Smartphones changed the way people do business, use content, and live their lives. Today, nearly 85% of smartphones run on Android, build applications on android apps, and do online business. Google Playstore is flooded with Android applications, and people are using them every day. From ordering food to finding a job, to booking a cab to entertainment within a few clicks. One can hire a mobile app development company and develop any number of applications.
Overview of Android
According to research, nearly 2.5 million devices use the Android operating system. People use phones, television, car systems, intelligent wearables, game consoles, and other Android devices. The Android operating system uses standard features like camera, connectivity, storage, and more.
Android app development introduction
Android App Development helps in creating an android based mobile application for your business. Android app developers use an essential toolkit to develop an application and should know C++ and Java. An android developer uses:
- Software development kit (SDK)
- Integrated Development Kit
- Java Development Kit (JDK)
Here, SDK creates, debug and emulate an application. IDE offers a GUI for SDK tool to access and write codes in Android.studio. Later, SDK informs the SDK manager where JDK is installed on devices, offering an interpretation of the java program.
A few of the languages that build Android mobile apps are:
- Kotlin: It’s an official language developed by Google. It’s a cross-platform tool used to interoperate with Java virtual machines (JVM).
- Java: The app is officially developed in java language and is freely available, user-friendly, and secure.
- C/C++: It allows development in various indigenous languages like C and C++. It’s a bit of a complicated language.
- CSS, HTML, and JavaScript: It uses the Adobe PhoneGap framework that offers a platform to create web-based languages that run on WebView.
Learning Android app development seems challenging, but it won’t be challenging to understand each stage clearly. Understand the roadmap of Android app development.
What is the minimum requirement for Android Studio?
- Mac OS X 10.8.5
- Microsoft Windows 7/8/10 (32 or 64 bit)
- 4GB RAM recommended
- 2GB RAM
- 1 GB For Android SDK
- Faster processor
- Higher Screen Resolution
Step 1: Download the tool that you need for Android app development
Firstly, one needs to create an environment, so the desktop can use and support your requirements. One needs Android Studio and Android SDK that’s packed together in one single download. The tools allow libraries and APIs to give access to the native function of the operating system. It builds your app into an APK and can be tested via a virtual device.
source: https://www.intuz.com/android-app-development-guide
Step 2: Start a new project
Once you have installed an Android studio on your machine, it’s time to start a new project. Here, you need to make a few decisions which impact your Android app development to move forward. Go to File> New>New Project and choose the project template. Use the code and UI elements that you need to add to the new application. Choose the activity and create a starting screen for your app and add a button at the top and bottom.
Choose the language Kotlin or Java you need to select. It’s one of the most significant decisions as both languages are supported by Google and Android studio but have distinct differences. For years java has been used by several developers and is the most in-demand programming language. Kotlin, on the other hand, is the more accessible and preferred choice for android development. It works best for beginners.
Source: https://www.intuz.com/android-app-development-guide
Step 3: Familiarize yourself with the files
The film opens here is MainActivity.java or MainActivity.kt. The main logic behind the activity is it defines how the app behaves. Let’s understand how it looks: MyApplication> app> src> main> java> com> companyname> myapplication. In the design view, one can easily drag and drop the widget onto the screen. The code shows the XML loaded script. The vast majority of the app uses a new Java/Kotlin file that corresponds to an XML file each time you create a new activity.
Few files and folders include:
Android Manifest consists of the XML file that defines important features and adds activities in your app version.
- Drawable: The folder is found in res, where we can put things such as images and references later.
- Values: To store the resources at proper places across the globe, add colour codes, change the look and define the values in individual XML files.
- Gradle: It’s a tool that takes your files and bundles them into a workable APK for later testing. It comes with a helpful preview where dependencies add up additional functionality within your code.
Step 4: Test your App
The very first thing to do is to create an app that says Hello world. Look at the controls that you have added to the application. Look for the drag-drop menu and understand the working of the app. When you install Android Studio, check for the installed android system image and virtual device manager. By clicking on the green button, one can launch the app and test it. Make sure that your virtual device meets or exceeds the minimum SDK with the setting at the start.
Step 5: Make a thing
The easy way to learn Android app development is by working harder to understand each phase. It means you can stab at editing the code in front of you by doing something new. Add an interactive message or element to your creation by clicking on the button to change the text.
What are the components of Android software development?
There are mainly four main types of components that include:
- Activity: It’s a presentation layer used in android applications that dictates GUI and user interaction. It illustrates an email application that comes with sign-in and signup activities along with other activities.
- Services: It comes with a backend operating component that manages operations long-running in the background. The user engaged in different applications like foreground or sending information over the internet.
- Broadcast Receivers: It is an event-driven component called Intent listeners. It listens and receives a broadcast from the system or other application. It acts based on trigger and user broadcast.
For the broadcast receiver, Android support two Intents types:
- Implicit: It defines a data or action that requires particular components to pass along with the Android system and evaluate.
- Explicit: It defines the component that’s responsible for action when requested.
- Content Providers: As the name suggests, the content is stored in the file system, database, and other applications. Let’s say media players access music stored in phone storage through its content provider.
What are the popular mobile app development practices?
- Dependency Injection
It is one of the standard features used in programming. It includes references and class interoperates within the ecosystem. It provides dependencies instead of creating ones. It initialized and passed onto the classes.
- Testing
It’s core stages that happen to deploy before use. It employs a modular architecture and is advised to build an Android app. By using this approach, one can code blocks based on the task they perform and test.
- Setting a testing environment.
The best practice in setting up a testing environment is to test the directory and test devices. It helps the devices to offer the highest reliability.
- Nothing down evaluative tests
After setting testing environment, evaluate your application with the following three categories:
- Small Test: The test is used to assess the classes performance.
- Medium Test: The test validates the interaction between classes in a module.
- Large Test: The test gauge interaction between your app modules.
- Accessibility
The developers are encouraged to build an app for interaction. The development guideline assists in easy use android apps like:
- Text visibility
- UI controls
- Describe UI elements
Bottom line
In the above blogpost, we have shown the basic layout of learning and developing Android app development. You can develop an Android app by following the required stages. Choose the best Android app development company if you’re confused about developing by yourself. Additionally, you can hire android developers who can help you resolve your queries. Good luck with the best android app development.