We at Edureka had an awesome experience conducting an Android development basics introductory session (13th September 2012). Here’s the recording for those of you who couldn’t make it:
A lot of great questions came in from the attendees about Android Development basics, and we have compiled them for those of you who might have similar doubts. Have a look at the questions below; they might help all you beginners struggling with Android Development Basics:
Q.1 Does Android have its own classes or does it use java classes? (Asked by Ankit Agrawal)
Answer) We use a mixture of Android and Java classes. Android has its own classes for most features. For programming it uses the classes provided by java. So, the answer is both.
Q.2 Sir, I want to build a PNR status enquiry application! How can I fetch data from database? Please help! (Asked by Sumit Dhand, Arun Kumar DB)
Answer) To fetch data from database you can use SQLITE in Android. To build an application like PNR STATUS ENQUIRY you also need HTTP classes and some data parsing techniques.
Check out this Android application for PNR enquiry built by our student!
Q.3 How to uninstall SDK? (Asked by Ipsita Hota)
Answer) You can delete the packages from SDK Manager. However, to completely remove SDK from your system you can simply delete the Eclipse. (Right Click -> delete.)
Q.4 So, if I kill an application, do the services associated with it get killed automatically? (Asked by Himanshu Kumar)
Answer) Yes, because services run on the main thread of your application. Therefore, if your main application is killed, the services associated with it will also be killed automatically.
Q.5 What is the difference between developing Android apps with SDK of Android and developing Android apps with ready made tools like PhoneGap or Aptana browser? (Asked by Aamit Mahalank)
Answer) PhoneGap and Aptana enable software programmers to build applications for mobile devices using JavaScript, HTML5 and CSS3, instead of lower-level languages. They provide the facility to build an application that can work on any phone OS.
But, before using these tools you should have a good understanding of every OS you are building for.
Q.6 Can we work with just the graphical interface? (Asked by Chandra Mohan)
Answer) Yes, you can drag-drop the widgets, and the code for the widgets will be added automatically.
Q.7 What is DDMS? (Asked by Ravinder Singh)
Answer) DDMS stands for Dalvik Debug Monitor Server. It provides different services like port-forwarding, screen capture on the device, thread and heap information on the device, logcat, etc.
Answer) The Android SDK includes a mobile device emulator, a virtual mobile device that runs on your computer. The emulator lets you develop and test Android applications without using a physical device.
Q.9 What is the difference between service and activity? (Asked by Harini Chandru)
Answer) An activity represents a single screen with a user interface, while a service is a component that runs in the background to perform long-running operations or to perform work for remote processes.
Q.10 What is a LogCat? (Asked by Santhosh Reddy)
Answer) The Android logging system provides a mechanism for collecting and viewing system debug output. In simple words, it tells you what is going on inside your device.
Q.11 How to pass values between activities? (Asked by Mekala Somasundaram)
Answer) You can pass the data using intents.
Example: Intent intent = new Intent (CallingActivity.this, NewActivity.class);
intent.putExtra(“key”, “value”);
startActivity(intent);
Q.12 What is the full form of IDE? (Asked by Ipsita Hota)
Answer) IDE stands for Integrated Development Environment.
An Integrated Development Environment (IDE) is an application which gives you the facility to develop software easily and accurately. An IDE generally contains source code editor, compiler and interpreter. For example, Microsoft Visual Studio, Eclipse.
Q.13 What are content providers? (Asked by Supriyo Santra)
Answer) Content providers manage access to a structured set of data.They encapsulate the data, and provide mechanisms for defining data security.
Q.14 What is Android? (Asked by Deepti Singh)
Answer) Android is an open software platform for mobile development. It is powered by linux. It contains OS, Middle-ware and Applications.
Q.15 What is Eclipse? (Asked by Sumit Kumar)
Answer) Refer to question 12.
Q.16 What is an Activity and why is it required? (Asked by Suprio Santra)
Answer) An Activity is an application component that provides a screen with which users can interact in order to do something, such as dial the phone, take a photo, send an email, or view a map. Activity is required so that the user can interact with the application.
Q.17. What is the difference between DVM and JVM ? (Asked by Ankur Aggarwal, Ipsita Hota)
Answer a) DVM is Register-based while JVM is stack-Based.
b) DVM is designed to run on low memory.
c) DVM uses its own byte code and run files with .Dex extension.
d) JVM uses java byte code and run files with .Class extension.
If you have any more queries about Android development basics, feel free to post them here!
Happy Learning!
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