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Inside
Android

CS2002S: Mobile
Development and Design
Melissa Densmore
University of Cape Town

CSC2002S Melissa Densmore, UCT

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 + Android is a software stack for
mobile devices that includes an
operating system, middleware
and key applications.

The Android SDK provides

the tools and APIs
necessary to begin
developing applications on
the Android platform using
the Java programming
language
Melissa Densmore, UCT CSC2002S

Stats from developer.android.com

Image from https://www.phonearena.com/news/final‐version‐of‐android‐11‐has‐
dropped_id127027

Screenshots of the Augmented Reality representation of the 11 statue available with the 11
update.

If you have 11, share a screenshot of the 11 statue with Table Mountain!

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The Android Open Source Project
Check out source.android.com

Melissa Densmore, UCT CSC2002S

This video is a bit old, but it gives an introduction to what an open source project is.

It’s not just the software, the but it’s the ecosystem of people working to support and
advance the software. One of those advancements includes the move from Dalvik to the
Android Runtime Environment

What are your main takeaways from this video?

• Layered system
• Open platform
• Easy for hardware manufacturers to adopt – improves innovation on hardware
* source.android.com

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Key AOSP Features

 Layered Architecture

 Apache License

 Open platform, easy to adopt

 Tied to the Google ecosystem (…or not?!)

 Developers can branch code for customization

 For example, Amazon Fire, Google TV, Huawei

 Not just the code – also the people, and the principles for
working together

Melissa Densmore, UCT CSC2002S

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Open Handset Alliance

Mobile
Operators
14

Commercial-
Handset
ization
Manufacturers
Companies
23
12
84

Semi-
Software
conductor
Companies
Companies
17
21

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11B Android Architecture

CSC2002S Melissa Densmore, UCT

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Architecture
Diagram
 Linux Kernel: manages
threading and low-level
memory management, well-
known kernel

 Hardware Abstraction Layer

(HAL): api allows apps to be
written independently of
specific hardware models

 Android Runtime: this is where

apps run

 Native Libraries

 Java API Framework

 System Apps
Melissa Densmore, UCT CSC2002S

Recall what I taught earlier about software architectures. You can see at a glance that
Android uses a layered architecture, with each layer exposing an API to the next, but also
shielding the next layer from the implementation specifics required for that layer. This
allows an android app built and tested on one phone to effectively work on most other
phones.

Diagram from https://developer.android.com/guide/platform?hl=en

Built on top of a linux kernel, with drivers for the standard devices on android phones
Most aren’t aware of the linux kernel – but it is important to know for developers – you will
be using the adb command in the shell
Libraries are writtent in C or C++, compiled for the hardware and installed by the vendor
• Surface Manager: off screen bitmaps combined for rendering
• Graphics: openGL
• Media codecs: supports aac, avc, h.263, mp3, mpeg‐4
• Browser: webkit

App Framework
• Activity Manager: life cycle of applications
• Content providers: shared data between apps – eg. Contacts
• Resource Manager: images, files, R class names all your resources
• Location Manager: gps and wifi – where is your phone?
• Notification Manager: events and notifications – in a uniform and unobtrusive manner

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 Architecture Diagram
Applications
Home Contacts Browser Widgets Apps
and Widgets

Application Activity Window Content View Notification

Framework Manager Manager Providers System Manager

Package Telephony Location Sensor

Resource
Manager Manager Manager Manager

Surface Media Android Core

Libraries Manager Framework
SQLite Runtime Libraries

Dalvik
OpenGL | Virtual
WebKit …
ES Machine

Hardware
Abstraction Audio Bluetooth Camera Sensors …
Layer

Linux Flash
Display Bluetooth Camera Binder (IPC)
Memory
Kernel Driver Driver Driver
Driver
Driver

Keypad Audio Power

USB Driver WiFi Driver
Driver Drivers Management

Melissa Densmore, UCT CSC2002S

Built on top of a linux kernel, with drivers for the standard devices on android phones
Most aren’t aware of the linux kernel – but it is important to know for developers – you will
be using the adb command in the shell
Libraries are writtent in C or C++, compiled for the hardware and installed by the vendor
• Surface Manager: off screen bitmaps combined for rendering
• Graphics:
• Media codecs: supports aac, avc, h.263, mp3, mpeg‐4
• SQL – same as firefox and iPhone
• Browser: chrome, safari, iphone and s60

App Framework
• Activity Manager: life cycle of applications
• Content providers: shared data between apps – eg. Contacts
• Resource Manager: images, files, R class names all your resources
• Location Manager: gps and wifi – where is your phone?
• Notification Manager: events and notifications – in a uniform and unobtrusive manner

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 Browser: Integrated, based on the open source

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WebKit engine

For the developer

 Graphics: Powered by custom 2D graphics library,
with 3D graphics based on the OpenGL ES 1.0 spec
 Data Storage: SQLite for structured data
 Media: Support for common audio, video, and still
image formats (Mpeg-4, H.264, mp3, aac, amr, jpg,
png, gif)
 Radio: multiple frequencies, and GSM or CDMA
 Wireless: bluetooth, EDGE, 3G, 4G, 5G, and WiFi

 Sensors and Devices: camera, gps, compass,

accelerometer
 SDK: Rich development environment, including a
device emulator, debugging tools, memory and
performance profiling
Melissa Densmore, UCT CSC2002S

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Android Runtime Environment
.. vs Dalvik Virtual Machine
• Introduced with KitKat, official with
Lollipop
• Nougat couples a JIT compiler with AoT
compilation

ARE DVM

• Ahead of Time • Just in Time (JIT)

(AoT) Compilation
Compilation • Faster to boot
• Apps compiled at • Lower space
install or boot requirements
• Faster to run
• Independent VMs
• Takes more space

Melissa Densmore, UCT CSC2002S

What’s the point of a runtime environment?

‐ interpretation vs compilation

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Nuts and Bolts of Android Apps
Applications Application
and Widgets Camera WhatsApp 22seven Framework
APK APK APK
Activity Window
WhatsApp 22seven Manager Manager
Camera
Process Process Process
Content View
Providers System

Android
Runtime ARE ARE ARE Notification Package
Manager Manager

• Written in Java Telephony

Resource
• Compiled into Android Packages (apk) Manager
• Allocated individual process & user id
• Executed on own virtual machine Location Sensor
Manager Manager
• User IDs can be shared between apps
• To share files/content
• To share virtual machine

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11C Android App
Development

CSC2002S Melissa Densmore, UCT

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Download Android Studio

https://developer.android.com/studio/index.html

Melissa Densmore, UCT CSC2002S

Run on OSX, Linux, and Windows

You need JDK 6 – latest is 8 – but I often go with one version down – Java 8
Optional packages

Warning – it’s a ton of data, not for the bandwidth constrained!

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Android Emulator
Emulation at the CPU level | Android Runtime Environment | “touch” with
mouse or touchscreen | device profiles for different phone models | fake
locations, calls, SMS, connection speeds | can’t fake sensors – but can use
webcam
Melissa Densmore, UCT CSC2002S

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Kotlin vs Java

 As of 2019, Android development is increasingly Kotlin-first

 Examples now provided on developer.android.com

 Interchangeable with Java - also runs on JVM

 More succinct code

 Fixes some issues with Java, but not always better

 Null safe
 No raw types
 Arrays are invariant
 Function Types
 No checked Exceptions
 Structured concurrency

 https://kotlinlang.org/docs/reference/comparison-to-java.html

Melissa Densmore, UCT CSC2002S

Migrating new feature development to Kotlin helped the Google Home team reduce the
size of their codebase by 33% and decrease their number of Null Pointer Exception‐caused
crashes by 30% .

https://developer.android.com/kotlin/first

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Melissa Densmore, UCT CSC2002S

Available through Android Studio Create New Project wizard.

This is an incredibly important decision – picking what API level you will support.

https://gs.statcounter.com/android‐version‐market‐share/mobile‐tablet/africa

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99% (+8%)

92% (+7%)

85% (+6%)
79%(+17%)

62% (+24%)

28%
Melissa Densmore, UCT CSC2002S

But that chart is the global stats from Android. Global stats shares Market share in Africa –
noting that most of the market is at Marshmallow or above

However, this isn’t reflective what I see in the field ‐ I suspect this is data only from android
users that are connected to the play store and have a google account.

In a study I did a couple of years back, we found several phones out of a group of 25 people
that were using Kit Kat or earlier, which meant they couldn’t use our app, which was based
strongly on the notifications framework introduced in 5.0.

https://gs.statcounter.com/android‐version‐market‐share/mobile‐tablet/africa

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 Sizes
+
-

- - + ++ + +
https://developer.android.com/about/dashboards/index.html

xxhdpi
Normal
89.6%
Small ldpi
xhdpi
XL mdpi
tvdpi
Large
hdpi

Melissa Densmore, UCT CSC2002S

+ and ‐ indicate change from 2018

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11D Android Architecture
Components

CSC2002S Melissa Densmore, UCT

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Architecture Components

 Dividing apps into

components saves
Your App Camera
resources

 Each component of an
app is a point of entry
for the operating
system

 Your app can call parts Operating System

of other apps (e.g. use
the camera)
Melissa Densmore, UCT CSC2002S

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Types of Components

Activities Services
 User interface  Background tasks
 Application Screens  Long-running operations
 example: mail list, view  example: checking for new
message, compose message mail, sending mail

Content Providers Broadcast Receivers

 Manages shared app data  Responds to system-wide
 Private data too announcements (e.g. battery
low, screen off)
 File system, SQLite, cloud
 Status bar notifications
 Query or modify data

Melissa Densmore, UCT CSC2002S

https://developer.android.com/guide/components/fundamentals#Components

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Activities

 1:1 correlation with

screens
 Must be declared in
the manifest (xml)
 Use <intent-filter> to
denote initial
activity
 Activities are called
by other Activities

Melissa Densmore, UCT CSC2002S

Example in Kotlin

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Services
 A service can be bound, started,
or both
 onBind(): allows IPC, provides
an API for interaction with app
 onStartCommand(): long-
running background service

 Multi-threaded!
 Make sure to start a thread for
your work, or it will slow down
the main activity!
 Use IntentService to handle
multiple calls at once

 Can send toast and statusbar

notifications to the user

 Ongoing services (foreground)

won’t be killed if system is
running low on memory

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Content Providers
Shareable data stores

 Local or cloud: database, files, dropbox

 Store your own data

 Share your data

 Access other ContentProviders via ContentResolver

contacts
calendar media
settings phone
alarm
browser
dictionary sms
camera
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Broadcast Receivers

 Receives system
and application
messages (Intents)
and invokes
response

 No UI – but can
update status bar

 Battery low,
message received,
picture taken,
incoming call

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Intents

 Activates services,
activities, and
receivers

 Can be targeted or
broadcast

 Explicit or implicit
(app chooser)

 Receive implicit
intents using
<intent-filter>s

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Resource Management
Responsiveness is maintained at all costs!

 Content providers automatically sleep

 Activities and services can be shut down anytime

 Process priority determines what gets killed (like *nix)

 active, visible, service, background, empty

 Lower priority processes are killed when resources are tight

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 Resources
+• Stored externally – don’t declare
Strings in code
• Good for tailoring language,
devices, and for re-use
• Can also include arbitrary xml,
binary data
• Accessed in code through R
instance

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Layouts and Views
Declare all user interface elements in XML

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Material Components
Each widget is the basis for a unit
of action with the user.
Custom widgets are derived from
View

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Application Manifest

 Every .apk contains resources, code, and a manifest file

 Specifies the Java package for the app – a unique id

 All components are declared in AndroidManifest.xml

 Permissions (e.g. internet access, read/write content)
 Minimum API level (e.g. Eclair, 8)
 Hardware and software features (e.g. camera, Bluetooth)
 External APIs (e.g. Google Maps)
 and more...

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AndroidManifest.xml
<activity>  activities
<service>  services
<receiver>  broadcast receivers
<provider> content providers

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Resources

 Android Developer API Guides

http://developer.android.com/guide/index.html

 StackOverflow

 Assigned Reading/Coding (Self-Tutorial):

Android Training: Build Your First App
https://developer.android.com/training/basics/firstapp/inde
x.html

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