best approach to start android app development for a small app - Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I have to start android programming for a project.
The project involves using the App to remote control a camera attached to the pc which is running the web-server.
The App does two things:
1) Send user-inputted parameters for the photo capture to a web-server.
This is relayed to the web-server (using gSOAP or other web-service).
The web-server then calls the program i create on the server, which captures an image from the camera.
The program also has other functionality like image manipulation, making a timelapse movie etc using these captured images.
The program sends back to the app a video file or image.
2) Receive a video file (either saved in Gallery, or viewed inside App).
As you can see bulk of my project will be not on the android but on the server.
My question then is, how do i approach android programming?
I want to make the best use of my time and not have to learn the A-Z of android programming. This is not me being lazy (I have done a few chapters of Sams teach Yourself Android & completed Google's online tutorial on android) but just wanting to spend, what little time i have, wisely.
So i suppose my question is:
1. What areas of android should i concentrate on for this app (e.g. web-services, drawing buttons etc).
2. Any resources that would help me in this quest (e.g. templates)
Apologies if it was long and drawn out, and thanks for reading so far

What are the requirements of android app development?
what all am i suppose to know? rit now i just know c++ is that sufficient?
any help will be appreciated

Related

Capturing a signature as an image within a webpage

I am hoping that someone out there will be able to help.
From within my pocketpc web application, I require a signature to be written on the screen and captured as an image. This then has to be put into a database for strorage. I do not require any digital encryption or authorisation etc, it just needs to be real simple.
Eg. User opens webpage, user signs screen and submits the signature. Job done.
That is what I am trying to achieve. Has anyone ever seen this or done it? Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Note I have seen some apps but they are to be used within a .NET environment, and seeing as I am developing in php they are no good to me.
Many thanks.
I think you must to develop an application that you embed into PocketIE. Something like AciveX on a desktop. This application grab the image and send to your PHP application.
I can't help in this way.
Another tipp:
There is Macromedia Flash Player avaible for PocketIE. I don't know, that Flash can make an image and post it to a PHP script, but it can grab the stylus strokes, and send the line's coordinates to your PHP program. (With a smart ActionScript)
Booth way, your application must to preinstalled in the users pda.

[Q] learning how to develop apps

i want to start making apps for android but dont know where to stat i have the sdk on my desktop but thats about it. If someone could please help me or push me in the next step please do so.
Just go to the dev guide on the Android website to start making your first Hello World app. As for language, Android (I could be wrong) uses Java. Again, I could be wrong.
Sent from my GT-I9000M using XDA App
Indeed, Android uses Java. I'd suggest learning it before attempting to program for Android or else you'll feel like it's gonna be too difficult. There's plenty of books on Java, and some powerful Google searching will lead you to step-by-step guides to learning Java.
Also, go through the Android Dev Center for a lot of information. There's plenty of guides there on things like 'how to design your app to flow with the overall android feel' and 'designing icons to fit general android homescreen look'.
You're gonna want to download Eclipse for Java Programming. It's a free Java development environment much like Dreamweaver and Visual Studio are for web development.
Oh, and PLAN! Like any good development project, your project will not get anywhere if you don't know where to start and when to end it.
Plan first. Then plan the planned elements. Java is object-based programming, and just like building a house each object needs to be solid or else it'll crumble to pieces.
Same here. Thx for the advice.
elindemann said:
Indeed, Android uses Java. I'd suggest learning it before attempting to program for Android or else you'll feel like it's gonna be too difficult. There's plenty of books on Java, and some powerful Google searching will lead you to step-by-step guides to learning Java.
Also, go through the Android Dev Center for a lot of information. There's plenty of guides there on things like 'how to design your app to flow with the overall android feel' and 'designing icons to fit general android homescreen look'.
You're gonna want to download Eclipse for Java Programming. It's a free Java development environment much like Dreamweaver and Visual Studio are for web development.
Oh, and PLAN! Like any good development project, your project will not get anywhere if you don't know where to start and when to end it.
Plan first. Then plan the planned elements. Java is object-based programming, and just like building a house each object needs to be solid or else it'll crumble to pieces.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, you're doing things the hard HARD ...HARD way....
if you want to develop apps for android, Titanium Mobile (appcelerator.com) is the best way to go. It takes far less time to learn JavaScript , CSS and HTML then it does to learn pure JAVA, and then learn to implement Android's API.
There are a few things that Titanium Mobile can't do, but they are always working on it to make it better. And of course - it's free
I've made a few apps using it. Including an HTML eBook reader, Chinese Flashcard App, and a Simple Chat Client.
Their JavaScript API takes a bit to get used to, but after that, you can easily spit out a simple app in about a day or so.
I have a web-app Template that lets me dump a Web-app (html/css/js) into a project, and spits out a nice new shiny Android app ready for the market.... I also wrote code that lets you access the Menu Button on android too. So it's not like using PhoneGap where it's just a Browser session with an icon on your phone.
PM me if you're interested, and i'll show you everything i learned about Titanium Mobile so far (i'm still learning actually). Or if you want an app done, i can do it for you... free if it's easy enough
DaoMingJin said:
Actually, you're doing things the hard HARD ...HARD way....
if you want to develop apps for android, Titanium Mobile (appcelerator.com) is the best way to go. It takes far less time to learn JavaScript , CSS and HTML then it does to learn pure JAVA, and then learn to implement Android's API.
There are a few things that Titanium Mobile can't do, but they are always working on it to make it better. And of course - it's free
I've made a few apps using it. Including an HTML eBook reader, Chinese Flashcard App, and a Simple Chat Client.
Their JavaScript API takes a bit to get used to, but after that, you can easily spit out a simple app in about a day or so.
I have a web-app Template that lets me dump a Web-app (html/css/js) into a project, and spits out a nice new shiny Android app ready for the market.... I also wrote code that lets you access the Menu Button on android too. So it's not like using PhoneGap where it's just a Browser session with an icon on your phone.
PM me if you're interested, and i'll show you everything i learned about Titanium Mobile so far (i'm still learning actually). Or if you want an app done, i can do it for you... free if it's easy enough
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow, I'm very interested. I might check it out.
sent from my pimp hero running Froyo CM6 and the XDA app
If you know the C or C++ language you could try out MoSync, depends what you like, some programmers like the level of control and speed you get from C++. If your content with simpler apps then maybe phonegap or appcellerator for you.
I guess that when mobile apps get more sophisticated javascript programs will be just as complex as C++ programs.
Thats my view, but then I like C++ better.
/Tony
MoSyncTony said:
If you know the C or C++ language you could try out MoSync, depends what you like, some programmers like the level of control and speed you get from C++. If your content with simpler apps then maybe phonegap or appcellerator for you.
I guess that when mobile apps get more sophisticated javascript programs will be just as complex as C++ programs.
Thats my view, but then I like C++ better.
/Tony
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It really depends on how much control and you really need. If you're going to write games, then you do need speed that C++ and the Native Application Development API on android can give you. If you're writing a social networking app, the speed of C++ would really be an overkill.
As far as i've read, PhoneGap still has a lot of issues. And the build process is a bit more complicated than on Titanium Mobile.
If you're just using the regular Android API to write apps, i don't notice a lot of difference in speed execution between writing it in pure Java, or using Titanium mobile (using native code and UI elements - i don't mean putting everything into a WebView).
The current app that i'm writing now i don't think can be written using Titanium Mobile or PhoneGap (unless i added some native functions and did my own fork of PhoneGap).
More or less, i'm writing an App for Android and JRE/Linux systems that will allow me to enumerate, and access USB status bits, and USB data frames of a given USB device, and then allowing that USB device to be accessed through a TCP or UDP connection.
I might be able to do this with Titanium Mobile, but i don't think i can. As the only files you're allowed to access are on the SD card, application data directory, and temp directory.... i think there's one other place you're allowed to access too, but i never used it. However later today i might just try to see if i can access the /Dev/DSP01 (aka sound card) on an android device. If i can, i think i could write it using titanium mobile. I'm already halfway done with this app in pure java, so i wouldn't actually rewrite it in Titanium Mobile now.
DaoMingJin said:
if you want to develop apps for android, Titanium Mobile (appcelerator.com) is the best way to go.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanx mate!
If you looking a book or something to teach you the basics Beginning Java Programming for Dummies and Android Application Development in 24 Hours are good reads.
I'd rather not fill the forum with more threads so I'm just going to ask my question here. What is the best way to read the android dev guide on the device itself? Just going to the site directly? Ideally I'd like a pdf or something designed to be read on a small screen. The site can have formatting issues when read on a small screen.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
I've been developing for a long time (nearly 30 years), and whenever I need to learn a new language I start with the Sams range, "Teach yourself whatever language in X days/hours". They're pretty good and this is available for Kindle, which is great if you use the Amazon Kindle app...
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Teach-Yours...1_fkmr2_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1287485537&sr=8-2-fkmr2
It obviously costs, but I really do rate those books as brilliant starting points. The rest is google and friends on here.
Hope this helps - good luck mate.
Personally, I've been coding in Java for what... four years now? I'm feeling dwarfed here by johncmolyneux but honestly, the best way to learn is to not use an IDE like Eclipse, but to use something that you have to hand-code everything yourself, such as Geany! You learn fairly quickly after writing a few applications.
If you are thinking "titanium", "mosync" or "phone gap" it is worth doing a bit of background research. There are several extremely powerful tools out there that can help you build cross platform apps - these are among the top ones.
bit more discussion about this here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=16703287#post16703287
There are a few useful reports comparing them - check out ours by googling "triballabs cross platform"
The Google App Inventor makes it pretty easy to create your own Android apps. Best part is you don't need to learn any programming languages. You won't be creating anything too complicated like a video game for example, but it's a good start nonetheless.
http://appinventor.googlelabs.com/about/
If you want to learn the basics of Java, then please check out a book called as "Head First Java". They really explain the basics with the help of real life examples to make things much simpler so that people understand.
Beginner app projects
I'm also just getting started with app development. Something I've been looking for is a beginner app project. Wish I could find a walkthrough of a simple app like a game of Hangman or something like that. I've been through the android developer training web site and got some good info but some things I'm still a little stuck on. Id Love to see an actual app (rather than just a mock up of some fields and buttons) and then a slightly dumbed down explanation of the code. Might be a lot to ask but man it would be great!

[App Development] Native SiriusXM App!!!

Hello!
I am in the R&D Phase of trying to build/port the Native Android SiriusXM App to Windows Phone. At best, I'd like to end up with a fully ported SiriusXM Android App. At worse, I'd like to get the source for an app like SatRadPlayer or SXMBuddy and update it to work with the new server. As a start, I am attaching the fully decompiled Android App.
My biggest challenge is that I haven't really developed a native WP App nor have I ever developed anything for Android...I do have some Java experience, though!
Help/Guidance/Feedback is greatly appreciated!
If anyone else wants to try giving this a shot as well, they are more than welcome to. My only request is that their App be free/donation ware so we can help build the platform.
If the app is originally in Java (not C/C++, and no, I haven't checked yet) you'll probably want to go with C# for your code; it's very similar to Java and the framework is largely self-documenting so it's easy to learn (there's also excellent docs on MSDN, of course). If part of the original app is unmanaged code, it's probably easier to just import that into a Windows Phone Component C++ project in Visual Studio and then patch it up to use Win32/WinRT instead of POSIX/Android.
Good idea. everything was written in Java. sounds like this will be quite a bit of work for one person. The app is developed and maintained by a company called QuickPlay in Canada. The audio streams are transferred over in DRMed "Chunks" that the app decodes. I don't even know if it is possible to decode them (I hope so).
At this point I am thinking it will be easier to manipulate the streams from the desktop app as the call generate xml and the audio is streamed in AAC. I guess the next question is can Windows Phone 8 handle AAC streams?
It supports AAC in general, so yes, I imagine so.
If the source code to the DRM decoder is available or easily decompiled, breaking/re-implementing it should be easy.
GoodDayToDie said:
It supports AAC in general, so yes, I imagine so.
If the source code to the DRM decoder is available or easily decompiled, breaking/re-implementing it should be easy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I took a different approach, and now have a working proof-of-concept using the legacy WMA streams. One of the things I am struggling with is how to set up a timer to periodically send a response packet back to the server. the standard "background thread" won't cut it because it has to be more than around 30 mins. I tried to use a timer in the backgroundaudio agent, but that was throwing a whole bunch of "illegal cross-thread" calls on instantiation. I can use the timer successfully in the main app though. This only works if the app is active and the screen isn't locked.
Hi, did you manage to decode the chk streams? I would be interested in knowing how you did it.
I never did. I ended up creating a mysqueezebox.com account, installing the "Siriusxm" app there and used that to gain access to the legacy streams. It would be really nice if someone could write a nice squeezebox client for Windows phone as everything is open-source and written in LUA.
compu829 said:
I never did. I ended up creating a mysqueezebox.com account, installing the "Siriusxm" app there and used that to gain access to the legacy streams. It would be really nice if someone could write a nice squeezebox client for Windows phone as everything is open-source and written in LUA.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well it's done
search for it in the store
@clinton05 cool! thanks for the heads-up! how did you decide to connect to the back-end? I am just curious, and totally understand if you can't/won't share.

[Q] From Desktop to Android Development

From Desktop and Web to Android Devices : I Need Help
For over twenty years I have developed apps using Borland's Delphi and BDS development tools. I now want to migrate a subset of that functionality to Android devices ... but need help getting over the learning curve hump.
The general particulars are:
1. Master-Detail, content management. Multiple detail data tables for each master record.
2. Image gallery. See all images in the gallery or only those images which have been linked to a master record.
3. Taking a pic and linking it to a master record.
4. Ability to query for local businesses ... such as "Find <business name> within <x miles> of my current GPS location.
I currently have Eclipse and the latest ADK tools installed. Also, I have some Java experience.
Is there a place I can go to find a baseline source code framework that satisfies these requirements and demonstrates how to store and manage the master and detail data and links?
Any help would be greatly appreciated. I can be contacted at [email protected]
Many thanks, from an old dog trying to learn new tricks.
Patrick

Android App Development help please

Hello, I am looking Android App Development help please.
I would like to make an Android TV box app and was wondering if I can get some help creating one with the following requirements;
1) Looking for a Template, for starters, so I don't have to code one from scratch since I have no idea of what I'm doing
2) Configure the app to utilize a Username/Password which verifies the account on a server database that I control.
3) Hopefully it will be easy to include a link within the code that reaches out to an XML file on my server or whatever where I have a list of Video Streams/Feeds that the app reads and you can select what video you want to play.
Thank you
Hi I'm not an android coder but a c# coder in terms of a template project, something like this? https://github.com/hitherejoe/AndroidTvBoilerplate
I just searched android TV boilerplate (a boilerplate is template). Hope it helped.

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