Activity on Micha Kops' Tech Notes

Using the Android Daydream API

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0100

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.

Playing around with the Android Animation Framework

Mon, 27 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0200

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.

Sensor Fun: Location Based Services and GPS for Android

Sun, 30 May 2010 00:00:00 +0200

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>

First steps on Android: Creating a simple Todo App

Mon, 26 Apr 2010 00:00:00 +0200

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>