DiMarzio - Beginning Android Programming with Android Studio

Beginning Android Programming with Android Studio

Published by

John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

10475 Crosspoint Boulevard

Indianapolis, IN 46256

www.wiley.com

Copyright 2017 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

ISBN: 978-1-118-70559-9

ISBN: 978-1-118- 70742-5 (ebk)

ISBN: 978-1-119-19609-9 (ebk)

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: The publisher and the author make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties, including without limitation warranties of fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales or promotional materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for every situation. This work is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services. If professional assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom. The fact that an organization or Web site is referred to in this work as a citation and/or a potential source of further information does not mean that the author or the publisher endorses the information the organization or Web site may provide or recommendations it may make. Further, readers should be aware that Internet Web sites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read.

For general information on our other products and services please contact our Customer Care Department within the United States at (877) 762-2974, outside the United States at (317) 572-3993 or fax (317) 572-4002.

Wiley publishes in a variety of print and electronic formats and by print-on-demand. Some material included with standard print versions of this book may not be included in e-books or in print-on-demand. If this book refers to media such as a CD or DVD that is not included in the version you purchased, you may download this material at http://booksupport.wiley.com. For more information about Wiley products, visit www.wiley.com.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016952673

Trademarks: Wiley, the Wiley logo, Wrox, the Wrox logo, Programmer to Programmer, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates, in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. Android is a registered trademark of Google, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

To my children Christian, Sophia, and Giovanni;
Katie, Sarah, and Joe; and my love Jennifer.

1. Project Editor
2. Charlotte Kughen
3. Technical Editor
4. Chd (Shod) Darby
5. Production Editor
6. Athiyappan Lalith Kumar
7. Development Editor
8. Rick Kughen
9. Manager of Content Development and Assembly
10. Mary Beth Wakefield
11. Production Manager
12. Kathleen Wisor
13. Marketing Manager
14. Carrie Sherrill
15. Professional Technology and Strategy Director
16. Barry Pruett
17. Business Manager
18. Amy Knies
19. Executive Editor
20. Jim Minatel
21. Project Coordinator, Cover
22. Brent Savage
23. Proofreader
24. Nancy Bell
25. Indexer
26. Nancy Guenther
27. Cover Designer
28. Wiley
29. Cover Image
30. iStockphoto.com/Leo Blanchette

J. F. DIMARZIO began developing computer programsspecifically gamesin 1984 as a wide-eyed, curious child of the Atari age. Starting on the TRS-80 Color Computer II, in BASIC, he wrote several small text-based games and simple inventory applications. After leaving the Music program at the University of Massachusetts, J. F. moved into professional computer development; working for the United States Department of Defense, Walt Disney Imagineering, TechData, and The Walt Disney Company. In 2008, he started developing apps on the newly introduced Android platform (then on version 0.8). He has had 14 books published to date, 7 of which are on Android and Android game development.

CHD (SHOD) DARBY is an author, instructor, and speaker in the Java development world. As a recognized authority on Java applications and architectures, he has presented technical sessions at software development conferences worldwide (in the U.S., U.K., India, Italy, Russia, Netherlands, Singapore, Japan, and Australia). In his 20 years as a professional software architect, he's had the opportunity to work for Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Merck, Boeing, Red Hat, and a handful of startup companies.

Chd is a contributing author to several Java books, including Professional Java E-Commerce (Wrox Press), Beginning Java Networking (Wrox Press), and XML and Web Services Unleashed (Sams Publishing). Chd has Java certifications from Oracle and IBM. He holds a B.S. in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University.

J. F. DIMARZIO would like to thank Charlotte Kughen, Jim Minatel, Rick Kughen, and the team at John Wiley & Sons publishing; and Stacey Czarnowski, Katrina Bevan, and the team at Studio B.

I first started playing with the Android Software Development Kit (SDK) before it was officially released as version 0.8. Back then, the tools were unpolished, the application programming interfaces (APIs) in the SDK were unstable, and the documentation was sparse. Android is now one of the most popular mobile operating systems in the world.

Every day, more developers are trying Android development using Android Studio, either as a hobby or professionally. The current challenge for many beginning developers who want to move into the exciting world of android development is trying to determine where to start.

It was with this challenge in mind that I was motivated to write this book, one that could benefit beginning Android programmers and enable them to write progressively more sophisticated applications.

This book is written to help jump-start beginning Android developers, covering the necessary topics in a linear manner so that you can build on your knowledge without being overwhelmed by the details. I adopt the philosophy that the best way to learn is by doing. The numerous Try It Out sections in each chapter first show you how to build something. Then the follow-up How It Works sections explain how everything works. I have also taken this opportunity to further improve the previous edition of this book by addressing feedback from readers and adding additional topics that are important to beginning Android developers.