CHAPTER 3
DEVELOPING
FIRST
ANDROID
APP
Developing First App
The quickest way to get to know Android Studio is to use it
to develop an app.
We'll start with a little mobile app that displays the
message “Hello World“.
Creating The Project
The first step in the application development process is to
create a new project within the Android Studio
environment.
Begin, therefore, by launching Android Studio so that the
“Welcome to Android Studio” screen appears
Creating The Project
Creating The Project
Once this window appears, Android Studio is ready for a
new project to be created.
To create the new project, simply click on the Start a new
Android Studio project option to display the first screen of
the New Project wizard
Configuring The Project
Configuring The Project
Enter MyFirstApplication as the application name
and [Link] as the company domain name.
Set any location on your hard-drive to save your project . I
have chosen D:\MyAndroidStudioProjects .
Click Next to select your target devices.
Select Target Platform
Select Target Platform
On the form factors screen, enable the Phone and Tablet
option and set the minimum SDK setting .
The higher the minimum SDK selection, the more the application
will be restricted to newer Android devices.
A useful chart can be viewed by clicking on the Help me
choose link.
Select Target Platform
As a general rule we
will be using Android
Jelly Bean 4.1 as our
minimum SDK version
Select Target Platform
Selecting The App
Template
Click Next, and you will be given the opportunity to
choose a template for your app's main activity.
For now we'll stick with Empty Activity.
Select this template and click Next.
Selecting The App
Template
Entering Basic Details
In the Customize the Activity screen, keep the default
values and click Finish.
Entering Basic Details
Developing First App
Android Studio will respond that it is creating the project,
then take you to the project workspace
Now Android Studio displays our app with some default
screens
Developing First App
The key things to notice are that moving from left to right we
have:
The project window
The designer split into its Palette and a Layout window
A component tree window and a properties window at the far
right.
However most of the time we will be using the Project window
and the Layout window.
The Code Screen
The Default Screen
On the top of the screen we would see two tabs called
activity_main.xml and [Link]
The activity_main.xml file shows the initial user interface of
our app.
Click on this tab to open it’s design view
The Design Screen
The Design Screen
The design tab allows us to drag and drop the components
from palette to the main screen and then customize their
properties.
By default our screen contains a TextView ( in Android a
TextView is same as Label of Java) with the sample text Hello
World
Further in the next session we will see how to customize this
screen
The Text Screen
Another way to look at the activity_main.xml file is to open
the text view.
This view shows the complete XML code generated for
designing the UI
The Text Screen
Running The App
There are two distinct ways of running an Android app
using Android Studio:
We can use the emulator or
a real Android device.
The emulator only allows us to test a subset of things and it
is slow.
Running The App
However for the moment running our first app on an
emulator is quite enough to get started.
All we have to do is click the green run icon in the top
toolbar - or use the Run”Run app" menu item.
When we do this for the first time it will take a while for
the app to be compiled.
Running The App
When our app is ready to be compiled we will see a
dialog box appear which allows us to either select a
running emulator or start one going.
Running The App
Running The App
If there are no emulators listed then we will have to create
one.
Select the Create New Emulator button. This will present a
dialog box where we can select the device we want to test
on.
The default is the Nexus 5 and for a first test we might as
well use this.
Running The App
Running The App
We can accept all of the defaults in this first run.
If you need other devices we can use the AVD Manager to
define them – which we will see later.
Running The App
Once we have at least one emulator defined we can select
it and it will load and prepare to run our program.
The whole process takes some time the first time we do it.
And finally our app will be loaded to the emulator and
the default text “Hello World” would be displayed.
The Output
End Of Lecture
For any queries mail us @: scalive4u@[Link]
Call us @ : 0755-4271659, 7879165533
Agenda for Next Lecture:
1. Understanding The Project Structure
2. Learning XML
3. Understanding Android’s Layout File
4. Understanding The Java Code
