Category: Kotlin

It is challenging to think of an Android application concept that does not require some form of user interface. Most Android devices come equipped with a touch screen and keyboard (either virtual or physical), and taps and swipes are the primary interaction between the user and the application. Invariably these interactions take place through the…

With the possible exception of listening to streaming audio, a user’s interaction with an Android device is primarily visual and tactile. All of this interaction occurs through the user interfaces of the applications installed on the device, including both the built-in applications and any third-party applications installed by the user. Therefore, it should come as…

If the previous few chapters have achieved their objective, it should now be clearer as to the importance of saving and restoring the state of a user interface at particular points in the lifetime of an activity. In this chapter, we will extend the example application created in Android Activity State Changes Tutorial to demonstrate…

The previous chapters have discussed in detail the different states and lifecycles of the activities comprising an Android application. In this chapter, we will put the theory of handling activity state changes into practice by creating an example application. The purpose of this example application is to provide a real-world demonstration of an activity as…

Based on the information outlined in the chapter entitled Android App and Activity Lifecycles it is now evident that the activities and fragments that make up an application pass through various different states during the application’s lifespan. The Android runtime system imposes the change from one state to the other and is, therefore, largely beyond…

In earlier chapters, we learned that Android applications run within processes and comprise multiple components in the form of activities, services, and broadcast receivers. This chapter aims to expand on this knowledge by looking at the lifecycle of applications and activities within the Android runtime system. Regardless of the fanfare about how much memory and…

An essential part of developing Android apps involves the interaction between the code and the views that make up the user interface layouts. This chapter will look at the options available for gaining access to layout views in code, emphasizing an option known as view binding. Once the basics of view bindings have been covered,…

Regardless of your prior programming experiences, be it Windows, macOS, Linux, or even iOS based, the chances are good that Android development is quite unlike anything you have encountered before. Therefore, this chapter’s objective is to provide an understanding of the high-level concepts behind the architecture of Android applications. In doing so, we will explore…

So far, in this book, steps have been taken to set up an environment suitable for developing Android applications using Android Studio. An initial step has also been taken into the application development process by creating an Android Studio application project. However, before delving further into the practical matters of Android application development, it is…

Developing applications for Android involves a considerable amount of programming work which, by definition, involves typing, reviewing, and modifying lines of code. Unsurprisingly, most of a developer’s time spent using Android Studio will typically involve editing code within the editor window. The modern code editor must go far beyond the basics of typing, deleting, cutting,…