Archive for April, 2010

Android SDK Tools Overview

As Android developer, Android Developer’s Guide is the most worth reading “Android book“. If you read it carefully，you will find a lot of useful information. Such the Android SDK Tools, below is the overview of them.

The Android SDK includes a variety of custom tools that help you develop mobile applications on the Android platform. The most important of these are the Android Emulator and the Android Development Tools plugin for Eclipse, but the SDK also includes a variety of other tools for debugging, packaging, and installing your applications on the emulator.

Android Development Tools Plugin (for the Eclipse IDE)
The ADT plugin adds powerful extensions to the Eclipse integrated environment, making creating and debugging your Android applications easier and faster. If you use Eclipse, the ADT plugin gives you an incredible boost in developing Android applications.

Android Emulator
A QEMU-based device-emulation tool that you can use to design, debug, and test your applications in an actual Android run-time environment.

Android Virtual Devices (AVDs)
Virtual device configurations that you create, to model device characteristics in the Android Emulator. In each configuration, you can specify the Android platform to run, the hardware options, and the emulator skin to use. Each AVD functions as an independent device with it’s own storage for user data, SD card, and so on.

Hierarchy Viewer
The Hierarchy Viewer tool allows you to debug and optimize your user interface. It provides a visual representation of your layout’s hierarchy of Views and a magnified inspector of the current display with a pixel grid, so you can get your layout just right.

layoutopt
This tool lets you quickly analyze your application’s layouts for efficiency.

Draw 9-patch
The Draw 9-patch tool allows you to easily create a NinePatch graphic using a WYSIWYG editor. It also previews stretched versions of the image, and highlights the area in which content is allowed.

Dalvik Debug Monitor Service (ddms)
Integrated with Dalvik, the Android platform’s custom VM, this tool lets you manage processes on an emulator or device and assists in debugging. You can use it to kill processes, select a specific process to debug, generate trace data, view heap and thread information, take screenshots of the emulator or device, and more.

Android Debug Bridge (adb)
The adb tool lets you install your application’s .apk files on an emulator or device and access the emulator or device from a command line. You can also use it to link a standard debugger to application code running on an Android emulator or device.

Android Asset Packaging Tool (aapt)
The aapt tool lets you create .apk files containing the binaries and resources of Android applications.

Android Interface Description Language (aidl)
Lets you generate code for an interprocess interface, such as what a service might use.

sqlite3
Included as a convenience, this tool lets you access the SQLite data files created and used by Android applications.

Traceview
This tool produces graphical analysis views of trace log data that you can generate from your Android application.

mksdcard
Helps you create a disk image that you can use with the emulator, to simulate the presence of an external storage card (such as an SD card).

dx
The dx tool rewrites .class bytecode into Android bytecode (stored in .dex files.)

UI/Application Exerciser Monkey
The Monkey is a program that runs on your emulator or device and generates pseudo-random streams of user events such as clicks, touches, or gestures, as well as a number of system- level events. You can use the Monkey to stress-test applications that you are developing, in a random yet repeatable manner.

android
A script that lets you manage AVDs and generate Ant build files that you can use to compile your Android applications.

zipalign
An important .apk optimization tool. This tool ensures that all uncompressed data starts with a particular alignment relative to the start of the file. This should always be used to align .apk files after they have been signed.

You can find the details of the Android SDK Tools in the Android Official website：Tools Overview

The list of Android books

This is a simple list of Android books I have found, if you found any other Android book not in here, pls tell me. The details info of these Android books is maintained in the “Android Book” page and I will update it regularly.

1. Android Developer’s Guide
2. Hello, Android: Introducing Google’s Mobile Development Platform(2nd Edition)
3. Professional Android 2 Application Development
4. Beginning Android 2
5. Pro Android 2
6. Google on the Go: Using an Android-Powered Mobile Phone
7. Unlocking Android: A Developer’s Guide
8. Android Wireless Application Development
9. Pro Android Games
10. Android Application Development: Programming with the Google SDK
11. Web Geek’s Guide to the Android-Enabled Phone
12. Android Programming Tutorials: Easy-To-Follow Training-Style Exercises on Android Application Development
13. The Busy Coder’s Guide to Advanced Android Development
14. T-Mobile G1 For Dummies
15. ANDROID A PROGRAMMERS GUIDE
16. Sams Teach Yourself Android Application Development in 24 Hours
17. Building Android Apps with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
18. Best Android Apps
19. Android Essentials (Firstpress)
20. The Busy Coder’s Guide to Android Development

Open Source Android Apps for developers: android-logger

If you want Logcat running on the emulator or the Android phone, Android logcat viewer android-logger is a good choice!

Apps Description

Logger is a way for you to view the logcat output on your phone. Each type of log message is displayed with a different color. You also have the ability to filter the output to only show you debug, info, warn, error and verbose. You can switch back to seeing all messages by selecting the filter menu option and choosing All from the list. Below are a few screenshots of the application, it is available under the GPLv2 and available to the right, in the Downloads section and in the Android Market.

Project Home
http://code.google.com/p/android-logger/

Project owners
michael.novakjr

Version
1.2

Apk Downloads
You can download the latest package on the download section at android-logger project home.

Check Out Source Code

The source for this project is hosted on github.com due to Google Code’s current lack of git support. The link to the repository is below.

Logger Git Repository

To Checkout:

git://github.com/androidnerds/logger.git

Screenshots
Read more…

Tips for Android developer: Logcat

As Android developer, Locat is a useful tool for debugging, and you can use it through Eclipse or by “logcat” command in the “adb shell”. The usage of logcat is:

logcat [options] [filterspecs]

options include:
-s Set default filter to silent.
Like specifying filterspec ‘*:s’
-f <filename> Log to file. Default to stdout
-r [<kbytes>] Rotate log every kbytes. (16 if unspecified). Requires -f
-n <count> Sets max number of rotated logs to , default 4
-v <format> Sets the log print format, where
is one of:

brief process tag thread raw time threadtime long

-c clear (flush) the entire log and exit
-d dump the log and then exit (don’t block)
-g get the size of the log’s ring buffer and exit
-b <buffer> request alternate ring buffer
(‘main’ (default), ‘radio’, ‘events’)
-B output the log in binary
filterspecs are a series of
<tag>[:priority]

where <tag> is a log component tag (or * for all) and priority is:
V Verbose
D Debug
I Info
W Warn
E Error
F Fatal
S Silent (supress all output)

‘*’ means ‘*:d’ and <tag> by itself means <tag>:v

If not specified on the commandline, filterspec is set from ANDROID_LOG_TAGS.
If no filterspec is found, filter defaults to ‘*:I’

If not specified with -v, format is set from ANDROID_PRINTF_LOG
or defaults to “brief”

Tips for Android developer: Android source code

As Android developer, have you ever thought about the source code of Android?

Yes, Android is an open source smartphone platform, so you can download the Android source code from the official website

http://source.android.com/

or you can view the source code online:

http://android.git.kernel.org/

Tips for Android developer: SQLite Database

Android provides the following four mechanisms for storing and retrieving data: Preferences, Files, Databases, and Network. When managing the data, Android developers need a way to store and retrieve the data. The best approach may be the structured data within the databases, and Android offers the SQLite relational database library.

After creating relational databases for Android applications SQLite, developers can use them to manage structured data, such as create, delete, update and etc.

Android databases are stored in the /data/data/[package_name]/databases folder on the device or emulator. For example, the Android SMS database is stored in:

/data/data/com.android.providers/telephony/databases/mmssms.db

You can use the sqlite3 command by “adb shell” to view the Android application’s databases.

Android Sessions for developers in Google I/O 2010

Google I/O 2010 will be held from May 19 to 20 in San Francisco, during the 2-day conference, over 90 technical sessions will provide the opportunities for developers to meet others from over 170 companies. Android will have a big presence at this year’s event. Except this year’s gift is a free Android phone (Google Nexus One for International guests and Motorola Droid for US developers), Google I/O will feature 6 Android sessions for developers:

A beginner’s guide to Android
This session will introduce some of the basic concepts involved in Android development. Starting with an overview of the SDK APIs available to developers, we will work through some simple code examples that explore some of the more common user features including using sensors, maps, and geolocation.

Casting a wide net: how to target all Android devices
One of Android’s strengths is its flexibility to run on a wide variety of devices. In this session, we will explore the facilities the Android resource system provides to developers to make supporting many devices from one application binary easier, as well as common pitfalls. In addition to hardware heterogeneity, more than one version of Android may exist in the wild at any given time. We will go over strategies for providing cross-version compatibility.

Home sweet home
Android applications do not have a single point of entry and can become deeply integrated with the system. In this session, you will learn the various ways you can make your app offer more features to your users and make it part of the Home experience.

Writing real-time games for Android redux
This session is a crash course in Android game development: everything you need to know to get started writing 2D and 3D games, as well as tips, tricks, and benchmarks to help your code reach optimal performance. In addition, we’ll discuss hot topics related to game development, including hardware differences across devices, using C++ to write Android games, and the traits of the most popular games on Market.

Android UI design patterns
In this session, the Android User Experience team will show the types of patterns you can use to build a great Android application. We’ll cover things like how to use Interactive Titlebars, Quick Contacts, and Bottom bars as well some new patterns which will get an I/O-only preview. The team will be also available for a no holds barred Q&A session.

A JIT Compiler for Android’s Dalvik VM
In this session we will outline the design of a JIT Compiler suitable for embedded Android devices. Topics will include an architectural overview, the rationale for design decisions and the special support for JIT verification, testing and tuning.

You can find all sessions in this year’s Google I/O here:
http://code.google.com/events/io/2010/sessions.html

Digg Android App has been launched

I have received a letter from Digg just now, which announcing their iPhone and Android Apps. I’m very interesting the Digg Android App, below is the details about Digg Andriod App from their letter:

Digg Android App

The Digg Team

The Digg Android app has been designed for an ideal mobile Digg browsing experience on an Android phone. The application allows you to participate on Digg through the digging and burying of stories and comments, while allowing you to flip back and forth between viewing story pages and comments.

Some highlights:
* Designed specifically for Android devices – a great experience on Android for browsing Digg
* Browse stories in list view and view story details along with comments when you tap through
* After logging in, Digg and bury both stories and comments from the app
* Browse stories in list view in landscape mode
* Search for any story on Digg
* View story pages in the in-app Android browser in landscape mode as well
* Use the in-app browser to pan around and zoom in and out of content
* Both medium and high resolution sized screens are supported
* Best of all, login to link the app to your Digg.com account

I love this cute android app verymuch!

Tips for Android developer: Android emulator appearance standard

　　As Android developer, you can use the command:
　　
　　emulator -avd emulator-name

　　to start the emulator. If you want to customize the emulator appearance, you can use the command:

　　emulator -avd emulator-name -skin 480×320

　　where the Andori emulator appearance standard is:
　　
　　480×320, landscape: emulator -skin HVGA-L
　　320×480, portrait : emulator -skin HVGA-P (default)
　　320×240, landscape: emulator -skin QVGA-L
　　240×320, portrait : emulator -skin QVGA-P