1. What’s in an Android?
Abdo El Ali1
Victor de Boer2
Andi Winterboer3
1 ILPS (Information and Language Processing Systems) Group
2 Theoretical Computer Science Group
3 ISA (Intelligent Autonomous Systems) Group

2. Outline
1. What is Android?
2. Android Basics
3. Tutorial of a Toy Application: Text, Buttons, &
Activities
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3. What is Android?
 A first joined project of the Open Handset Alliance (OHA)
 A complete & modern embedded operating system
 A cutting-edge mobile user experience
 A world-class software stack for building applications
 An open platform for developers, users & industry
 Full phone software stack including applications
 Android is open
 Android is free
 Community support
 100% Java Phone
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4. Android Features
 Software Features
 Integrated browser based on the open source WebKit engine
 SQLite for relational data storage
 Media support for common audio, video, and still image
formats(MPEG4, H.264, MP3, AAC, AMR, JPG, PNG, GIF)
 Dalvik Virtual Machine optimized for mobile devices
 Hardware Features
 Cellular networking : GSM, EDGE, 3G (hardware dependent)
 LAN : Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi (hardware dependent)
 Graphics Hardware Acceleration
 Camera, GPS and Compass (hardware dependent)
 Touch screen and accelerometer for motion sensing
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5. Android Architecture
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6. An Android Application can consist of…
 Activities
 An application that has a visible UI is implemented with an activity.
When a user selects an application from the home screen or
application launcher, an activity is started.
 Services
 A service should be used for any application that needs to persist
for a long time, such as a network monitor or update-checking
application.
 Content providers
 You can think of content providers as a database server. A content
provider's job is to manage access to persisted data, such as a
SQLite database.
 Broadcast receivers
 An Android application may be launched to process an element of
data or respond to an event, such as the receipt of a text message
(notification).
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7. Android Basics: Main components of Interest
 AndroidManifest.xml:
 the control file-tells the system what to do with the top-level
components
 Activity:
 an object that has a life cycle and is a chunk of code that does
some work. Corresponds to a single screen.
 View:
 an object that knows how to draw itself to the screen
 Intent:
 a simple message object that represents an "intention" to do
something. Consider an intent received when an event is
triggered (e.g., a phone ring)
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8. Android Development Tools
 Android Emulator: A virtual mobile device that runs
on our computer; used to design, debug, and test our
applications in an actual Android run-time environment
 Android Development Tools Plugin: For the Eclipse
IDE; adds extensions to the Eclipse integrated
environment
 Dalvik Debug Monitor Service (DDMS): Integrated
with Dalvik -- this tool lets us manage processes on an
emulator and assists in debugging
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9. Eclipse Environment: Overview
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10. Eclipse Environment: Directory Structure
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11. Eclipse Environment: Java Code
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12. Eclipse Environment: Screen Layout
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13. Eclipse Environment: XML Layout
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14. Eclipse Environment: Android Manifest File
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15. Android Example: Text, Buttons, & Activities
 To learn about the interaction between your Layout XML file,
your Java code, and your Manifest file
More precisely, you will learn:
1) …how to declare an EditText box in your layout where the
text can be set from your Java code
2) …how to declare buttons and make them responsive to
events (e.g., clicks or touch)
3) …how to launch a new activity from the current activity
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16. Our Toy Application
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17. Our Toy Application
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18. 1. Declare Elements in Your Layout file
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19. 1. Declare Elements in Your Layout file (Contd.)
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20. 2.1. Java Code: Declaring Variables, Finding Views,
Setting Listeners
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21. 2.2. Java Code: Declaring Methods for Event
Handling (Contd.)
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22. 3. Manifest: Declare New Activity & Intent
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23. 3.1. Activity: Create a New Activity
↵
↵
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24. 3.2. Activity: Java Code
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25. 3.3. Activity: Layout
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26. Good luck!
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27. References
 Deep Inside Android… by Gilles Printemps
 Android: An Open-handset Alliance Project by Yedukk
 Introduction to Android Development by Frank Ableson
 Android Developer Site
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