How to Make an App: Android Edition

How to Make an App:
ANDROID EDITION

Table of Contents
How to Build an App: Android Edition
1 What’s All the Excitement About?
3 Step 1: Decide What New Thing You Want to Do
5 Step 2: Deﬁne Your MVP
8 Step 3: Design Your App
13 Step 4: Set up Your Android Development Environment
16 Step 5: Developing Your App

i

HOW TO MAKE AN APP: ANDROID EDITION

What’s All the Excitement About? NFC is useful for actions like automated
It’s never been easier or quicker to build store checkout, inventory counting,
and distribute an application to millions contact information exchange, and
of devices and get paid, especially when offering special deals to customers in a
you tap into Android’s market leading specific store aisle.
features.

“We are living in the Post-PC era.” That

sentence — in quotes — comes up over

14,000 times in a Google search. So what

are so many people writing about? They

are writing about a time when many

computing tasks — such as staying in

touch with friends, doing online

research, shopping, and playing games Android also offers features not found on
— no longer require a laptop or desktop other mobile platforms like iOS or
computer. Not only can these activities Windows Phone that make development
now be done “on the go” with a smart- easier. Two good examples are the
phone or tablet, but they can also be AccountManager system and the
done in new ways that enrich the AccountAuthenticatorActivity base class,
experience. both of which streamline the process of

setting up custom accounts — such as to
Android devices are a great example. register and authenticate user IDs and
Many are location-aware; many have passwords. Android also offers
accelerometers that know when the market-leading capabilities for letting
phone is moving, in which direction and applications on the same device invoke
how fast; and many include NFC (Near each other’s services. That way a
Field Communications), a technology developer is spared the work of imple-
that enables easy communications (such menting and replicating an already-exist-
as by tapping) between two devices or ing service.
between a device and a passive tag.

Besides its technical advantages, Android

also offers developers major business

opportunities.

1


According to Google, there were over “The Cloud” is a general term meaning a
700,000 apps available on Google Play in service that users and applications share
October 2012 and there were over 25 via the Internet. A cloud may be “private”
billion downloads in September 2012. — i.e., the services belong to an
According to IDC, as of Q3 2012 Android organization for the benefit of its
accounted for 75% of all smartphone employees and business partners. Or a
shipments — in a market that did not cloud may be “public” — i.e., a company
exist until 2008. (such as Amazon or Kinvey) owns the

services, which it offers commercially to

“ Two recent developments in
particular have sparked
the public, including app developers. In

the Android space, Cloud services

typically function as an app’s “backend.”
(Android) growth: the An-droid They may do computational tasks
ecosystem and the cloud
considered too “heavy” for a phone.

” They might also store, secure and share

data among multiple users on different

phones. A good example is a game app
Two recent developments in particular where users need to access the current
have sparked this growth: the Android state of play.
ecosystem and the Cloud. The ecosys-

tem consists of resources like Android If you are a developer and want to build
Development Tools (to be discussed your own backend, you certainly can do
later) and distribution platforms (like that. Whether you want to or not
Google Play) that accelerate app probably depends on whether your
development and marketing. These backend will set your app apart in the
platforms remove the “friction” involved eyes of your potential customer. If it’s a
in distributing and selling traditional PC service that’s fairly typical across lots of
applications. There’s no physical apps — like user authentication or a
packaging, no inventory stocking, and shopping cart — then the answer is
much less waiting for developers to get probably “no.” You may be better off
paid. You simply register online, pay a hooking into a commercial backend
nominal fee, upload the app and you’re provider via an API.
in business.

2

Step 1
DECIDE WHAT NEW THING
YOU WANT TO DO

3


Then you can focus on what counts most information, with another NFC phone
— a unique user experience and just by tapping the two phones together.
application-specific functionality. That

brings us to the first step in making an Other app opportunities involve
app. information sharing. A prime example of

that is Google Docs that lets different
Why do people buy apps? Why do they users on different devices work on the
make them? The answer to both same document (in the Cloud) coopera-
questions is that a successful app tively. A similar opportunity is context
improves users’ lives in new ways — sharing such as when the user starts a
typically by taking advantage of features movie on a smartphone, stops the
like location awareness and accelerome- movie, and later picks up the action at
ters that are present in phones. A great the very same point on a TV, PC, tablet,
example app is Google Now, which or another smartphone.
Google describes as follows:

The key, again, is identifying a function
Google Now gets you just the right
that improves people’s lives. That
information at just the right time.
requires, first, identifying the value to be
It tells you today’s weather before you
provided, second, conceptualizing a core
start your day, how much traffic to
function that provides that value and,
expect before you leave for work, when
third, researching the market to make
the next train will arrive as you’re
sure there is nothing else out there that
standing on the platform, or your
already does what your app will do. The
favorite team's score while they’re
playing. And the best part? All of this research part is easy since you can

happens automatically. Cards appear probably find out if a similar app already

throughout the day at the moment you exists just by spending a few minutes on

need them. Google Play.

The Google Maps API enables location
Does your app meet all three of these
awareness so apps can tailor the user
tests? Good, then let’s proceed to the
experience based on location — such as
next step.
by recommending stores or restaurants

in that area. As previously noted, NFC is

a feature that lets users easily exchange

data, such as photos or contact

4

Step 2
DEFINE YOUR MVP

5


Most unsuccessful apps fail for any of It was enough to prove the convenience

three reasons: and accuracy of using Google.

1. the app was a solution in The same MVP approach drives the app

search of a problem (i.e., no real need market today. With each app focused on

existed) meeting a specific need, everyone’s

2. the implementation was poor needs are as different as the collection

3. the app tried to do too much of apps on their various devices.

Focusing on a specific function also

Keeping the app as simple as possible makes for a less cluttered app — one

(especially in version 1) is the best way to that is easier for the customer to

avoid all three pitfalls. Most successful understand and for the developer to

apps (indeed, most successful consumer build. As a result, an MVP will probably

tech products) are based on what is perform better technically and its value

called an MVP, or minimum viable will be easier for both the developer and

product. It’s the product with the buyer to discern.

smallest feature set that can deliver the

core function without any distracting

“bells and whistles.” You know you have

an MVP if the product would no longer

function if you removed any single

feature.

The best example is the original Google

Search. Whereas today’s Google Search

offers more than 20 special features

beyond the original word search

capability (e.g., synonyms, weather So, in drawing up your MVP feature list,

forecasts, stock quotes, maps, transla- ask yourself what features are key to the

tion) the original product was simply text experience. Possible must-haves include:

search — where the user types into a

search box at the top of an otherwise • Offline capability (i.e., ability to work

all-but-empty web page and gets back a when not connected to the Internet)

page full of text search results.

6


• Location aware (i.e., will the app use

GPS?)
MVP Takeaways
• NFC (i.e., can devices share data by
• MVP = Minimal Viable
touching?)

• Push notification (i.e., sending Product
updated information to devices as

soon as it is available) • It’s the product with the
smallest feature set that
Draw up your feature lists knowing can deliver the core func-
which features are necessary and which tion
are there primarily to enhance the user

experience. Push notifications, for • You have an MVP if the
example, are not key to Instagram but product would no longer
the app has them anyway to encourage function if you removed
user activity. Features that are there any single feature
solely to enhance the user experience

may have to wait for version 2. (The first • An MVP will probably
iPod only came in only one color and perform better technically
could just hold 1000 songs.) and its value will be easier
for both the developer and
Once you have your feature list, the next buyer to discern
step is design — to decide where and

how to implement the features on the

device, in the cloud, or in some combina-

tion. Most app design decisions fall into

two broad categories: user experience

and shared information. Which takes us

to the next step.

7

Step 3
DESIGN YOUR APP

8


User experience (UX) decisions (the HTML5 part) sits within an applica-

determine the app’s look and feel. They tion wrapper (the Java part) that

answer questions such as: What does implements less dynamic content such

the app look like? What screens does it as the app’s widgets. Which part of the

have? In the app world, onscreen objects app is HTML5 and which is Java is not

like buttons, sliders, and fill-in boxes are obvious to the untrained eye (there may

called widgets. So you need to decide be no browser address bar, for example)

which types of widgets will reside on — but implementing the app this way

which screens. What actions will occur as enables much faster content refresh (via

a result of the user interacting with the web) and more response widgets

those widgets? (via Java). HTML5’s “write once, deploy

anywhere” model is also another

Keep in mind that users will expect to advantage. Parts of the app written in

interact differently with a mobile device HTML5 can be deployed across iPhones,

than they do with a PC because the iPads and Android devices without

screens on mobile devices are much rewrite.

smaller. They’ll expect to use their

fingers instead of a mouse or a trackpad. In addition to deciding what happens on

Ideally, your app can even be used with the frontend, you also have to decide

one hand holding the device while using what happens on the backend —

just a thumb for scrolling and working specifically, what data will users share?

the app’s other controls — the Path app For example, will users want to “broad-

is a good example, and increasingly so is cast” their GPS locations to other users

Facebook. in real time (such as to enhance a

gaming experience)? Will the app share

You will also need to decide which parts or store movie or restaurant preferences

(if any) of your application to write in or purchase histories with backend

HTML5 and which to write in Java, the recommendation engines? If so, these

primary programming language for functions will most likely “call” the APIs

Android devices. For reasons of speed of backend service providers — you

and programming efficiency, many apps won’t actually have to write those

(like Facebook) are designed a little like functions yourself.

1960s-era TV sets where a small window

of frequently updated content

9


•

?
W HY ANDROID

Cross- Open Market International Free
Compatibility Platform Growth Growth Tools

For the time being, then, set those Android platform. Some of the reasons
backend functions aside and focus on to develop for Android include:
the front end. Just like you want to build

a product with the minimal viable 1. Cross-Compatibility
number of features, you may also wish There are well over 100 million Android
to build your first prototype using devices in use today, representing
“dummy” data that’s static rather than hundreds of different models from
shared. It’s much easier to fine-tune the dozens of different manufacturers.
frontend if you don’t have to simultane- Companies as varied as Samsung,
ously modify your backend too. Once Motorola, LG, HTC, etc. make devices
you get the app’s look-and-feel right, that will run Android apps — and these
then make those backend connections. devices come in many different screen

sizes and resolutions. Android-capable
Why Android? devices also come in different configura-
Besides the features and design of your tions of hardware features, such as
first app, there’s one other decision you camera, accelerometer, GPS, and
need to make before you start actual Bluetooth — yet they all run Android —
development. That’s whether to deploy and all are available to you as potential
on Apple’s iOS platform or on Google’s targets for your Android app.

10


2. Open Platform 4. International Growth
Android’s cross-compatibility stems from In particular, Android overwhelmingly
the fact that it is an open platform, dominates markets outside the U.S. For
meaning that any company can example, it accounts for over 90%
download the free source code and market share in
build products based on that code. You China (Q3, 2012) according to
can view and modify the code as you Beijing-based Analysis International as
wish to create new features, or to reported by Tech In Asia.
handle an existing feature in a new way.

5. Free Tools
3. Market Growth All the tools you need to develop rich
As noted earlier, the Android market is Android apps are free of charge. Step 4
huge and growing fast — thanks to its is about installing those tools and setting
openness and compatibility across so up your Android development environ-
many devices and device makers. ment.
Android’s openness and market growth

also make for a highly innovative Why Not Android?
environment where “the next big thing” Although Android oﬀers many compel-
is likely to happen. That’s a very ling advantages as a platform for your
attractive proposition for developers. mobile app, it also has some disadvan-

tages. Here are three:

ROID ?
W HY Not AND

Customers less High diversity Not in the
willing to pay of devices Apple ecosystem

11


1. Customers less willing to pay

Perhaps it’s because of Android’s open

source heritage, but whatever the

reason, Android apps generate less than

10% of the total dollars spent on mobile

apps, despite having 75% of the

smartphone market itself — and despite

the fact that the average selling price of

an app in the Android Market is $3.79

versus Apple App Store’s $2.01. In other

words, Android users are reluctant to

spend money on apps.

3. Not in the Apple Ecosystem

2. High diversity of devices Some developers and users prefer

Building an app that runs successfully on Apple’s closed and more tightly

so many different screen sizes and controlled environment to Android.

resolutions continues to be a challenge Apple’s ecosystem, consisting of iCloud,

despite the fact that Android has iTunes, the App Store, the iPad, the

provided innovations such as fragments iPhone, Mac computers, etc., offers a

and GridLayout. Android introduced very holistic user experience with the

fragments in Android 3.0 (API level 11), ability to share data seamlessly across

primarily to support more dynamic and devices plus the assurance of having

flexible user interface designs on large applications pre-approved for quality

screens, such as tablets. A fragment is a and content prior to going on sale.

Java class that enables tablets to display

side-by-side on one screen content that

on a phone could not be displayed all at

once on the same screen — and so

would be displayed on multiple screens.

GridLayout is a class that places its

children in a rectangular grid composed

of a set of infinitely thin lines that

separate the viewing area into cells.

12

Step 4
SET UP YOUR ANDROID
DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT

Java Dev Kit
Android SDK

Eclipse IDE
Android ADT

13


Android apps are typically written as Java 3. Eclipse IDE (integrated develop-
classes. That source code is then ment environment)
compiled into bytecode that the Dalvik Included in the Android SDK download,
engine (a subset of a Java Virtual the Eclipse IDE provides the “hands-on”
Machine) runs under the Android controls you need for writing your app
operating system. The following steps using Java, the Android SDK and the
describe how to acquire and configure Android ADT.
the tools you need to write your app’s

Java classes and then test and package 4. Android ADT (Android Development
the app for deployment. NOTE: By the Tools) This Eclipse plug-in performs
time you read this, these instructions much of the housekeeping involved in
may have changed. Please refer to the creating an Android app such as creating
Android Developers Website for current the needed files and overall structure.
updates.

Installing the JDK
For Android app development you’ll To install the official Oracle Java SE SDK
need four basic toolsets: (JDK) for Windows, OS X, and Linux go to

the Oracle Java website and follow the
1. The Java Development Kit (JDK) instructions.
This is the Software Development Kit

(SDK) for Java and provides the founda- Installing the Android SDK
tion for the Android SDK. At this point you still need to acquire the

Java files needed to compile an Android
2. Android SDK app as well as some additional build
This consists of all the tools you need to tools and the files required to run an
develop and test your app: Android emulator. To access these
• Eclipse + ADT plugin add-ons, look inside the tools/ directory
• Android SDK Tools of the Android SDK you just downloaded
• Android Platform-tools and run the Android batch file or shell
• The latest Android platform script. That opens the Android SDK
• The latest Android system image for Manager. Make sure the following items
the emulator are checked and then click Install.

14


• “SDK Platform” for all Android SDK

releases you want to test against Development Takeaways
• “ARM EABI v7a System Image”
• Android apps are written as
• “Documentation for Android SDK”

• “Samples for SDK”
Java classes

• “Google APIs by Google Inc.” for the • Source code is compiled
Android SDK release you’re download- into bytecode that the Dalvik
ing
engine runs under the
• Android SDK Tools and

Platform-tools
Android operating system

• Android Support package (in the

Extras group at the bottom of the Four Basic Toolsets
tree)
1. Java Development Kit

One shortcut that many developers like
2. Android SDK

to use is to install everything with a 3. Eclipse IDE
single command. Just type the following 4. Android ADT
command at the command line:

android update sdk --no-u

This will perform a full install of all

Android versions and samples along

with all system images. Obviously, this

approach takes up the most amount of

space on the system.

Once all the selected items are installed

(it may take several hours if you have a

slow Internet connection), you are ready

to begin making your Android app!

15

Step 5
DEVELOPING YOUR APP

16


With the development environment In the “New Android Application” panel
installed, the next step is to launch enter the following information:
Eclipse and begin making your app. For • For “Application Name” and “Project
this step, we will walk through two Name” enter My First App
examples: “My First App” and “Test • For “Package Name” enter com.ex-
Drive.” The ﬁrst app displays a button on ample.myﬁrstapp
the phone — push the button to display • For “Build SDK” select “Android 4.2”
the text, “Hello World.” The second app • For “Minimum Required SDK,”
uses the Kinvey backend service. In that choose “API 9: Android 2.3 (Ginger-
app there are two buttons — push one bread)”
button and it saves static data to the • Uncheck “Create custom launcher
backend and the app displays text that icon”
the save was successful. Push the other • Click “Next”
button and the app loads the data to the

phone from the backend and displays This brings up the “Create Activity” page.
text saying the load was a success. • Click “BlankActivity” and then “Next”

To get started on My First App, Launch This brings up the “New Blank Activity”
Eclipse and select File > New > Project to page.
bring up the “New Project” wizard. • For “Activity Name” enter
Choose “Android Application Project”and MainActivity
click “Next.”

17


• For “Layout Name” enter activity_- AndroidManifest.xml

main This XML file is called the manifest. It is a

• For “Title” enter MainActivity configuration file that tells Android what

• Keep the remaining defaults as is your app contains. The manifest for My

• Click “Finish” The Eclipse Package First App looks like the image below.

Explorer now appears. It shows the The two key parts of the manifest are its

various folders containing the files that root, the <manifest> element, and that

Eclipse will use to build your Android element’s primary child, the <applica-

app. When you “make an app” you do so tion> element. Among other things, the

by working on the files within this <manifest> element supplies the name

hierarchy. Eclipse is context sensitive so of your app’s package, uniquely

clicking on a file brings up an appropri- identifying your app to the device

ate wizard, graphic tool or text editor for running it and to the Google Play Store.

working on that file. The <application> element supplies the

Eclipse just created one of these files for name for the class implementing activity

you. (MainActivity) and an <intent-filter>

describing under what conditions

Android displays the activity.

18


The default intent filter, as in this case, is The “drawable” files, meanwhile, contain
for the activity to appear in the launcher static images sized appropriately for
so users can choose to run it. Note that particular ranges of screen sizes, such as
an app can have any number of activities drawable-mdi, which contains images
— an activity is the app’s behavior sized for medium size screens.
associated with a particular screen.

libs/
You can easily add or change various This folder contains third-party Java JARs,
parts of the manifest, such to enable such as those required to communicate
various permissions or screen sizes, by with the Kinvey backend. You can use
using the Eclipse manifest structured the Eclipse “Navigate” and “Search”
editor. To show it, just double click functions to find and import these JARs
AndroidManifest.xml in the Package to your libs/ directory.
Explorer.

scr/
Besides the manifest, other elements in Holds the application’s Java source code
the application package to note are: (which you can edit directly).

res/ gen/
Modifying this item is where much of Where Eclipse build tools place the Java
your actual “app making” work is done. It source code (in R.java) they generate (for
holds resources such as “drawable” icons example, after you import a JAR or
and GUI layouts that are packaged with modify a layout, close and then reopen
the compiled Java in the application. For the project).
example, the layout folder contains XML

files that determine the positioning and bin/
size of text boxes, buttons and other Holds the compiled application.
layout elements for a particular activity

— and also attach “onClick” methods to

them. Double clicking on a layout (in our

case, that’s activity_main.xml) brings up

the Eclipse graphical layout editor. As

you drag and drop items into place the

editor generates the appropriate XML.

19


To complete My First App, we need to attach to the button (an “on click
add the button to the layout and also the listener” that responds when the
text to be displayed when the user taps button is clicked). Let’s type the
the button. To do that, click on activity_- method name: showHelloWorld.
main.xml within layout in the Package • On the text box, type the string:
Explorer. Eclipse opens the layout editor, @string/hello_world. This references a
which has both a graphical mode and an constant (Hello World!) in strings.xml
XML text-editing mode. In the graphical in the values folder.
mode, follow these steps:

Using a relative reference rather than a
• Draw a button and a text box in the constant means if we ever wish to
layout. change the displayed text, we need only
• On the button, type the word make the change in one place rather
“Button.” than everywhere that string might be
• Select the button you’ve just drawn used.
and click the “On Click” item in the

“Properties” palette. Switching to text-editing shows us the
• In the blank space just to the right of resulting XML (except for the missing
“On Click” in the Properties Pallet type text, in red):
the name of a method you wish to

--

20


Type in the missing code manually. Now Eclipse automatically detects the phone

the “Hello World!” text will be hidden and asks whether you wish to run the

until the button is pressed. app on the phone or in the emulator.

Finally, we will supply the logic for the Congratulations! Your app is done. Now

onClick method we have just named. To might be a good time to toast your

do that open the src item in the Package accomplishment.

Explorer and click the MainActivity.java

file. Then type in the method’s Java code,

here shown in red:

Note that the method’s signature must Making a Toast

be public and must include only one One of the convenient features that

parameter, which is the view parameter. Android offers developers is the ability

to build alerts, or “toast” messages, into

To run the app, click “Run” in the Eclipse applications without writing much code.

toolbar. The app will run in the built-in Typically these alerts are displayed in a

Android emulator, as shown in the reserved area at the top or bottom of

figure. If you plug your phone into your the phone’s screen whenever a predeter-

computer via a USB cable, you can also mined event occurs.

run the app on your own phone.

21


For example, suppose we wanted the Backend as a Service (BaaS) providers, as

app we just built, My First App, to display they’re called, compete on a variety of

the toast “Button onClick Triggered!” features and benefits, one of which is

when the button is clicked. To do that we how easy it is to connect to your app. So,

simply add the following code, shown chances are, it will be a pretty easy

here in red, to our Java source: process including 8 steps.

1. Download the provider’s SDK to

your computer; this contains the

software that lets your app talk to the

backend

2. Create an account on the provider’s

website, usually with a credit card

3. Follow the provider’s instructions to

The makeText method invokes the string install the downloaded files into your

referenced by TOAST_TEXT, which the application package (e.g., place the

show method displays. JARs in the libs folder)

4. Add your app on the backend and

Connecting To a Backend as a Service type in your app’s name where

One factor mentioned earlier that’s requested

fueling apps’ explosive growth is the 5. Configure your backend data model

availability of Cloud-based backend (i.e., a collection of objects)

services. These are useful when your 6. Locate your app’s backend service

app needs more data than can be credentials used to authenticate the

reasonably stored on a mobile device app with the backend — copy them

and/or the data must be accessible by into your app’s source code

multiple devices. Connecting your app to 7. Create a static app handle used to

a commercial backend means you don’t identify the app on backend calls

have to provide that service yourself — 8. Map your app’s data to your

effectively leveling the playing field for backend model

anyone who can’t afford to build their

own app backend versus larger organiza- Here’s how this would work with Kinvey

tions that can. and our second example app, Test Drive.

22


The app, as previously noted, displays

“Save” and “Load” buttons. Tapping the

“Save” button saves some static dummy

data to the backend and displays a “Save

worked!” message (or “Save failed! if the

save did not work). Tapping the “Load”

button loads the saved data from the Figure X

backend to the device and displays a

“Load worked!” message (or “Load failed!

if the load did not work).

Figure Y

These labels tag the dummy TestObject

data the app passes to TestObjects on

the backend when the user taps the

“Save” button. Similarly, when the user

taps the “Load” button the app retrieves

a TestObject from the backend TestOb-

Figure X shows the “My Apps” page on jects.

Kinvey with Test Drive already added

and its application credentials displayed For those operations to happen the

(by clicking the “Credentials” link). Figure Kinvey SDK must have been downloaded

Y shows the backend collection (named (see Kinvey’s “Getting Started” page) and

TestObjects) for the Test Drive app. Note these SDK contents installed into the

the “_id” and “name” columns with the project:

labels “12345” and “My ﬁrst data!”

respectively. (When conﬁguring a • kinvey-1.4.1.jar and kinvey-1.4.1.-

collection, use the “+” and “-“ buttons to jar.properties to the libs folder

add and delete columns.) • urbanairship-lib-1.1.5.jar from the

ua-android-lib-1.1.5 directory to the

libs folder

• kinvey-1.4.1-javadoc folder to a docs

folder in the base project directory

23


The complete Test Drive project can be downloaded from here. To illustrate

steps 6 and 8 listed above, however, we will highlight some speciﬁc sections of

the code. Let’s start with step 6, authentication.

To authenticate the app to Kinvey, the auto-generated credentials must be

copied into the app, replacing “your_app_key” and “your_app_secret” in these

lines:

In step 7 we provide a private handle for calls to Kinvey:

Step 8 is mapping the app data to the model we just conﬁgured at Kinvey. You

can use any class that implements the MappedEntity interface, in this app

example, that’s a TestEntity class that has a string name. It looks like this:

24


Now let’s look at the method that does the save. The method is called in the

onClickListener of the save_button. When the activity loads, it will create a new

static TestObject with id "12345". When the save button is clicked the following

method will trigger the dummy TestObject to be saved in the testObjects collection.

Here line 2 creates a handle to the backend collection where the object is saved.

Lines 3 through 21 save the object and displays an alert if the save is either

successful or fails. Likewise, the load method looks like this:

Line 2 creates a handle to the backend collection that has the object to load. Line 3

instantiates an instance of TestObject for the library into which the data is loaded

from the backend. And lines 4 through 23 load the object and display an alert if the

load is either successful or fails.

25


Welcome To Our World!

The key takeaway from all this is that

“making an app” is a worthwhile thing to

do for anyone with a clever idea and a

working knowledge of Java. The proof is

in the hundreds of apps succeeding in

the market every day, many written by

people working on their own and who

never wrote an app before in their lives.

As with anything else, practice does

make perfect. But hopefully with all the

resources available, and the knowledge

gained from this ebook, you have

already started down the path toward

joining the growing legions of Android

app developers. If so, we welcome you!

26

Written by

Morgan Bickle Randall Cronk

On any given day you'll find Morgan Since 1990, Randall has helped over 250

programming mobile SDKs, building high-tech companies convey the value

backend APIs, and discussing the future of what they do through white papers,

of web and mobile technology. As part of web content, brochures, case studies

the core founding team at Kinvey and and articles. Based today in downtown

now the CTO, he owns Kinvey’s Boston, he was previously a vice

technology vision. Prior to Kinvey, he president with Regis McKenna where he

wrote enterprise software for a decade. ran the Digital Equipment account.

Designed by
Jake McKibben and Lauren Pedigo

What is Kinvey? Kinvey makes a fully-featured Backend as a

Service solution, offering 3rd party data integrations, multi-plat-

form support, push notifications, and custom business logic on a

platform where it's free to get started and you only pay when your

app is successful.

Build your backend today

How to Make an App: Android Edition

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How to Make an App: Android Edition