ANDROID APP DEVELOPMENT

Summer School on “Android App Development” was organized by Department of IT and CSIT, Dronacharya College of Engineering from 27th June 2016 to 15th July 2016. The course was coordinated by Mr. Dharmendra Pal, Associate Professor, IT and CSIT.

The objective of the Summer School was to make students learn the Android technology which has high demand in job arena and is attracting lot of placements new market dominant technologies other than their course curriculum and to make students learn the basics of Android, how to start with it and how to develop apps and game using Android. This could help them to get an edge over their peers. The summer school on Android Application Development was a hands-on course which was designed for providing essential skills and experiences to the students in developing applications on mobile platform.

Contents covered in the Summer School

1. Understanding the Android OS architecture.

2. Installing and using appropriate tools for Android development, including IDE, device emulator, and profiling tools. 3. Understanding the Android application architecture, including the roles of the task stack, activities, and services.

4. Building user interfaces with fragments, views, form widgets, text input, lists, tables, and more.

5. Using advanced UI widgets for scrolling, tabbing, and layout control.

6. Presenting menus via the Android action bar and handle menu selections.

7. Storing application data on the mobile device, in internal or external storage locations.

8. Supporting user-specific preferences using the Android Preferences API.

WEEK 1

The session started with the discussion on the overview and history of Android. Discussing the Android Architecture it is described that Android is architected in the form of a software stack comprising applications, an operating system, run - time environment, middleware, services and libraries. Later The Android Operating System, Versions of Android, Applications and APK Files, the Role of Java, Android User Interface, Memory and Storage, Operating-System Services were explained. Students were given knowledge about Android Service and Android Intent. Android Service component that is used to perform operations on the background such as playing music, handle network transactions, interacting content providers etc. It doesn't have any UI (user interface) whereas Android Intent is a messaging object you can use to request an action from another app component. Next students were asked to search an idea on which they will develop Android App and present the same on the next day. On the last day of the week students gave presentation on the ideas in which they will work in the summer school. The presentation was chaired by Ms. Megha Goel, HOD - IT and CSIT and the staff members.

In the lab session students developed their first simple app on “Hello World”. Students developed a mobile app “E-Dialer” to make a phone call using the call intent. Students also developed a Camera App to take a picture or video using the camera.

WEEK 2

Second week started with the explanation of Android Navigation and Android UI. Students were demonstrated how to implement the key navigation design patterns detailed in the designing effective navigation class. App's user interface is everything that the user can see and interact with. Android provides a variety of pre-built UI components such as structured layout objects and UI controls that allow you to build the graphical user interface for your app. Various layouts of the user interface design like XML Layouts, Layout Parameters etc were discussed. Fragments API, Fragment Lifecycle, Relationship between Activity and Fragment, Callback Interfaces etc were explained to the students. Describing Construct 2 it is stated that Construct 2 is an HTML5 - based 2D game editor; developed by Scirra Ltd. It is aimed primarily at non - programmers, allowing quick creation of games in a drag - and - drop fashion using a visual editor and a behavior - based logic system. User can now make advanced games without writing a line of code. Explanation about Notifications was given. It is a message you can display to the user outside of your application’s normal UI. When user wants the system to issue a notification, it first appears as an icon in the notification area. To see the details of the notification, the user opens the notification drawer. Students also gained knowledge about Toasts which 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. Discussing Multimedia in Android students were explained Multimedia Supported Audio Formats, Simple Media Playback, Supported Video Formats, Simple Video Playback. Android Testing and Error Handling were also explained to the students. Testing an app is an integral part of the app development process. Testing allows verifying the correctness, functional behavior, and usability of an app before it is released publicly. In the lab session students designed the app layout of the project they are working on. In the lab session students developed different games like Tic - Tac - Toe, PINOCCHIO, FRENY IN THE TRAP, Droy etc. By the end of second week, students were able to design the layouts and few pages of the apps on which they were working upon.

WEEK 3

In the beginning of third week SQLite was discussed. SQLite is an open source SQL database that stores data to a text file on a device. Android comes in with built in SQLite database implementation. SQLite supports all the relational database features. In order to access this database, one need not establish any kind of connections like JDBC, ODBC etc. Students were explained XML Parser. XML is a very popular format and commonly used for sharing data on the Internet. Android provides three types of XML parsers which are DOM, SAX and XML Pull Parser. Among all of them android recommend XML Pull Parser because it is efficient and easy to use. Discussing the Widget it is stated that a widget is a small gadget or control of your android application placed on the home screen. Android Web View layout was also explained to the students. Web View is a view that displays web pages inside the application. One can also specify HTML string and can show it inside your application using Web View. Web View turns an application to a web application. Students were working on their app ideas like ALZ’s Helping Hand, Androaqua, City Parking System, Darkstreet App, Eye Testing, Midnight Food Express, Mobile Attendance System, PROJECT MYOUSIC, Quickly, Solar Phone Charging Application, Sports Freak, The Magic Box, Voice Based Email System for Blinds, Web Blossom Bazaar. In the lab session students connected their application front-end to the SQLite database. Students also started working on some gaming applications like PINOCCHIO, FRENY IN THE TRAP and Droy.

Students enthusiastically presented progress of their apps chosen by them during the start of the summer school before the Head of the Department and Faculty Members. They had turned their ideas into beautiful layouts, designs and concepts. It was mesmerizing to see students happily presenting their learning, hard work and working apk’s in front of the faculty.

In the summer school students learnt how to design, develop and deploy apps on Android platform.

Some Glimpses: