#android app development kit

Android app development

Learning to code is difficult enough on its own but with Android development, it can be more complicated. You need to understand Java, you also need to install all the Android-specific software and learn all of the unique quirks of Android app development. Let’s check out how to start Android app development for beginners?

Creating an Android app requires the SDK (Software Development Kit), an IDE (Integrated Development Environment) like Android Studio or Eclipse, the Java Software Development Kit (JDK) and a virtual device to test on. All this takes work to set up, and that’s before you’ve even started looking into things like Google Play Services, screen sizes, API levels…It’s just such a dense amount of information and it’s enough to put an awful lot of people off before they even begin. Through this article, you will learn an approachable guide to try and make the whole prospect of creating an app a little less daunting… let’s explain the bits you need to know and gloss over the rest and by the end, you should have a basic app that you can start iterating on and experimenting with.

Step 1: Get Android Studio

To program in most languages, you need a piece of software called an IDE or ‘Integrated Development Environment’. The most common IDE for Android development is Android Studio, which comes directly from Google itself. You can get it here.

An IDE is what gives you the main UI where you’ll enter your code (you can’t just start typing into notepad). It also highlights things you get wrong, offers suggestions and lets you run and test your creations conveniently. It creates the files you need, it provides basic layouts and generally it saves you a lot of time and effort.

What’s great about Android Studio is that it is designed specifically for Android development (unlike the second most popular option, Eclipse). This means that when you download the software, you’ll also get a lot of the other bits you need including the Android SDK (a selection of tools including the Android platform itself) and the Android Virtual Device, which is an emulator you can test your apps on. When you go through the installation, make sure you leave the boxes ticked to confirm that you want these additional components. You could manually add them later, but this will just complicate matters.

As mentioned, there are some alternatives to Android Studio. Eclipse is an older IDE that can be used for developing other things too (such as iOS apps) and that is a bit more flexible overall. It’s also a much more fiddly to get started with though and not nearly as beginner-friendly.

we now have Android Studio downloaded and installed. But, don’t run it until you read step two! So far so good…

Step 2: Setting Up Android Studio

Now you have Android Studio installed you’ve taken your first, bold step toward becoming a developer! A lot of people only manage it this far and then leave the software installed on their computer for months on end, feeling guilty every time they see it in the Start Menu. Eventually, they end deleting it to make space for the next AAA title on Steam and so ends the whole sorry affair… Don’t end up like them – it’s time for some more affirmative action!

Before you can get started, you also need to install Java on your machine to use Android Studio. Specifically, you’re going to need to install the Java Development Kit (JDK). Java is the programming language you’re going to be using to build your apps in this instance and you need to install the JDK in order for Android Studio to be able to interpret and compile your code (compiling means turning the source into something that is understood by the CPU – machine code). You’ll find the Java Development Kit here. Just download and follow the instructions to install.

Now you can click on Android Studio to launch it. Once it opens up, you’ll be presented with a menu where you’ll be able to get started or configure some options. The great thing is that everything is handled for you at this point, though you may want to familiarize yourself with the SDK Manager (Configure > SDK Manager) which is where you’ll update your Android SDK to support newer versions, as well as download things like code samples or support for Google Glass. But don’t worry about that now but if Android Studio says you’re missing something, this is where you’ll probably need to go to find it.

So really there are three main things interacting when you use Android Studio to create your apps.

Android Studio itself, which is an IDE that provides you with a nice interface for coding.

The code you write in Java, which you installed a moment ago…

And the Android SDK which you’ll access through your Java code in order to do Android-type things

If you find this all a bit complicated and daunting then… well,  you will be familiar with this awesome opportunity.

Step 3: Starting a New Project

Once you’ve installed your samples, you can go back to the first page you saw when you loaded up Android Studio. Now you want to choose to Start a new Android Studio Project – it’s finally happening!

Enter the name you want for your application and your ‘company domain’. Together these elements will be used to create your package name with the following format:

com.companyname.appname

The package will be the compiled file or APK (‘Android Package File’) that you’ll eventually upload to the Google Play Store. There are ways that people can see this.

The last field to enter is the directory where you want to save all the files pertaining to your app.  always have a backup of code. Click Next again.

Next you need to decide what type of device you’re going to be developing for and in this case, we’ll start with the Phone and Tablet option. Other options are TV, Wear and Glass. It’s fine if you want to develop for a myriad of platforms in the future – that’s one of the wonders of Android –

The other choice you have to make at this stage is the ‘Minimum SDK’. This is the lowest version of Android you want to support. Why not just enter the latest version of Android in here? Well, because relatively few people actually have the latest version of Android installed on their device at any given time. You want to support phones that are still running older versions in order to reach the largest possible audience – especially overseas.

The best bet at this stage is to go with the default option, so just leave this field as it is. On the next page, you’ll be given the option to pick the way you want your app to look at the start. This will be the look of your main ‘Activity Module’ which is basically the main page of your app. Think of these like templates; do you want to have the title of your app along with the top of the screen, or do you want your UI to fill the whole display? Do you want to start off with some elements ready-designed for you? Is your app primarily going to use Google Maps (don’t go here for a bit, things get more complicated with Google Play Services)?

The Layout

Android Studio is not showing the XML code itself here but rather a rendering of how the layout will appear on the screen. This is a visual editor a bit like Dreamweaver for web design and it makes life a little easier for us developers.

You also have a bunch of options called ‘widgets’ down the left that you can add to your app. This is your basic app stuff; so for instance, if you want to add a button saying ‘OK’ to your activity, you can simply drag it over to the screen and drop it anywhere you like. Go ahead and dump an ‘OK’ button right underneath the ‘Hello World’.

Something else you’ll find is that you can click on either of these elements in order to change the text and the ‘ID’. The ID is how you’re referring to each element (called a ‘view’) in your Java code, while the text is of course what you display to the user.

Delete the ‘Hello World’ widget (or view) and change the text on the button to ‘Hello?’. Likewise, change the ‘id’ on the button to ‘button1’.

I am now stealthily getting you to write a little program… Notice as well that when you select a view, you get options in the bottom right to change the text colour and size etc. You can play around with these variables if you like to change the look of your button. We’re coming back here in a minute though so make a mental note!

Now open up your MainActivity.java. The tab will be along the top but in case it isn’t, find it under App > Java.

This is the code that defines the behaviour of your app. At this stage, you’re going to add in a little passage of code:

Now all that’s left to do is run the app you just made. Simple go to ‘run’ along the top and then select ‘run app’ from the drop-down menu. You should already have your AVD (Android Virtual Device) installed but if not, you can go to tools > Android > AVD Manager > + Create Virtual Device. Don’t forget you also need to install an Android version onto the device.

Follow the steps to launch the emulator running your app. Be patient, it can sometimes take an age to load up… If it never loads up, you can consider ‘packaging’ the app in order to create an APK. Drag this onto your Android device and double click on it to install and run it.

How to get better app development with Mango Digital?

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