Kickstart your Android development

In this session Scott will help you get started in the fantastic world of Android development. We'll short cut some of the common mistakes and leverage the awesome work of the Android development community. We'll take a whistle stop tour of some of the best libraries to supe up your app, make it look great and most importantly save a stack of development time! I'll also share personal experiences of making apps and comparisons with iOS. They'll be something for everyone form beginner to expert.

For the Autumn School: Mobile App Development hosted by The Bristol Branch of the BCS.

Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Transcript

1. Kickstart your Android development BCS Bristol: Nov 2013 Scott Alexander-Bown @scottyab
2. Scott Alexander-Bown • Senior Developer @viaForensics ◦ Consultancy & training for Independently Mobile • Co-author Android Security Cookbook • Co-founder SWmobile meetup group ◦ meetup.com/swmobile
3. ‘Blinkered’ fan boy? FYI: That’s not me
4. Kickstarter • Android in 60 seconds • Ecosystem • Development environment • Dev tips & quick wins ◦ 3rd party libs ◦ MBASS ◦ Fragmentation • Design • Testing • Vs iOS • What I love about Android
5. Android in 60 seconds • Open source • Linux based • Java • Permissions • Resources framework ◦ i.e build for variety • Side load apps
6. Ecosystem: Android is No.1 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:World_Wide_Smartphone_Sales_Share.png
7. Ecosystem: Playstore • $25 developer registration fee • No approval • Alpha and Beta distribution • Staggered distribution • Automated security testing/monitoring • Alternative app stores
8. Development Environment
9. Development Tools • Eclipse ◦ with Android Developer Tools plugin • IntelliJ IDEA ◦ with Android plugin • Android Studio ◦ Bleeding edge
10. Quick wins: open source community • SQLCipher • Google GSON • Anything from Square • Fundapter • CommonsWare • AppMsg (Crouton) • More: inappsquared.com/devappsdirect.html
11. Quick wins: mbass • User auth/Social login (google, fb, twitter) • User management • Data storage ◦ save and sync data objects ◦ files (large files) • Analytics • Push messaging
12. Pro tips • Fragments (componentize your UI) • AsyncTask use an IntentService • EventBus (component communication) • Use styles, dimens and colors.xml • dip not px
13. Fragmentation??? This. Is. Differentiation!!!
14. Platform versions November 1, 2013
15. Quick wins: for fragmentation • Android compatibility library • Google Play services • NineOldAndroids • HoloEverywhere
16. Getting help • Android docs and training • Androiddevweekly.com • Stackoverflow • Google plus (bit.ly/g_andev) • YouTube ◦ DevBytes ◦ ADiA ◦ Google IO • Busy coders guide to Android ◦ by Mark Murphy
17. Testing • Hardware ◦ Cheap Samsung - Ace / S3 ◦ Nexus 5 ◦ 10” tablet - Nexus 10 • Emulator ◦ GenyMotion.com • Services ◦ Crowd source bug teseting - UTest.com ◦ Install test of 300+ devices - Apkudo.com ◦ Cloud based UI testing - TestDroid.com ◦ Errorlytics - Crittercism.com
18. Design
19. Design patterns
20. Design: Inspiration • Google Playstore • Gmail, Google+ & others • Pocket • Expedia • Timely • More examples: ◦ androidniceties.tumblr.com ◦ android-app-patterns.com
21. Design: resources • developer.android.com/design • android-holo-colors.com • Android asset studio bit.ly/andasset ◦ Icons ◦ Action bar style ◦ Device frame generator
22. Vs iOS
23. • Android Win ◦ Device choice ◦ Customisation ◦ True background tasks ◦ NFC ◦ Resources framework • iOS Win ◦ Limited devices ◦ UI consistency ◦ Users upgrade to latest OS ◦ Clients, Managers, Designers have/know them ◦ Paid apps do better Vs iOS
24. • All apps are equal • The community What I love about Android
25. Open source
26. Android everywhere
27. Thanks for listening
28. Q&A | Contact | Feedback • dev@scottyab.com • meetup.com/swmobile • github/scottyab • @scottyab
29. Bonus: Alternatives to Java • C/C++ via the Native Developer Kit (NDK) • Web app • Hybrid app ◦ Web tech i.e PhoneGap ◦ Cross compile i.e AppCelerator • Games ◦ Unity ◦ Marmalade ◦ Lua
30. Bonus: Google Play Games Services • Android, iOS and Web • Leaderboards • Multi-player • Achievements • Cloud save • Anti-Piracy
31. Bonus: Look forward, not back