Android on the tablet. recipes

The best recipes for Android platform developers!

Android began his career with phones. It did not take long for the first tablets to work in this system to appear. Today their choices and possibilities make you dizzy. The developer must now take into account many hardware configurations - different screen resolutions and a variety of accessories require attention to detail and application testing in several environments. How to deal with this? How to create solutions that work on different tablets and how to use the potential of Android?

These and many other questions will be answered by this sensational book, belonging to the acclaimed series "Recipes". Particular emphasis is placed on tablets operating under the control of Android version 4.2.2. You will learn how to prepare the work environment, display notifications and create animations. In addition, you'll get familiar with the possibilities of hardware acceleration of 2D graphics, sound capture and video materials. And then master the use of the JSON format to store information and support small screens. The last chapter of the book is dedicated to analyzing and tracking the use of your application - thanks to this you will find out where your work has reached the corners of the world. This book must be on the shelf of every developer of Android applications - a huge database of ready-to-use snippets of code will make your work easier!

Thanks to this book:

• you will create an AVD device
• check the possibilities of OpenGL
• you will use wireless connectivity
• You will discover the secrets of the NFC standard

Mandatory reading of every programmer!

Table of Contents

About the author (11)

Introduction (13)

PART I. TECHNOLOGY OF USER INTERFACE (21)

Chapter 1. An overview of the application for Android tablets (23)

• Recipe: introduction to Android tablets (23)
• Recipe: differences between Android phones and Android tablets (25)
• Recipe: ensuring compatibility of applications with Android phones and tablets (26)
• Recipe: creating AVD devices (27)
• Recipe: Android project directory structure (32)
• Recipe: convert applications from an Android phone into an Android tablet app (37)
• Recipe: forcing the application to work only on tablets (48)
• Recipe: activities (49)
• Recipe: life cycle of the Android system (49)
• Recipe: starting to use intentions (53)
• Recipe: transfer of data from one activity to another (58)
• Summary (64)

Chapter 2. Fragments (67)

• Recipe: introduction to fragments (68)
• Recipe: fragment life cycle (68)
• Recipe: creation of foreground fragments and differences between foreground fragments and background fragments (70)
• Recipe: adding and removing fragments when changing the orientation of the device (78)
• Recipe: role of FragmentManager and FragmentTransaction classes in handling fragments (83)
• Recipe: creating fragments dynamically during application execution (86)
• Recipe: implementing communication between fragments (92)
• Recipe: showing options using the ListFragment class (98)
• Recipe: displaying dialogs using the DialogFragment class (102)
• Recipe: configuring user preferences using the PreferenceFragment class (109)
• Summary (117)

Chapter 3. Action bars in action (119)

• Recipe: differences between the menu and the action bar (119)
• Recipe: switching the visibility of the action bar (120)
• Recipe: components of the action bar (121)
• Recipe: displaying the action items in the action bar (121)
• Recipe: navigating to the home page after selecting the application icon (126)
• Recipe: displaying action views in the action bar (127)
• Recipe: displaying a sub-menu in the action bar (132)
• Recipe: creating a taskbar with tabs (139)
• Recipe: creating an action bar with a drop down list (145)
• Summary (149)

Chapter 4. New widgets (151)

• Recipe: displaying the calendar in the Android application (151)
• Recipe: display and dial numbers using the NumberPicker widget (154)
• Recipe: create a stack of images using the StackView widget (160)
• Recipe: displaying the list of options using the ListPopupWindow widget (165)
• Recipe: suggesting options using the PopupMenu widget (170)
• Summary (172)

PART II. CONTENT MANAGEMENT (175)

Chapter 5. System clipboard and drag-and-drop operation (177)

• Recipe: drag and drop operation (177)
• Recipe: drag-and-drop text (179)
• Recipe: dragging and dropping images (188)
• Recipe: cutting, copying and pasting text using the system clipboard (198)
• Summary (202)

Chapter 6. Notifications and intentions (205)

• Recipe: intentions (205)
• Recipe: announcing intentions (207)
• Recipe: Android notification system (214)
• Recipe: creating notifications (215)
• Recipe: use of Notification.Builder class (216)
• Recipe: acquiring a NotificationManager class object (218)
• Recipe: create a notification and use intentions to start an activity (218)
• Summary (222)

Chapter 7. Chargers (225)

• Recipe: charger (225)
• Recipe: content provider (226)
• Recipe: Use of the CursorLoader class to access information stored by the content provider. Contacts (228)
• Recipe: Creating a custom content provider (233)
• Recipe: displaying information from a custom content provider (243)
• Recipe: Update and delete information stored in a custom content provider
• Summary (252)

PART III. MULTIMEDIA TECHNIQUES (255)

Chapter 8. Animations (257)

• Recipe: types of animation (257)
• Recipe: using the ValueAnimator class (259)
• Recipe: using the ObjectAnimator class to animate views (267)
• Recipe: running multiple animations using the AnimatorSet class (273)
• Recipe: stop motion animation (279)
• Recipe: animation generating tents (283)
• Using the AlphaAnimation class (287)
• Using the TranslateAnimation class (287)
• Using the RotateAnimation class (288)
• Using the ScaleAnimation class (289)
• Recipe: Apply layout animation (293)
• Recipe: collecting and displaying animation sequences using the AnimationSet class (301)
• Summary (306)

Chapter 9. Hardware 2D graphics acceleration (309)

• Recipe: hardware acceleration (309)
• Recipe: using view layers (313)
• Recipe: Improving the performance of graphics-based applications using the SurfaceView class (317)
• Recipe: Transformation using the TextureView class (323)
• Summary (326)

Chapter 10. Creating and rendering graphics (327)

• Recipe: APIs required for graphics (327)
• Recipe: creating and rendering a rectangle using OpenGL (328)
• Recipe: applying multi-shade colors (334)
• Recipe: graphics rotation (337)
• Recipe: graphics scaling (342)
• Recipe: moving graphics (346)
• Summary (349)

Chapter 11. Capturing Audio, Video and Pictures (351)

• Recipe: image capture using the built-in intention (351)
• Recipe: capturing an image using Java code (356)
• Recipe: audio recording using the built-in intention (362)
• Recipe: CamcorderProfile class (365)
• Recipe: MediaRecorder class and its methods (372)
• Recipe: audio recording using Java code (373)
• Recipe: video recording using the built-in intention (379)
• Recipe: video recording using Java code (382)
• Summary (389)

PART IV. NETWORK AND HARDWARE INTERFACE (391)

Chapter 12. Wireless communication (393)

• Recipe: pairing two Bluetooth devices (393)
• Recipe: manually transferring files from one device to another using Bluetooth (397)
• Recipe: pairing a Bluetooth device with a Windows computer (399)
• Recipe: Turn on the local Bluetooth device (400)
• Recipe: displaying the list of related devices (405)
• Recipe: transferring files using Bluetooth technology (410)
• Recipe: Wi-Fi standard (412)
• Recipe: Turn Wi-Fi on and off (414)
• Recipe: Wi-Fi Direct (418)
• Summary (423)

Chapter 13. Cores and Threads (425)

• Recipe: usability of multi-core processor architecture (425)
• Recipe: the usefulness of memory recovery processes (426)
• Recipe: threads (429)
• Recipe: using multiple threads (432)
• Recipe: using the AsyncTask class (437)
• Summary (442)

Chapter 14. Keypads and Sensors (443)

• Recipe: changing the keyboard and input methods on Android (443)
• Recipe: sensors (445)
• Recipe: list of sensors supported by the device (448)
• Recipe: using the accelerometer (450)
• Recipe: using the proximity sensor (455)
• Recipe: using a gyroscope (458)
• Summary (461)

PART V. NETWORK EXPLORATION (463)

Chapter 15. JSON (465)

• Recipe: JSON (465)
• Recipe: using the JSONObject object to store information (468)
• Recipe: nesting JSONObject objects (471)
• Recipe: using the JSONArray array (473)
• Recipe: use of JsonReader and JsonWriter classes (478)
• Recipe: using JSON network services in Android applications (483)
• Summary (488)

Chapter 16. The WebView class (489)

• Recipe: WebView class and its methods (489)
• Recipe: displaying web pages using the WebView control (491)
• Recipe: using the WebViewClient class (496)
• Recipe: using the WebViewFragment class (499)
• Summary (507)

PART VI. ADVANCED SYSTEM TECHNIQUES ANDROID (509)

Chapter 17. Small screen support (511)

• Recipe: factors determining the use of various screens and densities (511)
• Recipe: providing support for various platform versions (513)
• Recipe: use of the Android Support Library package to provide support for older versions of the system (518)
• Recipe: Adjusting the application to the screen orientation using the anchor controls (524)
• Recipe: screen orientation support using alternative layouts (528)
• Summary (532)

Chapter 18. Home screen widgets (535)

• Recipe: application widgets and home screen widgets (535)
• Recipe: life-cycle methods of the application widget (538)
• Recipe: creating home screen widgets (539)
• Recipe: Update the home screen widget using the Button control (547)
• Recipe: using the AlarmManager class to frequently update the home screen widget (551)
• Summary (554)

Chapter 19. Android Beam (555)

• Recipe: NFC standard (555)
• Recipe: NFC tags (556)
• Recipe: structure used to exchange information using NFC tags (557)
• Recipe: reading data from NFC tags (560)
• Recipe: writing data to the NFC tag (566)
• Recipe: using the Android Beam function (570)
• Recipe: data transfer using the Android Beam function (571)
• Summary (575)

Chapter 20. Analytics and application tracking (577)

• Recipe: analyzing and tracking applications (577)
• Recipe: using the EasyTracker library to track Android applications (578)
• Recipe: use GoogleAnalytics tool to track Android applications (587)
• Summary (589)

Index (591)