How to Build an Android Application - Essay Example

How To Build An Android Application Android history Android is a mobile operating system and a platform on which mobile applications are developed. Android is Linux based and was originally developed and designed for touch screen mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets but has since seen its application expand to other devices such as television application and gaming devices among others. In October 2003, Rich Miner, Andy Rubin, Chris White and Nick Sears founded Android Inc which was later acquired by Google in August 2005. Android Unveiled was later formed by OHA in November 2007 after which Android Beta SDK was released later the same year. Android 1.0 was released in 2008 and featured in HTC dream. In Feb 2009 Android 1.1 update was released for the use in T mobile (Böhmer, 6). On 30th April 2009, cupcake version of android (Android 1.5) was unveiled with more enhancements than the previous version. It had Bluetooth and camcorder support, animation and on screen keyboard. Android version 1.6 Donut was released later in September the same year as the cupcake version. In October 2009, Android 2.0 Eclaire version was released with a few improvements made on the version 1.6. It had an improved user interface, speed, on screen keyboard. The release of versions 2.0.1 and 2.1 (SDK ) followed on 3rd December 2009 and 12th January 2010 respectively. Android 2.2: Froyo was then released on 20th May 2010 with such improvements as home screen widgets, camera control and multilingual keyboard support. On 6th December 2010, Android version 2.3: Gingerbread was released. This version had a more refined user interface which improved simplicity of the UI. The simplified user interface ensured an increased speed. The support for screens with higher resolution was another one of the improvement made in this version in addition to sensor compatibility (Böhmer, 8). Android 3.0: Honeycomb was released on 22nd February 2011 with an optimized user interface specifically for tablets. The on screen keyboard was redesigned for accuracy and speed in the entry. It enables Bluetooth tethering which allowed more devices share network connections. In 19 October 2011 Android version 4.0 : Ice cream sand which was unveiled with refined user interface, wifi direct support , network data control and face unlock among other enhancements. Android version 4.1:Jelly Bean was released on 9th July 2012 followed closely by Android 4.2 Jelly Bean 4.2 on 29th October 2012. Create android development environment A number of ways exist through which android development can be created. For windows, the following steps should apply. There are four main tools /setup required for a complete and successful creation of android development environment; Windows, (Win 7, Xp, Vista), Java Platform, Eclipse IDE for Java Developers and Android SDK tools (Revision 4). JDK 6 Update 18 will work as a Java platform and version 3. 5 Galileo will do for Eclipse IDE for Java Developers. The following steps are therefore necessary in the creation of android development environment (Böhmer, 12). Step one involves the installation of Eclipse IDE for Java Developers; Download and install v3. 5 Galileo version of Eclipse IDE for Java Developers from the internet. The Eclipse IDE for Java Developers comes as a zip file and do not require installation instead it should just be copied into the program directory. Step two involves the installation of Java Platform version 6 update 18 (JDK 6 Update 18). From the sun website, download Java platform after selecting the right platform (windows in this case) then runs the installation with the default installation options. Step three involves downloading and setting up the Android SDK Tools. Just like Eclipse IDE, Android SDK Tools comes as a zip file and should not be installed but instead unzipped and copied to any directory. The directory the file is copied to should be noted for later use. Step four involves the configuration of the Android SDK. Locate and launch SDK-setup.exe form Android SDK install folder After a complete installation of the Android SDK, a virtual device (AVD) should be created as follows. On the left pane, select virtual device then new as shown Create a new AVD with following attributes correctly filled in the window that appear after the new tab is selected. The name should be Android2.1, Android 2.1 API Level 7 as the target or the API installed can be chosen, 1600 MBs for the size. The rest of the setting should be left at default as shown (Böhmer, 12). Select the create AVD button and wait for the completion then close the SDK setup. Step five involves the configuration of Eclipse. Launch eclipse and use the default location for workplace then press ok. Under the ‘Help’ option select ‘Install New Software’. Then press ‘add In the Add site window fill out ‘Android’ for the Name and https://dl-ssl.google.com/android/eclipse/ for the Location then press Ok. After a complete installation, restart eclipse after which select the directory where Android SDK was copied. Select preferences from the window option in eclipse, then on the left pane of the preference window select Android . Browse to the location where the SDK was installed then press ok. With all that done correctly, one can now start to build the first application successfully. Android application Components There are four basic components of an android application: activity, service, broadbandReciever and Content provider. The application components aid in the writing of android application. The components allow the application resources to be shared among the android applications installed in an android device. Activity Activity is associated with those android applications which have a user interface (UI). Applications with user interface have one or more activities. It can be in the form of a single screen with user interface such as activity to show new mail and another to compose mail. Despite the fact that all the activities work together, each distinct activity is independent (Meier, 67). Service This is a component that usually runs in the background for the performance of the remote processes. Services do not offer a user interface as they can run in the background while the user operates other applications. Content Provider The content provider is a component through which other applications can modify or query data. Broadcast receivers These responds to atom broadcast announcement made system wide. Broadcast receivers are components that start a service to perform work based on an event. Building new Android application In building a new android application, one can create a default android project then customize it to the specific requirements. The first step in creating default android project is to launch Eclipse IDE. On the file menu, select new project then selects an Android project. This will open an Android project dialog box. Type the name of the project in the dialog box. For the build target, select Android 2.2. Type the application name same as the project name while package name can be set as abc.examples. Clicking on the ‘Finish’ button to create the project structure and populate it with default values (Meier, 34). Once the project is created, open NameActivity.java using the package explorer where name is the ‘name’ of the project earlier created. NameActivity should be found under src/abc.examples. Under the res/layout, open main.xml which defines the layout of the view. The file should open in a graphical layout editor view. Activitity class and method is by default contained in the NameActivity.java file . OnCreate method is automatically called by Android framework when the activity is launched. The layout can be modified to suit a personal preference by opening the xml file (main.xml) using the graphical editor view. The default hello world message can be deleted to leave a blank layout for working. Run the application on the emulator To run the android application on an emulator, Android Virtual Drive (AVD) must first be created. AVD configures android emulator that in turn enables the modeling of different devices. To create AVD, Android virtual device managers must first be launched, for an eclipse, click on the Android Virtual Device Manger tab. Use the command line to change the directories to /tools/ then execute. After the android virtual device manager has been launched, click on the new tab fill-in the details such as the name, platform target, SD card size and skin. Click on create AVD then click on start to boot up the newly created emulator. Open the project files, from the toolbar click on run. Select Android application on the run as window that appears then click Ok. The application will then be installed on AVD then started. Analyzing android application "available in the market" Security analysis: Just like any other operating system, security is a key issue for android as a platform and for the applications developed on Android platform. The number of android applications and permissions examined from different sources. The fact that android runs on an open source platform allows the creation and easy upload of the application into the platform which presents a great security vulnerability. Over thirty percent of the applications examined had security issues based on the fact that their manifest files had more permission. The vulnerabilities presented can easily be exploited by malicious software (Gargenta, 24). Uploading the application to the phone The complete application can be deployed to an Android phone running Android 2.2 or a higher version. The Android phone has to be first set to development mode before the application can be uploaded into the phone. Enable USB debugging on the Android phone by going to settings then selecting development. With USB debugging enabled on the phone, connect the phone to the computer and it will be shown as a potential target by Eclipse when the application is run. The application will then be signed by Eclipse, deployed to the phone and then launched. The application can now be seen as part of the application installed on the device. USB debugging should be disabled once the application has been uploaded to the phone (Burnette,45) Conclusion The mobile technology has been greatly revolutionized by the development of the Android operating system and platform. The open source nature of Android allows for the development of a wide range of applications by different developers which in turn make the mobile more fun and useful. The availability of the necessary tools for developing Android applications has made it easy for developers to create more application and make them available. Works Cited Böhmer, Mario. Beginning Android ADK with Arduino. Dordrecht: Springer, 2012. Print. Burnette, Ed.. Hello, Android: introducing Googles mobile development platform. 3rd Ed. Raleigh, N.C.: Pragmatic Bookshelf, 2010. Print. Gargenta, Marko. Learning Android. Sebastopol: OReilly Media, Inc., 2011. Print. Meier, Reto. Professional Android 4 Application Development. Updated for Android 4 Ed. Indianapolis: John Wiley & Sons, 2012. Print. Murphy, Mark L.. Beginning Android 2. New York, NY: Apress, 2010. Print. Read More