Adept programmers are getting busy, designing and building apps of their own and embedding them with favorable features. If you’re one of those enthusiasts, here are 5 fundamentals that you need to check before programming an Android App.
1. Mastery over the language
- Packages
- Objects & classes
- Inheritance & interfaces
- Strings & numbers, generics,
- Collections
- Concurrency
2. Familiarity with the right development tools and environment
It is very important that you familiarize yourself with the build automation tools as well as the integrated development environment before you start developing your app. You can use Android app studio IDE or the Eclipse for the tools and they will help you learn the basics and many other things that will help improve your code. You can learn Apache Maven, Apache Ant and Gradle as they provide a powerful set of tools to help in managing your builds.
It is also important that you familiarize yourself with source control tools and concepts. Learn the git and then create a git-source repository (by creating an account on Bitbucket or GitHub). To understand the basic concepts and terms of how the platform operates, you can use the Git Pocket Guide.
3. Knowledge of the application components
Application components are the essential building blocks of an android app. Each of the components is a different point by which the system can enter your app. And although each one of them exists as its own entity and plays a specific role, there are some which depend on each other and not all of them are actual entry points.
There are 4 different types of app components each serving a distinct purpose with a distinct lifecycle which defines how it is created and destroyed. They include:
Services: This is a component which runs in the background to perform work for remote processes or long-running operations. It does not provide user interface (for instance it might play music in the background while the user is in a different app).
Broadcast receivers: This is the component that responds to system-wide broadcast announcements. Most of the broadcast receivers originate from the system, and although they do not display a user interface, they can create a status bar notification that alerts the user when a broadcast event occurs. Generally, it is a gateway to the other components and it only does minimal work.
4. Awareness over fragmentations, android application, threads, loaders and tasks
Android is a fragmented market with many different devices and operating system versions. Note that, if your device supports more devices and/or versions it will definitely require more maintenance and testing as well as the related costs. The vice-versa is also true. You also require appropriate fonts, assets and layouts that will help in ensuring that the best possible experiences in the various screen characteristics are given. You should also consider the array of android supported sensors or UI facilities. All android apps have an application class, one or more activities and one or more fragments.
5. Making the right choice over needed tools
The simple tools that you need are just a Mac or Windows PC, any type of Linux, and Eclipse, the ADT Plug in, and the Android SDK which are all free. You can go through the installation guide on Google so as to know how to set up your development environment. It has documentation of everything needed. Android has some unique parameters that you should consider when writing an android app. Some of them include:
Performance and responsiveness: You should always respond to user input within five seconds otherwise the operating system will ANR you. (ANR-application not responding – the only option that you will have is to force close your app.)
Limited resources: Wake-locks (mechanism that forces the device to do a certain thing despite the recommendation to put the device to sleep by the battery manager) should be used sparingly. Do not unnecessarily poll hardware (e.g. GPS or accelerometer) because it will quickly run down the battery.