Beginning Android Application Development

450 Pages·2011·21.32 MB·English

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Beginning
Android™ ApplicAtion development
introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .xv
chApter 1 Getting Started with Android Programming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1
chApter 2 Activities and Intents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
chApter 3 Getting to Know the Android User Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
chApter 4 Designing Your User Interface Using Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
chApter 5 Displaying Pictures and Menus with Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
chApter 6 Data Persistence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .203
chApter 7 Content Providers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .237
chApter 8 Messaging and Networking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
chApter 9 Location-Based Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301
chApter 10 Developing Android Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331
chApter 11 Publishing Android Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359
Appendix A Using Eclipse for Android Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381
Appendix B Using the Android Emulator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
Appendix c Answers to Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .411
index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415

Beginning
Android™ Application development
Wei-Meng Lee
Beginning Android™ Application Development
Published by
Wiley Publishing, Inc.
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Copyright © 2011 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
Published simultaneously in Canada
ISBN: 978-1-118-01711-1
ISBN: 978-1-118-08729-9 (ebk)
ISBN: 978-1-118-08749-7 (ebk)
ISBN: 978-1-118-08780-0 (ebk)
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this book.
To my family:
Thanks for the understanding and support while I
worked on getting this book ready! I love you all!
—Wei-Meng Lee
creditS
executive editor vice preSident And
Robert Elliott executive group puBliSher
Richard Swadley
Senior project editor
Ami Frank Sullivan vice preSident And
executive puBliSher
technicAl editor Barry Pruett
Kunal Mittal
ASSociAte puBliSher
production editor Jim Minatel
Kathleen Wisor
project coordinAtor, cover
copy editor Katie Crocker
Luann Rouff
compoSitor
editoriAl director James D . Kramer,
Robyn B . Siesky Happenstance Type-O-Rama
editoriAl mAnAger prooFreAder
Mary Beth Wakefield Nancy Carrasco
FreelAncer editoriAl mAnAger indexer
Rosemarie Graham Robert Swanson
ASSociAte director oF mArketing cover deSigner
David Mayhew Michael E . Trent
production mAnAger cover imAge
Tim Tate © Viktoriya Sukhanova/istockphoto .com
ABout the Author
Wei-meng lee is a technologist and founder of Developer Learning Solutions (www.learn2develop.net),
a technology company specializing in hands-on training on the latest mobile technologies. Wei-Meng
has many years of training experience, and his training courses place special emphasis on the learning-
by-doing approach. This hands-on approach to learning programming makes understanding the subject
much easier than reading books, tutorials, and documentation.
Wei-Meng is also the author of Beginning iOS 4 Application Development (Wrox), along with sev-
eral other Wrox titles. You can contact Wei-Meng at [email protected].
ABout the technicAl editor
kunAl mittAl serves as an Executive Director of Technology at Sony Pictures Entertainment where
he is responsible for the SOA, Identity Management, and Content Management programs. Kunal is
an entrepreneur who helps startups define their technology strategy, product roadmap, and develop-
ment plans. He generally works in an Advisor or Consulting CTO capacity, and serves actively in the
Project Management and Technical Architect functions.
He has authored, and edited several books and articles on J2EE, Cloud Computing, and mobile tech-
nologies. He holds a Master’s degree in Software Engineering and is an instrument-rated private pilot.
AcknoWledgmentS
every time i FiniSh A Book project, I always tell myself that this will be the last book that I ever
write. That’s because writing books is such a time-consuming and laborious effort. However, when
you receive e-mail messages from readers who want to thank you for helping them learn a new tech-
nology, all the frustrations disappear.
Sure enough, when I finished my previous book on iOS programming, I immediately signed on to
do another book — this time about Android. Although you only see the author’s name on the book
cover, a lot of people actually worked behind the scenes to make it possible. And now that the
book is finally done, it is time to thank a number of those people.
First, a huge thanks to Ami Sullivan, my editor, who is always a pleasure to work with. I cannot
believe that we have already worked on three books together in such a short duration (only one year)
and this is our fourth book! When I hear that Ami is going to be my editor, I know the project is
in good hands. Thanks for the guidance, Ami; and thank you for your patience during those times
when it seemed like the book was never going to be finished on schedule!
I should not forget the heroes behind the scene: copy editor Luann Rouff and technical editor Kunal
Mittal. They have been eagle-eye editing the book, making sure that every sentence makes sense —
both grammatically as well as technically. Thanks, Luann and Kunal!
I also want to take this chance to thank my editor at MobiForge.com, Ruadhan O'Donoghue, who has
always been very supportive of my articles. He is always receptive of my ideas and has always been
understanding when my schedule falls behind. Thanks for maintaining such a great site, Ruadhan!
Last, but not least, I want to thank my parents, and my wife, Sze Wa, for all the support they have
given me. They selflessly adjusted their schedules to accommodate mine when I was working on this
book. My wife, as always, stayed up late with me on numerous nights as I furiously worked to meet
the deadlines, and for this I am very grateful. Finally, to our lovely dog, Ookii, thanks for staying by
our side. (For those readers who do not know who Ookii is, you can find two pictures of her in this
book. I will leave finding them as an extra exercise for you!)