Kotlin - Introduction

Fully updated for Android Studio 3.0 and Android 8, the goal of this book is to teach the skills necessary to develop Android based applications using the Android Studio Integrated Development Environment (IDE), the Android 8 Software Development Kit (SDK) and the Kotlin programming language.

Beginning with the basics, this book provides an outline of the steps necessary to set up an Android development and testing environment followed by an introduction to programming in Kotlin including data types, flow control, functions, lambdas and object-oriented programming.

An overview of Android Studio is included covering areas such as tool windows, the code editor and the Layout Editor tool. An introduction to the architecture of Android is followed by an in-depth look at the design of Android applications and user interfaces using the Android Studio environment. More advanced topics such as database management, content providers and intents are also covered, as are touch screen handling, gesture recognition, camera access and the playback and recording of both video and audio. This edition of the book also covers printing, transitions and cloud-based file storage.

The concepts of material design are also covered in detail, including the use of floating action buttons, Snackbars, tabbed interfaces, card views, navigation drawers and collapsing toolbars.

In addition to covering general Android development techniques, the book also includes Google Play specific topics such as implementing maps using the Google Maps Android API, and submitting apps to the Google Play Developer Console.

Other key features of Android Studio 3 and Android 8 are also covered in detail including the Layout Editor, the ConstraintLayout and ConstraintSet classes, constraint chains and barriers, direct reply notifications and multi-window support.

Chapters also cover advanced features of Android Studio such as App Links, Instant Apps, the Android Studio Profiler and Gradle build configuration.

Assuming you already have some programming experience, are ready to download Android Studio and the Android SDK, have access to a Windows, Mac or Linux system and ideas for some apps to develop, you are ready to get started.

Downloading the Code Samples

The source code and Android Studio project files for the examples contained in this book are available for download at:

http://www.ebookfrenzy.com/web/as30kotlin/index.php

The steps to load a project from the code samples into Android Studio are as follows:

From the Welcome to Android Studio dialog, select the Open an existing Android Studio project option.

In the project selection dialog, navigate to and select the folder containing the project to be imported and click on OK.

Firebase Essentials Book Now Available

Firebase Essentials - Android Edition, a companion book to Android Studio Development Essentials provides everything you need to successfully integrate Firebase cloud features into your Android apps.

The Firebase Essentials book covers the key features of Android app development using Firebase including integration with Android Studio, User Authentication (including email, Twitter, Facebook and phone number sign-in), Realtime Database, Cloud Storage, Firebase Cloud Messaging (both upstream and downstream), Dynamic Links, Invites, App Indexing, Test Lab, Remote Configuration, Cloud Functions, Analytics and Performance Monitoring.

Find out more at https://goo.gl/5F381e.

Errata

While we make every effort to ensure the accuracy of the content of this book, it is inevitable that a book covering a subject area of this size and complexity may include some errors and oversights. Any known issues with the book will be outlined, together with solutions, at the following URL:

http://www.ebookfrenzy.com/errata/as30kotlin.html

In the event that you find an error not listed in the errata, please let us know by emailing our technical support team at [email protected]. They are there to help you and will work to resolve any problems you may encounter.