Course Summary
Android™ Bootcamp Training Course is a hands-on guide to designing and building mobile applications using Google's Android™ open-source platform. The course explains what Android™ is and how it compares to other mobile environments, the setup of the Android™ Eclipse-based development tools, the Android™ SDK, all essential features, as well as the advanced capabilities and APIs such as background services, accelerometers, graphics, and GPS.
This complete hands-on course encourages students to learn by building increasingly more sophisticated and meaningful mobile applications for Android™ phones.
By the end of the course, each participant will build their own complete Android application incorporating most of the key aspects of the platform. Typically, we build a Twitter app for Android, but there are other choices depending on participants' interests.
Duration
5 days.
2 course(s)
Objectives
Upon completion of this course, you will be able to:
- Build your own Android apps
- Explain the differences between Android™ and other mobile development environments
- Understand how Android™ applications work, their life cycle, manifest, Intents, and using external resources
- Design and develop useful Android™ applications with compelling user interfaces by using, extending, and creating your own layouts and Views and using Menus.
- Take advantage of Android's APIs for data storage, retrieval, user preferences, files, databases, and content providers
- Tap into location-based services, geocoder, compass sensors, and create rich map-based applications
- Utilize the power of background services, threads, and notifications.
- Use Android's communication APIs for SMS, telephony, network management, and internet resources (HTTP).
- Secure, tune, package, and deploy Android™ applications
Audience
This course is designed for software developers interested in designing, creating, deploying, and testing applications for the Android™ mobile phone platform. It is valuable to both novices and gurus, who already have experience in developing mobile applications for other platforms.
Java experience is required to get the most benefit from this training.
Additional Notes
About Your Instructor
Marko Gargenta has been programming in Java even before it was named Java. His background is in very large enterprise web application development but he's also had a fair-share of UI experience having rewritten the entire AWT into lightweight components before Java Swing ever came out. He's a big believer in agile development processes, being a certified ScrumMaster himself as well as contributor to eXtreme Programming methodology.
Marko is a professional consultant and instructor. He's taught teams of organizations such as Sony-Ericsson, Ericsson Canada, MetroPCS, Experian, DoJ, DoD, and many others. He's published a PHP/MySQL by Example book with Prentice Hall (world's largest tech publisher) as well as created many of Marakana's courseware, including the Android series.
Android Introduction at Software Development Forum
Android Introduction by Marko Gargenta, MarakanaPresented by Peter Lam, Mobile SIG Co-chair, Software Developers Forum
30,000-foot Overview of Android at OSCON
A high level overview of the Google's Android Platform, presented by Marko Gargenta from Marakana at OSCON 2009
Android Meetup Group Organized by Marakana
Marakana team organizes and runs the San Francisco Android Users' Group - an interactive group of Android developers. In our monthly meetings, we discuss Android landscape from both technology and business angles. We often have great presentations by industry experts, group discussions, as well as hands-on sessions. If you are in San Francisco Bay Area, we encourage you to join the group and meet other Android developers.
Android SDK Version
This course is constantly updated for the latest Android SDK, but the instructor will discuss differences between releases as well.
Trademark Notice
Android is a trademark of Google Inc. Use of this trademark is subject to Google Permissions.
Outline
Intro to Android
Android Overview and History
- How it all got started
- Why Android is different (and important)
Android Stack
- Overview of the stack
- Linux kernel
- Native libraries
- Dalvik
- App framework
- Apps
SDK Overview
- Platforms
- Tools
- Versions
Hello World App
- Creating your first project
- The manifest file
- Layout resource
- Running your app on Emulator
Main Building Blocks
- Activities
- Activity lifecycle
- Intents
- Services
- Content Providers
- Broadcast Receivers
Basic Android User Interface
- XML versus Java UI
- Dips and sps
- Views and layouts
- Common UI components
- Handling user events
Android System Overview
- File System
- Preferences
- Notifications
- Security model
Advanced UI
- Selection components
- Adapters
- Complex UI components
- Building UI for performance
- Menus and Dialogs
- Graphics & animations
Multimedia in Android
- Multimedia Supported audio formats
- Simple media playback
- Supported video formats
- Simple video playback
SQL Database
- Introducing SQLite
- SQLiteOpenHelper and creating a database
- Opening and closing a database
- Working with cursors Inserts, updates, and deletes
Basic Content Providers
- Content provider MIME types
- Searching for content
- Adding, changing, and removing content
- Working with content files
Advanced Android
Custom Content Providers
- Why Content Providers
- Where the content comes from
- Implementing the API Supporting content files
Location Services
- Working with the Location Manager
- Working with Google Maps extensions
Services
- Overview of services in Android
- Implementing a Service
- Service lifecycle
- Bound versus unbound services
Broadcast Receivers
- What are Broadcast Receivers
- Implementing broadcast receiver
- System broadcasts and how to use them
Intent Filters
- Role of filters
- Intent-matching rules
- Filters in your manifest
- Filters in dynamic Broadcast Receivers
Networking
- Working with web services
- Best practices
Sensors
- How Sensors work
- Listening to Sensor readings
- Best practices for performance
WiFi
- Monitoring and managing Internet connectivity
- Managing active connections
- Managing WiFi
Telephony
- Making calls
- Monitoring data connectivity and activity
- Accessing phone properties and status
- Controlling the phone
Camera
- Taking pictures
- Rendering previews
Bluetooth
- Controlling local Bluetooth device
- Discovering and bonding with Bluetooth devices
- Managing Bluetooth connections
- Communicating with Bluetooth
Automated Testing
- Why automate tests
- Instrumentation and unit testing
Course Testimonials
I found the training to be very "hands-on" and practical - an excellent intro.
Andriod Bootcamp exceeded my expectations in terms of the depth of content and coverage of a wide variety of topics. The instructor was very knowledgeable and provide many hands-on exercises which helped me get from zero to productive development in one week!
The Android Bootcamp taught by Marko Gargenta is just what our company needed to be successful at releasing our first Android application. Marakana's quick response to our call for an onsite, tailored class helped us to achieve our desired time to market as well.
This was a good course to get into android. The trainer (Marko) did a good job customizing the course for us and then covering all the topics of interest for us. His command of the tool helped in making this a good course.
Great Class!!! Marko had very good in-depth knowledge.
Overall - great class and I learned a lot. Marko did a nice job.
Marakana offered a truly hands-on teaching experience. I really enjoyed creating an application tailor fit to our class' needs.
The Android Bootcamp is the most useful professional training course I have ever attended. Marko is very knowledgeable, energetic and an excellent teacher. The course provides very helpful information which you could use in your real life android application. The class exercise (Twitter app) allows you to build the real application step by step and it also covers main topics about Android. I definitely got my money worth. Thank you Marakana.
Went beyond my expectations. With a minimal Java background, Marko went really went into basics. Will definitely pass my word to most of my friends in this technology if their company gives them off.
The course was structured with well thought out progression. The course started very simple and by the end of the course, we had developed a fairly complex working mobile app... wooo hooo :). The components implemented in our example provided applicable foundation to get me started immediately upon my return to the office. Great job, Marko!!!
An in-depth, example-based, hands-on tutorial on the Android system. I walked away with 1) working code for an Android example app that covers essentially all the Android system components and 2) a great toolkit of small working code example apps for many more aspects of the Android system.
I really liked the class and was intensely engaged as it makes one understand Android in a whole new level! Bravo Marakana
Thank you. The course was excellent.
Hands-on Exercises were excellent!
Was surely a Bootcamp packed with info, info++ and then some more. Exercises were were Awesome since it included all the different aspects of Android into an App. I definitely got my money's worth. Thanks, Sanjiv
Highly recommended course for getting started on Android development!
They aren't kidding when they say "bootcamp"!:) Great course!
The instructor was kind and concerned with motivating the class. He demonstrated very good knowledge of the topics and kept a good pace in the course, giving theory and practice in a well balanced manner.
It was a very good course, i really recommend it for everybody who want know how to start using Android and who want to create new applications.
This course was great! [The instructor] was professional and at the same time created an easygoing learning environment. The small class size allowed for easy interaction with the instructor. I definitely feel like I can tackle my own android apps now.
Great class and it was customized perfectly to our needs!
