Pro Android

This book covers the Android SDK. It’s broken up into 13 chapters, as follows:

Chapter    1,    “Introducing    the    Android    Computing    Platform”
     This chapter introduces you to the Android Platform and its basic building blocks. It
also gives you an overview of the Android subsystems by showing you the high-level
packages within the Android SDK. Plus, we provide information on Android’s special-
ized virtual machine that addresses the limitations of handheld devices.

 Chapter    2,    “Getting    Your    Feet    Wet”
        In this chapter, we show you how to set up a development environment for Android
programming. We then walk you through a basic application and introduce you to
some of the Android components. We also cover the application lifecycle and familiar-
ize you with some debugging tools.
 Chapter    3,    “Using    Resources,    Content    Providers,    and    Intents”
       Here we cover several of the fundamental pillars of the Android Platform—resources,
content providers, and intents. We explain what resources are and how they function
in an Android application. We demonstrate how to use content providers as a mecha-
nism for abstracting data into services. We define intents and show you how to use
them as a generic way to request action.

 Chapter    4,    “Building    User    Interfaces    and    Using    Controls”
              This chapter is all about building user interfaces with the Android widget toolkit. We
first cover building UIs programmatically, then cover Android’s preferred way of defin-
ing UIs—in XML layout files. We also discuss Android’s layout managers and view
adapters. Plus, this chapter provides an introduction to the Hierarchy Viewer tool,
which you use to optimize UIs.
  Chapter    5,    “Working    with    Menus    and    Dialogs”
              Here we extend our discussion on UI programming in Android by talking about menus
and dialogs. We show you Android’s philosophy on building menus, and then discuss
the various types of menus available in the Android SDK. We also talk about dialog
components.
  Chapter    6,    “Unveiling    2D    Animation”
              In this chapter, we discuss Android’s 2D animation capabilities. We show you how to
animate views to make your applications more appealing. Specifically, we cover three
categories of animation: frame-by-frame animation, layout animation, and view ani-
mation.
   Chapter    7,    “Exploring    Security    and    Location-Based    Services”
              This chapter covers Android’s security model and location-based services. In the first
part, we show you Android’s security requirements and then show you how to secure
your applications. In the second part, we talk about location-based services, which is a
fundamental aspect of a mobile device. We show you Android’s support for mapping
and then show you how to customize a map with data specific to your application. We
also cover geocoding in this chapter.
    Chapter    8,    “Building    and    Consuming    Services”
          This chapter is about building background services in Android. Here, we talk about
building services that are local to your application, as well as remote services—
services that can be consumed by other applications running on the device. Remote
services are based on Android Interface Definition Language (AIDL), so we show you
how to define AIDL types and files. We also describe how to pass types across process
boundaries.
    Chapter    9,    “Using    the    Media    Framework    and    Telephony    APIs”
          This chapter shows you how to build media-capable applications with the Android
SDK. We talk about playing audio and video and then show you how to record audio.
We cover text messaging in the telephony part of the chapter.

  Chapter    10,    “Programming    3D    Graphics    with    OpenGL”
        Here, you learn how to implement 3D graphics using OpenGL. We show you how to set
up OpenGL with your applications and then cover the basics of OpenGL and OpenGL
ES. We cover some of the essential OpenGL ES APIs and build a test harness that you
can use to exercise those APIs.
  Chapter    11,    “Managing    and    Organizing    Preferences”
         In this chapter, we talk about Android’s preferences framework. We show you that
Android has built-in support for displaying and persisting preferences. We discuss
three types of UI elements: CheckBoxPreference, EditTextPreference, and Ring-
tonePreference. We also talk about organizing preferences within your applications.
   Chapter    12,    “Coming    to    Grips    with    1.5”
        Chapter 12 discusses some of the changes in the Android 1.5 SDK. Specifically, we
talk about some of the SDK’s new tools and a few of the most exciting APIs. For
example, you’ll learn about the new UI wizard that creates Android resources, the
new speech-recognition intent, intents to record audio and video, video capture using
the MediaRecorder, and more. You’ll also get a short introduction to Android’s input-
method framework (IMF) implementation.
    Chapter    13,    “Simplifying    OpenGL    and    Exploring    Live    Folders”
        This chapter begins by covering the OpenGL-related changes in Android 1.5 and then
discusses the new live-folder framework. As you’ll see, the Android 1.5 SDK offers
some additional abstractions to the OpenGL APIs that make it easier for you to build
applications that utilize 3D graphics. We also talk at length about a new concept called
live folders, which allow you to expose content providers such as contacts, notes, and
media on the device’s default opening screen.
After reading this book, you’ll have a good understanding of the fundamentals of
Android. You will be able to utilize the various types of components available in the Android
SDK to build your mobile applications. You will also know how to deploy and version your
applications.

Download the free pdf ebook: Pro Android

Android Programming
written by Nicolas Gramlich

The  Open  Handset  Alliance  released  the  Google  Android  SDK  on
November  12 th,  2007,  having  announced  it  about  a  week  before.  The
impact  was  unbelievable,  almost  every  IT/programming-related  news-
page dumped a news-post about the SDK release – the Google Groups (2)
was overwhelmed with over 2000 Messages within the first two Days. 
The idea of the Android Platform was and still is amazing and is of course
attracting  more  and  more  programmers  every  day.  Especially  the  open
architecture  based  on  Intents  and  the  possibility  to  replace  even  the
Home-application grant a really large amount of flexibility to the whole
platform.

Download the free pdf ebook: Android Programming

Web Database Application with PHP and MySQL, 2nd Edition
By David Lane, Hugh E. Williams
   
Publisher : O'Reilly
Pub Date : May 2004
ISBN : 0-596-00543-1
Pages : 816

This book is for developers who want to build database applications that are integrated with the Web. We show you the principles and techniques for developing small- to medium-scale web database applications that store, manage, and retrieve data. The architecture we describe is a successful framework for applications that can run on modest hardware and process more than a million hits per day.

We show you all of the critical tasks you need to know to build successful web software. We cover programming fundamentals for the Web. We show you the principles and practice of working with databases using the SQL query language. We teach you about tracking users with sessions, securing an application, separating presentation from code, writing database-independent code, writing reports, adding error handling, and advanced object-oriented and database topics.

An important feature of this book is our case study, Hugh and Dave's Online Wines. It's a complete but fictional online retail store that illustrates how most of the techniques described in the book can be put together to build a real application. The winestore application allows users to browse and search a database of wines, add items to a shopping cart, manage their membership, and purchase wines. It has all the basic security, user-tracking, and error-handling features of a real-world application. It features a medium-size database that we use in querying examples throughout the book.

We use Open Source software, and we show you how to use it on Unix-based platforms such as Linux and Mac OS X, and under Microsoft Windows 2000, 2003, and XP. Our database server is MySQL, a system known for its suitability to applications that require speed but low resource overheads. Our scripting language is PHP, which is best known for its function libraries that interact with more than 15 relational database systems, the web environment, and many other services. Apache is our web server of choice, but most other web servers can be used successfully with MySQL, PHP, and this book.

Download the free chm ebook: Web Database Application with PHP and MySQL, 2nd Edition

 

Web Database Application with PHP and MySQL, 2nd Edition
By David Lane, Hugh E. Williams
   
Publisher : O'Reilly
Pub Date : May 2004
ISBN : 0-596-00543-1
Pages : 816

This book is for developers who want to build database applications that are integrated with the Web. We show you the principles and techniques for developing small- to medium-scale web database applications that store, manage, and retrieve data. The architecture we describe is a successful framework for applications that can run on modest hardware and process more than a million hits per day.

We show you all of the critical tasks you need to know to build successful web software. We cover programming fundamentals for the Web. We show you the principles and practice of working with databases using the SQL query language. We teach you about tracking users with sessions, securing an application, separating presentation from code, writing database-independent code, writing reports, adding error handling, and advanced object-oriented and database topics.

An important feature of this book is our case study, Hugh and Dave's Online Wines. It's a complete but fictional online retail store that illustrates how most of the techniques described in the book can be put together to build a real application. The winestore application allows users to browse and search a database of wines, add items to a shopping cart, manage their membership, and purchase wines. It has all the basic security, user-tracking, and error-handling features of a real-world application. It features a medium-size database that we use in querying examples throughout the book.

We use Open Source software, and we show you how to use it on Unix-based platforms such as Linux and Mac OS X, and under Microsoft Windows 2000, 2003, and XP. Our database server is MySQL, a system known for its suitability to applications that require speed but low resource overheads. Our scripting language is PHP, which is best known for its function libraries that interact with more than 15 relational database systems, the web environment, and many other services. Apache is our web server of choice, but most other web servers can be used successfully with MySQL, PHP, and this book.

Download the free chm ebook: Web Database Application with PHP and MySQL, 2nd Edition

 

Core Python Programming, Second Edition
By Wesley J. Chun
Publisher: Prentice Hall
Pub Date: September 18, 2006
Print ISBN-10: 0-13-226993-7
Print ISBN-13: 978-0-13-226993-3
Pages: 1120

Praise for Core Python Programming

"The long-awaited second edition of Wesley Chun's Core Python Programming proves to be well worth the waitits deep and broad coverage and useful exercises will help readers learn and practice good Python."

Alex Martelli, author of Python in a Nutshell and editor of Python Cookbook

"There has been lot of good buzz around Wesley Chun's Core Python Programming. It turns out that all the buzz is well earned. I think this is the best book currently available for learning Python. I would recommend Chun's book over Learning Python (O'Reilly), Programming Python (O'Reilly), or The Quick Python Book (Manning)."

David Mertz, Ph.D., IBM DeveloperWorks®

"I have been doing a lot of research [on] Python for the past year and have seen a number of positive reviews of your book. The sentiment expressed confirms the opinion that Core Python Programming is now considered the standard introductory text."

Richard Ozaki, Lockheed Martin

"Finally, a book good enough to be both a textbook and a reference on the Python language now exists."

Michael Baxter, Linux Journal

"Very well written. It is the clearest, friendliest book I have come across yet for explaining Python, and putting it in a wider context. It does not presume a large amount of other experience. It does go into some important Python topics carefully and in depth. Unlike too many beginner books, it never condescends or tortures the reader with childish hide-and-seek prose games. [It] sticks to gaining a solid grasp of Python syntax and structure."

http://python.org bookstore Web site

"[If ] I could only own one Python book, it would be Core Python Programming by Wesley Chun. This book manages to cover more topics in more depth than Learning Python but includes it all in one book that also more than adequately covers the core language. [If] you are in the market for just one book about Python, I recommend this book. You will enjoy reading it, including its wry programmer's wit. More importantly, you will learn Python. Even more importantly, you will find it invaluable in helping you in your day-to-day Python programming life. Well done, Mr. Chun!"

Ron Stephens, Python Learning Foundation

"I think the best language for beginners is Python, without a doubt. My favorite book is Core Python Programming."

s003apr, MP3Car.com Forums

"Personally, I really like Python. It's simple to learn, completely intuitive, amazingly flexible, and pretty darned fast. Python has only just started to claim mindshare in the Windows world, but look for it to start gaining lots of support as people discover it. To learn Python, I'd start with Core Python Programming by Wesley Chun."

Bill Boswell, MCSE, Microsoft Certified Professional Magazine Online

"If you learn well from books, I suggest Core Python Programming. It is by far the best I've found. I'm a Python newbie as well and in three months time I've been able to implement Python in projects at work (automating MSOffice, SQL DB stuff, etc.)."

ptonman, Dev Shed Forums

"Python is simply a beautiful language. It's easy to learn, it's cross-platform, and it works. It has achieved many of the technical goals that Java strives for. A one-sentence description of Python would be: 'All other languages appear to have evolved over time--but Python was designed.' And it was designed well. Unfortunately, there aren't a large number of books for Python. The best one I've run across so far is Core Python Programming."

Chris Timmons, C. R. Timmons Consulting

"If you like the Prentice Hall Core series, another good full-blown treatment to consider would be Core Python Programming. It addresses in elaborate concrete detail many practical topics that get little, if any, coverage in other books."

Mitchell L Model, MLM Consulting

"Core Python Programming is an amazingly easy read! The liberal use of examples helps clarify some of the more subtle points of the language. And the comparisons to languages with which I'm already familiar (C/C++/Java) get you programming in record speed."

Michael Santos, Ph.D., Green Hills Software

The Complete Developer's Guide to PythonFully Updated for Python 2.5

New to Python? The definitive guide to Python development for experienced programmers

Covers core language features thoroughly, including those found in the latest Python releases

Learn advanced topics such as regular expressions, networking, multithreading, GUI, and Web/CGI

Includes brand-new chapters on database, Internet, Jython, and COM Client programming

Presents hundreds of code samples and practical exercises to strengthen your Python skills

Python is an agile, robust, expressive, fully object-oriented, extensible, and scalable programming language. It combines the power of compiled languages with the simplicity and rapid development of scripting languages. In Core Python Programming, Second Edition, leading Python developer and trainer Wesley Chun helps you learn Python quickly and comprehensively so that you can immediately succeed with any Python project.

Using practical code examples, Chun introduces all the fundamentals of Python programming: syntax, objects and memory management, data types, operators, files and I/O, functions, generators, error handling and exceptions, loops, iterators, functional programming, object-oriented programming and more. After you learn the core fundamentals of Python, he shows you what you can do with your new skills, delving into advanced topics, such as regular expressions, networking programming with sockets, multithreading, GUI development, Web/CGI programming and extending Python in C.

This edition reflects major enhancements in the Python 2.x series, including 2.5 as well as capabilities set for future versions. It contains new chapters on database and Internet client programming, plus coverage of many new topics, including new-style classes, Java and Jython, Microsoft Office (Win32 COM Client) programming, and much more.

Learn professional Python style, best practices, and good programming habits

Gain a deep understanding of Python's objects and memory model as well as its OOP features, including those found in Python's new-style classes

Build more effective Web, CGI, Internet, and network and other client/server applications

Learn how to develop your own GUI applications using Tkinter and other toolkits available for Python

Improve the performance of your Python applications by writing extensions in C and other languages, or enhance I/O-bound applications by using multithreading

Learn about Python's database API and how to use a variety of database systems with Python, including MySQL, Postgres, and SQLite

Core Python Programming delivers

Systematic, expert coverage of Python's core features

Powerful insights for developing complex applications

Easy-to-use tables and charts detailing Python modules, operators, functions, and methods

Dozens of professional-quality code examples, from quick snippets to full-fledged applications

Download the free chm ebook: Core Python Programming, Second Edition