Using the Android Daydream API

Daydream is the new interactive screensaver mode that was added in the Android 4.2 / Jelly Beans release. Such “dreams” may be activated when the device is in idle mode or inserted into a dock. In the following tutorial we’re going to create a simple daydream that starts a simple animation and in addition we’ll be adding a configuration screen to alter the behaviour of this daydream. Create a new Android Application First of all we need a new android project. I am using Eclipse and the ADT plugin here but any other solution like using a specific Maven archetype and the Jayway Maven plugin or using SBT should work, too. ...

January 22, 2013 · 6 min · 1097 words · Micha Kops

Playing around with the Android Animation Framework

Animations add some spice to our Android applications and the offered animation framework makes it easy to create custom animations and tweens. So lets dance around and create some animations ;) .. About There are two ways to create animations – via XML declaration or in a Java class. We’re going to focus on XML declaration – if you’re interested in java based declaration – take a look at the Android JavaDocs and the subclasses of android.view.animation.Animation. ...

September 27, 2010 · 4 min · 820 words · Micha Kops

Sensor Fun: Location Based Services and GPS for Android

The Android SDK offers a nice API to receive information about available providers for location based services and get the current location and coordinates. In this short tutorial we’re going to build a small activity that displays a list of available location providers and shows the current position using GPS services. Example Application Create a new Android Project using ADT and your IDE with a package named com.hascode.android.location_app Add the permissions needed to the AndroidManifest.xml – it should look like this <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" package="com.hascode.android.location_app" android:versionCode="1" android:versionName="1.0"> <application android:icon="@drawable/icon" android:label="@string/app_name"> <activity android:name=".LocationActivity" android:label="@string/app_name"> <intent-filter> <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" /> <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" /> </intent-filter> </activity> </application> <uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="7" /> <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION"></uses-permission> <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION"></uses-permission> <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_LOCATION_EXTRA_COMMANDS"></uses-permission> <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_MOCK_LOCATION"></uses-permission> </manifest> ...

May 30, 2010 · 4 min · 731 words · Micha Kops

First steps on Android: Creating a simple Todo App

In this tutorial we are going to build a simple todo app that is able to store simple todos in a database. The user is able to add new todos or delete old ones by clicking on a todo. For this tutorial we won’t use maven to keep it simple – if maven integration is desired – take a look at this tutorial. Steps Create a new android project using the Android SDK and your IDE Create some packages com.hascode.android.activity and com.hascode.android.persistence Create the layout in res/layout/main.xml – the main elements: a listview for the todos-list, a textbox and a button to enter new data. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <RelativeLayout android:id="@+id/widget31" android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="fill_parent" xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" > <TableRow android:id="@+id/row" android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:orientation="horizontal" android:layout_below="@+id/tasklist" android:layout_alignParentLeft="true" > <EditText android:id="@+id/etNewTask" android:layout_width="200px" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:text="" android:textSize="18sp" > </EditText> <Button android:id="@+id/btNewTask" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:text="@+string/add_button_name" > </Button> </TableRow> <ListView android:id="@+id/tasklist" android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:layout_alignParentTop="true" android:layout_alignParentLeft="true" > </ListView> </RelativeLayout> ...

April 26, 2010 · 5 min · 1056 words · Micha Kops