Database Users

Financial Application Development

I have barely developed anything since the BASIC days on the C64 and Amiga, and now feel inspired to create some financial applications for the Australian market - such as superannuation projections.
How hard is it to develop? A few standard calculations like you would see on a spreadsheet would work, with some graphing.
Most financial applications I have found are pretty basic and don't account for inflation in rising wages and fees, etc.
I believe I could attract at least a dollar for a well developed application for superannuation alone.

I have installed the Android 2.2 SDK and have no idea where to start. I presume this is some sort of emulated Android device I can test my applications on.
Are there any tutorials on how to get started? What's the development language?
All I need to do is create a simple text interface to input a few parameters to run some complex financial calculations on the back end.
A really sophisticated application would pull live interest rates or other data and enter that in.

Start with this:
developer.android. com/resources/tutorials/ hello-world.html
(take away the spaces, I cant post links yet )
These are all great tutorials that will walk you through the basic processes and applications/layouts. The only issue you will have is when/if you decide to go through the "Tabs View" tutorial, there are a lot of errors in the code, and I have no idea why no one have changed it, but you can PM me for the correct version.
If you want some basics on Java, just do a google search, there are a lot of great tutorials out there for beginning Java. I recommend doing this first, just so you have a good understanding of Java(which is the development language), it will *REALLY* help out. You can incorporate other languages, but for the time being, stick with Java.

Yes, the SDK comes with an emulator so that you can test your programs without having to install them on a real device. In addition to what Jimmy said (and I can't stres highly enough that you should start with the Android Developer's website and tutorials), you can go to Stack Overflow which is a programming Q&A website. People there are generally very helpful, as long as you've shown you've actually put some effort into solving your problem before you posted your question.

Fair enough... So it's basically about learning to programme for Java? How hard would it be, realistically, for someone with no application development experience?

You need a basic grasp of objected oriented design & programming, along with an understanding of the Java language. When it comes to gui aspects & all communication with other apps/data on the device, you have Android, rather than the usual Java class libraries such as awt or swing.
How hard? It's doable, imo, but will depend on aptitude. Start with Java & then add in Android when you feel like more material to get your head around.

So basically getting started requires me to learn application development like on any other platform, in OO and Java. I may as well do a course or something then. Would a few weeks doing some sort of intro course help?

I'm sure an appropriate course could be very helpful. Though I'd steer clear of those short courses claiming to turn anyone into a valuable skilled programmer in only xx weeks, if only because the tutor will probably know less than you on the subject. Better one which makes credible claims regarding its introductory nature. A couple of degree level intro modules on OO or Java should be of help.

Computer Science student with Java experience looking to dev in android

Hey guys, as the title says i study computer science, and i use java and c#.
But its only on desktop platforms.
How much does it differ on an android platform?
Is it really just differences the APIs or is it a completely different approach to programming fundamentals?
Also what is the best way to go about developing? Can i get an SdK that plugs into netbeans or the like??
thanks

I too, study computer science - besides already working in these and related fields. My first impression of Android development is that there are a few paradigm differences that one has to accept.
For example, on desktop platforms, development and execution of applications follows a clear line through your code while on Android (and possibly other mobile platforms I am not currently aware of) your application architecture is based around the concept of activities. Traditional predictable execution like you would know it from a console application has to be emulated as the activities virtually replace the usual entry point (that would be, the main method or function). Anyhow, once you're actually developing anything serious, you'll get used to it pretty fast, so I wouldn't worry too much about it.
Furthermore, if you're coming from C# and have used WPF or Silverlight, the Android SDK/NDK does indeed look like hell to you. I came to Android and iOS development from C++ (indeed I have gained a lot of experience with C++; that's why I learnt C# and used WPF in a week's time) and at this point, you really start to feel how Android has grown very fast over the past 12 months. Deprecated APIs aside, it seems really hard to me to keep up with the developments so far.
What personally annoys me the most - that is, by far the most - is the Java programming language and it's omnipresence in the system. For an at least somehow experienced C++ programmer, the way concepts are implemented in Java, and this statement is not limited to Android in particular, seems awefully redundant and painful to use. But if you like it that way, you'll be fine. I have set up a template for myself so I can write most of my code in C or a bigger subset of C++ even though the NDK guidelines explicitly oppose it.

You are not limited to Java, you can use C and C++ through the NDK. I use the Eclipse IDE along with the ADT plugin, you could use Netbeans as well.

Develpoing GUI in Java

Hi everyone,
some days ago, i was substancially forced to join an Android project by my professor.
The fact is that his course was about C++ (your equivalent of that course should be Compuer Science II, and i have a good knowledge of C++), and this project is in Java. I have a little experience in Java (in fact, one of the courses that i am attending is focused on Java). Now, i think that in order to be a Computer Science engineer i have to fit myself to the situation ( i have some docs about the project) but i have no experience in Android app development and a very little knowledge of XML, so i ask you some help :good:.
What i have to do is to realize some GUI for his application. It is not very difficult, but i have no idea about from where i have to begin. In these 2 days i have managed to start some very simple application from Eclipse on my smartphones, but that's all, nothing more. So, is there any book or (better) some short guide or video to follow?
I use, as IDE, Eclipse (because i usually use it for Cpp, but some people said me that Android Studio should be better). I know that Eclipse is a really god IDE (For Cpp i tried also CodeBlocks, VisualStudio and Netbeans), but i know too that it raises some error that newbie user could not managed to solve easily: one of them is a java.lang.nullPointerException raised in every main.xml file...
Moreover, the project has to connect to a IBM Bluemix-stored database.
Last but not least please share a comment about my English (that, i have to admit, is not very good). I would really like to know how it - really - is.
(Excepting the typo in the thread title).
So, i ask you to kindly share resources (video, guides ...) about realizing GUI in Android.

Well first i'd recommend using android studio since it is the official ide for android by google, and I have worked with eclipse for 2 years and the android plugin is just too buggy.
About designing the ui it is usually done in xml rather than in code since its more intuitive and there is a preview.
You should start learning the basics and from there they teach you how to design the ui.
Try the official guide in the google developers section for android "developers android training"

Are you talking about https: //developer .android.com /training/index .html ?

Yes exactly, they have some nice guides there.

Here is a very nice guide for creating your first app in Android Studio: http://www.raywenderlich.com/78574/android-tutorial-for-beginners-part-1
Here is a layout tutorial: http://code.tutsplus.com/tutorials/android-user-interface-design-layout-basics--mobile-3671
Here is a compilation of Android beginners tutorials: http://www.sitepoint.com/12-android-tutorials-beginners/
If you give a more focused description of what you are trying to achieve (what are you intending to display and how do you want to display it), more focused tutorials can be suggested.
Best of luck

EliteRazor said:
Hi everyone,
some days ago, i was substancially forced to join an Android project by my professor.
The fact is that his course was about C++ (your equivalent of that course should be Compuer Science II, and i have a good knowledge of C++), and this project is in Java. I have a little experience in Java (in fact, one of the courses that i am attending is focused on Java). Now, i think that in order to be a Computer Science engineer i have to fit myself to the situation ( i have some docs about the project) but i have no experience in Android app development and a very little knowledge of XML, so i ask you some help :good:.
What i have to do is to realize some GUI for his application. It is not very difficult, but i have no idea about from where i have to begin. In these 2 days i have managed to start some very simple application from Eclipse on my smartphones, but that's all, nothing more. So, is there any book or (better) some short guide or video to follow?
I use, as IDE, Eclipse (because i usually use it for Cpp, but some people said me that Android Studio should be better). I know that Eclipse is a really god IDE (For Cpp i tried also CodeBlocks, VisualStudio and Netbeans), but i know too that it raises some error that newbie user could not managed to solve easily: one of them is a java.lang.nullPointerException raised in every main.xml file...
Moreover, the project has to connect to a IBM Bluemix-stored database.
Last but not least please share a comment about my English (that, i have to admit, is not very good). I would really like to know how it - really - is.
(Excepting the typo in the thread title).
So, i ask you to kindly share resources (video, guides ...) about realizing GUI in Android.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can take a look at vogella web site tutorials
They have very usable tutorials, easy to understand.

Thanks everyone, i'll give a look to these resources

Open source template for educational app

Hi everyone, I wanted to share with you an open source project I believe could benefit many of you.
Android Academy is a template for an Android educational app, use it and you will only need to focus on the contents of your courses in order to quickly launch your app idea. You can find the project in the GitHub repository gcorso/android_academy, which is a boilerplate of an Android Studio project and includes by layout files, activities control and database integration, everything already set up for you so that you can get a headstart to bring your project to life.
The project can be used for free and its goal is to give a chance for educators to create their learning platform without having to have a great knowledge of Android development and to save time also for expert Android developers.

[SDK] DeepOnionJ Tor integrated DAPP Development Kit

Fork it on Github (deeponion/Android-DeepOnionJ) - Always free and open.
DeepOnion is an open source blockchain project with the aim to bringing privacy and anonymity to anyone that wants it.
We've recently released the DeepOnion Mobile App template. This will enable anyone to rapidly build and deploy a Tor integrated mobile applications that can connect to the DeepOnion network.
This is a key step in opening up our blockchain to new opportunities. Most blockchain based services need to rely on centralised backends that suck information from you before allowing you to use them. This demonstrates our progress in being able produce privacy first, decentralised applications (DApps) and I'm here to invite the XDA community to have a look at what we are doing, let us know what you think and hopefully use our SDK to develop world class DApps.
The project is new and quite raw at the moment, though any Android Dev should be able to see the basics of how the project is integrated with Tor, syncs with the DeepOnion blockchain and provides an interface to interact with it. I'll be updating it over the coming weeks/months to be fully fledged module that you can just add using gradle.
References:
API Docs - BitcoinJ
DeepOnionJ - Up to date fork of BitcoinJ converted to DeepOnion https://github.com/deeponion/deeponionj (deeponion/deeponionj)
Automated Builds DeepOnionJ - https://travis-ci.com/github/deeponion/deeponionj (Travis CI - Test and Deploy with Confidence)
Automated Builds DeepOnion Core - https://travis-ci.com/github/deeponion/deeponion (Travis CI - Test and Deploy with Confidence)
Please contribute to this project if you can -
Java Devs - Go Here -> https://github.com/deeponion/deeponionj (deeponion/deeponionj)
Android Devs - Go Here -> https://github.com/deeponion/Android-DeepOnionJ (deeponion/Android-DeepOnionJ)