Android Application Development Cookbook: 93 Recipes for Building Winning Apps

A must-have collection of ready-to-use Android recipes! The popularity of Google Android devices is seemingly unstoppable and the Android 4 release offers, for the first time, a single OS solution for building both phone and tablet applications. With that exciting information in mind, veteran author Wei-Meng Lee presents you with 100 unique recipes that you can apply today in order to discover solutions to some of the most commonly encountered problems that exist in Android programming. Covering the scope of multiple Android releases up through Android 4, this reference features a task description, followed by the solution(s) available, and a standalone project file that illustrates the use of the recipe. Formatting each recipe to be standalone, Wei-Meng Lee allows you to jump into the relevant recipe to find a solution to specific challenges. Identifies and describes a programming task, provides a step-by-step solution, and presents a full-code solution ready for download Covers multiple Android releases Addresses such topics as user interfaces, telephony and messaging, networking, Google maps, location-based services, persisting data, leveraging hardware features, and more Android Application Development Cookbook is your solution to discovering...solutions!

Table of Contents:
Introduction xv Chapter 1: Android Fundamentals 1 Recipe 1.1 Linking Activities 1 Solution 2 Recipe 1.2 Passing Data between Activities 5 Solution 6 Recipe 1.3 Passing Objects between Activities 11 Solution 11 Recipe 1.4 Sending and Receiving Broadcasts 13 Solution 14 Recipe 1.5 Assigning Priorities to Broadcast Receivers 18 Solution 19 Recipe 1.6 Auto-Launching Your Application at Boot Time 21 Solution 21 Recipe 1.7 Calling Built-In Apps 22 Solution 23 Recipe 1.8 Making Your Application Callable by Others 32 Solution 32 Chapter 2: Using Views to Design the User Interface 39 Recipe 2.1 Using Buttons 40 Solution 40 Recipe 2.2 Using Image Buttons 44 Solution 44 Recipe 2.3 Using Radio Buttons 46 Solution 46 Recipe 2.4 Using CheckBoxes 49 Solution 50 Recipe 2.5 Implementing a Star Rating System 52 Solution 52 Recipe 2.6 Using AutoCompleteTextView 55 Solution 55 Recipe 2.7 Displaying Web Pages 57 Solution 58 Recipe 2.8 Using the TimePicker 62 Solution 62 Recipe 2.9 Using the DatePicker 64 Solution 65 Recipe 2.10 Using LinearLayout for View Positioning 66 Solution 67 Recipe 2.11 Using RelativeLayout for View Positioning 72 Solution 72 Recipe 2.12 Using FrameLayout for View Positioning 74 Solution 74 Recipe 2.13 Using TableLayout for View Positioning 77 Solution 77 Recipe 2.14 Using the ScrollView 79 Solution 79 Recipe 2.15 Displaying Context and Options Menus 83 Solution 83 Recipe 2.16 Displaying Dialogs 90 Solution 91 Recipe 2.17 Implementing Paging 98 Solution 98 Chapter 3: Displaying Lists of Items and Images 105 Recipe 3.1 Displaying a List of Items Using the ListView 106 Solution 106 Recipe 3.2 Customizing the ListView 108 Solution 108 Recipe 3.3 Displaying Multiple ListViews 111 Solution 111 Recipe 3.4 Creating Custom ListViews 114 Solution 115 Recipe 3.5 Further Customizing Each Row with Additional TextViews 117 Solution Part One: Adding Additional TextViews 118 Solution Part Two: Recycling Each Row 122 Recipe 3.6 Displaying a List of Items Using the Spinner View 125 Solution 126 Recipe 3.7 Displaying a List of Images 128 Solution 129 Recipe 3.8 Animating the Changing of Images Using the ImageSwitcher 133 Solution 133 Recipe 3.9 Displaying Images Using the GridView 138 Solution 138 Recipe 3.10 Building a Master-Detail User Interface 141 Solution 143 Chapter 4: Telephony 151 Recipe 4.1 Calling from Your Application 151 Solution 152 Recipe 4.2 Monitoring the State of the Phone 153 Solution 153 Recipe 4.3 Monitoring Phone State in the Background 156 Solution 156 Recipe 4.4 Blocking Outgoing Calls 158 Solution 159 Recipe 4.5 Auto-Answering an Incoming Call 160 Solution 160 Recipe 4.6 Switching to Airplane Mode 163 Solution 163 Recipe 4.7 Getting the Phone Number, IMEI, and SIM Card ID 165 Solution 166 Recipe 4.8 Enabling Bluetooth 167 Solution 167 Recipe 4.9 Displaying the Call Log 173 Solution 173 Chapter 5: Messaging 175 Recipe 5.1 Sending SMS Messages Through the Built-in Messaging Application 175 Solution 176 Recipe 5.2 Sending SMS Messages Programmatically in Your Android Application 178 Solution 178 Recipe 5.3 Monitoring the Status of Sent SMS Messages Programmatically 179 Solution 180 Recipe 5.4 Monitoring Outgoing SMS Messages 183 Solution 184 Recipe 5.5 Intercepting Incoming SMS Messages 187 Solution 187 Chapter 6: Network Programming 191 Recipe 6.1 Connecting to Servers Using HTTP GET 191 Solution 192 Recipe 6.2 Connecting to Servers Using HTTP POST 195 Solution 195 Recipe 6.3 Downloading Binary Data Using HTTP 198 Solution 199 Recipe 6.4 Consuming XML Web Services 200 Solution 201 Recipe 6.5 Consuming JSON Web Services 204 Solution 205 Recipe 6.6 Getting the IP Address of the Device 210 Solution 211 Recipe 6.7 Creating a Socket Server 212 Solution 212 Recipe 6.8 Creating a Socket Client 218 Solution 218 Recipe 6.9 Checking for the Availability of Bluetooth 222 Solution 222 Recipe 6.10 Monitoring the State of Bluetooth 224 Solution 225 Recipe 6.11 Creating a Bluetooth Chat Application 226 Solution 227 Chapter 7: Using Google Maps 243 Recipe 7.1 Displaying Google Maps 243 Solution 244 Recipe 7.2 Zooming in and out of Google Maps 250 Solution 250 Recipe 7.3 Changing Map Modes 253 Solution 253 Recipe 7.4 Navigating the Map to a Particular Location 256 Solution 256 Recipe 7.5 Adding Markers to the Map 258 Solution 258 Recipe 7.6 Finding a User-Friendly Address Using Reverse Geocoding, and Vice Versa 268 Solution 268 Recipe 7.7 Responding to Zooming and Panning 275 Solution 275 Chapter 8: Location-Based Data Services 279 Recipe 8.1 Obtaining Geographical Location Using GPS, Wi-Fi, or Cellular Networks 280 Solution 280 Recipe 8.2 Choosing the Best Location Provider to Use 284 Solution 284 Recipe 8.3 Monitoring a Location 288 Solution 288 Recipe 8.4 Using a BroadcastReceiver to Obtain Locations 289 Solution 290 Recipe 8.5 Location Data Logging 293 Solution 293 Chapter 9: Acc essing the Hardware 301 Recipe 9.1 Capturing Pictures with the Camera 301 Solution 301 Recipe 9.2 Detecting the Presence of Hardware Features 304 Solution 305 Recipe 9.3 Checking Network State 306 Solution 306 Recipe 9.4 Turning GPS On/Off 308 Solution 308 Recipe 9.5 Capturing Hardware Buttons Programmatically 310 Solution 310 Recipe 9.6 Switching on the Flashlight 313 Solution 314 Recipe 9.7 Capturing Barcodes 319 Solution 320 Chapter 10: Persisting Data 325 Recipe 10.1 Saving and Loading User Preferences 325 Solution 326 Recipe 10.2 Creating a Preference Screen 328 Solution 328 Recipe 10.3 Saving Files to the Data Directory 333 Solution 333 Recipe 10.4 Saving Files to the Cache Directory 338 Solution 338 Recipe 10.5 Saving Files to External Storage 340 Solution 341 Recipe 10.6 Attaching Files to Your Project 345 Solution 346 Recipe 10.7 Creating and Using SQLite Databases Programmatically 347 Solution 348 Recipe 10.8 Pre-creating the SQLite Databases 353 Solution 353 Chapter 11: Deploying Your Android Applications 357 Recipe 11.1 Localizing Your Application 357 Solution 358 Recipe 11.2 Exporting Your Application as an APK File 362 Solution 362 Recipe 11.3 Deploying Your App Through E-mail 365 Solution 365 Recipe 11.4 Deploying Your App Through the Web 367 Solution 368 Recipe 11.5 Deploying Your App Through an SD Card 369 Solution 369 Recipe 11.6 Specifying the Application Installation Location 370 Solution 371 Index 373