katie Crocker
EDITORIAL MANAGER PROOFREADER
Mary Beth Wakefi eld Louise Watson, Word One New York
FREELANCER EDITORIAL MANAGER INDEXER
Rosemarie Graham Ron Strauss
ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF MARKETING COVER DESIGNER
David Mayhew Ryan Sneed
MARKETING MANAGER COVER IMAGE
Ashley Zurcher © Antonis Papantoniou / iStockPhoto
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ABOUT THE AUTHORS
WALLACE B. (WALLY) MCCLURE graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology
(Georgia Tech) in 1990 with a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering.
He continued his education there, receiving a Master’s degree in the same fi eld in
1991. Since that time, he has done consulting and development for such companies
as the United States Department of Education, Coca-Cola, Bechtel National,
Magnatron, and Lucent Technologies, among others. McClure has authored books on architec-
ture, ADO.NET, SQL Server, AJAX, and Mobile Devices with Mono. He has authored two books
on iPhone programming with MonoTouch and one book on Mono for Android. He specializes in
mobile applications, application scalability, and application user interfaces. He is a Microsoft
MVP, an ASPInsider, and a partner in Scalable Development, Inc. You can read Wally’s blog at
www.morewally.com. Wally is married and has two children. When not writing software, he
explores entrepreneurial efforts, plays golf, exercises, and hangs out with his family.
NATHAN BLEVINS is a husband and father who has been working in application
development for the past 10 years. Always intrigued by logical puzzles, mechanics,
and problem solving, Nathan found his calling in software development and has
been playing at work ever since. Living by the philosophy of “work to become, not
to acquire,” Nathan has devoted himself to being a lifetime student, also working
within the community as a speaker, educator, and overall technology enthusiast. In the past,
Nathan has worked with various national and local businesses via his personal consulting company,
Blevins Consulting. At present, Nathan is serving as a developer and business analyst for Bush
Brothers & Company.
Though his career began on the open source development stack in languages such as PHP and
Python, Nathan’s main focus has been on ASP.NET and C# development since 2004. During the
past few years, Nathan’s work has included mobile development platforms such as Android,
Blackberry, and Windows Phone 7. Currently, Nathan is involved in the community as a member of
the ASP.NET Insiders and as a public speaker. If you would like to get into contact with Nathan
Blevins, please feel free to contact him through his personal blog at http://nathanblevins.com or
via his Twitter account, @nathanblevins.
JOHN J. CROFT IV graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1991,
receiving a Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering. He then spent 5 years con-
sulting for large companies, including Coca-Cola, BellSouth, and MCI. Work at these
companies primarily involved C and C++ programming and object-oriented systems
analysis. In 1995, Croft embarked on his entrepreneurial career by starting
Computing Solutions. Computing Solutions is a technology fi rm that has provided quality service to
over 200 clients nationwide. Computing Solutions clients have varied in both size and need, from
Fortune 100s to small startup companies. Their problems have varied drastically as well, from large
databases and executive information systems to lithotripter control and satellite telemetry. In 2003,
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viii x ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Computing Solutions merged with McClure Development to become Scalable Development, Inc.
SDI’s technology performances have included projects with Java, C#, and .NET applications.
Recently, John has returned to the corporate world as a senior technical manager for Turner
Broadcasting Systems. John has coauthored two other books on programming with .NET. He cur-
rently lives in Atlanta with his wife, Valerie, and his two sons.
JONATHAN DICK is a database administrator and software developer and has been
working with .NET since its beta days. He now focuses on mobile application devel-
opment, and has written several MonoTouch applications. He currently maintains
open source .NET libraries for Apple iOS Push Notifi cations and Google Android
Cloud to Device Messaging (APNS-Sharp and C2DM-Sharp), while contributing to
other mobile-focused projects such as MonoTouch.Dialog and MonoDroid.Dialog.
CHRIS HARDY, a Microsoft ASPInsider, is a .NET consultant focusing on MonoTouch
and Mono for Android development working with Xamarin. Ever since
MonoTouch was in beta, Chris has been developing and evangelizing MonoTouch
and was one of the fi rst users to get a MonoTouch application onto the App Store.
Speaking at conferences around the world on the subject, Chris has been a key
part of the community and extended this by contributing to the Wrox book Professional iPhone
Programming with MonoTouch and .NET/C#. You can follow him on Twitter @chrisntr.
ABOUT THE TECHNICAL EDITORS
STEPHEN LONG is a senior developer currently focusing on .NET and specializing in web and mobile
development. He enjoys working with MVC frameworks, such as those provided with ASP.NET and
the Android SDK, leveraging new and emerging technologies, and being a mentor to those around
him. He is a self-described Google/Android fanboy, husband, and father of two wonderful daughters
currently residing in Knoxville, Tennessee. Stephen graduated from the University of Memphis
with a BSEE degree with a concentration in computer engineering. He can be found on twitter
@long2know.
JORDAN COBB has been fascinated by technology ever since receiving his fi rst computer, a 486 DX2,
at the age of 12. His fi rst passion was network systems and hardware, but after becoming frus-
trated in relying on third-party applications, or the lack thereof, to get the job done he delved into
the world of software development. After dabbling in the PHP language for some time he moved
to the .NET Framework and has been developing professionally for the past 9 years. Jordan enjoys
interfacing software with physical devices, like Arduino, as well as other hobby electronics projects.
When he is not at the keyboard, Jordan enjoys playing the occasional round of paintball, attend-
ing conferences, and spending time with his new wife, Christine. The couple is expecting their fi rst
child, Zoey, in April 2012.
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