MOBILE

APPLICATION
DEVELOPMENT
By Ankit Attkan
 WHAT IS ANDROID DEVELOPMENT?
▪ Android is an operating system. That is, it’s software that connects hardware to
software and provides general services. Like web application development, mobile
application development has its roots in more traditional software development.
▪ It is mobile specific operating system: an OS designed to work on mobile (read:
handheld, wearable, carry-able) devices.
▪ The term “Android” can be referred as the “platform” (e.g., devices that use the OS)
as well as the ecosystem that surrounds it.
▪ “Android Development” technically means developing applications that run on the
specific OS, it also gets generalized to refer to developing any kind of software that
interacts with the platform.
▪ The goal of android project is to create a successful real-world product that improves
the mobile experience for end users.
 ANDROID HISTORY
▪ 2003: The platform was originally founded by a start-up “Android Inc.” which aimed to
build a mobile OS operating system.
▪ 2005: Android was acquired by Google, who was looking to get into mobile
▪ 2007: Google announces the Open Handset Alliance, a group of tech companies
working together to develop “open standards” for mobile platforms.
▪ Members included phone manufacturers like HTC, Samsung, and Sony;
▪ Mobile carriers like T-Mobile, Sprint, and NTT DoCoMo;
▪ Hardware manufacturers like Broadcom and Nvidia;
▪ The Open Handset Alliance is now group of 84 technology and mobile companies
 ANDROID HISTORY
▪ 2008: First Android device is released: the HTC Dream (a.k.a. T-Mobile G1)
▪ Specs: 528Mhz ARM chip; 256MB memory; 320x480 resolution capacitive touch;
slide-out keyboard! Author’s opinion: a fun little device.
▪ 2010: First Nexus device is released: the Nexus One. These are Google-developed
“flagship” devices, intended to show off the capabilities of the platform.
▪ Specs: 1Ghz Scorpion; 512MB memory; .37" at 480x800 AMOLED capacitive
touch.
▪ 2014: Android Wear, a version of Android for wearable devices (watches) is
announced.
▪ 2016: Daydream, a virtual reality (VR) platform for Android is announced
ANDROID VERSIONS, NAME AND API
LEVEL
Code name Version numbers API level Release date
No codename 1.0 1 September 23, 2008
No codename 1.1 2 February 9, 2009
Cupcake 1.5 3 April 27, 2009
Donut 1.6 4 September 15, 2009
Eclair 2.0 - 2.1 5-7 October 26, 2009
Froyo 2.2 - 2.2.3 8 May 20, 2010
Gingerbread 2.3 - 2.3.7 9 - 10 December 6, 2010
Honeycomb 3.0 - 3.2.6 11 - 13 February 22, 2011
Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0 - 4.0.4 14 - 15 October 18, 2011
Jelly Bean 4.1 - 4.3.1 16 - 18 July 9, 2012
ANDROID VERSIONS, NAME AND API
LEVEL
Code name Version numbers API level Release date
KitKat 4.4 - 4.4.4 19 - 20 October 31, 2013
Lollipop 5.0 - 5.1.1 21- 22 November 12, 2014
Marshmallow 6.0 - 6.0.1 23 October 5, 2015
Nougat 7.0 24 August 22, 2016
Nougat 7.1.0 - 7.1.2 25 October 4, 2016
Oreo 8.0 26 August 21, 2017
Oreo 8.1 27 December 5, 2017
Pie 9.0 28 August 6, 2018
Android 10 10.0 29 September 3, 2019
Android 11 11 30 September 8, 2020
 FEATURE OF ANDROID
As Android is open source and freely available to manufacturers for customization,
there are no fixed hardware and software configurations. However, Android itself
supports the following features:
▪ Storage- Uses SQLite, a light weight relational database, for data storage.
▪ Connectivity- Supports GSM/EDGE, IDEN, CDMA, EV-DO, UMTS, Bluetooth
(includes A2DP and AVRCP), WiFi, LTE and WiMAX.
▪ Messaging—Supports both SMS and MMS.
▪ Web browser- Based on the open-source WebKit, together with Chrome‘s V8
JavaScript engine.
▪ Flash support- Android supports Flash 10.1.
 FEATURE OF ANDROID
▪ Media support- Includes support for the following media: H.263, H.264 (in 3GP or
MP4 container), MPEG-4 SP, AMR, AMR-WB (in 3GP container), AAC, HE-AAC (in
MP4 or 3GP container), MP3, MIDI, WAV, JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP, etc.
▪ Hardware support- Accelerometer Sensor, Camera, Digital Compass, Proximity
Sensor, and GPS
▪ Multi-touch- Supports multi-touch screens,
▪ Multi-tasking- Supports multi-tasking applications

▪ Tethering- Supports sharing of Internet connections as a wired/wireless hotspot

Architecture of Android .
▪
ANDROID ARCHITECTURE:
Android architecture is roughly divided into five
sections in four main layers to explain the working of
android that make up the Android operating system (OS),
namely:
1) Applications
2) Application Framework
3) Libraries
▪ Android Runtime
4) Linux kernel
▪ The primary hardware platform is the ARM architecture.
 ANDROID ARCHITECTURE
LAYERS:
Like so many other systems, the Android platform is built as a layered architecture as:
Linux Kernel:
▪ At it’s base, Android runs on a Linux kernel for interacting with the device’s processor,
memory, etc. Thus an Android device can be seen as a Linux computer.
▪ Android uses the Linux kernel, which is also open source, for device drivers, memory
management, process management, file system and network management. The
kernel has some features added, some dropped from the Linux kernel.
▪ Android does not support Sys V IPC mechanisms but instead uses IPC Binder. The
binder driver that is used for IPC is included to the kernel along with low memory
killer, power management, logger and ASHMEM (Anonymous SHared MEMory).
LINUX KERNEL:
I. Low Memory Killer- Kills processes as available RAM becomes low. The
lowmemorykiller
processes within adriver
range lets
can user-space
be killed specify
when the a set of
available memory
memory thresholds
reduces. where
This is
necessary
but instead as when
stays inan application
memory. This is closed
reduces in
theAndroid,
start-up the
time process
when does
the not get
application killed
has
to be used again. This driver is built on top of the Linux.
II. Logger – system logging facility
III. ASHMEM
shm. The – is mechanism
modifications to to share
POSIX blocks
shm helpof data
Androidacross
to processes,
reclaim memorysimilar to
blocks POSIX
not
currently in use.
IV. Power Management
footprint. –
Consequentially, Android
Android has to operate
implements a with
power substantially
management limited
driver onenergy
top of
standard Linux power management. Applications
Power Management framework of their constraints. use user space libraries to inform
V. PMEM – allocates physically contiguous memory
 LIBRARIES:
Android includes C / C++ native libraries which are exposed via the Application
framework. So, these are called through Java interfaces. By native libraries, we mean
code that is hardware specific. Most of these libraries are open source libraries
which have been used without any changes.
▪ The Bionic library is an exception; it is the optimized version of the Standard C
library with the Apache license, like rest of Android, instead of GPL license of the
GNU libc. The GNU libc has been rewritten taking into consideration the energy
constraint of mobile devices that run Android.
▪ WebKit: Layout engine software designed to allow web browsers to render web
pages. WebKit also powers the Apple Safari and Google Chrome browsers.
▪
LIBRARIES:
Media Framework: the libraries support playback and recording of many
popular audio and video formats including MPEG4, H.264, MP3, AAC, AMR, JPG,
and PNG
▪ SQLite: A powerful yet light-weight SQL database engine. The applications use
this to store and retrieve data.
▪ OpenGL: graphics libraries, OpenGL ES is a subset of OpenGL meant for
Embedded Systems
▪ SGL: acronym for Scalable Graphics Libraries, renders 2D graphics
▪ OpenSSL: the open source tool kit that implements Secure Socket Layer (SSL).
▪ Surface Manager to monitor display functionalities and text manipulation during
display.
▪ Readily available Widgets such as buttons, layouts, radio button, lists.
 ANDROID RUNTIME
▪ At the same layer as the libraries, the Android runtime provides a set of core
libraries that enable developers to write Android apps using the Java
programming language. The Android runtime also includes the Dalvik virtual
machine, which enables every Android application to run in its own process, with
its own instance of the Dalvik virtual machine (Android applications are compiled
into the Dalvik executables). Dalvik is a specialized virtual machine designed
specifically for Android and optimized for battery-powered mobile devices with
limited memory and CPU.
▪ Core Libraries: Android re-implements core Java libraries that the layers above
use. Android includes most of Java 5 Standard Edition functionalities in its
implementation.
 DALVIK VIRTUAL MACHINE
▪ (DVM):
Android does not use the standard Java Virtual Machine but
has been tailor made for mobile devices and is an integral part of Android. uses the DVM which
▪ DVM ensures that applications can run in systems
slower processors and without swap space in comparison to desktops.with relatively smaller RAM,
▪ This is
efficiency especially
of relevant
programs is as
verythe mobile
important.devices
As a are battery
consequence, powered
Dalvik and
itself memory
is small
and operates with tighter overhead constraints.
▪ DVM
its ownis a register-based
byte code and architecture
hence the unlike
standard JVM
Java which
compiler is stack-based.
generated byte Dalvik
code has
has
tois called
be converted
“dexing”.to a .dex file. The process of converting from Jave code to dex files
▪ The .dex is the DVM compatible byte code which
uncompressed .dex file is smaller than a compressed .jar file. is compact and efficient. The
▪ All applications run as separate
adds to the security of Android. processes with their own instance of the DVM. This
DALVIK VIRTUAL MACHINE
(DVM):
 APPLICATION FRAMEWORK:
▪ The second top layer is the Application framework
offers a repertory of APIs catering to application developers. layer implemented in Java which
▪ This layer exposes the operating system’s capability in the form of services for effective
and innovative application development.
▪ The components like Activity Manager,
applications interact with OS and other applications. Resource manager etc., are through which
Content Providers
applications from a a
central primary building
repository of block
data. providing
Content providersencapsulated
are necessary content
when to
the
content
with or data is
ContentResolver to beto shared
provideacross
this applications.
data. The The content
ContentResolver provider
object works
in the along
client
application' s process and the ContentProvider
provider automatically handle inter-process communication. object in the application that owns the
public abstract class ContentProvider
APPLICATION FRAMEWORK:
Activity Manager: The Activity Manager essentially handles the activity life cycle
of an application. For example, it is responsible for creating the activity when an
application starts, move an activity off screen when use navigates to a different
screen. It interacts with all activities running in the system.
public class ActivityManager
Window Manager: The window manager is responsible for organizing the screen.
It decides which application goes where and layering on the screen.
Package Manager: It is a class for retrieving various kind of information related
to the application packages that are currently installed on the device.
public abstract class PackageManager
▪
APPLICATION LAYER:
Application layer is the top most layer of android architecture, exclusively written in Java.
At this top layer, you will find applications that ship with the Android device (such as
Phone, Contacts, Browser, etc.), as well as applications that you download and install from
the Android Market. Any applications that you write are located at this layer.
▪ These Java applications execute on the Dalvik Virtual Machine (DVM), a virtual machine
much like JVM but for Android.
▪ Application Anatomy:
Activity: An activity is a single screen of the application that the user sees at one time,
for example, the Contacts screen. However, the activity does not have to paint the entire
screen. It displays the UI component and responds to a user or system initiated action.
Activity code runs only when the Activity GUI is visible and has focus. An application
comprises of many such activities and Android maintains a history stack, ‘back stack’ of
all the activities which are spawned. Maintaining this history enables Android to put out
the activity on the screen quickly when a user returns to a previous displayed screen.
APPLICATION LAYER:
Services: Service is an application component to enable an application to
perform long running tasks in the background. This code runs when user
interaction is needed, for e.g., applications continue to play music when you have
navigated away to the home screen.
Content Provider: The data storage and retrieval in Android applications is done
via content providers. It is implemented as a subclass of ContentProvider.
Broadcast Receiver: A broadcast receiver is a component that responds to
system-wide broadcast announcements. This part of the application decides what
the application has to do, for instance, when the battery is low. The battery low
message is broadcast. A broadcast receiver is implemented as a subclass of
BroadcastReceiver
 PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES:
▪ Java: Android code (program control and logic, as well as data storage and
manipulation) is written in Java.
▪ Writing Android code will feel a lot writing any other Java program: you create classes,
define methods, instantiate objects, and call methods on those objects. But because
you’re working within a framework, there is a set of code that already exists to call
specific methods.
▪ XML: Android user interfaces and resources are specified
in XML (EXtensible Markup Language).
▪ To compare to web programming: the XML contains what would normally go in the HTML/
CSS, while the Java code will contain what would normally go in the JavaScript. XML is
just like HTML, but you get to make up your own tags. Except we’ll be using the ones that
Android made up; so it’s like defining web pages, except with a new set of elements.
 ANDROID APPLICATION:
▪ Android applications
packaged into .apk files.(the source, dexed bytecode, and any resources) are
▪ The .apk files are then cryptographically signed to specify their authenticity,
either “side-loaded” onto the device or uploaded to an App Store for deployment. and
▪ The signed .apk files are basically the “executable” versions of your program!
▪ While building an App you need to:
1. Generate Java source files (e.g., from resource files, which are written XML used to
generate Java code)
2. Compile Java code into JVM bytecode
3. “dex” the JVM bytecode into Dalvik bytecode
4. Pack in assets and graphics into an APK
5. Cryptographically sign the APK file to verify it
6. Load it onto the device
 ANDROID DEVELOPMENT
▪
TOOL:
Hardware: Android code is written for a virtual machine anyway, Android apps
can be developed and built on any computer’s operating system.
▪ Android apps will need to be run on Android devices.
▪ Physical devices are the best for development (they are the fastest, easiest way
to test), though you’ll need USB cable to be able to wire your device into your
computer.
▪ Don’t even need cellular service (just WiFi should work)
▪ Need to turn on developer options in order to install development apps on the
device.
▪ Use the Android Emulator if you don’t have a physical device, which is a
“virtual” Android device. It does have some limitations (e.g., no cellular service,
no bluetooth, etc).
 ANDROID DEVELOPMENT
▪
TOOL:
Software needed to develop Android applications includes:
▪ Java 7 SDK (not just the JRE!), because you’re writing Java code.
▪ Gradle or Apache ANT: These are automated build tools—in effect, they let you
specify a single command that will do a bunch of steps at once (e.g., compile
files, dex files, move files, etc).
▪ ANT is the “old” build system
▪ Gradle is the “modern” build system
▪ Android Studio & Android SDK is the official IDE for developing Android
applications. IDE comes bundled with the SDK.
▪ Android Studio provides the main build system: all of the other software (Java,
Gradle) goes to support this.
 ANDROID DEVELOPMENT
TOOL:
SDK comes with a number of useful command-line tools. These include:
▪ adb, the “Android Device Bridge”, which is a connection between your computer and the
device (physical or virtual). This tool is used for console output!
▪ emulator, which is a tool used to run the Android emulator
▪ deprecated/removed android: a tool that does SDK/AVD (Android Virtual Device)
management. Basically, this command-line utility did everything that the IDE did, but
from the command-line! It has recently been removed from the IDE.
▪ It is recommended to make sure that the SDK command-line tools are installed.
▪ Put the tools and platform-tools folders on your computer’s PATH;
▪ you can run adb to check that everything works.
▪ All of these tools are built into the IDE, but they can be useful fallbacks for
debugging.
THANK YOU