Table of Contents Cover Chapter 1: Android Fundamentals Recipe 1.1 Linking Activities Recipe 1.2 Passing Data Between Activities Recipe 1.3 Passing Objects Between Activities Recipe 1.4 Sending and Receiving Broadcasts Recipe 1.5 Assigning Priorities to Broadcast Receivers Recipe 1.6 Auto-Launching Your Application at Boot Time Recipe 1.7 Calling Built-In Apps Chapter 2: Using Views to Design the User Interface Recipe 2.1 Using Buttons Recipe 2.2 Using Image Buttons Recipe 2.3 Using Radio Buttons Recipe 2.4 Using CheckBoxes Recipe 2.5 Implementing a Star Rating System Recipe 2.6 Using AutoCompleteTextView Recipe 2.7 Displaying Web Pages Recipe 2.8 Using the TimePicker Recipe 2.9 Using the DatePicker Recipe 2.10 Using LinearLayout for View Positioning Recipe 2.11 Using RelativeLayout for View Positioning Recipe 2.12 Using FrameLayout for View Positioning Recipe 2.13 Using TableLayout for View Positioning Recipe 2.14 Using the ScrollView Recipe 2.15 Displaying Context and Options Menus Recipe 2.16 Displaying Dialogs Chapter 3: Displaying Lists of Items and Images Recipe 3.1 Displaying a List of Items Using the ListView Recipe 3.2 Customizing the ListView Recipe 3.3 Displaying Multiple ListViews Recipe 3.4 Creating Custom ListViews Recipe 3.5 Further Customizing Each Row with Additional TextViews Recipe 3.6 Displaying a List of Items Using the Spinner View Recipe 3.7 Displaying a List of Images Recipe 3.8 Animating the Changing of Images Using the ImageSwitcher Recipe 3.9 Displaying Images Using the GridView Chapter 4: Telephony Recipe 4.1 Calling from Your Application Recipe 4.2 Monitoring the State of the Phone Recipe 4.3 Monitoring Phone State in the Background Recipe 4.4 Blocking Outgoing Calls Recipe 4.5 Auto-Answering an Incoming Call Recipe 4.6 Switching to Airplane Mode Recipe 4.7 Getting the Phone Number, IMEI, and SIM Card ID Recipe 4.8 Enabling Bluetooth Chapter 5: Messaging Recipe 5.1 Sending SMS Messages Through the Built-in Messaging Application Recipe 5.2 Sending SMS Messages Programmatically in Your Android Application Recipe 5.3 Monitoring the Status of Sent SMS Messages Programmatically Recipe 5.4 Monitoring Outgoing SMS Messages Chapter 6: Network Programming Recipe 6.1 Connecting to Servers Using HTTP GET Recipe 6.2 Connecting to Servers Using HTTP POST Recipe 6.3 Downloading Binary Data Using HTTP Recipe 6.4 Consuming XML Web Services Recipe 6.5 Consuming JSON Web Services Recipe 6.6 Getting the IP Address of the Device Recipe 6.7 Creating a Socket Server Recipe 6.8 Creating a Socket Client Recipe 6.9 Checking for the Availability of Bluetooth Recipe 6.10 Monitoring the State of Bluetooth Chapter 7: Using Google Maps Recipe 7.1 Displaying Google Maps Recipe 7.2 Zooming in and out of Google Maps Recipe 7.3 Changing Map Modes Recipe 7.4 Navigating the Map to a Particular Location Recipe 7.5 Adding Markers to the Map Recipe 7.6 Finding a User-Friendly Address Using Reverse Geocoding, and Vice Versa Chapter 8: Location-Based Data Services Recipe 8.1 Obtaining Geographical Location Using GPS, Wi-Fi, or Cellular Networks Recipe 8.2 Choosing the Best Location Provider to Use Recipe 8.3 Monitoring a Location Recipe 8.4 Using a BroadcastReceiver to Obtain Locations Chapter 9: Accessing the Hardware Recipe 9.1 Capturing Pictures with the Camera Recipe 9.2 Detecting the Presence of Hardware Features Recipe 9.3 Checking Network State Recipe 9.4 Turning GPS On/Off Recipe 9.5 Capturing Hardware Buttons Programmatically Recipe 9.6 Switching on the Flashlight Chapter 10: Persisting Data Recipe 10.1 Saving and Loading User Preferences Recipe 10.2 Creating a Preference Screen Recipe 10.3 Saving Files to the Data Directory Recipe 10.4 Saving Files to the Cache Directory Recipe 10.5 Saving Files to External Storage Recipe 10.6 Attaching Files to Your Project Recipe 10.7 Creating and Using SQLite Databases Programmatically Chapter 11: Deploying Your Android Applications Recipe 11.1 Localizing Your Application Recipe 11.2 Exporting Your Application as an APK File Recipe 11.3 Deploying Your App Through E-mail Recipe 11.4 Deploying Your App Through the Web Recipe 11.5 Deploying Your App Through an SD Card Introduction Advertisement Chapter 1 Android Fundamentals In this chapter, you learn about the fundamental topics in Android that most developers need to know, including how to link to other applications using the Intent object, how to communicate with other applications (or parts of the same application) using broadcast receivers, and how to pass data between activities. Recipe 1.1 Linking Activities Android Versions Level 1 and above Permissions None Source Code to Download at Wrox.com Linking.zip Unless you are writing a Hello World application, chances are good that your application contains several activities that you need to connect in order to form a cohesive application. This recipe shows you the various ways to link to another activity in your Android application. Solution Suppose you have two activities in your application. The following AndroidManifest.xml file shows the two activities classes, MainActivity and Activity2:

Assuming you are currently in the MainActivity activity, to link to Activity2 you can use the following code snippet: package net.learn2develop.linking; import android.app.Activity; import android.content.Intent; import android.os.Bundle; public class MainActivity extends Activity { @Override public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) { super.onCreate(savedInstanceState); setContentView(R.layout.activity_main); //---link to Activity2--- Intent i = new Intent("net.learn2develop.Activity2"); startActivity(i); } } To link to another activity, you create an Intent object and set its constructor to the name (as set in the element in the AndroidManifest.xml file) of the target activity. Then, call the startActivity() method to launch that activity. Alternatively, you can create an Intent object and then call its setAction() method to set the name of the target activity: //---link to Activity2--- Intent i = new Intent(); i.setAction("net.learn2develop.Activity2"); startActivity(i); The previous code snippets are useful for calling an activity that is within the same application, as well as for other applications to call your activity. If you want to call an activity that is internal to your application, you can also call it using its class name, like this: //---link to Activity2--- Intent i = new Intent(this, Activity2.class); If you do not want other activities to call your activity from outside your application, simply remove the element within the element: If the activity you are trying to call does not exist on the device, your application will crash, displaying a message like the one shown in Figure 1-1. Figure 1-1 To ensure that your application does not stop abruptly, call the startActivity() method together with the Intent.createChooser() method. The createChooser() method takes an Intent object and a string to display if an activity cannot be found (or if more than one activity has been found to satisfy your Intent object): Intent i = new Intent("net.learn2develop.Activity2"); startActivity(Intent.createChooser(i, "Choose an application")); Figure 1-2 shows the message that is displayed if an activity cannot be found. Figure 1-2 Figure 1-3 shows the message that is displayed when more than one activity has been found. Note that when using the createChooser() method, you need to specify the name of the activity (such as net.learn2develop.Activity2 as seen in the previous example) that you are launching, not its class name. The following code snippet will not work: //---the following will never link to Activity2- -- Intent i = new Intent(this, Activity2.class); startActivity(Intent.createChooser(i, "Choose an application")); Figure 1-3 Recipe 1.2 Passing Data Between Activities Android Versions Level 1 and above Permissions None Source Code to Download at Wrox.com PassingData.zip

Android application development cookbook: 93 recipes for building winning apps

Similar Android application development cookbook: 93 recipes for building winning apps