Efficient Android Threading

Author: Anders Goransson
Publisher: "O'Reilly Media, Inc."
ISBN: 1449364098
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 322

Book Description
Multithreading is essential if you want to create an Android app with a great user experience, but how do you know which techniques can help solve your problem? This practical book describes many asynchronous mechanisms available in the Android SDK, and provides guidelines for selecting the ones most appropriate for the app you’re building. Author Anders Goransson demonstrates the advantages and disadvantages of each technique, with sample code and detailed explanations for using it efficiently. The first part of the book describes the building blocks of asynchronous processing, and the second part covers Android libraries and constructs for developing fast, responsive, and well-structured apps. Understand multithreading basics in Java and on the Android platform Learn how threads communicate within and between processes Use strategies to reduce the risk of memory leaks Manage the lifecycle of a basic thread Run tasks sequentially in the background with HandlerThread Use Java’s Executor Framework to control or cancel threads Handle background task execution with AsyncTask and IntentService Access content providers with AsyncQueryHandler Use loaders to update the UI with new data

Android High Performance Programming

Author: Enrique Lopez Manas
Publisher: Packt Publishing Ltd
ISBN: 1785283383
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 412

Book Description
Build fast and efficient Android apps that run as reliably as clockwork in a multi-device world About This Book Wide coverage of various topics that help in developing optimal applications Explore the concepts of Advanced Native Coding in depth A must-have for professional-standard Android developers for whom performance failures and the sloppy use of resources are simply unacceptable Who This Book Is For This book is aimed at developers with an advanced knowledge of Android and who want to test their skills and learn new techniques to increase the performance of their applications. We assume they are comfortable working with the entire Android SDK, and have been doing it for a few years. They need to be familiar with frameworks such as NDK to use native code, which is crucial for app performance What You Will Learn Create Android applications that squeeze the most from the limited resource capacity of devices Swap code that isn't performing Efficient memory management by identifying problems such as leaks Reap the benefits of multithreaded and asynchronous programming Maximize the security and encryption mechanisms natively provided by Android Perform efficient network operations and techniques to retrieve data from servers Master the NDK to write native code that can perform faster operations In Detail Performant applications are one of the key drivers of success in the mobile world. Users may abandon an app if it runs slowly. Learning how to build applications that balance speed and performance with functionality and UX can be a challenge; however, it's now more important than ever to get that balance right. Android High Performance will start you thinking about how to wring the most from any hardware your app is installed on, so you can increase your reach and engagement. The book begins by providing an introduction to state–of-the-art Android techniques and the importance of performance in an Android application. Then, we will explain the Android SDK tools regularly used to debug and profile Android applications. We will also learn about some advanced topics such as building layouts, multithreading, networking, and security. Battery life is one of the biggest bottlenecks in applications; and this book will show typical examples of code that exhausts battery life, how to prevent this, and how to measure battery consumption from an application in every kind of situation to ensure your apps don't drain more than they should. This book explains techniques for building optimized and efficient systems that do not drain the battery, cause memory leaks, or slow down with time. Style and approach The book follows a tutorial-based approach to take the reader from the basic fundamentals of debugging to advanced performance-improvement concepts.

Asynchronous Android Programming

Author: Helder Vasconcelos
Publisher: Packt Publishing Ltd
ISBN: 1785885510
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 394

Book Description
Unlock the power of multi-core mobile devices to build responsive and reactive Android applications About This Book Construct scalable and performant applications to take advantage of multi-thread asynchronous techniques Explore the high-level Android asynchronous constructs available on the Android SDK Choose the most appropriate asynchronous technique to implement your next outstanding feature Who This Book Is For This book is for Android developers who want to learn how to build multithreaded and reliable Android applications using high-level and advanced asynchronous techniques and concepts. No prior knowledge of concurrent and asynchronous programming is required. This book will also be great for Java experts who are new to Android. Whether you are a beginner at Android development or a seasoned Android programmer, this book will guide you through the most basic and advanced asynchronous constructs used in Android programming. What You Will Learn Get familiar with the android process model and low-level concurrent constructs delivered by the Android SDK Use AsyncTask and loader framework to load data in the background, delivering progress results in the meantime Create services that interact with your activity without compromising the UI rendering Learn the working of Android concurrency on the Native Layer Interact with nearby devices over Bluetooth and WiFi communications channels Create and compose tasks with RxJava to execute complex asynchronous work in a predictable way Get accustomed to the use of the Android Loader construct to deliver up-to-date results In Detail Asynchronous programming has acquired immense importance in Android programming, especially when we want to make use of the number of independent processing units (cores) available on the most recent Android devices. With this guide in your hands you'll be able to bring the power of Asynchronous programming to your own projects, and make your Android apps more powerful than ever before! To start with, we will discuss the details of the Android Process model and the Java Low Level Concurrent Framework, delivered by Android SDK. We will also guide you through the high-level Android-specific constructs available on the SDK: Handler, AsyncTask, and Loader. Next, we will discuss the creation of IntentServices, Bound Services and External Services, which can run in the background even when the user is not interacting with it. You will also discover AlarmManager and JobScheduler APIs, which are used to schedule and defer work without sacrificing the battery life. In a more advanced phase, you will create background tasks that are able to execute CPU-intensive tasks in a native code-making use of the Android NDK. You will be then guided through the process of interacting with remote services asynchronously using the HTTP protocol or Google GCM Platform. Using the EventBus library, we will also show how to use the Publish-Subscribe software pattern to simplify communication between the different Android application components by decoupling the event producer from event consumer. Finally, we will introduce RxJava, a popular asynchronous Java framework used to compose work in a concise and reactive way. Asynchronous Android will help you to build well-behaved applications with smooth responsive user interfaces that delight the users with speedy results and data that's always fresh. Style and approach This easy-to-follow guide is full of code examples of real-world use cases. Each asynchronous topic is explained sequentially, from the most basic and low-level to the more advanced, using concise and effective language. Some lifecycle flows and concepts feature illustrations to help you understand the complex interactions between Android entities.

Learn Android Studio

Author: Clifton Craig
Publisher: Apress
ISBN: 1430266023
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 470

Book Description
Learn Android Studio covers Android Studio and its rich tools ecosystem, including Git and Gradle: this book covers how Android Studio works seamlessly with Git, for source control, and Gradle, a build and test tool. In addition, this book demonstrates how to develop/collaborate with remote Git web-hosting services such as GitHub and Bitbucket. Four complete Android projects accompany this volume and are available for download from a public Git repository. With this book, you learn the latest and most productive tools in the Android tools ecosystem, and the best practices for Android app development. You will be able to take away the labs' code as templates or frameworks to re-use and customize for your own similar apps. Android Studio is an intuitive, feature-rich, and extremely forgiving Integrated Development Environment (IDE). This IDE is more productive and easier to use for your Android app creations than Eclipse. With this book you will quickly master Android Studio and maximize your Android development time. Source code on the remote web-hosting service is targeted to the latest Android Studio release, version 1.2.

Android Programming

Author: Bill Phillips
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
ISBN: 0134171500
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 859

Book Description
Android Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide is an introductory Android book for programmers with Java experience. Based on Big Nerd Ranch's popular Android Bootcamp course, this guide will lead you through the wilderness using hands-on example apps combined with clear explanations of key concepts and APIs. This book focuses on practical techniques for developing apps compatible with Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) and up, including coverage of Lollipop and material design. Write and run code every step of the way, creating apps that integrate with other Android apps, download and display pictures from the web, play sounds, and more. Each chapter and app has been designed and tested to provide the knowledge and experience you need to get started in Android development. Big Nerd Ranch specializes in developing and designing innovative applications for clients around the world. Our experts teach others through our books, bootcamps, and onsite training. Whether it's Android, iOS, Ruby and Ruby on Rails, Cocoa, Mac OS X, JavaScript, HTML5 or UX/UI, we've got you covered. The Android team is constantly improving and updating Android Studio and other tools. As a result, some of the instructions we provide in the book are no longer correct. You can find an addendum addressing breaking changes at: https://github.com/bignerdranch/AndroidCourseResources/raw/master/2ndEdition/Errata/2eAddendum.pdf.

The Art of Concurrency

Author: Clay Breshears
Publisher: "O'Reilly Media, Inc."
ISBN: 0596555784
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 306

Book Description
If you're looking to take full advantage of multi-core processors with concurrent programming, this practical book provides the knowledge and hands-on experience you need. The Art of Concurrency is one of the few resources to focus on implementing algorithms in the shared-memory model of multi-core processors, rather than just theoretical models or distributed-memory architectures. The book provides detailed explanations and usable samples to help you transform algorithms from serial to parallel code, along with advice and analysis for avoiding mistakes that programmers typically make when first attempting these computations. Written by an Intel engineer with over two decades of parallel and concurrent programming experience, this book will help you: Understand parallelism and concurrency Explore differences between programming for shared-memory and distributed-memory Learn guidelines for designing multithreaded applications, including testing and tuning Discover how to make best use of different threading libraries, including Windows threads, POSIX threads, OpenMP, and Intel Threading Building Blocks Explore how to implement concurrent algorithms that involve sorting, searching, graphs, and other practical computations The Art of Concurrency shows you how to keep algorithms scalable to take advantage of new processors with even more cores. For developing parallel code algorithms for concurrent programming, this book is a must.

Java Concurrency in Practice

Author: Tim Peierls
Publisher: Pearson Education
ISBN: 0132702258
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 428

Book Description
Threads are a fundamental part of the Java platform. As multicore processors become the norm, using concurrency effectively becomes essential for building high-performance applications. Java SE 5 and 6 are a huge step forward for the development of concurrent applications, with improvements to the Java Virtual Machine to support high-performance, highly scalable concurrent classes and a rich set of new concurrency building blocks. In Java Concurrency in Practice, the creators of these new facilities explain not only how they work and how to use them, but also the motivation and design patterns behind them. However, developing, testing, and debugging multithreaded programs can still be very difficult; it is all too easy to create concurrent programs that appear to work, but fail when it matters most: in production, under heavy load. Java Concurrency in Practice arms readers with both the theoretical underpinnings and concrete techniques for building reliable, scalable, maintainable concurrent applications. Rather than simply offering an inventory of concurrency APIs and mechanisms, it provides design rules, patterns, and mental models that make it easier to build concurrent programs that are both correct and performant. This book covers: Basic concepts of concurrency and thread safety Techniques for building and composing thread-safe classes Using the concurrency building blocks in java.util.concurrent Performance optimization dos and don'ts Testing concurrent programs Advanced topics such as atomic variables, nonblocking algorithms, and the Java Memory Model

High Performance Android Apps

Author: Doug Sillars
Publisher: "O'Reilly Media, Inc."
ISBN: 1491914017
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 264

Book Description
Annotation In a virtual sea of Android apps, the key to survival in the form of user engagement, referrals and purchases is simple: performance and perceived speed. But building a high performance app isn't easy in a fast-paced and rapidly changing environment where new devices, platforms and development tools are announced almost daily. This practical guide provides tools and tips that will help you take app performance to a new level.

Learning Android

Author: Marko Gargenta
Publisher: "O'Reilly Media, Inc."
ISBN: 1449307248
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 270

Book Description
Want to build apps for Android devices? This book is the perfect way to master the fundamentals. Written by an expert who's taught this mobile platform to hundreds of developers in large organizations, this gentle introduction shows experienced object-oriented programmers how to use Android’s basic building blocks to create user interfaces, store data, connect to the network, and more. You'll build a Twitter-like application throughout the course of this book, adding new features with each chapter. Along the way, you'll also create your own toolbox of code patterns to help you program any type of Android application with ease. Get an overview of the Android platform and discover how it fits into the mobile ecosystem Learn about the Android stack, including its application framework, and the structure and distribution of application packages (APK) Set up your Android development environment and get started with simple programs Use Android’s building blocks—Activities, Intents, Services, Content Providers, and Broadcast Receivers Learn how to build basic Android user interfaces and organize UI elements in Views and Layouts Build a service that uses a background process to update data in your application Get an introduction to Android Interface Definition Language (AIDL) and the Native Development Kit (NDK)

Programming Android with Kotlin

Author: Pierre-Olivier Laurence
Publisher: "O'Reilly Media, Inc."
ISBN: 1492062952
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 354

Book Description
Developing applications for the Android mobile operating system can seem daunting, particularly if it requires learning a new programming language: Kotlin, now Androidâ??s officialdevelopment language. With this practical book, Android developers will learn how to make the transition from Java to Kotlin, including how Kotlin provides a true advantage for gaining control over asynchronous computations. Authors Pierre-Olivier Laurence, Amanda Hinchman-Dominguez, G. Blake Meike, and Mike Dunn explore implementations of the most common tasks in native Android development, and show you how Kotlin can help you solve concurrency problems. With a focus on structured concurrency, a new asynchronous programming paradigm, this book will guide you through one of Kotlin's most powerful constructs, coroutines. Learn about Kotlin essentials and the Kotlin Collections Framework Explore Android fundamentals: the operating system and the application container and its components Learn about thread safety and how to handle concurrency Write sequential, asynchronous work at a low cost Examine structured concurrency with coroutines, and learn how channels make coroutines communicate Learn how to use flows for asynchronous data processing Understand performance considerations using Android profiling tools Use performance optimizations to trim resource consumption