Initial Enthusiasm for Development

If you just want to see the app then skip through to the end.

For a long time I had been wanting to teach myself the art of Android App development. Not being new to programming (previous VB6, VB.NET & C# .NET experience) I decided to finally give it a go.

Now to say this was my first attempt would be a small lie, quite some time ago I got the relevant development environment setup (Eclipse, the SDK, AVD etc….) but got fed up. It seemed that rather than spending time learning the language (Java) and about Android generally, I spent most of my time troubleshooting Eclipse IDE problems, which seemed a mile away from Visual Studio! After a couple of weeks I grew tiresome of Eclipse and the AVD for testing.

So what changed this time round?

Firstly I stumbled across this Google+ post, which renewed my enthusiasm. The key things I extracted were:

- Avoid using the emulator (AVD) and use a real device for debugging.
- Try a different IDE other than Eclipse such as IntelliJ.
- Use android libraries that are available to you.
- Build your app in small pieces and don’t try to run before you can walk.

Secondly, Google have really improved the overall look of the Android UI from 3.0 and up (especially 4.0+) which can only be a good thing when trying to develop an application that looks aesthetically pleasing.

Thirdly, the platform is far more mature than the last time I tried.

Development

Before jumping straight back into using Eclipse I decided to give IntelliJ a glance, whilst it looked excellent I decided that it would be far easier to learn using Eclipse which most tutorials are based on (such as adding 3rd party libraries etc….). Once I got Eclipse up and running I was pleasantly surprised to find that a number of the Android App wizards had been hugely improved since I last used it, which filled me with confidence that the process had matured.

I decided to make a fairly simple app to enable users to set their Microsoft Exchange Out of Office reply without logging into OWA. For me it was the perfect “starter” app, I only really needed one main activity for the main UI and one for settings. Having such a basic app meant that being overwhelmed wasn’t going to happen this time round. A 3rd party library would also be used to provide connectivity to Microsoft Exchange.

Having started using Android 1.5 (HTC Hero) and now 4.2 (Google Nexus 4) I was very keen to provide compatibility to older devices. Whilst this can be a minefield (won’t go into this here), there are a number of great libraries available to help bridge the API differences between versions. Such as ActionBarSherlock which provides the action bar part of the UI introduced in Android 4.0. I decided initially that whilst I would learn how to implement ActionBarSherlock for compatibility, I would still target 4.0+ for initial launch.

I won’t go into much more detail here, but these are a few key points that helped me along the way:

- Always test on a physical device where possible, if not use the x86 emulator images.
- Learn how to deal with screen rotation from the outset and don’t cheat.
- Stackoverflow.com is your best friend for finding examples and solutions to problems.
- Learn how to use basic layouts and controls, this will come in handy later.

The Result

One brand new app called Out of Office (Exchange) made by myself.

Ironically we use Google Apps here at ProCo IT. A similar app is in the works but in the meantime try out:
Vacation Responder (Gmail)

First things first, this post is related to “true” Android tablet applications that were designed for Honeycomb or Ice Cream Sandwich. There aren’t any games on the list this time round, perhaps I’ll cover that another day. Feel free to comment with your own favourites.

Most of the below are available on the Android market er…oops I mean Google Play Shop or Store in the USA (apparently we don’t understand the word Store here in the UK).

Thumb Keyboard

I immediately stumbled across this app when I bought my first Tablet, unlike a lot of other keyboards it has the option to split the keyboard in half making the most used keys easily accessible. It doesn’t suffer from typing delay like some of the alternatives and the auto correction is pretty good too.

IMDB

Being an avid Film and TV fan I like to be able to look up reviews, trailers and general information about cast members etc… It houses all the information available on IMDB.com inside an excellent tablet layout which is easy to navigate.

Movies by Flixster

Although IMDB can provide all of the information available in Flixster Movies, this is great to see new movie releases and their trailers at a quick glance.

GMail

Quite simply this is the best client for Google Mail available and of course Google Apps for business. However if you are a Microsoft Exchange user all is not lost, the built email client in Honeycomb and Ice Cream Sandwich has excellent Exchange support.

Chrome Beta

Whilst Google Chrome is still in beta form and is only available for devices running Ice Cream Sandwich I have to give it a mention. In tablet form it looks almost identical to the desktop application we are all used to, it offers bookmark sync, page sync across devices along with a fantastic feature named link zooming (probably not its official name). When I tap on links I quite often end up hitting the wrong one. This is what link zooming solves. Put simply the specific area is enlarged allowing you to be more accurate with your fingers. NOTE: The Beta really is a beta, it has a number of problems such as hanging at the moment!

GoLauncher HD

You may or may not be familiar with the term “launcher”, in simple terms its manages your home screen and applications menu. GoLauncher has been available for phones for some time but only recently has a tablet version been released. Fresh out of Beta and now on v1.0 it has a custom dock for your most used applications and a fantastic screen to add/remove shortcuts and widgets. It is also far smoother than the stock Honeycomb/ICS launcher. Currently available from the developers website.

AntTek File Explorer

Does what it says on the tin. It’s a file manager but with a difference, using fragments it allows document previews such as TXT, PDF’s and various image files. It also has full network support for accessing files on shared storage. Unlike other file managers it has drag and drop support – a Marmite feature in my view.