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Apps Help developing a Android App / Shadow

Siberio

Siberio

Lurker
Hi,
I'm a 14 year old... and I got interested in developing android apps. I had this idea for an app. I call it Shadow. I installed the Android SDK and JDK, I'm using Android Studio. I already made the main screen/activity layout but haven't programmed it yet. (Still learning the basics of Java) So what's next?
Do I make another activity? I would like it if you (the pro developers) would guide me through the process.
 
You've made a good start. Have you got any books to read? Working through a beginners Android book helped me a lot. There are a lot of different features available in the SDK, and you won't need to use most of them to start with. But the basic things you will need to understand initially are:-
  • How to create a child Activity, and pass data to/from that Activity
  • Debugging your app - setting breakpoints, examining variables while the app is running
  • Secondary storage for your data - Shared preferences, SQLite
  • Understand the Activity lifecycle, and what methods are called in your code when transitions happen
  • Basic UI elements like Button, Listview and Spinner
That will probably keep you busy for a while. Things to consider before you dive into coding your app - well there's nothing wrong with diving in if you want to try a few things out, but you need to have a good idea about the workflow in your app. By that I mean what screens will you need, and how does the user navigate between them. Do you need a side nav bar? Do you need action items? Do you want a 'tabbed' layout?

You can also learn a lot from the sample apps provided with Android Studio. If you haven't already downloaded the samples, I would recommend doing that. But don't just cut and paste code, try to understand how it works.

Also read this, which contains some useful tips and links for beginners:

http://androidforums.com/threads/please-read-me-before-posting.987318/

Good luck, and if you have specific questions, please feel free to ask.
 
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