What this book covers

Chapter 1, The First App, sets up your Android development environment, and then it helps you build and deploy your first simple app to an emulator and a real Android device.

Chapter 2, Java – First Contact, teaches some absolute beginner Java coding as well as shows you how to implement your first user interface design.

Chapter 3, Exploring Android Studio, gets to grips with the tools of the trade of professional Android developers with a fast tour around Android Studio.

Chapter 4, Designing Layouts, focuses on building user interfaces by exploring the layouts and widgets that make up an Android app as well as builds some apps that demo our new skills.

Chapter 5, Real-World Layouts, takes user interfaces a step further by designing and implementing some apps with layouts more like what you would see on professional Android apps.

Chapter 6, The Life and Times of an Android App, explores how the Android operating system works under the surface by building apps that demonstrate the Android lifecycle and how we make it work for us.

Chapter 7, Coding in Java Part 1 – Variables, Decisions, and Loops, gives you the first major glimpse of Java, the native language of Android, and the way we will be bringing our apps to life. Zero previous coding experience is assumed.

Chapter 8, Coding in Java Part 2 – Methods, discusses that methods are one of the key building blocks of all the apps we will make in this book. In this chapter, we will build a few working mini apps to explore how to use methods.

Chapter 9, Object-Oriented Programming, states that OOP is the way that all modern programming is done, especially Java. This chapter holds the key to using all the advanced and exciting features contained in Android.

Chapter 10, Everything's a Class, will bring together everything we have seen in all the other chapters so far. By the end of this chapter, our design and Java skills will be as one and we will be well placed to start building apps with more advanced features.

Chapter 11, Widget Mania, covers the use of our new OOP, Java, and UI knowledge that we will be able to use and interact with many of the user interface features available in Android.

Chapter 12, Having a Dialogue with the User, starts ramping up what we can do now. In this chapter, we will build apps that use pop-up windows to get input from the user as well as start the first major app of the book, Note To Self.

Chapter 13, Handling and Displaying Arrays of Data, will discuss Java arrays and then show you how to use them in some apps, as almost any app that we build will need to be able to handle significant amounts of data.

Chapter 14, Handling and Displaying Notes in Note To Self, will use the skills you learned and practiced in the previous chapter and will enhance our Note To Self app in order for the user to be able to view and access all their data.

Chapter 15, Android Intent and Persistence, covers how to build multiscreen apps, how to let the user seamlessly navigate between them, and how to implement a settings screen that remembers user's preferences.

Chapter 16, UI Animations, teaches how to use the really useful Android SeekBar widget and how to animate our UI to make it spin, bounce, flash, and more.

Chapter 17, Sound FX and Supporting Different Versions of Android, finds out how to bring our apps to life with sound effects. In this chapter, you will explore the SoundPool class to add beeps, buzzes, clicks, or even explosions.

Chapter 18, Design Patterns, Fragments, and the Real World, sets the scene for the most advanced part of the book. In this chapter, you will learn how professionals organize their code with patterns and see exactly how to use this knowledge to build Android apps.

Chapter 19, Using Multiple Fragments, shows you how to use the Android Fragment to make our apps modular so they can run on multiple different device types, such as phones and tablets, and appear differently on each but run from exactly the same code that we write.

Chapter 20, Paging and Swiping, builds some apps that use the really cool swiping effect. In this chapter, you will learn how to swipe left and right between pages, menus, and images in an app.

Chapter 21, Navigation Drawer and Where It's Snap, explains how to use the navigation drawer UI in your apps, how to swipe from the edge of the screen to reveal the user's navigation choices, and how to get started on the most advanced app we will build using navigation drawer.

Chapter 22, Capturing Images, builds a mini app to use the device camera in order to capture and store images and then enhance our main app as well.

Chapter 23, Using SQLite Databases in Our Apps, teaches you how databases work with a focus on the Android database of choice, SQLite. In this chapter, we will build a database mini app.

Chapter 24, Adding a Database to Where It's Snap, shows you how to code an advanced database to store user data, photos, and even GPS coordinates.

Chapter 25, Integrating Google Maps and GPS Locations, shows you how to connect live to the Google Maps service to add real global mapping data to your apps.

Chapter 26, Upgrading SQLite – Adding Locations and Maps, teaches you how to upgrade the database from Chapter 24, Adding a Database to the Where It's Snap App and add the ability to capture and show a map and GPS locations along with the user's photos in the Where it's snap app.

Chapter 27, Going Local – Hola!, will help you understand how to easily add multiple different languages to make apps with a truly global reach.

Chapter 28, Threads, Touches, Drawing, and a Simple Game, discusses how to build a simple but working retro Pong game to explore the important topics of drawing, screen touches, and multithreaded computing.

Chapter 29, Publishing Apps, shows you how to build deployable apps and publish them on the Google Play global marketplace.

Chapter 30, Before You Go, discusses briefly how you might like to take your Android and Java skills further.