Android OS : Core Concepts

Dr. Jeyakesavan Veerasamy

Sr. Lecturer
University of Texas at Dallas
jeyv@utdallas.edu
 Agenda
• Introduction to Android devices
• Environment overview
• Android concepts
• Application components
– Activities, Services, Content providers, Broadcast
receivers
• “Hello” application
• Summary
 Development Environment
• Java Development Kit (JDK)
• Eclipse IDE
• Android Development Tools (ADT) plug-in
• SDK starter package
– Platforms (1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.1, …)
– Tools (debug, …)
Android ADT
Eclipse
SDK Plug-in

JDK

Reference: http://developer.android.com/sdk/installing.html
Development
Process for
Android
Applications
Android Architecture
 Android Runtime Environment
• Dalvik VM for each application
• common Linux kernel

x.class y.class APP APP

…
VM VM
JRE
Linux kernel
 Basics: UNIX security
• compare it with Windows security
 Application Security
• Android operating system is based on multi-
user Linux system.
• Each application is treated as a different user.
Each application uses unique Linux user ID.
• Every application runs as a Linux process.
 Application security …
• It's possible to arrange for two applications to
share the same Linux user ID, in which case they
are able to access each other's files – can run as
same Linux process and share the same VM
(applications use same certificate).
• An application can request permission to access
device data such as the user's contacts, SMS
messages, the mountable storage (SD card),
camera, Bluetooth, and more. All application
permissions must be granted by the user at install
time.
 Processes & Threads
• Every application runs in its own process and all
components of the application run in that
process, by default -- UI thread
• Any slow, blocking operations in an activity
should be done in a new thread, to avoid
slowing down the user interface.
– If application does not respond in 5 seconds,
"application not responding" (ANR) dialog appears.
 Process lifecycle:
Importance Hierarchy
• Foreground process
• Visible process
• Service process
• Background process
• Empty process

“Lower importance” tasks may be killed by Android

– why?
How to select a lucky one from a pool?
 IPC
• Remote procedure calls (RPCs)
 Android Application components
• Activities - front-end UI screens
• Services – back-end support
• Content providers – application data
– SQLite, web or SD card
• Broadcast receivers – handle system events
Activitating Components: Intent
 Basics: Data Exchange

A2

A1 A4

A3
 Basics: Data Exchange
• Binary or text data 
XML or JSON …
A2
• Independent data
A1 A4 checkers tools available.
A3
 Sample XML data file

Text format:
Belgian Waffles, 5.95, two of our famous Belgian Waffles with plenty of real … , 650
Strawberry Belgian Waffles, 7.95, light Belgian waffles covered with …., 900
 Application info: Manifest file
• Declare components
• Declare application requirements
• Application Resources?
 Activity lifecycle: 3 states
• Resumed or Running
• Paused
• Stopped
State machine
Code
 Service
Lifecycle
User Interface Design
 XML Layouts
• Declare UI elements in XML. Android provides
a straightforward XML vocabulary that
corresponds to the View classes and
subclasses.
• Instantiate layout elements at runtime. Your
application can create View and ViewGroup
objects (and manipulate their properties)
programmatically.
Application Resources
Building & running Android app
Program to say “Hello!”
 Native Development Kit (NDK)
• Use C/C++ for development
• primarily for performance critical components
 Summary
• Clean, sophsticated, yet reasonably simple.
• Android requires strong Java skills – heavy use of
derived classes (inheritance).
• Development: Java code & XML definitions
• Reference:
http://developer.android.com/sdk/installing.html
• Install Android development environment and
play with a few examples or try your own ideas!
• Marketable skill in the industry!
 More references
• http://www.vogella.de/articles/AndroidIntent/article.html
• http://developer.android.com/resources/browser.html?tag=sa
mple
Questions & Answers

jeyv@utdallas.edu