What is Android?

Android is an open source and Linux-based Operating System for mobile devices such as
smartphones and tablet computers. Android was developed by the Open Handset Alliance, led by
Google, and other companies.
Android offers a unified approach to application development for mobile devices which means
developers need to develop only for Android, and their applications should be able to run on
different devices powered by Android.
The first beta version of the Android Software Development Kit (SDK) was released by Google
in 2007, whereas the first commercial version, Android 1.0, was released in September 2008.

On June 27, 2012, at the Google I/O conference, Google announced the next Android version,
4.1 Jelly Bean. Jelly Bean is an incremental update, with the primary aim of improving the user
interface, both in terms of functionality and performance.

The source code for Android is available under free and open-source software licenses. Google
publishes most of the code under the Apache License version 2.0 and the rest, Linux kernel
changes, under the GNU General Public License version 2.

Features of Android
Android is a powerful operating system competing with Apple 4GS and support great features.
Few of them are listed below:

Feature Description
Beautiful UI Android OS basic screen provides a beautiful and intuitive user interface.
Connectivity GSM/EDGE, IDEN, CDMA, EV-DO, UMTS, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, LTE, NFC and
WiMAX.
Storage SQLite, a lightweight relational database, is used for data storage purposes.
Media support H.263, H.264, MPEG-4 SP, AMR, AMR-WB, AAC, HE-AAC, AAC 5.1, MP3,
MIDI, Ogg Vorbis, WAV, JPEG, PNG, GIF, and BMP
Messaging SMS and MMS
Web browser Based on the open-source WebKit layout engine, coupled with Chrome's V8
JavaScript engine supporting HTML5 and CSS3.
Multi-touch Android has native support for multi-touch which was initially made available in
handsets such as the HTC Hero.
Multi-tasking User can jump from one task to another and same time various application can run
simultaneously.
Resizable widgets Widgets are resizable, so users can expand them to show more content or shrink
them to save space
Multi-Language Support single direction and bi-directional text.
GCM Google Cloud Messaging (GCM) is a service that let developers send short message
data to their users on Android devices, without needing a proprietary sync solution.
Wi-Fi Direct A technology that let apps discover and pair directly, over a high-bandwidth peer-to-
peer connection.
Android Beam A popular NFC-based technology that let users instantly share, just by touching two
NFC-enabled phones together.
Android Applications
Android applications are usually developed in the Java language using the Android Software
Development Kit.
Once developed, Android applications can be packaged easily and sold out either through a store
such as Google Play or the Amazon Appstore.
Android powers hundreds of millions of mobile devices in more than 190 countries around the
world. It's the largest installed base of any mobile platform and is growing fast. Every day more
than 1 million new Android devices are activated worldwide.
This tutorial has been written with an aim to teach you how to develop and package Android
application. We will start from environment setup for Android application programming and
then drill down to look into various aspects of Android applications

ANDROID – Environment Setup

You will be glad to know that you can start your Android application development on either of
the following operating systems:
1. Microsoft Windows XP or later version.
2. Mac OS X 10.5.8 or later version with Intel chip.
3. Linux including GNU C Library 2.7 or later.

Second point is that all the required tools to develop Android applications are freely available
and can be downloaded from the Web. Following is the list of software's you will need before
you start your Android application programming.
1. Java JDK5 or JDK6
2. Android SDK
3. Eclipse IDE for Java Developers (optional)
4. Android Development Tools (ADT) Eclipse Plugin (optional)
5. Android Studio

Android - Architecture
Here last two components are optional and if you are working on Windows machine then these
components make your life easy while doing Java based application development. So let us have
a look at how to proceed to set the required environment.

Android operating system is a stack of software components which is roughly divided into five
sections and four main layers as shown below in the architecture diagram.
Linux kernel
At the bottom of the layers is Linux - Linux 3.6 with approximately 115 patches. This provides
a level of abstraction between the device hardware and it contains all the essential hardware
drivers like camera, keypad, display etc. Also, the kernel handles all the things that Linux is
really good at such as networking and a vast array of device drivers, which take the pain out of
interfacing to peripheral hardware.

Libraries
On top of Linux kernel there is a set of libraries including open-source Web browser engine
WebKit, well known library libc, SQLite database which is a useful repository for storage and
sharing of application data, libraries to play and record audio and video, SSL libraries
responsible for Internet security etc.

Android Libraries
This category encompasses those Java-based libraries that are specific to Android development.
Examples of libraries in this category include the application framework libraries in addition to
those that facilitate user interface building, graphics drawing and database access. A summary
of some key core Android libraries available to the Android developer is as follows −
 android.app − Provides access to the application model and is the cornerstone of all
Android applications.
 android.content − Facilitates content access, publishing and messaging between
applications and application components.
 android.database − Used to access data published by content providers and includes
SQLite database management classes.
 android.opengl − A Java interface to the OpenGL ES 3D graphics rendering API.
 android.os − Provides applications with access to standard operating system services
including messages, system services and inter-process communication.
 android.text − Used to render and manipulate text on a device display.
 android.view − The fundamental building blocks of application user interfaces.
 android.widget − A rich collection of pre-built user interface components such as
buttons, labels, list views, layout managers, radio buttons etc.
 android.webkit − A set of classes intended to allow web-browsing capabilities to be
built into applications.
Having covered the Java-based core libraries in the Android runtime, it is now time to turn our
attention to the C/C++ based libraries contained in this layer of the Android software stack.

Android Runtime
This is the third section of the architecture and available on the second layer from the bottom.
This section provides a key component called Dalvik Virtual Machine which is a kind of Java
Virtual Machine specially designed and optimized for Android.
The Dalvik VM makes use of Linux core features like memory management and multi-
threading, which is intrinsic in the Java language. The Dalvik VM enables every Android
application to run in its own process, with its own instance of the Dalvik virtual machine.
The Android runtime also provides a set of core libraries which enable Android application
developers to write Android applications using standard Java programming language.

Application Framework
The Application Framework layer provides many higher-level services to applications in the
form of Java classes. Application developers are allowed to make use of these services in their
applications.
The Android framework includes the following key services −
  Activity Manager − Controls all aspects of the application lifecycle and activity stack.
 Content Providers − Allows applications to publish and share data with other
applications.
 Resource Manager − Provides access to non-code embedded resources such as strings,
color settings and user interface layouts.
 Notifications Manager − Allows applications to display alerts and notifications to the
user.
 View System − An extensible set of views used to create application user interfaces.

Android - Application Components

Application components are the essential building blocks of an Android application. These
components are loosely coupled by the application manifest file AndroidManifest.xml that
describes each component of the application and how they interact.
There are following four main components that can be used within an Android application −

Sr.No Components & Description

1 Activities
They dictate the UI and handle the user interaction to the smart phone screen.

Services
2
They handle background processing associated with an application.

Broadcast Receivers
3
They handle communication between Android OS and applications.

Content Providers
4
They handle data and database management issues.

Activities
An activity represents a single screen with a user interface,in-short Activity performs actions on
the screen. For example, an email application might have one activity that shows a list of new
emails, another activity to compose an email, and another activity for reading emails. If an
application has more than one activity, then one of them should be marked as the activity that is
presented when the application is launched.
An activity is implemented as a subclass of Activity class as follows −
public class MainActivity extends Activity {
}

Services
A service is a component that runs in the background to perform long-running operations. For
example, a service might play music in the background while the user is in a different
application, or it might fetch data over the network without blocking user interaction with an
activity.
A service is implemented as a subclass of Service class as follows −
public class MyService extends Service {
}

Broadcast Receivers
Broadcast Receivers simply respond to broadcast messages from other applications or from the
system. For example, applications can also initiate broadcasts to let other applications know that
some data has been downloaded to the device and is available for them to use, so this is
broadcast receiver who will intercept this communication and will initiate appropriate action.
A broadcast receiver is implemented as a subclass of BroadcastReceiver class and each
message is broadcaster as an Intent object.
public class MyReceiver extends BroadcastReceiver {
public void onReceive(context,intent){}
}

Content Providers
A content provider component supplies data from one application to others on request. Such
requests are handled by the methods of the ContentResolver class. The data may be stored in the
file system, the database or somewhere else entirely.
A content provider is implemented as a subclass of ContentProvider class and must implement
a standard set of APIs that enable other applications to perform transactions.
public class MyContentProvider extends ContentProvider {
public void onCreate(){}
}
We will go through these tags in detail while covering application components in individual
chapters.

Additional Components
There are additional components which will be used in the construction of above mentioned
entities, their logic, and wiring between them. These components are −

S.No Components & Description

1 Fragments
Represents a portion of user interface in an Activity.

Views
2
UI elements that are drawn on-screen including buttons, lists forms etc.

Layouts
3
View hierarchies that control screen format and appearance of the views.

Intents
4
Messages wiring components together.

Resources
5
External elements, such as strings, constants and drawable pictures.

Manifest
6
Configuration file for the application.

First Android Application

Let us start actual programming with Android Framework. Before you start writing your first
example using Android SDK, you have to make sure that you have set-up your Android
development environment properly as explained in Android - Environment Set-up tutorial. I
also assume that you have a little bit working knowledge with Android studio.
So let us proceed to write a simple Android Application which will print "Hello World!".

Create Android Application

The first step is to create a simple Android Application using Android studio. When you click
on Android studio icon, it will show screen as shown below

You can start your application development by calling start a new android studio project. in a
new installation frame should ask Application name, package information and location of the
project.−
After entered application name, it going to be called select the form factors your application
runs on, here need to specify Minimum SDK, in our tutorial, I have declared as API23: Android
6.0(Mashmallow) −
The next level of installation should contain selecting the activity to mobile, it specifies the
default layout for Applications.

At the final stage it going to be open development tool to write the application code.

Anatomy of Android Application

Before you run your app, you should be aware of a few directories and files in the Android
project −
Sr.No. Folder, File & Description

Java
1 This contains the .java source files for your project. By default, it includes
an MainActivity.java source file having an activity class that runs when your app is launched using
the app icon.

res/drawable-hdpi
2
This is a directory for drawable objects that are designed for high-density screens.
 res/layout
3
This is a directory for files that define your app's user interface.

res/values
4 This is a directory for other various XML files that contain a collection of resources, such as
strings and colours definitions.

AndroidManifest.xml
5 This is the manifest file which describes the fundamental characteristics of the app and defines
each of its components.

Build.gradle
6 This is an auto generated file which contains compileSdkVersion, buildToolsVersion,
applicationId, minSdkVersion, targetSdkVersion, versionCode and versionName

Following section will give a brief overview of the important application files.

The Main Activity File

The main activity code is a Java file MainActivity.java. This is the actual application file
which ultimately gets converted to a Dalvik executable and runs your application. Following is
the default code generated by the application wizard for Hello World! application −
package com.example.helloworld;

import android.support.v7.app.AppCompatActivity;
import android.os.Bundle;

public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
}
}
Here, R.layout.activity_main refers to the activity_main.xml file located in the res/layout folder.
The onCreate() method is one of many methods that are figured when an activity is loaded.

The Manifest File

Whatever component you develop as a part of your application, you must declare all its
components in a manifest.xml which resides at the root of the application project directory. This
file works as an interface between Android OS and your application, so if you do not declare
your component in this file, then it will not be considered by the OS. For example, a default
manifest file will look like as following file −
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
package="com.example.tutorialspoint7.myapplication">

<application
android:allowBackup="true"
android:icon="@mipmap/ic_launcher"
android:label="@string/app_name"
android:supportsRtl="true"
android:theme="@style/AppTheme">

<activity android:name=".MainActivity">
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>
</application>
</manifest>
Here <application>...</application> tags enclosed the components related to the application.
Attribute android:icon will point to the application icon available under res/drawable-hdpi. The
application uses the image named ic_launcher.png located in the drawable folders
The <activity> tag is used to specify an activity and android:name attribute specifies the fully
qualified class name of the Activity subclass and the android:label attributes specifies a string to
use as the label for the activity. You can specify multiple activities using <activity> tags.
The action for the intent filter is named android.intent.action.MAIN to indicate that this activity
serves as the entry point for the application. The category for the intent-filter is
named android.intent.category.LAUNCHER to indicate that the application can be launched
from the device's launcher icon.
The @string refers to the strings.xml file explained below. Hence, @string/app_name refers to
the app_name string defined in the strings.xml file, which is "HelloWorld". Similar way, other
strings get populated in the application.
Following is the list of tags which you will use in your manifest file to specify different Android
application components −
 <activity>elements for activities
 <service> elements for services
 <receiver> elements for broadcast receivers
  <provider> elements for content providers

The Strings File

The strings.xml file is located in the res/values folder and it contains all the text that your
application uses. For example, the names of buttons, labels, default text, and similar types of
strings go into this file. This file is responsible for their textual content. For example, a default
strings file will look like as following file −
<resources>
<string name="app_name">HelloWorld</string>
<string name="hello_world">Hello world!</string>
<string name="menu_settings">Settings</string>
<string name="title_activity_main">MainActivity</string>
</resources>

The Layout File

The activity_main.xml is a layout file available in res/layout directory, that is referenced by
your application when building its interface. You will modify this file very frequently to change
the layout of your application. For your "Hello World!" application, this file will have following
content related to default layout −
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent" >

<TextView
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
android:layout_centerVertical="true"
android:padding="@dimen/padding_medium"
android:text="@string/hello_world"
tools:context=".MainActivity" />

</RelativeLayout>
This is an example of simple RelativeLayout which we will study in a separate chapter.
The TextView is an Android control used to build the GUI and it have various attributes
like android:layout_width, android:layout_height etc which are being used to set its width and
height etc.. The @string refers to the strings.xml file located in the res/values folder. Hence,
@string/hello_world refers to the hello string defined in the strings.xml file, which is "Hello
World!".
Running the Application
Let's try to run our Hello World! application we just created. I assume you had created
your AVD while doing environment set-up. To run the app from Android studio, open one of
your project's activity files and click Run   icon from the tool bar. Android studio installs the
app on your AVD and starts it and if everything is fine with your set-up and application, it will
display following Emulator window −

Congratulations!!! you have developed your first Android Application and now just keep
following rest of the tutorial step by step to become a great Android Developer. All the very
best.