Hello,
Am part of a team of Java Developers who are being asked to skill themselves up into Android Development.
I have been asked to sort out either some classroom led courses or for an instructor to come to our site to give a tailored course.
Does anyone have any paid courses that they would recommend? There are alot of courses out there but am very aware you don't always get what you pay for hence wanting to get a recommendation of a training provider. In the past we would look for courses where the instructor has been in the field so is doing more than just reading the course off the slides, someone whose own experiences you can tap into.
The developers here are all Java Developers with between 1 to 15 years experience, all using eclipse IDE so should be more than capable of getting up to speed on the course quickly. The course needs to be native dev, not phonegap etc.
Many thanks,
stevens_ns
Related
Hi,
I am an experienced professional programmer who wants to delve into Android programming. I also wish to investigate cross-platform programming using tools like PhoneGap or Titanium.
However, I am a bit in doubt of which learning strategy is best.
One approach is to get a good feeling of the Android environment and later on explore the possibilities of the cross-platform tools.
Another approach is to jump start using say Titanium (which to me looks like the better option of the two mentioned) and then after a while look into the underlying Android building blocks. The reason why this approach seems worth considering is that although I have earned my living on programming for 20 years, I have no experience what so ever with Java. And the feeling of getting something done has always been encouraging to me.
What do you think? Does option 2 make sense, or would it be more sensible to get an understanding of the Android environment first?
Thanks in advance,
Martin
PS. I am not allowed to post in the Developer forum which is why I post here.
Is there a better place to ask this question?
I am not yet allowed to post in the developer forum?
marlar said:
Is there a better place to ask this question?
I am not yet allowed to post in the developer forum?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dev forum is not the place for Qs, they are for development projects and developer discussions, this is why it is limited (it is not a support site).
Probably best place is here:
Android Development and Hacking -> Android Software Development
There is a thread which is the same/similar question as you too:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1173176
I'd recommend learning the basics of android and java first, since you can be sure that tools like Titanium (I've not used it though) will probably run in to some issues so you'll need some basic understanding to resolve.
As mentioned in that thread there are plenty of examples for the basics, although I have found it difficult so far to make that extra leap on to the more advanced stuff yet.
After you got some basic knowledge of Android, I would recommend going through alot of the android questions at stackoverflow.com
(I am not yet allowed to post direct link to questions tagged with android)
You learn alot of tips and tricks this way that you otherwise would have missed
A lot of it is actually pretty self-explanatory once you set up the tools (as least if you're familiar with Java... I had a bit of a problem with the whacked way callbacks are handled, since Java is well... not what I use every day).
There are samples included (including the standard Android application template) that will already tell you how the Android UI system works.
Aside from that there are a lot of good articles on the Android dev site that should get you started quickly with the way Android uses resource files. It's not at all complicated.
The specifics of course depend on what you want to do. My guess would be simple form-like applications... the articles there cover that part quite nicely.
I'd do native development first, then look at cross-platform tools so you can better evaluate the drawbacks they have. The Android platform is tuned to be as simple as possible for simple projects... just try to ignore what your guts tell you and don't worry about threads, memory and so on and you should be fine.
We all know -- getting the user feedback is essential, but it's hard. At least I find it so.
For example, judging from data gathered from random Android app and game samples, on average:
about 10-20% of all users that have downloaded the app, have actually reviewed the app,
about 10% of those that reviewed the app also leave a comment (making the number of comments approximately 1-2% of all downloads),
about 1% of users communicate via in-app channels,
about 1% of users respond to social posts.
As I mentioned already, this is based on a random sample and the rather small sample size (10) may be biased by statistical error. Nevertheless, it "feels" right
Now, let's say that your user base is wide enough to get the accurate feedback about your product, but only if you could motivate more users to respond to Rate and Leave Feedback requests... but let's leave that for a separate discussion.
What I wanted to ask you all is:
Which questions would you ask your users if you knew they will answer truthfully?
Think survey!
Think user satisfaction!
Think best loved feature!
Don't think girl's/boy's phone numbers!
In the end, I'll try to compile the result in a single survey separated in categories (and based on the popularity of suggested questions) for the community to use.
Let's start asking
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Starter
To get us going, here're some example questions (courtesy of zoomearng.com):
What Features Can You Not Live Without? – Asking people what features they must have on your upcoming product is a great way to find out what is in the highest demand. In short, this online survey question shows you, overall, what features you cannot leave out.
What Is the Most You Would Pay? – Understanding your potential customer’s price range can help you better understand what you can realistically afford to include, and exclude, to hit those price points.
What Did You Like Best About Our Old Product? – If you had an older version of a product and are updating it, finding out what features your customers liked best. Use this online survey question to find out what you should not change in future versions of your product.
What Other Brands Would You Consider? – This online survey question helps you quickly locate and understand your possible competition. Knowing what you’re up against will help you better gauge where your energies should be focused for your product.
What Else Should We Know? – Let your online survey respondents have the floor. This question gives them the opportunity to sound off about things maybe your online survey questions missed. Find out all you forgot to ask about with this question.
One thing that I was not sure how to proceed is the personall, demographic questions. How deep to go and what are the limits?
I believe that the answer to this is in type of survey, but also in giving the user the possibility to opt-out or to make those questions non-mandatory.
What's the safe zone with demographic questions?
I think you can safely ask for:
Country
Age
Occupation
Service Provider(if any, or if necessary)
Another question that can be considered is "Do you primarily use this app for business or personal use?" Obviously only certain apps would use this.
Just a suggestion, but since a lot of questions could vary between apps(like between recreational or utility apps) maybe if you made a tool that allowed app developers to customize and then compile a survey which can then be added to their app with minimal effort it would be awesome. That way developers could ask more app specific questions alongside the more general ones you mentioned above. The hardest thing about that would probably be making it compile into a universal format that can be copy pasted into any apps code, but I'm sure it's not too hard. If the tool automatically created the proper classes along with each survey then it literally could be copy pasted into whatever part of the app the dev wants it in.
Just my 2 cents.
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA
Good suggestions, AlanB412.
The Country and Service provider are quite well covered by Play Store statistics (though, should be considered in case app is not published on Google).
Other "personal" stuff, I compiled into one (multiple choice) question for the survey I'm creating for m-parking:
Please tell us something about yourself. Check all that apply.
• Female
• Male
• Younger than 30 years
• 30 years or older
• In school
• Employed
• Unemployed
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The details of occupation, like industry and field of work, deserve a dedicated question, if needed, of course.
Ideally, the availability of questions should be dependent on previously made choices (e.g. occupation industry should be asked only if employment status "employed" or "self-employed" were previously selected). That kind of branching should make the survey more engaging as opposed to presenting the user with irrelevant questions.
The idea about the "tool" for developers sounds interesting.
How I'm looking at is a library project that has many out-of-the-box available questions, but that allows also for customizations and works dynamically with any question specified in standard strings dedicated resources.
The tricky part is actually not the inclusion of such Survey-library in apps or its dynamic handling of question-answer configuration. It's in (collecting) the reports part. For that to work seamlessly out-of-the-box, a third party "cloud" reporting service should be available -- to collect and provide access to reports.
Hi,
I am currently looking for a talented developer to join my company as a partner. The role will be CTO and the person should have strong experience in application development, front end programming and UI, as well as team leading skills.
The company itself is a new social media platform. I am unable to discuss this on an open forum, please email for details.
This is a very lucrative venture and I believe it would be worth your time getting in touch with me to learn more.
My mobile number is 07947554100, please call me at any time.
Thanks,
Adrian
inteBase
I am interested in learning android development. I develop applications using third party software. So I believe if I gain the knowledge in coding that will give more opportunities. I got some course details from the website of Cestar College of Business, Health and Technology. But I am focusing android development alone. So it would be really great if somebody of you can provide the details, like course fee, Syllabus, opportunities and so on.
Hi! I am currently looking for jobs and have seen alot of ads regarding mobile developer. This has made me interested in learning the skills.
If you are working with it right now, what would be the tips for me regarding getting a fast way of becoming a valid android mobile developer.
I am thinking of first getting to know the basics of java. What would more be good to learn?
I am coming from a mechanical design engineer background and have made a game in unity engine in their javascript so not totally new, but also not a senior programmer
Just looking for good tutorials on the need to know basics. I guess later on there are tools that simplify certain processes