INTRODUCTIONINTRODUCTION TO TO

ANDROIDANDROID

By - Ilyas Ahamed

What is Android ?

Android is a Linux-based operating system for mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets.It is developed by the Open Handset Alliance, led by Google.

More about Android…

• Android, Inc. was founded in Palo Alto, California, United States in October 2003 by Andy Rubin.

• Over 600,000 and more applications available in Android Market.

• Open software platform for mobile development.

Why choose Android ?

Android Versions

Cupcake - 1.5Eclair - 2.0, 2.1 Froyo - 2.2Gingerbread - 2.3.0 Honeycomb - 3.0IceCream Sandwitch - 4.0Jelly Beans - 4.1

Architecture

Linux Kernel

• Device drivers

• Memory management

• Process management

• Networking

Libraries

• C/C++ libraries

• Interface through Java

• Surface manager – Handling UI Windows

• 2D and 3D graphics

• Media codecs, SQLite, Browser engine

Android Runtime

•Dalvik VM– Compact and efficient than class files– Limited memory and battery power

•Core Libraries– Java 5 Std edition– Collections, I/O etc…

Application Framework

• API interface

• Activity manager – manages application life cycle.

Applications

• Built in and user apps

• Can create your own apps

Application Components

• Activities

• Services

• Content Providers

• Broadcast receivers

Activities

An activity represents a single screen with a user interface.

For example, an contacts application.

Services

A service is a component that runs in the background to perform long-running operations.

– E.g. music player, network download etc…

Content Providers

• Enables sharing of data across applications– E.g. address book, photo gallery

• Provides uniform APIs for:– querying– delete, update and insert.

• Content is represented by URI and MIME type

Broadcast Receivers

• Components that respond to broadcast ‘Intents’

• Way to respond to external notification or alarms

• Apps can invent and broadcast their own Intent

intent is an abstract description of an operation to be performed

Development Tools

• Eclipse

• Android SDKdeveloper.android.com

References

http://developer.android.com

http://sites.google.com/site/io