Building Android Apps in Easy Steps Using App Inventor

by McGrath, Mike

• ISBN13: 9781840785289
• ISBN10: 1840785284
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-06-26
• Publisher: In Easy Steps Limited

Summary

Android is one of the dominant operating systems for mobile devices, and Android App Inventor is a free tool for building apps for Android.

Author Biography

Mike McGrath gained his extensive knowledge of computer languages while working as a developer contracting to companies around the world. Mike is an established In Easy Steps author with several guides to his credit including: C++; Javascript, Java, PHP, SQL and Visual Basic Express.

Table of Contents

Getting started	p. 7
Introducing Android	p. 8
Installing Java	p. 10
Installing App Inventor	p. 12
Beginning your first app	p. 14
Adding components	p. 16
Adding behavior	p. 18
Preparing devices	p. 20
Running your first app	p. 22
Managing projects	p. 24
Summary	p. 26
Designing interfaces	p. 27
Enabling buttons	p. 28
Reading text input	p. 30
Inserting images	p. 32
Painting canvas	p. 34
Picking list items	p. 36
Checking boxes	p. 38
Storing data	p. 40
Telling the time	p. 42
Configuring screens	p. 44
Summary	p. 46
Controlling progress	p. 47
Composing programs	p. 48
Defining variables	p. 50
Performing operations	p. 52
Branching flow	p. 54
Providing alternatives	p. 56
Notifying messages	p. 58
Looping within a range	p. 60
Looping through a list	p. 62
Looping while true	p. 64
Summary	p. 66
Calling functions	p. 67
Calling object methods	p. 68
Creating procedures	p. 70
Passing arguments	p. 72
Returning results	p. 74
Ignoring results	p. 76
Calling subroutines	p. 78
Validating input	p. 80
Doing mathematics	p. 82
Generating random numbers	p. 84
Summary	p. 86
Managing text	p. 87
Manipulating strings	p. 88
Querying strings	p. 90
Comparing strings	p. 92
Trimming strings	p. 94
Splitting strings	p. 96
Extracting substrings	p. 98
Summary	p. 100
Handling lists	p. 101
Making lists	p. 102
Querying lists	p. 104
Adding list items	p. 106
Selecting items	p. 108
Swapping items	p. 110
Manipulating lists	p. 112
Separating lists	p. 114
Summary	p. 116
Embracing media	p. 117
Playing sounds	p. 118
Playing video	p. 120
Snapping photos	p. 122
Picking images	p. 124
Switching screens	p. 126
Animating components	p. 128
Detecting collisions	p. 130
Dragging objects	p. 132
Dropping objects	p. 134
Summary	p. 136
Sensing conditions	p. 137
Pin-pointing location	p. 138
Recognizing orientation	p. 140
Feeling movement	p. 142
Picking contacts	p. 144
Calling phone numbers	p. 146
Texting messages	p. 148
Tweeting updates	p. 150
Storing data online	p. 152
Summary	p. 154
Deploying apps	p. 155
Planning the program	p. 156
Assigning static properties	p. 158
Designing the interface	p. 160
Initializing dynamic properties	p. 162
Adding runtime functionality	p. 164
Completing functionality	p. 166
Distributing the application	p. 168
Selling your app	p. 170
Summary	p. 172
Handy reference	p. 173
Definition blocks	p. 174
Text blocks	p. 176
Lists blocks	p. 178
Math blocks	p. 180
Logic blocks	p. 182
Control blocks	p. 184
Colors blocks	p. 186
Index	p. 187
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