“A must read for all developers that want to begin serious Android development.” —Justin Anderson, Freelance Android Developer   “From start to finish, this book contains a variety of great tips and insight into the most important attributes of Android design. This book will definitely be required reading for any of our future Android engineers.” —Cameron Banga, Cofounder, 9magnets, LLC   There’s a downside to Android’s amazing openness and versatility: it’s easy for developers to write code that’s inefficient, unreliable, insecure, or hard to maintain. In Android Development Patterns, enterprise Android developer Phil Dutson helps you leverage Android 5.0+’s amazing power without falling victim to those pitfalls. Dutson presents today’s most comprehensive set of patterns and procedures for building optimized, robust apps with Android 5.0+.   First, Dutson guides you through establishing a highly efficient development environment and workflow, and testing your app to ensure that your code works just as you expect. Then, he walks through the modern best practices for structuring apps, using widgets and components, and working with views.   You learn how to build apps that are easy to manage and update, deliver accurate and up-to-date information without wasting precious battery power, and take advantage of new hardware, such as Android Wear and Android TV. Dutson concludes by presenting powerful strategies for optimizing your apps and packaging them for distribution.   Coverage includes Using testing to build more trustworthy, dependable, maintainable apps Understanding subtle but critical differences between Android and traditional Java programming Building consistent, modern user interfaces with views and layouts Leveraging the proven MVC pattern to cleanly organize logic Creating rich visual experiences with 3D graphics, animation, and media Simplifying capture and use of location data with the new Locations API Integrating optional hardware, such as Bluetooth, NFC, or USB Building better apps with Google Play Services Creating Android Wear notifications and apps Tuning and improving apps with Google Analytics Designing Android TV apps for the “ten foot view” informit.com/aw | https://github.com/dutsonpa/adp-files

Table of Contents:
Preface   xiv 1   Development Tools   1 Android Studio   1   Installing Android Studio 2   Using Android Studio 4   Starting a New Project   6 Standalone SDK Tools 9 Android Device Emulation   10   Android Virtual Device   11   GenyMotion   12   Xamarin Android Player   13 Version-Control Systems   14   Subversion 14   Git   14   Mercurial   15 Summary   15 2   Testing and Debugging   17 Unit Testing   17 Integration Testing 20 Debugging   25   Profiling 25   Tracing 27   Messaging 29 Summary 32 3   Application Structure 33 Manifests 34 Java   36 Res (Resources)   37   Drawable   37   Layout   39   Menu   39   Values   40   Other Resources   41 Gradle   41 Summary   42 4 Components   45 Intents   45   Intent Filters   46   Broadcast Receivers   47 Activities   48   Creating an Activity   48   Activity Lifecycle 49 Fragments   52   Creating a Fragment   52   Communicating with Fragments   55   Loaders 56 Summary   58 5 Views   59 The View Class   59   The AnalogClock Subclass   60   The ImageView Subclass   60   The KeyboardView Subclass 60   The MediaRouteButton Subclass 62   The ProgressBar Subclass   62   The Space Subclass   64   The SurfaceView Subclass 64   The TextView Subclass 65   The TextureView Subclass   65   The ViewGroup Subclass   66   The ViewStub Subclass   68 Creating a Custom View   68 Summary 70 6   Layout 71 Layout Basics 71   Layout Measurements 72   Layout Coordinates   73 Layout Containers   74   Linear Layout   74   Relative Layout   76   Table Layout   79   Frame Layout   80   WebView 82 Summary 83 7   App Widgets 85 App Widget Layouts 86 The AppWidgetProviderInfo Object   88   App Widget Sizing 89   Update Frequency 90   Preview Image 90   Widget Category   92   Widget Category Layout 92   Resizable Mode 93   Sample AppWidgetProviderInfo Object 93 The AppWidgetProvider Class 94 Application Manifest Entries   96 Summary   97 8   Application Design: Using MVC   99 Model   100 View   101 Controller   102 Working Asynchronously   104   AsyncTask   105 Summary   106 9 Drawing and Animation   107 Graphics   107   Bitmaps   107   NinePatch   109   Drawables   111   OpenGL ES   114 Animation   117   View Animation 117   Property Animation   118   Drawable Animation   122   Transition Framework   123 Summary   125 10   Networking   127 Accessing the Internet   127   Network Detection   127   Using an HTTP Client   129 Parsing XML   131 Handling Network Operations Asynchronously   133 Volley   135 Summary   138 11 Working with Location Data   139 Permissions   139 Google Play Services Locations API   148 Summary   153 12   Multimedia   155 Working with Audio   155   Audio Playback 156   Audio Recording   159 Working with Video   161   Video Playback   162 Summary   165 13   Optional Hardware APIs   167 Bluetooth   167   Enabling Bluetooth   168   Discovering Devices with Bluetooth   169   Connecting via Bluetooth Classic   171   Communicating with BLE   173 Near Field Communication   176   ACTION_NDEF_DISCOVERED   177   ACTION_TECH_DISCOVERED   178   ACTION_TAG_DISCOVERED   179 Device Sensors   181   Detecting the Available Sensors   182   Reading Sensor Data   183 Summary   185 14   Managing Account Data   187 Getting Accounts   187 Android Backup Service   188 Using Google Drive Android API   191 Using Google Play Games Services   195   Working with Saved Games   196 Summary   199 15 Google Play Services   201 Adding Google Play Services   201 Using Google API Client   203 Google Fit   207   Enable API and Authentication   207   App Configuration and Connection 208 Nearby Messages API 209   Enabling Nearby Messages   209   Sending and Receiving Messages   210 Summary 214 16   Android Wear   217 Android Wear Basics   217 Screen Considerations   218 Debugging   221   Connecting to an Emulator   221   Connecting to a Wear Device   222 Communicating with Android Wear   224   Notifications   224   Sending Data   226 Summary   228 17   Google Analytics 229 Adding Google Analytics 229 Google Analytics Basics   232   Events   233   Goals   234   Ecommerce   235   Custom Timings   235   Custom Dimensions 236   Custom Metrics 236 Summary   237 18   Optimization   239 Application Optimization 239   Application First   239   Application Logging   241   Application Configuration   242 Memory Management 243   Garbage Collection Monitoring   245   Checking Memory Usage 245 Performance   247   Working with Objects   247   Static Methods and Variables   248   Enhanced for Loops   248   float, double, and int   249   Optimized Data Containers   249 Summary   249 19   Android TV   251 The Big Picture   251   Ten-Foot View   252   TV Capabilities   254   Text, Color, and Bitmaps   255 Building an App   258 Emulation and Testing   261 Summary   263 20 Application Deployment   265 Preparing for Deployment   265 Production Checklist   266   Certificate Keys   266   Contact Email   266   App Website   267   External Services or Servers   267   Application Icon   267   Licensing   268   Appropriate Package Name   268   Verifying Permissions and Requirements   269   Log and Debug Removal   270   Removal of Excess Unused Assets   270 Preparing for Google Play   270   Application Screenshots   271   Promo Video   271   High-Res Icon   271   Feature Graphic   272   Promo Graphic   272   Banner for Android TV   272   Getting Paid   272 APK Generation   273 Summary   274 Index   275