Java programming for Android developers for dummies: a Wiley brand

Introduction

How to Use This Book

Conventions Used in This Book

What You Don't Have to Read

Foolish Assumptions

How This Book Is Organized

Part I. Getting Started with Java Programming for Android Developers

Part II. Writing Your Own Java Programs

Part III. Working with the Big Picture: Object-Oriented Programming

Part IV. Powering Android with Java Code

Part V. The Part of Tens

More on the web!

Icons Used in This Book

Beyond the Book

Where to Go from Here

Part I. Getting Started With Java Programming for Android Developers

Chapter 1. All about Java and Android

The Consumer Perspective

The Many Faces of Android

The Developer Perspective Java

Java

XML

Linux

From Development to Execution with Java

What is a compiler?

What is a virtual machine?

Java, Android, and Horticulture

Chapter 2. Getting the Tools That You Need

The Stuff You Need

If You Don't Like Reading Instructions

Getting This Book's Sample Programs

Gathering Information

Are you running a 32-bit or 64-bit operating system?

If you're a Mac user, which version of Mac OS X do you have?

Is a recent version of Java installed on your computer?

Setting Up Java

Setting Up the Android SDK

Running Eclipse for the First Time

Dude, where's my Android SDK?

Eclipse, meet Java!

Importing this book's sample programs

Creating an Android Virtual Device

Chapter 3. Running Standard Java Programs

Running a Canned Java Program

Typing and Running Your Own Code

Separating your programs from mine

Writing and running your program

What's All That Stuff in the Eclipse Window?

Understanding the big picture

Views, editors, and other stuff

Looking Inside a view or an editor

Returning to the big picture

Chapter 4. Creating an Android App

Creating Your First Android App

Creating an Android project

Running your project

What if

Testing Apps on a Real Device

Examining an Android App

The src directory

The res directory

The gen directory

The Android 4.2 branch

The AndroidManifest.xml file

Part II. Writing your Own Java Programs

Chapter 5. An Ode to Code

Examining a Standard Oracle Java Program

The Java class

The names of classes

Why Java methods are like meals at a restaurant

What does Mom's Restaurant have to do with Java?

The main method in a standard Java program

Punctuating your code

Comments are your friends

What's Barry's excuse?

Another One-Line Method

More Java Methods

Using an import declaration

More method parameters

Fewer method parameters

Hello, Android

Where's the main method?

Extending a class

Overriding methods

An activity's workhorse methods

Chapter 6. Java's Building Blocks

Info Is as Info Does

Variable names

Type names

Assignments and initializations

Expressions and literals

How to string characters together

Java's primitive types

Things You Can Do with Types

Add letters to numbers (Huh?)

Java's exotic assignment operators

True bit

Java isn't like a game of horseshoes

Use Java's logical operators

Parenthetically speaking

Chapter 7. Though These Be Methods, Yet There Is Madness in't

Practice Safe Typing

Widening is good; narrowing is bad

Incompatible types

Using a hammer to bang a peg into a hole

Calling a Method

Method parameters and Java types

Return types

The great void

Displaying numbers

Method overload without software bloat

Primitive Types and Pass-by Value

What's a developer to do?

A final word

Chapter 8. What Java Does (and When)

Making Decisions

Testing for equality

Java if statements

A detour concerning Android screen densities

Choosing among many alternatives

Some formalities concerning Java switch statements

Repeating Instructions Over and Over Again

Check, and then repeat

Some formalities concerning Java while statements

Repeat, and then check

Some formalities concerning Java do statements

Count, count, count

Some formalities concerning Java for statements

What's Next?

Part III. Working With the Big Picture: Object-Oriented Programming

Chapter 9. Why Object-Oriented Programming Is Like Selling Cheese

Classes and Objects

What is a class, really?

What is an object?

Creating objects

Reusing names

Calling a constructor

More About Classes and Objects (Adding Methods to the Mix)

Constructors with parameters

The default constructor

This is it!

Giving an object more responsibility

Members of a class

Reference types

Pass by reference

Java's Modifiers

Public classes and default-access classes

Access for fields and methods

Using getters and setters

What does static mean?

Knowing when to create a static member

What's Next?

Chapter 10. Saving Time and Money: Reusing Existing Code

The Last Word on Employees - Or Is It?

Extending a class

Overriding methods

Java annotations

More about Java's Modifiers

Keeping Things Simple

Using an interface

Creating a callback

How versatile is this interface?

Java's super keyword

What Does This Have to Do with Android?

Part IV. Powering Android with Java Code

Chapter 11. A Simple Android Example: Responding to a Button Click

The First Button-Click Example

Creating the Android app

Making a view available to your Java code

Casting, again

Introducing Inner Classes

No Publicity, Please!

Doing It the Easy Way

I warned you to skip the rest of this chapter

The "no-hassle" way to click a button

Chapter 12. Dealing with a Bunch of Things at a Time

Creating a Collection Class

Java generics

Java's wrapper classes

Stepping through a collection

A cautionary tale

Java's many collection classes

Arrays

Java's varargs

Using Collections in an Android App

The main activity's initial layout

The app's main activity

The app's List Activity

The app's AndroidManifest.xml file

Chapter 13. An Android Social Media App

The Twitter App's Files

The Twitte4J API jar file

The manifest file

The main activity's layout file

The twitter4j.properties file

Getting OAuth codes

The Application's Main Activity

The onCreate method

The button listener methods

The trouble with threads

Android's AsyncTask

My Twitter app's AsyncTask classes

Cutting to the chase, at last

Java's Exceptions

Catch clauses

A finally clause

Passing the buck

Chapter 14. Hungry Burds: A Simple Android Game

Introducing the Hungry Burds Game

The Project's Files

The Main Activity

The code, all the code, and nothing but the code

Random

Measuring the display

Constructing a Burd

Android animation

Shared preferences

It s Been Fun

Part V. The Part of Tens

Chapter 15. Ten Ways to Avoid Mistakes

Putting Capital Letters Where They Belong

Breaking Out of a switch Statement

Comparing Values with a Double Equal Sign

Adding Listeners to Handle Events

Defining the Required Constructors

Fixing Nonstatic References

Staying within Bounds in an Array

Anticipating Null Pointers

Using Permissions

The Activity Not Found

Chapter 16. Ten Websites for Developers

This Book's Websites

The Horse's Mouth

Finding News and Reviews

Everyone's Favorite Sites

Index