Learn Android programming with Kotlin! Learning Android programming can be challenging. Sure, there is plenty of documentation, but the tools and libraries available today for Android are easily overwhelming for newcomers to Android and Kotlin. Android Apprentice takes a different approach. From building a simple first app, all the way to a fully-featured podcast player app, this book walks you step-by-step, building on basic concepts to advanced techniques so you can build amazing apps worthy of the Google Play Store! Who This Book Is For This book is for anyone interested in writing mobile apps for Android. Though no previous mobile experience is necessary, this book is also a great resource for iPhone developers transitioning from iOS. Topics Covered in Android Apprentice Getting Started Learn how to set up Android Studio and the Android Emulator. Layouts Create layouts that can be used for both Activities and Fragments Debugging No one's perfect! Learn how to dig down and troubleshoot bugs in your apps. Communication Design separate Activites and communicate and send data between them using Intents. Scrolling Layouts Learn how to use Recycler Views to make efficient, reusable views that scroll fluidly at a touch. Google Places Integrate location APIs to bring the magic of maps into your Android apps. Networking Learn how to access resouces on the internet and handle networked responses. Material Design Make sure your apps conform to modern best practices by using Google's standards of Material Design AndroidX Learn how to use the AndroidX libraries to support older versions of Android. And much, much more! One thing you can count on: after reading this book, you'll be prepared to write feature-rich apps from scratch and go all the way to submiting them to the Google Play Store! About the Tutorial Team The Tutorial Team is a group of app developers and authors who write tutorials at the popular website raywenderlich.com. We take pride in making sure each tutorial we write holds to the highest standards of quality. We want our tutorials to be well written, easy to follow, and fun. If you've enjoyed the tutorials we've written in the past, you're in for a treat. The tutorials we've written for this book are some of our best yet - and this book contains detailed technical knowledge you simply won't be able to find anywhere else.
Author(s): Namrata Bandekar; Darryl Bayliss; Fuad Kamal
Edition: 4
Year: 2021
Language: English
Pages: 744
Book License
What You Need
Book Source Code & Forums
About the Cover
Introduction
Chapter 1: Setting Up Android Studio
Getting started
Your first Android project
Android Studio
Creating an Android virtual device
Setting up an Android device
Running the app
Installing new versions of Android Studio
Key Points
Where to go from here?
Chapter 2: Layouts
Getting started
These are not the SDKs you’re looking for
The layout editor
Component tree view
Positioning your views
Adding rules to your views
Finishing the screen
Key Points
Where to go from here?
Chapter 3: Activities
Getting started
Exploring Activities
Hooking up Views
Managing strings in your app
Progressing the game
Starting the game
Ending the game
Key Points
Where to go from here?
Chapter 4: Debugging
Getting started
Add some logging
Orientation changes
Breakpoints
Restarting the game
Key Points
Where to go from here?
Chapter 5: Prettifying the App
Getting started
Changing the app bar color
Animations
Adding a Dialog
Key Points
Where to go from here?
Chapter 6: Creating a New Project
Getting started
Creating a new Android project
Targeting Android devices
Key Points
Where to go from here?
Chapter 7: RecyclerViews
Getting started
Adding a RecyclerView
The components of a RecyclerView
Hooking up a RecyclerView using ViewBinding
Setting up a RecyclerView Adapter
Filling in the blanks
Creating the ViewHolder
Binding data to your ViewHolder
The moment of truth
Key Points
Where to go from here?
Chapter 8: SharedPreferences & ViewModels
Getting started
Adding a Dialog
Creating a list
ViewModels
Hooking up the UI to the ViewModel
Showing Real Lists in the RecyclerView
Key Points
Where to go from here?
Chapter 9: Communicating Between Activities
Getting started
Creating a new Activity
The app manifest
Intents
Intents and Parcels
Bringing everything together
Key Points
Where to go from here?
Chapter 10: Completing the Detail View
Getting started
Coding the RecyclerView
Setting up the Adapter
Adding the ViewHolder
Passing the Task to the RecyclerView
Returning Results from Activities
Key Points
Where to go from here?
Chapter 11: Using Fragments
Getting started
What is a Fragment?
Creating a Layout for Tablets
Adding the ListSelectionFragment to MainActivity
Wiring Up the FloatingActionButton
Key Points
Where to go from here?
Chapter 12: Material Design
What is Material Design?
Primary and secondary colors
Card Views
Key Points
Where to go from here?
Chapter 13: Creating a Map-Based App
Getting started
About PlaceBook
Making a plan
Location service components
Map wizard walk-through
Google Maps API key
Maps and the emulator
Running the app
The difficulty of determining locations
Key Points
Where to go from here?
Chapter 14: User Location & Permissions
Getting started
Adding location services
Creating the location services client
Querying current location
Faking locations in the emulator
Tracking the user’s location
My location
Key Points
Where to go from here?
Chapter 15: Google Places
Getting started
Places API overview
Selecting points of interest
Load place details
Custom info window
Key Points
Where to go from here?
Chapter 16: Saving Bookmarks with Room
Getting started
Room overview
Room and Android Architecture Components
PlaceBook architecture
Development approach
Adding the architecture components
Room classes
Creating the Repository
The ViewModel
Adding bookmarks
Observing database changes
Key Points
Where to go from here?
Chapter 17: Detail Activity
Getting started
Fixing the info window
Bookmark detail activity
Key Points
Where to go from here?
Chapter 18: Navigation & Photos
Getting started
Bookmark navigation
Custom photos
Key Points
Where to go from here?
Chapter 19: Finishing Touches
Getting started
Bookmark categories
Searching for places
Creating ad-hoc bookmarks
Deleting bookmarks
Sharing bookmarks
Updating the color scheme
Adding a progress indicator
Key Points
Where to go from here?
Chapter 20: Networking
Getting started
Where are the podcasts?
Android networking
PodPlay architecture
iTunes search service
Introducing Retrofit
Key Points
Where to go from here?
Chapter 21: Finding Podcasts
Android search
Displaying search results
Key Points
Where to go from here?
Chapter 22: Podcast Details
Getting started
Defining the Layouts
Basic architecture
Details Fragment
Key Points
Where to go from here?
Chapter 23: Podcast Episodes
Getting started
Using OkHttp
XML to DOM
DOM parsing
Updating the podcast repo
Episode list adapter
Key Points
Where to go from here?
Chapter 24: Podcast Subscriptions, Part One
Getting started
Saving podcasts
Key Points
Where to go from here?
Chapter 25: Podcast Subscriptions, Part Two
Getting started
Background methods
Episode update logic
WorkManager
Key Points
Where to go from here?
Chapter 26: Podcast Playback
Getting started
Media player basics
Building the MediaBrowserService
Connecting the MediaBrowser
Foreground service
Final pieces
Key Points
Where to go from here?
Chapter 27: Episode Player
Getting started
Video playback
Key Points
Where to go from here?
Chapter 28: Android Fragmentation & Support Libraries
Android: An open operating system
How Android Fragmented
The AndroidX Libraries
Key Points
Where to go from here?
Chapter 29: Keeping Your App Up to Date
Following Android trends
Screen size and density
Vulkan Versions
OpenGL versions
Managing Android updates
Working with older versions of Android
Key Points
Where to go from here?
Chapter 30: Preparing for Release
Code cleanup
Versioning
Building a release version
Checking your file size
Release testing
Other publishing methods
Key Points
Where to go from here?
Chapter 31: Testing & Publishing
Play Console overview
Creating your Google Play Store listing
Main store listing
Releasing your app
Key Points
Where to go from here?
Conclusion
