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0 Development Tutorial
Lars Vogel
Version 8.7 Copyright 2009 - 2011 Lars Vogel 24.11.2011
Revision History
Revision 0.1 Created Revision 0.2 - 8.7 bug fixing and enhancements 04.07.2009 07.07.2009 - 24.11.2011
Development with Android Gingerbread and Eclipse This tutorial describes how to create Android applications with Eclipse. It is based on Eclipse 3.7 (Indigo), Java 1.6 and Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich).
Table of Contents 1. What is Android? 1.1. Android Operation System 1.2. Important Android components 1.3. Dalvik Virtual Machine 1.4. Security and permissions 2. Android Application Architecture 2.1. AndroidManifest.xml 2.2. R.java, Resources and Assets 2.3. Reference to resources in XML files 2.4. Activities and Layouts 2.5. Activities and Lifecycle 2.6. Context 3. Installation 3.1. Eclipse and automatic Android SDK 3.2. Manually install Android SDK 3.3. Install a specific Android version 3.4. Android Source Code 4. Emulator Shortcuts 4.1. Create an Android Emulator Device 4.2. Using the emulator 4.3. Performance 5. Error handling and typical problems 5.1. Clean Project 5.2. LogCat
5.2. LogCat 5.3. Emulator does not start 5.4. Error message for @override 5.5. Missing Imports 5.6. Eclipse Tips 6. Your first Android project 6.1. Create Project 6.2. Two faces of things 6.3. Create attributes 6.4. Add UI Elements 6.5. Edit UI properties 6.6. Code your application 6.7. Start Project 7. Starting an deployed application 8. Menus and Action Bar 8.1. Definition of menu entries 8.2. Action bar tabs 8.3. Context menus 9. Tutorial: Menus and Action Bar 9.1. Project 9.2. Add a menu XML resource 10. Preferences 11. Tutorial: Preferences 11.1. Using preferences 11.2. Run 12. Dialogs via the AlertDialog 13. Layouts 14. TableLayout 14.1. Overview 14.2. Example 15. ContentProvider 15.1. Overview 15.2. Create contacts on your emulator 15.3. Using the Contact Content Provider 16. ScrollView 17. DDMS perspective and important views 17.1. DDMS - Dalvik Debug Monitor Server 17.2. LogCat View 17.3. File explorer 18. Shell 18.1. Android Debugging Bridge - Shell 18.2. Uninstall an application via adb 18.3. Emulator Console via telnet 19. Deploy your application on a real device 20. Thank you 21. Questions and Discussion 22. Links and Literature 22.1. Source Code 22.2. Android Resources 22.3. vogella Resources
1. What is Android?
1.1. Android Operation System
Android is an operating system based on Linux with a Java programming interface. It provides tools, e.g. a compiler, debugger and a device emulator as well as its own Java Virtual machine (Dalvik Virtual Machine - DVM). Android is officially guided by the Open Handset Alliance but in reality Google leads the project. Android supports 2-D and 3-D graphics using the OpenGL libraries and supports data storage in a SQLite database. Every Android applications runs in its own process and under its own user id which is generated automatically by the Android system during deployment. Therefore the application is isolated from other running applications and a misbehaving application cannot easily harm other Android applications.
certain events and can be started if such an event occurs. Widgets - interactive components primary used on the Android homescreen to display certain data and to allow the user to have quick access the the information Other Android components are Live Folders and Android Live Wallpapers. Live Folders display data on the homescreen without launching the corresponding application.
The package attribute defines the base package for the following Java elements. It also must be
The package attribute defines the base package for the following Java elements. It also must be unique as the Android Marketplace only allows application for a specific package once. Therefore a good habit is to use your reverse domain name as a package to avoid collisions with other developers. android:versionName and android:versionCode specify the version of your application. versionName is what the user sees and can be any string. versionCode must be an integer and the Android Market uses this to determine if you provided a newer version to trigger the update on devices which have your application installed. You typically start with "1" and increase this value by one if you roll-out a new version of your application. The tag <activity> defines an Activity , in this example pointing to the class "de.vogella.android.temperature.Convert". An intent filter is registered for this class which defines that this Activity is started once the application starts (action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" ). The category definition category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" defines that this application is added to the application directory on the Android device. The @string/app_name value refer to resource files which contain the actual values. This makes it easy to provide different resources, e.g. strings, colors, icons, for different devices and makes it easy to translate applications. The "uses-sdk" part of the "AndroidManifest.xml" defines the minimal SDK version your application is valid for. This will prevent your application being installed on devices with older SDK versions.
The user interface for Activities is defined via layouts. At runtime, layouts are instances of android.view.ViewGroups . The layout defines the UI elements, their properties and their arrangement. UI elements are based on the class android.view.View . ViewGroup is a subclass of the class View and a layout can contain UI components ( Views ) or other layouts ( ViewGroups ). You should not nestle ViewGroups too deeply as this has a negative impact on performance. A layout can be defined via Java code or via XML. You typically uses Java code to generate the layout if you don't know the content until runtime; for example if your layout depends on content which you read from the Internet. XML based layouts are defined via a resource file in the folder /res/layout . This file specifies the ViewGroups , Views , their relationship and their attributes for a specific layout. If a UI element needs to be accessed via Java code you have to give the UI element an unique id via the android:id attribute. To assign a new id to an UI element use @+id/yourvalue . By conversion this will create and assign a new id yourvalue to the corresponding UI element. In your Java code you can later access these UI elements via the method findViewById(R.id.yourvalue) . Defining layouts via XML is usually the preferred way as this separates the programming logic from the layout definition. It also allows the definition of different layouts for different devices. You can also mix both approaches.
2.6. Context
The class android.content.Context provides the connections to the Android system. It is the interface to global information about the application environment. Context also provides access to Android Services , e.g. theLocation Service. As Activities and Services extend the class Context you can directly access the context via this .
3. Installation
The following assume that you have already Eclipse installed. For details please see Eclipse Tutorial .
the Preferences dialog via Windows Preferences . Select Android and enter the installation path of the Android SDK.
The dialog allows you to install new package and also allow you to delete them. Select "Available packages" and open the "Third Party Add-ons". Select the Google API 14 (Android 4.0) version of the SDK and press "Install".
Press the "Install" button and confirm the license for all package. After the installation restart Eclipse.
The following step is optional. During Android development it is very useful to have the Android source code available as Android uses a lot of defaults. Haris Peco maintains plugins which provides access to the Android Source code code. Use the Eclipse update manager to install the Android Source plugin from the following update site: "http://adtaddons.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/source/com.android.ide.eclipse.source.update". More details can be found on the project website .
4. Emulator Shortcuts
4.1. Create an Android Emulator Device
The Android tools include an emulator. This emulator behaves like a real Android device in most cases and allows you to test your application without having a real device. You can emulate one or several devices with different configurations. Each configuration is defined via an "Android Virtual Device" (AVD). To define an AVD open the "AVD Manager" via Windows AVD Manager and press "New".
We can also select the box "Enabled" for Snapshots. This will make the second start of the virtual device much faster. At the end press the button "Create AVD".This will create the device and display it under the "Virtual devices". To test if your setup is correct, select your device and press "Start". After (a long time) your device should be started.
4.3. Performance
4.3. Performance
Try to use a smaller resolution for your emulator as for example HVGA. The emulator gets slower the more pixels its needs to render as it is using software rendering. Also if you have sufficient memory on your computer, add at least 1 GB of memory to your emulator. This is the value "Device ram size" during the creation of the AVD. Also set the flag "Enabled" for Snapshots. This will save the state of the emulator and let it start much faster.
5.2. LogCat
The LogCat view shows you the log message of your Android device and help you analyzing problems. For example Java exceptions in your program would be shown here. To open this view, select "Window -> Show View -> Other -> Android -> LogCat" from the menu.
qualified or declared via imports. In your editor use the click mouse click, select "Source-> Organize Imports" if you see error message with "XX cannot be resolved to a variable".
While "res" contains structured values which are known to the Android platform the directory "assets" can be used to store any kind of data. In Java you can access this data via the AssetsManager and the method getAssets().
Add also the following "String" attributes. String attributes allow to translate the application at a later point. Table 1. String Attributes
Name Value
Right-click on the text object Hello World, Hello! in the layout. Select Delete on the popup menu to remove the text object. Then, from the Palette view, select Text Fields and locate Plain Text. Drag this onto the layout to create a text input field. All object types in the section "Text Fields derive from the class "EditText", they just specify via an additional attribute which text type can be used. Now select the Palette section Form Widgets and drag a RadioGroup object onto the layout. The number of radio buttons added to the radio button group depends on your version of Eclipse. Make sure there are two radio buttons by deleting or adding radio buttons to the group. From the Palette section Form Widgets, drag a Button object onto the layout. The result should look like the following.
Switch to "main.xml" and verify that your XML looks like the following.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" android:orientation="vertical" android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="fill_parent"> <EditText android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:id="@+id/editText1" android:layout_width="match_parent" android:text="EditText"></EditText> <RadioGroup android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:id="@+id/radioGroup1" android:layout_width="match_parent"> <RadioButton android:text="RadioButton" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:id="@+id/radio0" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:checked="true"></RadioButton> <RadioButton android:text="RadioButton" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:id="@+id/radio1" android:layout_height="wrap_content"></RadioButton> </RadioGroup> <Button android:text="Button" android:id="@+id/button1" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content"></Button> </LinearLayout>
From now on I assume you are able to use the properties menu on the UI elements. You can either edit the XML file or modify the properties via right mouse click. Set the property "Checked" to true for the first RadioButton. Assign "calc" to the text property of your button and assign "myClickHandler" to the "onClick" property. Set the "Input type" property to "numberSigned" and "numberDecimal" on your EditText. All your other UI controls are contained in a LinearLayout. We want to assign a background color to this LinearLayout. Right-click on an empty space in Graphical Layout mode, then select Other
Properties All by Name Background . Select Color and then myColor in the list.
Switch to the "main.xml" tab and verify that the XML is correctly maintained.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" android:orientation="vertical" android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="fill_parent" android:background="@color/myColor"> <EditText android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:id="@+id/editText1" android:layout_width="match_parent" android:inputType="numberDecimal|numberSigned"></ EditText> <RadioGroup android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:id="@+id/radioGroup1" android:layout_width="match_parent"> <RadioButton android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:id="@+id/radio0" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:text="@string/celsius" android:checked="true"></RadioButton> <RadioButton android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:id="@+id/radio1" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:text="@string/fahrenheit"></RadioButton> </RadioGroup> <Button android:id="@+id/button1" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:text="@string/calc" android:onClick="myClickHandler"></Button> </LinearLayout>
// This method is called at button click because we assigned the name to the // "On Click property" of the button p u b l i c v o i d myClickHandler(View view) { s w i t c h (view.getId()) { c a s e R.id.button1: RadioButton celsiusButton = (RadioButton) findViewById(R.id.radio0); RadioButton fahrenheitButton = (RadioButton) findViewById(R.id.radio1); i f (text.getText().length() == 0) { Toast.makeText(t h i s "Please enter a valid number", t s, Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show(); return n; }
f l o a t inputValue = Float.parseFloat(text.getText().toString()); i f (celsiusButton.isChecked()) { text.setText(String .valueOf(convertFahrenheitToCelsius(inputValue))); celsiusButton.setChecked(false); fahrenheitButton.setChecked(true); } else { text.setText(String .valueOf(convertCelsiusToFahrenheit(inputValue))); fahrenheitButton.setChecked(false); celsiusButton.setChecked(true); } break k;
// Converts to celsius p r i v a t e f l o a t convertFahrenheitToCelsius(f l o a t fahrenheit) { f r e t u r n ((fahrenheit - 32) * 5 / 9); } // Converts to fahrenheit p r i v a t e f l o a t convertCelsiusToFahrenheit(f l o a t celsius) { f r e t u r n ((celsius * 9) / 5) + 32; }
Type in a number, select your conversion and press the button. The result should be displayed and the other option should get selected.
Create a project "de.vogella.android.socialapp" with the activity "OverviewActivity". Change the UI in the file "/res/layout/main.xml" to the following:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="fill_parent" android:orientation="vertical" > <Button android:id="@+id/Button01" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:text="Show Preferences" > </Button> <Button android:id="@+id/Button02" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:text="Change Preferences" > </Button> </LinearLayout>
This will create a new file "mainmenu.xml" in the folder "res/menu" of your project. Android provides
an nice editor to edit this file, unfortunately this editor is not always automatically used. To use this editor right-click on your menu file and select Open with Android Menu Editor . Switch if necessary to the "Layout" tab of the editor. Press Add and select "Item". Maintain the following value. This defines the entries in your menu. We will also define that the menu entry is displayed in the action bar if there is sufficient space avaiable.
Change your Activity class "OverviewActivity" to the following. The OnCreateOptionsMenu method is used to create the menu. The behavior in "onOptionsItemSelected" is currently hard-coded to show a Toast and will soon call the preference settings. In case you want to disable or hide menu items you can use the method "onPrepareOptionsMenu" which is called every time the menu is called.
p a c k a g e de.vogella.android.socialapp; i m p o r t android.app.Activity; i m p o r t android.os.Bundle; i m p o r t android.view.Menu; i m p o r t android.view.MenuInflater; i m p o r t android.view.MenuItem;
i m p o r t android.view.MenuItem; i m p o r t android.widget.Toast; p u b l i c c l a s s OverviewActivity e x t e n d s Activity { @Override p u b l i c v o i d onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) { super r.onCreate(savedInstanceState); setContentView(R.layout.main); }
@Override p u b l i c b o o l e a n onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) { MenuInflater inflater = getMenuInflater(); inflater.inflate(R.menu.mainmenu, menu); r e t u r n true; } @Override p u b l i c b o o l e a n onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item) { Toast.makeText(t h i s "Just a test", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show(); t s, r e t u r n true; }
Run your application. As there is enough space in the action bar your item will be displayed there. If there would be more items you could press "Menu" on the emulator to see them. If you select the menu item you should see a small info message.
The two "Preference" buttons are not yet active. We will use them in the next chapter.
10. Preferences
Android supports the usage of Preferences to allow you to save data for your application. Preferences are stored as key values. The definition of Preferences can also be done via an XML resource.
Android provides the class "PreferenceActivity" which extends the class Activity. PreferenceActivity supports the simple handling of preferences. This activity can load a preference definition resources via the method addPreferencesFromResource(). To communicate between different components Android uses Intents. Typically the PreferenceActivity is started from another activity via an Intent. In your application you can access the preference manager via the following:
SharedPreferences preferences = PreferenceManager.getDefaultSharedPreferences(t h i s t s);
Values can get access via the key of the preference setting.
String username = preferences.getString("username", "n/a");
To create or change preferences you have to call the edit() methods. Once you have changed the value you have to call commit() to apply your changes.
Open the file via right-mouse click and Open-with Android XML Resource Editor . Press Add, add a "PreferenceCategory" and add two preferences "EditTextPreferences" to this category : "User" and "Password".
You can also maintain other properties to EditTextField, e.g. the inputMethod. Add for example the following attribute to the XML definition of your password to make the input quoted with * .
android:inputType="textPassword"
Create the class "MyPreferencesActivity" with extends PreferenceActivity. This activity will load the "preference.xml" and will allow to maintain the values.
p a c k a g e de.vogella.android.socialapp; i m p o r t android.os.Bundle; i m p o r t android.preference.PreferenceActivity; p u b l i c c l a s s MyPreferencesActivity e x t e n d s PreferenceActivity { @Override p u b l i c v o i d onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) { super r.onCreate(savedInstanceState); addPreferencesFromResource(R.xml.preferences); } }
To make this class available as an activity for Android you need to register it in your "AndroidManifest.xml" file. Select "AndroidManifest.xml" and the tab "Application". Scroll to the botton of the view and add your new activity via the "Add" button.
To make use of our new preference activity and the preference values we adjust the "OverviewActivity". The first button will show the current values of the preferences via a Toast and the second button will revert the maintained user name to demonstrate how you could change the preferences via code.
p a c k a g e de.vogella.android.socialapp; import import import import import import import import import import import import android.app.Activity; android.content.SharedPreferences; android.content.SharedPreferences.Editor; android.os.Bundle; android.preference.PreferenceManager; android.view.Menu; android.view.MenuInflater; android.view.MenuItem; android.view.View; android.view.View.OnClickListener; android.widget.Button; android.widget.Toast;
p u b l i c c l a s s OverviewActivity e x t e n d s Activity { SharedPreferences preferences; @Override p u b l i c v o i d onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) { super r.onCreate(savedInstanceState); setContentView(R.layout.main); Button button = (Button) findViewById(R.id.Button01); // Initialize preferences preferences = PreferenceManager.getDefaultSharedPreferences(t h i s t s); button.setOnClickListener(n e w OnClickListener() { n p u b l i c v o i d onClick(View v) { String username = preferences.getString("username", "n/a"); String password = preferences.getString("password", "n/a"); showPrefs(username, password); } }); Button buttonChangePreferences = (Button) findViewById(R.id.Button02); buttonChangePreferences.setOnClickListener(n e w OnClickListener() { n p u b l i c v o i d onClick(View v) { } updatePreferenceValue();
});
p r i v a t e v o i d showPrefs(String username, String password){ Toast.makeText( OverviewActivity.t h i s t s, "Input: " + username + " and password: " + password, Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show(); } p r i v a t e v o i d updatePreferenceValue(){ Editor edit = preferences.edit(); String username = preferences.getString("username", "n/a"); // We will just revert the current user name and save again StringBuffer buffer = n e w StringBuffer(); f o r (i n t i = username.length() - 1; i >= 0; i--) { i buffer.append(username.charAt(i)); } edit.putString("username", buffer.toString()); edit.commit();
edit.commit(); // A toast is a view containing a quick little message for the // user. We give a little feedback Toast.makeText(OverviewActivity.t h i s t s, "Reverted string sequence of user name.", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
To open the new preference activity we will use the method onOptionsItemSelected(). Even though we currently have only one option in our menu we use a switch to be ready for several new menu entries. To see the current values of the preferences we define a button and use the class "PreferenceManager" to get the sharedPreferences.
@Override p u b l i c b o o l e a n onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) { MenuInflater inflater = getMenuInflater(); inflater.inflate(R.menu.mainmenu, menu); r e t u r n true; } // This method is called once the menu is selected @Override p u b l i c b o o l e a n onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item) { s w i t c h (item.getItemId()) { // We have only one menu option c a s e R.id.preferences: // Launch Preference activity Intent i = n e w Intent(OverviewActivity.t h i s MyPreferencesActivity.c l a s s t s, c s); startActivity(i); // Some feedback to the user Toast.makeText(OverviewActivity.t h i s "Enter your user credentials.", t s, Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show(); break k;
} r e t u r n true;
11.2. Run
Run your application. Press the "menu" hardware button and then select your menu item "Preferences". You should be able to enter your user settings then press the back hardware button to return to your main activity. The saved values should be displayed in a small message windows (Toast) if you press your first button. If you press the second button the username should be reversed.
p a c k a g e de.vogella.android.alertdialog;
@Override p r o t e c t e d Dialog onCreateDialog(i n t id) { i s w i t c h (id) { c a s e 10: // Create out AlterDialog Builder builder = n e w AlertDialog.Builder(t h i s t s); builder.setMessage("This will end the activity"); builder.setCancelable(true); builder.setPositiveButton("I agree", n e w DialogInterface.OnClickListener() { p u b l i c v o i d onClick(DialogInterface dialog, i n t which) { ShowMyDialog.t h i s t s.finish(); } }); builder.setNegativeButton("No, no", n e w DialogInterface.OnClickListener() { p u b l i c v o i d onClick(DialogInterface dialog, i n t which) { Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(),"Activity will continue",Toast.LENGTH_LONG ).show(); } }); AlertDialog dialog = builder.create(); dialog.show(); } return super r.onCreateDialog(id); }
}
If you run your application and click your button you should see your dialog.
13. Layouts
Android supports different default layout manager. LinearLayout puts all its child elements into a single column or row depending on the orientation attribute. Other types are FrameLayout, RelativeLayout and TableLayout. All layouts allow to defined attributes. Childs can also define attributes which may be evaluated by their parent layout. For example the
14. TableLayout
14.1. Overview
In earlier chapter we have used the LinearLayout which allows you to stack widgets vertical or horizontal. LinearLayout can be nested to achieve nice effects. This chapter will demonstrate the usage of "TableLayout". This layout allows you to organize a view into a table format. You specify via the view group "TableRow" rows for your table. Afterwards you put widgets into the individual rows. On the "TableLayout" you can define which column should take additional space via the "android:stretchColumns" attribute. If several columns should take the available space you can specify them as a comma-separated list. Similar you can use the attribute "android:shrinkColumn", which will try to word-wrap the content of the specified widgets and the attribute "android:collapseColums" to
try to word-wrap the content of the specified widgets and the attribute "android:collapseColums" to define initially hidden columns. Via Java you can display / hide these columns via the method setColumnVisible(). Columns will be automatically created based on the maximum number of widgets in one row. Per default each widgets creates a new column in the row. You can specific via "android:layout_column" the column a widget should go and via "android:layout_span" how many columns a widget should take. You can also put non TableRows in a table. This way you can for example add dividers between your columns.
14.2. Example
Create the project "de.vogella.android.layout.table" with the activity "DemoTableLayout". Change "main.xml" to the following.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" android:orientation="vertical" android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="fill_parent"> <TableLayout android:layout_width="match_parent" android:id="@+id/tableLayout1" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:stretchColumns="1"> <TableRow android:layout_width="match_parent" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:id="@+id/tableRow1"> <EditText android:text="Field1" android:id="@+id/editText1" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_conte nt"></EditText> <EditText android:text="Field2" android:id="@+id/editText2" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_conte nt" android:layout_column="2"></EditText> </TableRow> <View android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:id="@+id/view1" android:layout_height="4px" android:background="#FF0000"></View> <TableRow android:id="@+id/tableRow2" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content"> <EditText android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:text="Field3" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:id="@+id/editText3"></Edi tText> <EditText android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:text="Field4" android:id="@+id/editText4"></EditText> </TableRow> </TableLayout> <Button android:text="Hide second column" android:id="@+id/collapse" android:onClick="toggleHiddenRows" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content"></Button> </LinearLayout>
Change the activity "DemoTableLayout" to the following to use the button to hide the second column in the table.
p a c k a g e de.vogella.android.layout.table; import import import import import android.app.Activity; android.os.Bundle; android.view.View; android.widget.Button; android.widget.TableLayout;
p r i v a t e TableLayout layout; p r i v a t e Button button; /** Called when the activity is first created. */
@Override p u b l i c v o i d onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) { super r.onCreate(savedInstanceState); setContentView(R.layout.main); layout = (TableLayout) findViewById(R.id.tableLayout1); button = (Button) findViewById(R.id.collapse);
} p u b l i c v o i d toggleHiddenRows(View view) { // Second row has index 1 layout.setColumnCollapsed(1, !layout.isColumnCollapsed(1)); i f (layout.isColumnCollapsed(1)) { button.setText("Show second column"); } else { button.setText("Hide second column"); } }
15. ContentProvider
15.1. Overview
ContentProvider are used to provide data from an application to another. ContentProvider do not store the data but provide the interface for other applications to access the data. The following example will use an existing context provider from "Contacts".
The app will ask you if you want to login. Either login or select "Not now". Press ""Create a new contact". You can create local contacts.
Finish adding your first contact. Afterwards the app allow you to add more contacts via the + button.As a result you should have a few new contacts in your application.
Access to the contact content provider require a certain permission as not all applications should have access to the contact information. Open the AndroidManifest.xml, and select the Permissions tab. On that tab click the "Add" button, and select "Uses Permission". From the drop-down list select the entry "android.permission.READ_CONTACTS". Change the coding of the activity.
p a c k a g e de.vogella.android.contentprovider; i m p o r t android.app.Activity;
@Override p u b l i c v o i d onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) { super r.onCreate(savedInstanceState); setContentView(R.layout.main); TextView contactView = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.contactview);
Cursor cursor = getContacts(); w h i l e (cursor.moveToNext()) { String displayName = cursor.getString(cursor .getColumnIndex(ContactsContract.Data.DISPLAY_NAME)); contactView.append("Name: "); contactView.append(displayName); contactView.append("\n");
p r i v a t e Cursor getContacts() { // Run query Uri uri = ContactsContract.Contacts.CONTENT_URI; String[] projection = n e w String[] { ContactsContract.Contacts._ID, ContactsContract.Contacts.DISPLAY_NAME }; String selection = ContactsContract.Contacts.IN_VISIBLE_GROUP + " = '" + ("1") + "'"; String[] selectionArgs = null; String sortOrder = ContactsContract.Contacts.DISPLAY_NAME + " COLLATE LOCALIZED ASC"; r e t u r n managedQuery(uri, projection, selection, selectionArgs, sortOrder);
} }
16. ScrollView
ScrollViews can be used to contain one view that might be to big to fit on one screen. If the view is to big the ScrollView will display a scroll bar to scroll the context. Of course this view can be a layout which can then contain other elements. Create an android project "de.vogella.android.scrollview" with the activity "ScrollView". Create the following layout and class.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <ScrollView xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" android:orientation="vertical" android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="fill_parent" android:fillViewport="true"> <LinearLayout android:id="@+id/LinearLayout01" android:orientation="vertical" android:layout_width="f ill_parent" android:layout_height="wrap_content"> <TextView android:id="@+id/TextView01" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_hei ght="wrap_content" android:text="This is a header" android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearan ceLarge" android:paddingLeft="8dip" android:paddingRight="8dip" android:paddingTop="8dip"></TextView> <TextView android:text="@+id/TextView02" android:id="@+id/TextView02" android:layout_width="w rap_content" android:layout_height="fill_parent" android:layout_weight="1.0"></TextView> <LinearLayout android:id="@+id/LinearLayout02" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:la yout_height="wrap_content">
yout_height="wrap_content"> <Button android:id="@+id/Button01" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout _height="wrap_content" android:text="Submit" android:layout_weight="1.0"></Button> <Button android:id="@+id/Button02" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout _height="wrap_content" android:text="Cancel" android:layout_weight="1.0"></Button> </LinearLayout> </LinearLayout> </ScrollView>
@Override p u b l i c v o i d onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) { super r.onCreate(savedInstanceState); setContentView(R.layout.main); TextView view = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.TextView02); String s=""; f o r (i n t i=0; i < 100; i++) { i s += "vogella.de "; } view.setText(s); }
The attribute "android:fillViewport="true"" ensures that the the scrollview is set to the full screen even if the elements are smaller then one screen and the "layout_weight" tell the android system that these elements should be extended.
18. Shell
18.1. Android Debugging Bridge - Shell
You can access your Android emulator also via the console. Open a shell, switch to your "androidsdk" installation directory into the folder "tools". Start the shell via the following command "adb shell".
adb shell
You can also copy file from and to your device via the following commands.
// Assume the gesture file exists on your Android device adb pull /sdcard/gestures ~/test // Now copy it back adb push ~/test/gesture /sdcard/gestures2
This will connect you to your device and give you Linux command line access to the underlying file system, e.g. ls, rm, mkdir, etc. The application data is stored in the directory "/data/data/package_of_your_app". If you have several devices running you can issue commands to one individual device.
# Lists all devices adb devices #Result List of devices attached emulator-5554 attached emulator-5555 attached # Issue a command to a specific device adb -s emulator-5554 shell
sms send 12345 Will be home soon # set the geo location geo fix 48 51
For more information on the emulator console please see Emulator Console manual