Android Basic concepts

Application Components

1. Activity
2. Service
3. Broadcast Receiver
4. Content Provider

Activity

*Main class that users see when they run the applications.
*Are provided to give a GUI for the user (enables users to give and get info from app)

Services

*Support long running/background operations
*To support interaction with remote processes

Broadcast Receiver

*Listen for and respond to events that happen on a device
*Events represented by the intent class and then broadcast
*(example) someone sends you an SMS. My phone has broadcast receiver that have subscribed to them so that they can respond to them

Content Provider

*Allow multiple applications to store and share data
*uses database-style interface
*handles interprocess communication
*Browser application uses content providers (saved bookmarks saved in a content provider)

Steps to Create an Android App

1. Define Resources (non-source code entities, strings, images, etc)
2. Implement Application Classes
3. Package Application (system packages application components into an .apk file, developers specify required application information in a file called AndroidManifest.XML)4. Install and Run Application

AndroidManifest.xml

*Application Name
*Components
*Permissions
*Minimum API level