As you work through this book, you will write eight Android apps. A couple are very simple and take only a chapter to create. Others are more complex. The longest app spans 13 chapters. All are designed to teach you important concepts and techniques and give you direct experience using them.
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GeoQuiz |
In your first app, you will explore the fundamentals of Android projects, activities, layouts, and explicit intents. |
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CriminalIntent |
The largest app in the book, CriminalIntent lets you keep a record of your colleagues’ lapses around the office. You will learn to use fragments, master-detail interfaces, list-backed interfaces, menus, the camera, implicit intents, and more. |
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BeatBox |
Intimidate your foes with this app while you learn more about fragments, media playback, MVVM architecture, data binding, testing, themes, and drawables. |
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NerdLauncher |
Building this custom launcher will give you insight into the intent system and tasks. |
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PhotoGallery |
A Flickr client that downloads and displays photos from Flickr’s public feed, this app will take you through services, multithreading, accessing web services, and more. |
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DragAndDraw |
In this simple drawing app, you will learn about handling touch events and creating custom views. |
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Sunset |
In this toy app, you will create a beautiful representation of a sunset over open water while learning about animations. |
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Locatr |
This app lets you query Flickr for pictures around your current location and display them on a map. In it, you will learn how to use location services and maps. |
Most chapters have a section at the end with exercises for you to work through. This is your opportunity to use what you have learned, explore the documentation, and do some problem solving on your own.
We strongly recommend that you do the challenges. Going off the beaten path and finding your way will solidify your learning and give you confidence with your own projects.
If you get lost, you can always visit forums.bignerdranch.com for some assistance.
There are also sections at the ends of chapters labeled “For the More Curious.” These sections offer deeper explanations or additional information about topics presented in the chapter. The information in these sections is not absolutely essential, but we hope you will find it interesting and useful.