Android User Interface Development: Beginner's Guide

Table of Contents

• Preface

• Chapter 1: Developing a Simple Activity
• Developing our first example
• Creating the project structure
• Time for action – setting up the Android SDK
• Time for action – starting a new project
• Examining the Android project layout
• Time for action – running the example project
• The screen layout
• The layout XML file
• Resource selection qualifiers
• Time for action – setting up the question activity
• Populating a View and a ViewGroup
• Time for action – asking a question
• Time for action – adding a space for answers
• Time for action – adding more buttons
• Defining common dimensions
• Limitations of the layout XML format
• Populating the QuestionActivity
• Time for action – writing more Java code
• Dynamically creating widgets
• Time for action – putting the questions on the screen
• Handling events in Android
• Summary

• Chapter 2: Presenting Data for Views
• Listing and selecting data
• ListView choice modes
• No selection mode – CHOICE_MODE_NONE
• Single selection mode – CHOICE_MODE_SINGLE
• Multiple selection mode – CHOICE_MODE_MULTIPLE
• Adding header and footer widgets
• Creating a simple ListView
• Time for action – creating a fast food menu
• Styling the standard ListAdapters
• Defining standard dimensions
• Time for action – improving the restaurant list
• Creating custom adapters
• Creating a menu for The Burger Place
• Time for action – creating a Burger item layout
• Time for action – presenting Burger objects
• Creating TheBurgerPlaceActivity class
• Time for action – implementing TheBurgerPlaceActivity
• Registering and starting TheBurgerPlaceActivity
• Using the ExpandableListView class
• Creating ExpandableListAdapter implementations
• Using the GridView class
• Time for action – creating the fruit icon
• Displaying icons in a GridView
• Time for action – building the fruit menu
• Time for action – creating the FourBucketsActivity
• Summary

• Chapter 3: Developing with Specialized Android Widgets
• Creating a restaurant review application
• Time for action – creating the robotic review project structure
• Building a TabActivity
• Creating tab icons
• Android tabs and icons
• Implementing the ReviewActivity
• Time for action – writing the ReviewActivity class
• Time for action – creating the Review layout
• Working with switcher classes
• Time for action – turning on the TextSwitcher
• Creating a simple photo gallery
• Time for action – building the Photos tab
• Creating a thumbnail widget
• Implementing a GalleryAdapter
• Time for action – the GalleryAdapter
• Time for action – making the gallery work
• Building the reservation tab
• Time for action – implementing the reservation layout
• Time for action – initializing the reservation tab
• Time for action – listening to the SeekBar
• Time for action – selecting date and time
• Creating complex layouts with Include, Merge, and ViewStubs
• Using Include tags
• Merging layouts
• Using the ViewStub class
• Summary

• Chapter 4: Leveraging Activities and Intents
• Exploring the Activity class
• Using Bundle objects
• Time for action – building an example game: "guess my number"
• Creating and consuming intents
• Defining Intent actions
• Passing data in an Intent
• Adding extra data to an Intent
• Using advanced Intent features
• Getting data back from an Intent
• Time for action – viewing phone book contacts
• Summary

• Chapter 5: Developing Non-linear Layouts
• Time for action – creating a layouts example project
• FrameLayout
• Common uses
• Time for action – developing a FrameLayout example
• Table Layout
• Common uses
• Using TableLayout for a memory game
• Time for action – developing a simple memory game
• AbsoluteLayout/Custom Layouts
• Developing your own Layouts
• Time for action – creating a custom layout
• Using the CircleLayout
• Time for action – finishing the CircleLayout example
• RelativeLayout
• Common uses
• Integrating the RelativeLayout
• Time for action – creating a contact editor
• Time for action – integration with the layout example
• SlidingDrawer
• Common uses
• Creating a SlidingDrawer example
• Time for action – creating a SlidingDrawer
• Time for action – sliding drawer integration
• Summary

• Chapter 6: Validating and Handling Input Data
• Dealing with undesirable input
• Correctly labeling input
• Signaling undesirable input
• Recovering from undesirable input
• Giving users direct feedback
• Avoiding invalid input entirely
• Capturing date and time
• Using spinners and ListView for selection
• Changing the data set
• Disabling selections
• Capturing text input
• Autocompleting text input
• Building activities for results
• Generic filtering search Activity
• Time for action – creating the ListItemSelectionActivity
• Time for action – creating an ArrayAdapter
• Time for action – creating the CursorAdapter
• Time for action – setting up the ListView
• Time for action – filtering the list
• Time for action – returning the selection
• Using the ListItemSelectionActivity
• Summary

• Chapter 7: Animating Widgets and Layouts
• Using standard Android animations
• Time for action – animating a news feed
• Using flipper and switcher widgets
• Using the ImageSwitcher and TextSwitcher implementations
• Animating layout widgets
• Time for action – animating a GridView
• Creating Custom Animations
• Time for action – writing a custom animation
• Time for action – making a Button vanish
• Summary

• Chapter 8: Designing Content-centric Activities
• Considering design options when displaying content on an Android device
• Considering user behavior
• Drawing user attention
• Displaying content with the WebView class
• Using a WebView object
• Time for action – creating a recipe viewer application
• Taking WebView further
• Creating relative layouts for content display
• Taking full advantage of RelativeLayout
• Considering Android layout constraints
• Styling TextView objects
• Time for action – developing specialized content views
• Developing an online music store
• Designing the music store
• Developing the music store
• Time for action – building a track item
• Time for action – developing the main user interface layout
• Time for action – developing the main user interface Java code
• Summary

• Chapter 9: Styling Android Applications
• Working with style resources
• Using shape resources
• How shapes behave
• Rendering lines
• Time for action – drawing a broken line
• Rendering rectangles
• Time for action – creating a rounded border
• Rendering ovals
• Time for action – applying a gradient to an oval shape
• Rendering rings
• Time for action – rendering a spinner ring
• Defining layers
• Stretching using nine-patch images
• Creating nine-patch images
• Using bitmap images in Android
• Handling different screen sizes
• Handling different screen densities
• Handling configuration changes
• Providing landscape layouts
• Providing text input on a landscape layout
• Altering screen content
• Summary

• Chapter 10: Building an Application Theme
• Creating a basic calculator layout
• Designing a standard calculator
• Time for action – building the standard calculator
• Building the calculator styling
• Time for action – creating the button images
• Time for action – styling the calculator buttons
• Time for action – styling the display
• Scientific landscape layout
• Defining string resources for the scientific layout
• Styling the scientific layout
• Building the scientific layout
• Time for action – coding the scientific layout
• Handling the Activity restart
• Supporting hardware keyboards
• Adding in display animations
• Time for action – animating the display
• Summary

• Appendix: Pop quiz answers
• Chapter 1
• Layouts as XML fles
• Populating an activity
• Chapter 2
• List views and adapters
• Chapter 3
• Gallery objects and ImageViews
• Chapter 4
• Intents & Activities
• Chapter 5.
• Custom layouts
• Chapter 6
• Text input
• Chapter 8
• The WebView widget
• WebView versus native layouts
• Chapter 10
• Layout resources
• Nine-Patch Images
• Android resources

• Index