Roadmap for Android Developer
For developing an android application, one needs to learn 3 essential languages: Java, Android and XML.
Java is an object-oriented programming language, general-purpose language designed to be used with Java Virtual Machine (JVM).
Android’s Google’s mobile operating system, used for developing digital devices or programming. (Smartphones, Automobiles, TVs, Wear, Glass, IoT, Tablets).
XML is the language mainly used for Developing Android User interfaces. Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a structured document format that defines human and machine-readable encoding rules.
Another essential and official language for Android Development is Kotlin, which came into use after Google IO 2019. Android skills can help you in developing the skills and ensuring you are on the right track.
One must wonder why learning Java if Kotlin has been announced the official language for programming for android applications. Google has recommended learning Java first as it is a huge part of Android, and there are inadequate resources to learn all android APIs in Kotlin.
Android studio is the executive integrated development environment for Google’s Android operating system, created on JetBrain’s IntelliJ IDEA software and created exclusively for Android development.
App Manifest
For Android development every application needs an AndroidManifest.xml file in its root directory. The manifest presents indispensable information about the app to the Android system, information the system must have prior to running any of the application’s code.
App Components
The essential building blocks of Android app development are the App components. Every module is an entry point through which users can enter your application or system, while some depend on others.
There are different types of app aspects one needs to become an android developer:
- Activities: Is an entry point for networking with the user. It characterizes a single screen with a user interface.
- Services: It is a general-purpose entry point for ensuring an app continues running in the background for all kinds of reasons. It is an important part that runs in the background to execute long-running operations or perform remote processes.
- Broadcast receivers: It is a component that enables systems to deliver events for the application outside of a regular user flow; this allows the app to respond to system-wide broadcast announcements.
- Content providers: It manages a shared set of application data stored in a file system, in an SQLite database, on the web, or on any other persistent storage location that the developer’s app can access.
Some other valuable Components for the android developer roadmap are:-
Fragments: It represents a behavior or a portion of user interface in a Fragment Activity. One can combine multiple fragments in a single activity for building a multi-pane UI and reuse a fragment in several activities.
Intent: Intent provides a facility for performing late runtime binding between codes in different applications. The most significant use of it is in launching activities, where it can be thought of as the glue between applications. It is majorly a passive data structure holding an abstract description of an action to be performed.
User Interfaces
The developer’s application user interface is everything that the user can see and interact with. Android offers various pre-built UI components such as structured layout objects and UI controls, allowing for building the graphical user interface for the application.
Storage
Android offers several options for one to save persistent application data. The solution one selects depending on the specific requirements, such as if data needs to be confidential to your application and how much your data space requires.
One’s data storage options are the following:
- Shared Preferences
- Internal Storage
- External Storage
- SQLite Databases
- Network Connection
- Architecture
It is a collection of libraries that helps you design robust, testable, and maintainable applications. Start with classes for managing your UI components lifecycle and data persistence handling.
The main parts of Architecture are:
- Code Architecture- Model-View-Controller is an architectural pattern that separates an application into three logical components- the model, the view, and the controller. Each of these components is made to tackle specific development aspects of an application.
- Dependency Injection- Is a technique whereby one object supplies dependencies of another object. Reliance is an object for usage.
- Quality Assurance- Quality assurance prevents mistakes and defects in manufacturing products and avoiding issues when delivering products or services to customers.
Build Configuration
Gradle is a custom build tool used for building android packages by managing dependencies and offering custom build logic in the android studio. Android Application is particularly designed zip file containing byte code and resources.
8. Thread Handling
For being an Android developer, it is interesting to know that all application code runs on a single thread, the main Thread. All UI alterations and management of input events are handled by main Thread. So when performing some slow and tedious running task that blocks the main Thread for a while or permanently, to avoid this situation, one needs to achieve long-running asynchronously by using Thread.
To perform asynchronously, one can use:
Handlers- Allows for sending and processing Message and Runnable objects associated with a thread’s message queue. Each handle instance is linked with a single thread and that Thread’s message queue.
Coroutines — Kotlin team defines coroutines as
“lightweight thread”. These are the sort of tasks that existing threads can execute. The most exciting thing is that Thread can stop executing coroutines at some specific “suspension points”.
Async Task- Is used for reducing the load of tasks off the UI thread. It helps create a background thread for operating fetching results from the internet or loading data from the database, etc., and then publishing the results to the main thread UI.
So, in conclusion, this was the complete android developer skills and areas one needs to ace. If you are new to programming, do not let the elaborate skills and illustration scare you. With a clear guideline to become an android developer and guidance, you can make a mark in the rewarding field. Contact us today!
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