A number of different elements can be brought together in order to create an Android application. In this chapter, we have provided a high-level overview of Activities, Fragments, Services, Intents and Broadcast Receivers together with an overview of the manifest file and application resources.
Maximum reuse and interoperability are promoted through the creation of individual, standalone modules of functionality in the form of activities and intents, while data sharing between applications is achieved by the implementation of content providers.
While activities are focused on areas where the user interacts with the application (an activity essentially equating to a single user interface screen and often made up of one or more fragments), background processing is typically handled by Services and Broadcast Receivers.
The components that make up the application are outlined for the Android runtime system in a manifest file which, combined with the application...
