Android UI Fundamentals Develop & Design

by Ostrander, Jason

• ISBN13: 9780321814586
• ISBN10: 0321814584
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-02-24
• Publisher: Peachpit Press

Summary

Learn the basics of Android UI design and how to make your Android application stand out. Running on half of all smartphones sold in the US last quarter, the Android OS offers developers a large and growing platform for third-party applications. This book will walk developers through the different choices they can make on their way to creating a well designed application. Author will start with a basic application and work up to advanced graphics available to developers. Author Jason Ostrander walks developers through the different choices available on their way to creating a well-designed application for Android, the mobile OS which is running on more than half of all smartphones sold in the U.S. While building a simple application, Jason works through the basics of Android UI development including layout, event handling, menus and notifications. The author then shows the proper way to load and display images, create advanced dialogs and progress indicators, add animation, and how to build custom UI elements. Jason discusses the proper way of adding interaction through gestures and the advanced graphical options available using Canvas, Renderscript and OpenGL. Finally, he discusses tablet development, the unique differences between phone and tablet UI, and the new APIs available to tablet developers.

Author Biography

Jason Ostrander is a web and mobile software developer working at Silicon Valley startup double Twist, where he makes syncing media to Android phones dead simple. Prior to that, he solved networking problems at energy management startup Sentilla and defense company Northrop Grumman. Jason holds an MS in electrical engineering from UCLA. He lives with his wife, Susan, in San Francisco's Mission District, where he spends his time searching for the perfect chile relleno. You can follow him on Twitter jasonostrander.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. viii
Welcome to Android	p. x
Basic Android UI
Getting Started	p. 2
Hello World	p. 4
Basic Structure of an Android App	p. 9
Android UI Basics	p. 14
Tools	p. 22
Wrapping Up	p. 32
Creating Your First Application	p. 34
Creating an App	p. 36
Getting Started with Android Views	p. 37
Arranging Views	p. 41
Displaying a List	p. 52
Understanding Activities	p. 57
Preventing ANRs	p. 64
Finishing the Time Tracker App	p. 71
Wrapping Up	p. 73
Going Further	p. 74
Supporting Multiple Screen Sizes	p. 76
Handling Notifications	p. 84
Handling Events	p. 92
Creating Menus	p. 96
Implementing the Time Tracker	p. 102
Wrapping Up	p. 107
The View Framework
Basic Views	p. 110
Creating a Basic Form	p. 112
Displaying Images	p. 124
Creating Maps and Displaying Websites	p. 130
Wrapping Up	p. 136
Reusable UI	p. 138
Abstracting Your Layouts	p. 140
Abstracting Styles and Themes	p. 148
Using Fragments	p. 153
Wrapping Up	p. 162
Navigation and Data Loading	p. 164
Introducing the Action Bar	p. 166
Navigating Your App	p. 172
Loading Data into Views	p. 181
Wrapping Up	p. 186
Android Widgets	p. 188
Creating a Basic Widget	p. 190
Creating a Collection Widget	p. 206
Wrapping Up	p. 211
Advanced UI Development
Handling Gestures	p. 214
Listening to Touch Events	p. 216
Responding to Gestures	p. 224
Wrapping Up	p. 229
Animation	p. 230
Creating Drawable Animations	p. 232
Creating View Animations	p. 235
Creating Property Animations	p. 246
Wrapping Up	p. 255
Creating Custom Views	p. 256
Understanding How Android Draws Views	p. 258
Creating a Custom View	p. 259
Adding Custom Attributes to Your Custom Views	p. 267
Creating Compound Components	p. 274
Wrapping Up	p. 279
Creating Advanced Graphics	p. 280
Using Canvas	p. 282
Using RenderScript	p. 289
Using OpenGL	p. 294
Wrapping Up	p. 301
Localization and Accessibility	p. 302
Making Your App Available in Multiple Languages	p. 304
Making Your App Accessible	p. 309
Wrapping Up	p. 315
Index	p. 316
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