Forum Home
Press F1
 
Thread ID: 137833 2014-08-25 04:44:00 creating an android phone app Tony (4941) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
1382482 2014-08-25 04:44:00 Having been given an old android phone I thought I'd see what is involved in creating an app.

I found this (developer.android.com) series of pages which are supposed to be tutorial. I've got as far as (in theory) creating a "Hello World" app and AVD and running the emulator, but my app never shows up on it. The Eclipse development environment and the emulator also both seem to run like cold treacle. It all seems very obscure to me. I have an IT/programming history, but this is my first foray into this sort of development.

Has anyone any suggestions for other training resources that I might look at?
Tony (4941)
1382483 2014-08-25 05:55:00 To be honest I'd suggest you start at YouTube and go from there. There used to be a free MIT (USA) online course that got you into the basics of it but I'm not sure if that's still offered. Chilling_Silence (9)
1382484 2014-08-25 05:56:00 Having been given an old android phone I thought I'd see what is involved in creating an app.

I found this (developer.android.com) series of pages which are supposed to be tutorial. I've got as far as (in theory) creating a "Hello World" app and AVD and running the emulator, but my app never shows up on it. The Eclipse development environment and the emulator also both seem to run like cold treacle. It all seems very obscure to me. I have an IT/programming history, but this is my first foray into this sort of development.

Has anyone any suggestions for other training resources that I might look at?

Yup, you are in the right place. Having an old phone may hamper your apps performance when testing it. There should be a whole stack of tutorials on that website.

In terms of writing code, Android apps are written using a variant of Java - I think it's called Dalvic Java. Google basically parallel wrote a variant of Java so that they didn't have to pay Sun Microsystems any sort of licensing fees and also so that they could contest it in court in case Sun (or Oracle) decided to sue them for copywrite infringement.

If you already know how to write programs in Java then you should find the Android version fairly "straight forward".

I agree with what Chill said, you should be able to find heaps of tutorials on Youtube. Also developer.android.com
Webdevguy (17166)
1382485 2014-08-25 06:09:00 Thanks guys. I'll have a look at youtube. Webdevguy, the link you gave me is where I have been looking. I also think you are right about the limitations of an old phone (running Gingerbread!!). However using the Eclipse and the emulator I can set up whatever AVD I want, and I still can't get the app to load onto it. It seems to be one of those environments where unless you already know what to do, you don't know where to start... Tony (4941)
1382486 2014-08-26 00:22:00 Thanks guys. I'll have a look at youtube. Webdevguy, the link you gave me is where I have been looking. I also think you are right about the limitations of an old phone (running Gingerbread!!). However using the Eclipse and the emulator I can set up whatever AVD I want, and I still can't get the app to load onto it. It seems to be one of those environments where unless you already know what to do, you don't know where to start...

If your phone is running Gingerbread then you probably need to start here developer.android.com
Webdevguy (17166)
1382487 2014-08-26 00:26:00 Thanks. I'll check it out. Tony (4941)
1382488 2014-09-02 05:35:00 If you want the application to be loaded directly to your phone from the Eclipse environment via USB, you will need to have the USB driver loaded (support utility) and probably USB debugging enabled on the Android phone. It may be easier while you are learning to publish your "hello world" app as an apk file and copy this to your phone memory/sd card, then manually install the app from there (if you are on Android 2.3 you may need an app to do this). There is a bit of an overhead learning to create your first application (you may need to create a certificate and sign your app too) but once you get the hang of it you can make and publish changes quite quickly. ledzep (1441)
1382489 2014-09-02 10:44:00 Thanks. Tony (4941)
1382490 2014-09-02 22:05:00 Tell you what, depending on what you're wanting to do, I've whipped together a few basic things using this:
appinventor.mit.edu

Android App Inventor
It's point and click and pretty nifty!
Chilling_Silence (9)
1382491 2014-09-02 22:12:00 Tell you what, depending on what you're wanting to do, I've whipped together a few basic things using this:
appinventor.mit.edu

Android App Inventor
It's point and click and pretty nifty!Yes, I found that site. It is pretty clever. I'm having a problem (a) finding the time to look at things properly and (b) work out some of the fundamentals - which is part of (a). I'll get it sussed eventually. Fortunately this is totally a nice-to-do-activity, so I can take my time.
Tony (4941)
1