Android Studio

Lab session
Outline
➔ Download
➔ Mobile website vs mobile app
➔ Android platforms
➔ Android OS architecture
➔ Features of Android studio
➔ Templates
➔ Starting a new project
➔ Key android development concepts
Download site
➢ Download Android Studio from https://developers.android.com official
website
 Comparison

Mobile website Mobile app

● It is a website for mobile ● App is installed in mobiles

● Requires internet connection to ● Uses mobile resources like
function Location
● For example:- used for content ● Faster
sharing ● Can work without the internet
● Expensive
● Built from scratch
● Needs approval from app store
Android platforms
● Chromebook
○ Used in portable laptops
● Android Tv
○ Is a Tv with a mobile experience
● Android Auto
○ Enables to connect your phone to your car
● WearOS
○ Smartwatches and wearables
Android Languages

Java Kotlin

● Released in 1995 ● Introduced in 2011 by JetBrains

● Used for many types of ● Concise and time saving
development ● Easier maintenance
● Interoperable with java
● Addresses common issues easily
Android OS architecture
● Android OS is a stack of software components roughly divided into 5 sections
○ Applications
○ Applications framework
○ Android runtime
○ Platform Libraries
○ Linux Kernel
Features of Android studio
● Launched in 2013
● Provides complete build system (Gradle)
● Fast emulation
● Different components
○ Toolbar
○ Editor
○ Navigation pane
○ Tool window bar
○ Status bar
● Project templates
Starting a new project
● Follow the following steps
○ New project
○ Phone and tablet
○ Empty activity
○ Next
○ Write name of the project/app
○ Select language (java)
○ Select version of SDK ( with API level )
○ Click Finish
○ Wait until the project loads
Templates
● Android studio comes with pre-built project templates which may help as a starting
file
● Some of the templates are
○ Basic activity template
○ Navigation activity template
○ Empty activity template
● Advantages
○ Clear project structure
○ Preview of platforms
○ Build apps quickly
Key android development
concepts
Top level components
● 4 top level components provide the ability to do everything
○ Activity
■ Can be a single screen of an app
○ Service
■ Works in the background
○ Content provider
■ Responsible to share data
○ Broadcast receiver
■ Responds to messages in real time
Activity components
● It presents the content users interact with on the screen
● Represents something an application can do
● An application can have more than 1 activities
– recent developers follow – single-activity - architecture
Android views
● Views occupy rectangular area on the screen
● Responsible for drawing and event handling
● Can display images , text, etc
● Combination of views forms design interface
Android Layout files
● Each android application layout is represented by an XML file
● The XML file serves as a blueprint for the interface of an application
● Views can also be created using java or kotlin
● Jetpack compose – can also be used to create user interfaces using kotlin code only
XML
● Stands for Extended markup language
● Is used to develop apps user interface
● The whole structure is built on tags
HTML vs XML

HTML XML

● Designed to display data with ● Designed to carry data with focus

focus on how data looks on what data is
● Tags are predefined ● Tags are not predefined
XML syntax
● Xml document must have a root element
<root>
<child>
<subchild> ….. </subchild>
</child>
</root>
XML syntax rules
● All elements must have a closing tag
● Tags are case-sensitive
● Elements must be properly nested
● Attribute values must always be quoted
● Comments are similar to HTML
● White space is preserved in XML
Android Virtual Device ( AVD )Manager
● AVD manager optimizes android apps for different devices
● Helps to test apps
● Lets us create and configure virtual devices
● Running virtual device requires – virtualization tool for hardware acceleration to be
enabled i.e. Hyper-V
○ Windows 10 is preloaded with this feature
● If Hyper-V is not enabled – HAXM hardware acceleration tool will be downloaded
together with an Emulator
AVD configuration
● Emulator performance can be chosen:
○ Cold boot
■ Emulator starts as a first time boot
○ Quick boot
■ Emulator continues boot from last time state
○ Snapshot boot
■ Emulator starts from a saved screenshot state
Emulator
● It is a computer program that imitates real device
● To use it – you need to download it first
● Used for testing our app
● Requires high computing resources
○ Disk space
○ RAM
● Examples
○ Bluestacks
○ Apptize.io
Configuring emulator
● We can configure the following for emulator
○ Device name
○ Startup orientation
○ Set number of processor cores
○ Override the default RAM value
Android Resources
● Lets us manage, change and access our resources globally across our app
● Some of the resources are
○ String
○ Color
○ Themes
○ Dimension
○ Font
Mobile CPU architecture
● To develop and deploy apps for different mobile devices, the cpu architecture must be
considered
● 3 main CPU architectures are used in smartphones
○ ARM - most common and optimized for battery use
○ ARM 64 – supports 64-bit processing – used in newer devices
○ X86 – better embodies mobile first mentality – low power consumption, simple instruction sets etc
Android Studio project structure
● .gradle
○ Contains configurations and files used for project building
○ Auto generated
● .idea
○ Contains metadata of project
● App
○ Contains project source code
● Gradle( androids build system )
○ .gitignore -- specify sensitive files and folders
○ build-gradle -- specify and manage configuration options
○ gradlew -- created whenever a new feature is required
○ local-properties -- local configuration info
○ settings.gradle -- handles settings for projects and modules
Android Studio project structure
● MainActivity
○ Generated when a project is created
○ Activity class contains a layout
○ onCreate() function must be in your activity class to run an android app
Res folder
● Contains the following
○ Drawable
○ Mipmap
○ Layout
○ values
● Both drawable and mipmap store image assets
● Mipmap
○ renders high quality images across different devices
○ It is an upgrade and preferable
○ Images will not become blurry
○ Uses webp images file format ( extension )
Android Manifest
● Used as configuration file to define what an app requires to run
● Helps to define permissions
● e.g sendSMS
<uses-permission android-name=“android.permission.SEND_SMS”>
Layout folder
● Used to manage UI
● Contains the xml files of your app
Dimension
● Defined in XML
● Specified with a number followed by a unit of measure
● Example : 5sp, 15dp, 12px
● The following unit of measure are supported in android
○ dp (density independent pixel) – for margin, padding, etc.
○ sp (space independent pixel) – for font size
○ pt (point)
○ px (pixel)
○ mm (milimmeter)
○ in (inch)
Android densities
● There are a lot of Android devices with different sizes and proportions and each
screen has its density.
● Android densities can be:
○ ldpi (low) ~120dpi
○ mdpi (medium) ~160dpi
○ hdpi (high) ~240dpi
○ xhdpi (extra-high) ~320dpi
○ xxhdpi (extra-extra-high) ~480dpi
○ xxxhdpi (extra-extra-extra-high) ~640dpi
Android densities
● DPI stands for dots per inch.
● Thanks to dp the UI elements look uniform on screens with different densities.
…cont’d
Layouts
● Relative Layouts
○ is a layout which arranges views/widgets/viewGroup according to the position
of other views/widgets/viewGroups i.e the new views are placed relative to the
already existing views
○ Most commonly used layout type
…cont’d
…cont’d
…cont’d
…cont’d
Android Activity Lifecycle – has 7 methods
● onCreate() – Called when the activity is first created
● onStart() – Called just after it’s creation or by restart method after onStop(). Here
Activity start becoming visible to user
● onResume() – Called when Activity is visible to user and user can interact with it
● onPause() – Called when Activity content is not visible because user resume previous
activity
● onStop() – Called when activity is not visible to user because some other activity takes
place of it
● onRestart() – Called when user comes on screen or resume the activity which was
stopped
● onDestroy – Called when Activity is not in background
onCreate()
public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
}

}
onStart(), onRestart()
protected void onStart() {
super.onStart();
}

@Override
protected void onRestart() {
super.onRestart();
}
onPause(), onResume()
protected void onPause() {
super.onPause();

protected void onResume() {

super.onResume();
}
onStop(), onDestroy()
protected void onStop() {
super.onStop();

protected void onDestroy() {

super.onDestroy();
}
Toast Message
● A toast provides simple feedback about an operation in a small popup.
● It only fills the amount of space required for the message and the current activity
remains visible and interactive.
● Toasts automatically disappear after a timeout.
How to use Toast
● Instantiate a Toast object (e.g Toast t1 ; )
● Use makeText() method with the following information:
○ Context
○ Text or String to be displayed
○ Time length
● Use show() to display the Toast message
● Example:
Context context=getApplicationContext();
CharSequence msg=“This is a Toast”;
int length=Toast.LENGTH.SHORT;
Toast t=Toast.makeText(context,msg,length).show();
Adding Vector Asset
● Vector Assets in Android Studio helps to add material icons and import Scalable
Vector Graphics (SVG) and Adobe Photoshop Document files into your project
as vector drawable resources.
● Image scalability is the major advantage of using the vector drawable.
● There are many formats of vector asset files:
○ Ai
○ Svg
○ Pdf
○ Eps
● Follow the following steps to implement vector assets
Implement Vector Asset
● Step 1: Right-click on drawable > New > Vector Asset
● After clicking on Vector Asset a new dialog box is opened that is shown below.
● Step 2: Click on Clip Art and Search for the Icons and click ok button
● Step 3: Change the color of the icon
● Step 4: Click Next Step
● 5: Now Click on Finish Button
● Step 6: Icon is created in the drawable folder
● Now you can refer it to in your xml file
Image Asset
● Helps you generate your own app icons from material icons, custom
images, and text strings.
● Follow the following step to include Image asset
● Step 1: First click on drawable > New > Image Asset.
● Step 2: Then a new dialog box will appear. Here click on the Clip Art Image.
● Step 3: Then search for the image you are looking for. And then click on the icon and
click on Ok in the bottom right.
● Step 4: Now Click on Next.
● Step 5: Click on Finish.