Sams Teach Yourself Android Application Development in 24 Hours (2nd Edition) [Paperback]

Lauren Darcey (Author), Shane Conder (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 7, 2011 | ISBN-10: 0672335697 | ISBN-13: 978-0672335693 | Edition: 2

Android is the world's #1 mobile development platform, and with the new Android 3.0, it's becoming as popular for tablets as it is for smartphones. If you are a beginner, in just 24 lessons of one hour or less, this friendly, full-color book will help you master modern Android development. You can build a fully-featured app from scratch, learning all the skills you'll need to create your own. Each lesson builds on prior chapters, providing a solid foundation for success. This edition is thoroughly updated for Android's newest features and development tools, while still supporting the popular Android 2.0. Coverage includes:

• Using Eclipse to write apps quickly and efficiently
• Understanding the application lifecycle
• Building robust, friendly user interfaces
• Retrieving, storing, and using data
• Adding network, social, and location-based features
• Supporting the camera and other hardware
• Internationalizing, testing, and publishing apps

Revised and simplified step-by-step instructions with full-color screenshots walk you through key tasks... updated Q and As, Quizzes, and Exercises test your knowledge..."Did You Know?" tips offer insider advice..."Watch Out!" alerts help you avoid problems. By the time you're finished, you won't just understand core Android concepts: you'll be comfortable writing, testing, and publishing your own new apps.

 

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

In just 24 sessions of one hour or less, learn how to build powerful applications for the world’s first complete, open, and free mobile platform: Android. Using this book’s straightforward, step-by-step approach, you’ll build a fully-featured Android application from the ground up and master the skills you need to design, develop, test, and publish powerful applications. Each lesson builds on what you’ve already learned, giving you a rock-solid foundation for real-world success!

 

Some of the highlights of this new edition include:

• More comprehensive code listings
• New, improved exercises based upon reader feedback
• Completely overhauled sample code on a new companion CD
• New coverage of hot topics like tablet design, services, app widgets, Android Market updates, and more
• Even more tips and tricks from the trenches to help you design, develop, and test applications for a different device targets, including an all-new chapter on tackling compatibility issues

 

Learn how to…

• Develop Android applications quickly and successfully with Java
• Master the latest Android SDK and development tools
• Leverage the Eclipse programming environment to develop Android projects
• Understand the Android application lifecycle
• Build effective, user-friendly user interfaces
• Store, retrieve, and manipulate application data
• Add popular network, social, and  location-based features to your applications
• Take advantage of Android device hardware like the camera
• Internationalize, test, and publish your applications

 

Sample code available on CD can also be downloaded at informit.com/title/9780672335693

 

 

informit.com/sams

androidbook.blogspot.com

About the Author

Lauren Darcey is responsible for the technical leadership and direction of a small software company specializing in mobile technologies, including Android, iPhone, BlackBerry, Palm Pre, BREW, and J2ME, and consulting services. With more than two decades of experience in professional software production, Lauren is a recognized authority in enterprise architecture and the development of commercial-grade mobile applications. Lauren received a B.S. in Computer Science from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

She spends her copious free time traveling the world with her geeky mobile-minded husband. She is an avid nature photographer, and her work has been published in books and newspapers around the world. In South Africa, she dove with 4-meter-long great white sharks and got stuck between a herd of rampaging hippopotami and an irritated bull elephant. She’s been attacked by monkeys in Japan, gotten stuck in a ravine with two hungry lions in Kenya, gotten thirsty in Egypt, narrowly avoided a coup d’état in Thailand, geocached her way through the Swiss Alps, drank her way through the beer halls of Germany, slept in the crumbling castles of Europe, and gotten her tongue stuck to an iceberg in Iceland (while being watched by a herd of suspicious wild reindeer).

 

Shane Conder has extensive development experience and has focused his attention on mobile and embedded development for the past decade. He has designed and developed many commercial applications for Android, iPhone, BREW, BlackBerry, J2ME, Palm, and Windows Mobile—some of which have been installed on millions of phones worldwide. Shane has written extensively about the mobile industry and evaluated mobile development platforms on his tech blogs and is well known within the blogosphere. Shane received a B.S. in Computer Science from the University of California.

 

A self-admitted gadget freak, Shane always has the latest phone, laptop, or other mobile device. He can often be found fiddling with the latest technologies, such as cloud services and mobile platforms, and other exciting, state-of-the-art technologies that activate the creative part of his brain. He also enjoys traveling the world with his geeky wife, even if she did make him dive with 4-meter-long great white sharks and almost get eaten by a lion in Kenya. He admits that he has to take at least two phones and a tablet with him when backpacking, even though there is no coverage, that he snickered and whipped out his Android phone to take a picture when his wife got her tongue stuck to that iceberg in Iceland, and that he is catching on that he should be writing his own bio.

 

The authors have also published an intermediate/advanced book on Android development called Android Wireless Application Development, Second Edition, part of the Addison-Wesley Developer’s Library series. Lauren and Shane have also published numerous articles on mobile software development for magazines, technical journals, and online publishers of educational content. You can find dozens of samples of their work in Smart Developer magazine (Linux New Media), Developer.com, Network World, Envato (MobileTuts+ and CodeCanyon), and InformIT, among others. They also publish articles of interest to their readers at their own Android website, http://androidbook.blogspot.com. You can find a full list of the authors’ publications at http://goo.gl/f0Vlj.

 

Product Details

• Paperback: 512 pages
• Publisher: Sams Publishing; 2 edition (August 7, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0672335697
• ISBN-13: 978-0672335693
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 1.1 x 9.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (124 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #110,439 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #88 in Books > Computers & Technology > Networking > Data in the Enterprise

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A book for beginners and tips for experts August 31, 2010

By Sam

Format:Paperback

Finally, I finished reading this book 24 hr is a misnomer, if you are thinking to finish the book in a day (it took me 13 days 2 hr a day cover to cover). One of the nice thing is the book is in Full Colour version these include screenshots, code and references to Eclipse (especially helpful if you are new with eclipse development). The book is easy to read, font and spacing were pleasing.

I should confess this is a beginner's book. You need some basic understanding of java and its concepts. The game the author picked was too basic for me, I wish I would have stated with this book months ago as it covers androids basic concepts and the first 6 chapters builds up the ground work for development on how to use eclipse and introduction to device debugging and logging( Eclipse DDMS, Android LogCat Logging).

A very good early introduction to debugging in chapter 2 right place before you get your hands dirty with coding, which i haven't seen any other books covering in that details. The author also mentions the reason they selected to use a particular android API or functionality at places and provide links for further reading.

There are also examples and exercises and although they are simple and primitive they give you the idea how to implement or use specific functionality and the solution for exercises are missing (it would have been helpful if there was a downloadable version on the website).Tips at some places are very useful and practical, some places it was an eye opener for an advance developer like me.

You will find this book useful and I'm sure it can be used as manual (not for expert android developer).

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Complete, full of advice from real programmers August 25, 2010

By J. Pelgrim

Format:Paperback

The first thing that hits you when you flip through the pages of this book is the color. The example screens, diagrams and tables really stand out. It's a delight to read a full color book and I'm thinking, why have I never come across more full color IT books?

The target audience are developers with a Java programming background who want to start Android development. And the book fulfills this promise very well.

The first couple of chapters are introductory, but aren't a drag to read (although the concepts of Activities, Intents and the manifest file are better explained in a book like "Hello, Android!" from the Pragmatic Programmers)

A second thing which really stuck out and is well worth mentioning are the "Did you know", "Watch out!" and "By the way" text boxes which really showed the authors have real programming experience with Android. Those little text boxes sometimes really contained little gems of information. These alone are worth reading every page of this book since you don't want to miss out on these.

The chapters are called "Hour 1..." and "Hour 2..." and are really targeted to be digested in an hour, max. I sometimes simply read a chapter in half an hour, without working out the examples in the development environment. I know, maybe not the way to go to really learn programming Android very well, but considering the time (we all have so little of) just reading a quick chapter was fulfilling for me anyway ;-)

Every chapter concludes with a Q&A section which was a bit tedious. The questions were very simple and the answers were right below the questions, so I skipped those sections further down the book.... Apart from the Q&A section each chapter also included some exercises, which really are a challenge, because no 'answer' is given there. Just a task. I liked those!

A lot of Android books (or programming books in general) use a sample application which is enhanced throughout the whole book. This book is no different. However, where other books might focus on forms and list this book's example is a nice trivia game, which makes use of the camera, the network, social features and many other cool Android framework features.

The way the example program is set up and worked out is really the way you (or I in this case) would start fiddling around with Android. At some point it states: "You can copy the QuizSplashActivity five more times..." A very pragmatic approach, and again something programmers do daily. Maybe not the most elegant suggestion, but if you want to achieve something fast (learning Android) that's just the way I like.

Before you dive into a new chapter, a concept or screen layout a nice diagram is often presented first, which really helps in getting your brain in design / conceptual 'mode' (so to speak).

The majority of the Android concepts are covered really well. Shared preferences, context- and normal menus, dialogs, views, view switchers, image media, location based services, progress bars, communicating with a network server, creating home screen app widgets, and many more. Also 'development' activities like testing and developing for different devices and 'deployment' activities like placing your app in the Android market are present in the book.

The majority of the chapters have sample code, which you can download from a website. The examples all worked in my case. No problems there.

The author's are active bloggers on mobile application development and Android development in particular. If you don't buy the book you should definitely check out their blog (at [...]) and the mobile tuts website ([...]), with many of their contributions.

Advanced topics like OpenGL 2D/3D, the SQLite database, content providers and the various sensors, etc. are each described in half to a full page of text, but not more. I would have wanted to see a chapter on SQLite database and one on content providers though, since these are very common in Android apps, even for beginners.

Conclusion: I really liked the full color pages, the text boxes with invaluable information from real programmers and the digestibility of the chapters a real plus. Maybe some advanced features (like SQLite databases and content providers) could have been described in their own chapter, but then again, the target audience is the beginning Android developer. The book is very complete in the sense that it describes the whole process of setting up your dev environment, programming your app, testing it and deploying it on the Android market. I would really recommend this book for beginning Android developers. If you already read one or two Android books and consider yourself a mid-level to seasoned Android programmer don't buy the book. Maybe skim the pages and read the "Watch out!", "By the way" and "Did you know" text boxes ;-) Read more ›

25 of 31 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Best "quick-start" tutorial for Android 2.1 available July 31, 2010

By paulsm

Format:Paperback

I bought this book a few days ago at SIGGRAPH - and it's great.

Android is a HUGE topic - it's utterly impossible for a single book to cover even a small portion of Android in depth.

But the authors have done a really admirable job of getting you started from scratch:

* Installing the Android IDE (Eclipse)
* Writing a simple "hello world", and executing it on the Android emulator
* Step-by-step chapters on building up a simple application that touches on key aspects of the Android
* Etc

The same authors have written another book (published by New Riders, instead of SAMS) with a lot more detail. But frankly, this is the better choice for a "first book".

You definitely ought to be at least familiar with Java before starting this book, just as it would be good to know a little Objective C before starting out on iPhone (and ESSENTIAL to know MORE than a little C++ before starting out on Nokia/Symbian). But, as the authors point out, Android can be a great way to learn Java.

I highly recommend Lauren Darcey's and Shane Conder's book.

22 of 29 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Good For The Experienced Programmer, Not So Good For The Beginner October 5, 2010

By B. McCarthy VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

I used to write PHP scripts and edit Java Scripts. I wrote a few programs in BASIC as well. I wrote scripts for mIRC and other programs that allowed script-based customization. And I still write my own webpages in HTML. So I've been around the block with programming, but I've never done anything close to today's programming languages. That being said, I saw this book and I have an Android phone so I figured why not give it a try just for fun.

This is not a "just for fun" type of book unless you are already a skilled programmer. I was able to get the book's examples to work, but with a lot of trouble and some Google searching for external help. And I was not able to understand enough to start programming on my own. I ended up giving up.

Having programmed before, I understand the terminology and the structure of the book, and someone who already programs apps for other phones could (I presume) use this book to translate their programs into Android format. However, I did not find it helpful as a beginner's guide to programming mobile phone apps for the first time.