Beginning Android

Mark Murphy is the founder of CommonsWare and the author of The Busy Coder's Guide to Android Development. A three-time entrepreneur, his experience ranges from consulting on open source and collaborative development for Fortune 500 companies to application development on just about anything smaller than a mainframe. He has been a software developer for over 25 years, working on platforms ranging from the TRS-80 to the latest crop of mobile devices. A polished speaker, Mark has delivered conference presentations and training sessions on a wide array of topics internationally. Mark writes the "Building Droids" column for AndroidGuys and the "Android Angle" column for NetworkWorld. Outside of CommonsWare, Mark has an avid interest in how the Internet will play a role in citizen involvement with politics and government. He is a contributor to the Rebooting America essay collection, and his personal blog features many posts discussing "cooperative democracy."

Core Concepts.- The Big Picture.- Project Structure.- Inside the Manifest.- Activities.- Creating a Skeleton Application.- Using XML-Based Layouts.- Employing Basic Widgets.- Working with Containers.- Using Selection Widgets.- Getting Fancy with Lists.- Employing Fancy Widgets and Containers.- Applying Menus.- Fonts.- Embedding the WebKit Browser.- Showing Pop-Up Messages.- Dealing with Threads.- Handling Activity Lifecycle Events.- Data Stores, Network Services, and APIs.- Using Preferences.- Accessing Files.- Working with Resources.- Managing and Accessing Local Databases.- Leveraging Java Libraries.- Communicating via the Internet.- Intents.- Creating Intent Filters.- Launching Activities and Sub-Activities.- Finding Available Actions via Introspection.- Handling Rotation.- Content Providers and Services.- Using a Content Provider.- Building a Content Provider.- Requesting and Requiring Permissions.- Creating a Service.- Invoking a Service.- Alerting Users via Notifications.- Other Android Capabilities.- Accessing Location-Based Services.- Mapping with MapView and MapActivity.- Handling Telephone Calls.- Searching with SearchManager.- Development Tools.- Where Do We Go from Here?.