Building Android Apps in easy steps: Using App Inventor

by Mike McGrath

Overview

Android is one of the dominant operating systems for mobile devices, and Android App Inventor is a free tool for building apps for Android.

Starting from setting up your computer to develop and test your Android apps, this guide shows how to create graphical interfaces; define application properties; add interactivity; integrate with the web; build and deploy complete Android apps, and more - all using simple drag-and-drop blocks, and demonstrated here by examples.

Use Building Android Apps in easy steps to create your brilliant Android apps without doing any coding!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781840785289
Publisher:	In Easy Steps Limited
Publication date:	06/26/2012
Series:	In Easy Steps
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	7.20(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Mike McGrath gained his extensive knowledge of computer languages while working as a developer contracting to companies around the world. Mike is an established In Easy Steps author with several guides to his credit including: C++; Javascript, Java, PHP, SQL and Visual Basic Express.

Table of Contents

1 Getting started 7

Introducing Android 8

Installing Java 10

Installing App Inventor 12

Beginning your first app 14

Adding components 16

Adding behavior 18

Preparing devices 20

Running your first app 22

Managing projects 24

Summary 26

2 Designing interfaces 27

Enabling buttons 28

Reading text input 30

Inserting images 32

Painting canvas 34

Picking list items 36

Checking boxes 38

Storing data 40

Telling the time 42

Configuring screens 44

Summary 46

3 Controlling progress 47

Composing programs 48

Defining variables 50

Performing operations 52

Branching flow 54

Providing alternatives 56

Notifying messages 58

Looping within a range 60

Looping through a list 62

Looping while true 64

Summary 66

4 Calling functions 67

Calling object methods 68

Creating procedures 70

Passing arguments 72

Returning results 74

Ignoring results 76

Calling subroutines 78

Validating input 80

Doing mathematics 82

Generating random numbers 84

Summary 86

5 Managing text 87

Manipulating strings 88

Querying strings 90

Comparing strings 92

Trimming strings 94

Splitting strings 96

Extracting substrings 98

Summary 100

6 Handling lists 101

Making lists 102

Querying lists 104

Adding list items 106

Selecting items 108

Swapping items 110

Manipulating lists 112

Separating lists 114

Summary 116

7 Embracing media 117

Playing sounds 118

Playing video 120

Snapping photos 122

Picking images 124

Switching screens 126

Animating components 128

Detecting collisions 130

Dragging objects 132

Dropping objects 134

Summary 136

8 Sensing conditions 137

Pin-pointing location 138

Recognizing orientation 140

Feeling movement 142

Picking contacts 144

Calling phone numbers 146

Texting messages 148

Tweeting updates 150

Storing data online 152

Summary 154

9 Deploying apps 155

Planning the program 156

Assigning static properties 158

Designing the interface 160

Initializing dynamic properties 162

Adding runtime functionality 164

Completing functionality 166

Distributing the application 168

Selling your app 170

Summary 172

10 Handy reference 173

Definition blocks 174

Text blocks 176

Lists blocks 178

Math blocks 180

Logic blocks 182

Control blocks 184

Colors blocks 186

Index 187