In these days, most of the human tasks has been simplified through interactive and robust android applications in different areas of usage. Smart devices have become a mainstream channel of doing business. Businesses are leveraging microservice patterns and venerated services such as cognitive and analytics in the form of an omnichannel. Android applications are generally developed in a way where they can be used compatibly through channel-agnostic delivery pattern. A mobile channel may face various vulnerabilities and challenges throughout the process of application development.
Most of the applications use services connected to external resources of the mobile devices. Whether being initiated from the cloud or on-premise systems, modern-age android applications developed on the basis of cross platform development strategy rely on interactive user interfaces, cloud back-ends and cloud processing.
Those who are seeking a career in development android application can take an online android application development course. Such course will teach them to encapsulate their code to the data, to scale the applications and optimize code. With various testing, monitoring and updation features, one can develop dynamic android application in a simpler way. Mobile applications integrated with cloud services indulge lucrative mobile experience for users. New resources can be explored to tender interactive applications playing a crucial rule in businesses. While developing an application, professionals engage a chained delivery of astounding creations where they showcase advanced capabilities backed by cloud-based mobility services.
Here, we discuss five significant fundamentals of android app development before you start your journey of being an android app developer.
1. Excel Your Skills on Programming :
There are three main languages particularly used in Android App development as Java, Kotlin and XML where Java is said to be the official language of Android development and is also supported by Android Studio. Kotlin is a android-compatible language which was designed and developed to be used interoperably with Java & its JVM-based libraries. It is succinct, interactive and indulging a type- and null-safe design. Since XML is a markup language, it comes along as a part of basic understanding of concepts related to android app development. A proper understanding of Java and XML helps an aspirant to develop a more robust and elegant android app faster. A person seeking a sustainable career in this field should excel his skills in aforementioned programming languages.
There are some fundamental concepts in Java as below which a beginner should primarily focus on :
- Packages
- Objects & classes
- Inheritance & interfaces
- Strings & numbers, generics,
- Collections
- Concurrency
2. Understanding of Precise Development Tools & Environment :
It is necessary for a beginner to become familiar with precise development and build automation tools as well as should become capable of working of different Integrated Development Environments (IDEs). Learners can use either Android App Studio or Eclipse IDE as a tool to develop robust android applications. These IDEs help learners to learn the fundamentals and other code-related skills to better their code techniques. Build automation tools like Apache Maven, Apache Ant and Gradle empower the managements of builds of applications. There are also source control tools that empower the practice of tracking and managing amendments in code. Learning the gits to create a git-source repository by engaging themselves on GitHub and Bitbucket with an account also helps beginner to become aware of different strategies and varieties of code. Job-seekers can take an online android application development courseto understand such tools & environment in a comprehensive manner. They can use the Git Pocket Guide to understand the basic concepts of functionalities of GitHub.
3. Learn About the Components of An Android Application :
The application components are generally referred to the essential building blocks of android app development. Each of the components is said to be a node from where the system enters an application. However, each node has its own identity and plays a specific role as an individual entity. There are several nodes that are dependent on each other and not entirely have actual entry points. There are five different types of application components where each component is assigned to indulge a particular purpose with distinct life cycle which demonstrates how it is developed and eliminated. An online android application development course can help learners to comprehend the components of an android application.
All of these five components are discussed here as below :
a) Activities : This component comprises user interface elements like an email app with several activities including one activity presenting a list of newly received emails, an activity of composing new emails, and another one of checking out recent mails. Different activities are integrated and henceforth indulge a close-knit user experience within an application. Although, all the activities are still said to be independent.
b) Services : This component is responsible for handling the remote processes or long-running operations of an application in the background. Its main functionality is to not to show user interface when the user is using a different application with another in the background.
c) Content Providers : This component engages a managed set of application data. With this component, the data stored in the file systems on the web in a database like SQLite can be queried and amended (as allowed by the content provider component). It also facilitates with the functionality of performing read/write operations on the data stored privately in your application.
d) Broadcast Receivers : The job of broadcast receivers is to respond to system-wide broadcast announcements. Most of such receivers originate from the system, however they do not show a user interface, they develop a status bar notification which notifies the user when a broadcast ensues. It generally acts as a typical gateway to other components and merely does an optimum amount of work.
e) Activating components : Three out of the four components (i.e. services, activities and broadcast receivers) are activated by an intent existed in the form of a synchronous message. Such intents also wrap separate components in units at runtime regardless of the belonging between the application and the component.
4. Be Aware of Fragments, Loaders and Threads of Android Applications :
There are several fragments existing related to different devices and operating system versions in android market. It is inevitable to have an immense focus on more maintenance and testing when a device is being used independently. This also increases the cost of the process. Compatible fonts, assets and layout are required to ensure the best possible possible outcomes and user experience with different screen characteristics. A suitable array of sensors and other UI facilities is considered to engage lucrative results for the customers. All android applications indulge an application class with several activities and fragments. In order to tender an interactive user interface, it is ensured to engage a thread that cannot be blocked. Henceforth, this indulges an asynchronous running of long operations (calculations, I/O, network etc.) in the background, particularly in a separate thread of execution. Hereby, Java is considered as a foremost language to learn the execution cycle of threads and concurrency facilities.
5. Selection of Appropriate Tools :
A typical set of tools required for android application development comprise a personal computer based running on operating systems like Linux, Mac or Windows, an IDE like Eclipse, the ADT Plug in, and the Android SDK. users can read through an installation guide available on Google to study about the implementation procedures to establish development environment.
There are several parameters one should consider while coding an android application as below :
a) Overall Performance & Responsiveness : To avoid claiming of ANR (Application Not Responding) from operating system, an application should respond to user inputs within 5 seconds. Lengthened response time may result in force closing of the application being an only option for users.
b) Limited Resources : It is recommended to use resources like hardware in a restricted manner so it escapes inappropriate rundown of batter. It generally happens because of unnecessary polling of hardware (eg. GPS or accelerometer).
Enormous features come along with modern-age mobile applications that increase the interests of mobile users and facilitate them with a number of advantages. There are many applications that have transformed the lives of millions of people throughout the world with their advanced features and exceptional benefits. Competent programming professionals are engaged in designing and developing applications by utilizing the best of their skills. If you are also thinking of being a part of this enthusiastic community of android app developers. Before stepping ahead in this ahead, you should know about the fundamentals of android app development to map a strategy of doing things a better way.
There is a large number of smartphone users these days who are using any kind of mobile application for different purposes. This makes android application development to play a crucial role in modern-age businesses. With an online android application development course, learners can gain hands-on experience on the fundamentals of android application development.
Author Bio
Jyoti Yadav has 3+ years of industrial experience as a Digital Marketing Analyst and Passionate Writer. She is currently working in Krademy.com, one of the largest online instructor-led training institution established in India. Earned a master’s degree in Computer Applications, she has hands-on experience in working with different tools like Google webmaster, Google analytics, and Google trends.
