Coding Android Apps

As Android apps continue to grow in popularity and an associated job market emerges, the ability to develop software and applications for Android smartphones will only grow more relevant in the foreseeable future. Compiled from materials used in over a decade of teaching undergraduate and graduate students majoring in computer science and information technology, this book is a hands-on, step-by-step guide to coding Android apps that has been rigorously tested.

Key Features:

- Each chapter begins with a list of student learning outcomes that can be used for assessment purposes and syllabus construction.

- The mechanics of Android app creation is presented in a very detailed, step-by-step progression, with accompanying screenshots and code explanations.

- New topics are introduced chapter-by-chapter in a very logical and gradational instructional manner.

- Very detailed exercises are provided at the end of each chapter and can be used for class activities and as homework assignments. Each chapter includes multiple exercises of varying difficulty.

- Video lessons are available as supplementary resources for each chapter to quickly illustrate in a demonstrative and visual manner, the Java and XML code and Android Studio development actions covered in the chapter.

This book is particularly appealing for students of mobile apps development courses offered in computer science and information technology departments, as well as information systems disciplines within business schools, at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Chapter 1 Introduction

Chapter 2 Lift Off with Android Native Apps

Chapter 3 First Image Impressions and Launcher Icons

Background Images ImageView Widgets Customizing an App Launcher Icon Design Issues Exercises

Chapter 4 Externalizing Resources: Strings, Colors, Sizes

Chapter 5 Interacting with Users via Keyboard and Buttons

Chapter 6 More On Layouts and Living Without Constraints

Chapter 7 Improving the UI with Selection Inputs and Dynamic Content

Chapter 8 Apps with Multiple Activities

Chapter 9 Saving App Data with Shared Preferences

Chapter 10 Android Native Databases as Persistent

Chapter 11 Navigation Drawers and Implementing Fragments

Chapter 12 Tabbed Apps, Styles, and Themes

Chapter 13 Hybrid Apps

Chapter 14 Media and Communication

Resources

Margaret Kozak Polk is an Associate Professor at Carroll University in Waukesha, Wisconsin since August of 2020. Prior to that she was a Professor of Computer Science at Dominican University in River Forest, Illinois. She has over twenty-five years of experience teaching computer science and information technology courses. She earned her Ph.D. at Illinois Institute of Technology in Computer Science, with an emphasis in Artificial Intelligence.