Hi Guys,
I am just starting out programming for the Android. I am a proficient Visual Basic and Visual Foxpro programmer.
I ma using Eclipse as my IDE. It it possible to develop an Android App using mostly the Graphical Layout Interface instead of coding in XML? For coding the screen layouts etc.?
I tried finding one, but couldn't find a resource (book or web-based) where all the Controls (Form widgets, text fields, layouts, date picker etc) are listed along with their Properties with proper explanations of these Properties with examples etc.
Thanks in advance.
I'm not sure what you are asking. Do you mean you want to draw the screen directly with lines and pixels, etc (like GDI in windows)? If so, you can derive your own class from "View" and override the onDraw() function and do whatever you want.
Did you look at app inventor? It is ALL graphical. It may, however, be too limited for what you are trying to do.
http://appinventor.googlelabs.com/about/
Eclipse has a gui designer for android.
Fazulka said:
Did you look at app inventor? It is ALL graphical. It may, however, be too limited for what you are trying to do.
http://appinventor.googlelabs.com/about/
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Yes I did. it was too basic like building blocks..
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Yes eclipse has a GUI but its just for drawables mainly to see what it looks like and change position, dpi, colors etc. It helps add the line of code but in eclipse you may want to change the format if using the gui. I like my pages to be clean with annotations it makes life easier
You can also add some objects such as buttons and textview but you really need to know Java if you want to program for android.
FYI .. there is a lot of information on the web if you get stuck. Start with the hello android tutorial and move up the ladder good luck!
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Thanks mate. I intend doing just that!
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Anyone know a good resource to learn java for android?
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JulyDerek said:
Anyone know a good resource to learn java for android?
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I'd like to know as well. I have a little bit of programming experience, but not much. I don't know anything about Java though.
I'm a beginner in android but I somehow understand what's going on when I try to read tutorials from the developer.android.com because of a little background in java.
Watch this tutorials, it has 87 but you can stop at video 61 because you're not going to need GUI java for android but if you want a good book for Java try Head First Java either way they're both good for beginners. I did both because I really want to learn.
Here's the youtube link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hl-zzrqQoSE&feature=youtube_gdata_player
After knowing a little basics of Java go ahead for android. Again I'm no way expert but it really helped me a lot understanding android when I learned the basics of Java.
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Thanks a lot!
Related
Ok so I've never made my own android clock but have the development environment some where.
The story: I have just been looking through the market and can't find any clock widgets I like, so I have done a bit of C++ before and thought I could make my own, I am just wondering if this would be a good app to start with programming for android and how I would go about this using eclipse.
Thanks in advance. Slaming.
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a good place to start is here http://developer.android.com/index.html android apps are written in java so you kinda need to know and understand that good luck
Have you checked out Beautiful Widgets?
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Ok I will look there. And yeah ihave checkout beautiful widgets but not really what I'm looking for.
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Ok, I really am not liking Sense UI anymore. I don't really like MIUI or Vanilla Gingerbread. I would like to know where to begin in creating my own custom user interface to run over Gingerbread. Or perhaps a simpler task would be porting over other user interfaces from Motorola and Samsung to run over Gingerbread.
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Why not use go launcher or adw or launcher pro. They will replace sense...
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Hmm, never thought about that. Nice idea. But I guess my main purpose in making this was to see if anyone has (and can help me) created my own custom UI. It'd be nice I guess.
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OK... whatever tickles your fancy. Good luck to you
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thesmashippy said:
Hmm, never thought about that. Nice idea. But I guess my main purpose in making this was to see if anyone has (and can help me) created my own custom UI. It'd be nice I guess.
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First you would need to learn Java and C+ coding. Next I would learn Linux as android is Linux and you will need the knowledge to work on the UI.
Have a good look through the 'post your homescreen' thread. There's a wealth of inspiration in there. Have a look in the widget thread too.
Unless i'm wrong it's not the UI that you want to change as such, but what we'd call a Layout. For all intents and purposes it's the same thing. but UI is software whereas layout is graphical. End result being you want homescreens that look nice right?
Good Launcher+Good Widgets+Wallaper+Imagination and you'd be surprised how good you can make your device look. Some of what i see in the Homescreen thread are works of art!
DirkGently said:
Have a good look through the 'post your homescreen' thread. There's a wealth of inspiration in there. Have a look in the widget thread too.
Unless i'm wrong it's not the UI that you want to change as such, but what we'd call a Layout. For all intents and purposes it's the same thing. but UI is software whereas layout is graphical. End result being you want homescreens that look nice right?
Good Launcher+Good Widgets+Wallaper+Imagination and you'd be surprised how good you can make your device look. Some of what i see in the Homescreen thread are works of art!
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Well, What I really want to do is make my own thing. I mean a couple of starter ideas,
- 6 basic home screens (in a cube shape) you can change when slid vertically or horizontally
- 2-4 (based on how many you want) "tabs" on the side of choice that can hold apps, home screens would mainly be for widgets, can also be used for apps though.
I don't know, Its just ideas I wanted to be able to put into my own UI. I think I may get into coding to make my own UI.
Check out an open source launcher, it will give you an idea of how to do crap, beyond whatever is in the API docs. I think ADW is open sourced.
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I would start with flashing a non sense ROM. Thus you'll get rid of sense bloat and will get a stock standard launcher or any other customizable launcher. Just look through available Roms. Personally I'd recommend CM 7.
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samsung touchwiz is something new and refreshing
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I hate it when I touch my whiz
So any time I try to set a "HD" image as a wallpaper, it blurs and zooms in way too much. I've noticed this is a common issue with honeycomb tablets and have tried the "tricks" to get around it, but no luck. I know you can set wallpapers to look correct as I've seen the screenshots. Any tips on getting this done as the stock wallpapers just don't cut it?
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What dimensions and resolution are the images you are trying to use?
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Been trying 1920x1408 as I've read that was the optimal resolution with the way honeycomb crops wallpaper images. Some look halfway decent, most just look awful. And honestly not sure image dimensions. Just been googling HD images
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scoobysnax8569 said:
So any time I try to set a "HD" image as a wallpaper, it blurs and zooms in way too much. I've noticed this is a common issue with honeycomb tablets and have tried the "tricks" to get around it, but no luck. I know you can set wallpapers to look correct as I've seen the screenshots. Any tips on getting this done as the stock wallpapers just don't cut it?
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Search "Multipicture live wallpaper" in your market app.
It will set your images up correctly no matter what resolution they are (provided they aren't super low-res). It's a free app.
Once installed, it comes up as a choice in your regular wallpaper settings.
Sorry, I can't post links up, or I would link directly to the app.
Also, if you have a little photoshop beginning skills, you can make a template where you can overlay your image as a layer, and see exactly where things need to be moved.
When you set wallpaper from Gallery, they use a sizable template, so it will give you a good idea of what the parameters are.
ATGAdmin said:
Search "Multipicture live wallpaper" in your market app.
It will set your images up correctly no matter what resolution they are (provided they aren't super low-res). It's a free app.
Once installed, it comes up as a choice in your regular wallpaper settings.
Sorry, I can't post links up, or I would link directly to the app.
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Thanks. I got that and tried. While it does keep the whole image and leaves it without distortion, it is framed inside a black box. But it's better than before lol. Thanks a lot for the suggestion.
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Moscow Desire said:
Also, if you have a little photoshop beginning skills, you can make a template where you can overlay your image as a layer, and see exactly where things need to be moved.
When you set wallpaper from Gallery, they use a sizable template, so it will give you a good idea of what the parameters are.
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Saw this as an option as well by others. Very little Photoshop skills, but I can learn lol. I'd like to use some of the different pics I find and this seems like the best alternative to still be able to use most of the image. Thanks
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scoobysnax8569 said:
Saw this as an option as well by others. Very little Photoshop skills, but I can learn lol. I'd like to use some of the different pics I find and this seems like the best alternative to still be able to use most of the image. Thanks
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Yeah, I think I'll try and make a template when I get some free time.
There was a guy who had one a long time ago, in the themes section, but the link to download was broken (he had it on megaupload), and I looked and seems he deleted the thread a week or so ago. Link didn't work, but it had an image of how the template looked (similar when you choose wallpaper from gallery)
I can tell you some things.
1. keep it as a psp so you can keep the layers
2. Remember, it will have several layers. Overall size, portrait, and landscape.
3. Use a different color and transparency for each layer.
4. Also, don't forget the top, bottom, and side borders.
5. Use your image as a new layer, and move it to the back of the template, do you can see what parts are going to be shown in both portrait and landscape. Then you can resize and move around the layer as needed.
Moscow Desire said:
Yeah, I think I'll try and make a template when I get some free time.
There was a guy who had one a long time ago, in the themes section, but the link to download was broken (he had it on megaupload), and I looked and seems he deleted the thread a week or so ago. Link didn't work, but it had an image of how the template looked (similar when you choose wallpaper from gallery)
I can tell you some things.
1. keep it as a psp so you can keep the layers
2. Remember, it will have several layers. Overall size, portrait, and landscape.
3. Use a different color and transparency for each layer.
4. Also, don't forget the top, bottom, and side borders.
5. Use your image as a new layer, and move it to the back of the template, do you can see what parts are going to be shown in both portrait and landscape. Then you can resize and move around the layer as needed.
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Thank you very much for the help. I'll give this a whirl as soon as I can get back to my laptop and have a chance to teach myself a little. I've found a somewhat decent alternative in the meantime, Wallpaper Wizardii. It's not perfect, but it is by far the best results other than making my own. Oh and nice ROM by the way. Thanks for your hard work.
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Try Picspeed HD Wallpapers 170,000+ on Market
has a built in bg setter works on few diff scales
MD; I found two links. One with original thread with broken link but explaining what to do. Second has the template and some other basic info. Maybe this will help......
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1056305
http://forum.sdx-developers.com/?PH...5l3bvdgk0mnm6&topic=14415.msg180938#msg180938
Bill......
merc669 said:
MD; I found two links. One with original thread with broken link but explaining what to do. Second has the template and some other basic info. Maybe this will help......
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1056305
http://forum.sdx-developers.com/?PH...5l3bvdgk0mnm6&topic=14415.msg180938#msg180938
Bill......
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Thanks for those links. Good way for me to learn the stuff. Appreciate it
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Another great tool that will work for this purpose is Wallpaper Wizardii. It's free and is not a live wallpaper. Lots of options... In your case you should choose the "scale" option if you decide to try the app.
drkalo said:
Another great tool that will work for this purpose is Wallpaper Wizardii. It's free and is not a live wallpaper. Lots of options... In your case you should choose the "scale" option if you decide to try the app.
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Found it and using it! Works great. Thanks for the tip
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Hi guys,
First, I'm a developer who spends a lot of time with his nose into terminal windows and editors... so please forgive me if I'm used to the "boring" stuff. I was wondering if you could give me some suggestions what widgets should I use to fill few of the tablet screens. So far, the main apps I use on the tablet are the Terminal (go figure) to manage my Linux boxes and my 3 Google Apps accounts (drive, mail, etc.)
I looked on the internet at those "popular widgets" postings and they all show crappy stuff like Google Play, Beautiful Widgets, Facebook etc. With no disrespect, they are useless to me. I'm looking more into "geek" factor, like some nice tablet memory/kernel stats and other cool widgets I could make use of. I know is hard what I ask but I'm looking for input from tech people who use the tablet to manage mostly Linux related stuff, not just the Google Play library.
It sucks to have all those screens empty, thank you for your help.
Floren
You could actually design a fancy-nothing widget by yourself that could show random stuff, like stats, load, cool pictures, links to websites, etc, periodically. Resizable, and repicable. That would be nice.
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For a self-proclaimed dev, this guy sure is lazy. ****, app inventor takes no time.
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ace7196 said:
For a self-proclaimed dev, this guy sure is lazy. ****, app inventor takes no time.
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I don't write Android apps. I did wrote from scratch the XDA search you use it every day and helped the guys to optimize their servers, so you can post your content easier. Thanks for the nice insults.
Yea wth?
Anyway. I suggest Android Pro Widgets. Its free but I recommend buying it for themeing ablilities. They are scrollable Widgets for Facebook, twitter, calendar, favorites, etc. I have a page dedicated to these alone. I like my main homescreen very minimalistic.
Outside of that I use some sort of weather widget. I don't listen to music often and my status bar has toggles. Not sure what else you would need.
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Could try minimalistic text and create your own text widgets showing stats of the tablet.
Does anyone got any good music widgets?
Battery Monitor Widget Pro and System Tuner Pro have some decent geeky widgets. Not great though. I'd like to find some more too.
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TECK said:
I don't write Android apps. I did wrote from scratch the XDA search you use it every day and helped the guys to optimize their servers, so you can post your content easier. Thanks for the nice insults.
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Don't worry about responses like that one. They are a dime a dozen and provide nothing to these forums/communities. Best to ignore nay sayers...
Some suggestions for widgets would definitely be a weather widget, gmail/email widget, play music widget. Just to name a few a lot of it is personal preference from what I see...
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Has anyone tried elixr2? Has quite a few widgets like the OP asked for.
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dante32278 said:
Has anyone tried elixr2? Has quite a few widgets like the OP asked for.
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You beat me too it. Elixr2 is good. I used to use it on my gtablet while testing roms. It was really helpful
I'm sorry if you understood my comment as an insult. I was actually giving a nice idea. I have developed some apps for diferrent purposes, and I found your post interesting - some widgets to beautify your screens. I could simply not mention any idea, but you know, I like brainstorming.
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I made a widget once for a friend that showed either his stats or his teams stats from World Community Grid, but it only seems to work on 2.1 and I'm not a Dev....no idea how to fix it. LOL
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TECK said:
Hi guys,
First, I'm a developer who spends a lot of time with his nose into terminal windows and editors... so please forgive me if I'm used to the "boring" stuff. I was wondering if you could give me some suggestions what widgets should I use to fill few of the tablet screens. So far, the main apps I use on the tablet are the Terminal (go figure) to manage my Linux boxes and my 3 Google Apps accounts (drive, mail, etc.)
I looked on the internet at those "popular widgets" postings and they all show crappy stuff like Google Play, Beautiful Widgets, Facebook etc. With no disrespect, they are useless to me. I'm looking more into "geek" factor, like some nice tablet memory/kernel stats and other cool widgets I could make use of. I know is hard what I ask but I'm looking for input from tech people who use the tablet to manage mostly Linux related stuff, not just the Google Play library.
It sucks to have all those screens empty, thank you for your help.
Floren
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I strongly recommend Elixir Widgets 2. Highly customizable, lots of options (more than any other), sips battery and CPU.
Here is my main 'reporting' page.
Also I reduced to 3 home screens... psychological reduction in empty space.
josjator said:
I'm sorry if you understood my comment as an insult.
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I was quoting ace7196, not you. Thanks though.
Hi all need help deciding which way to go developing a picture based parts repair form. My first thought was to have the user take the picture then edit photo after its saved by adding a circle or arrow to the parts area in question. The second thought I had would be to use an overlay graphic (arrow or circle) while taking the picture and saved together. While the second option sounds easier its less user friendly I'm thinking. Are there any other options I'm missing? What are your thoughts.. Thanks :banghead:
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I figured it out! The easiest way I found was from Aviary. A free/paid image editing SDK @ http://developers.aviary.com
Best feature I liked is you can allow / disallow users different editing tools for your needs.
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