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An Android cheat sheet (my notes, main concepts)

By Alvin Alexander. Last updated: April 8, 2024

Table of Contents

  1. Getting started with Android
  2. Main Android concepts
  3. Android files and folders
  4. Activity
  5. Fragment class
  6. Layouts (Containers)
  7. UI Components/Widgets
  8. Toolbar and ActionBar
  9. Intents
  10. Android support library
  11. Android command line
  12. Different ways to run Java threads
  13. Code snippets
  14. That’s all for now

This page is a little unusual for me: It’s basically a terse summary of what I know about Android. I created it because (a) I tend to work with Android for a few weeks or months, and then (b) get away from it for several months, so this page helps me reload everything into my brain.

I don’t offer much discussion here; this is more like a quick Android reference page. If you’re interested in Android, I have written a lot more about it, and you can follow this link to my Android tutorials.

Getting started with Android

Main Android concepts

Some of the main Android concepts to grasp are:

  • AndroidManifest.xml - describe your app in this file; your app starts with the “main” method you declare here. You also need to declare all of your activities here.
  • Activity - an Activity is a Java controller class that typically corresponds to one screen in your app
  • Fragment - a Fragment is a Java controller that typically corresponds to a widget in a screen (or possibly the full screen)
  • You generally design your UI in the designer; this creates XML files that you can also modify as needed
  • The Big Nerd Guide has this rule about Activities and Fragments: “always use fragments”
  • Intent - you launch new activities with Intents
  • Service - background services, like notifications
  • Content Providers - tbd
  • BroadcastIntent, BroadcastReceiver - tbd
  • R class - generated for you by the Android build process

More important concepts

Even more Android concepts

  • AsyncTask, Handler — don’t execute long-running code on the main UI thread
  • Timer, TimerTask
  • MediaPlayer, WebView, GPS
  • SharedPreferences, PreferenceManager
  • LocationManager
  • Need to request permissions for certain things in AndroidManifest.xml
  • Testing best practices (todo)
  • Native code (JNI)?
  • Nine-patch images: a stretchable bitmap image; Android automatically resizes to accommodate the view size
  • Themes: Holo Light, Holo Dark, Holo Light with dark action bar
  • Styles: you can create styles and apply them to widgets in a manner similar to CSS
  • Logging (Log.i, Log.e, etc.)
  • REST services, internet access
  • SQL databases (SQLite)

Android files and folders

  • AndroidManifest.xml
    • You describe your application in AndroidManifest.xml
    • As its name implies, this is an XML configuration file
  • Directories in an Android project
    • src
    • res/drawable - static images
    • res/layout - layout files
    • res/menu - menu layout files
    • res/values - strings.xml

Activity

  • an Activity is a controller class (in the MVC sense)
  • an Activity generally corresponds to a single Android screen
  • need to add each Activity to AndroidManifest.xml
  • you specify the “launcher” activity for your class in the AndroidManifest.xml file (i.e., the main class)
  • all other activities are launched with Intents
  • fragment hosting - an activity provides a spot in its view hierarchy where the fragment can place its view

The Activity lifecycle

  • it's important to know the Android Activity lifecycle, i.e., which methods are available, and when they are called
  • in my own experience Android is like Drupal or Sencha in that you implement predefined "callback" methods to do your work
  • an activity can be in one of four states (more or less):
    • Active - started, and running in the foreground
    • Paused - started, is running and visible, but something is overlaying part of the screen
    • Stopped - started, running, but hidden by another activity the user is using
    • Dead - activity was terminated, such as due to insufficient ram

Working with state changes

(Most of these notes come from the free version of the book, Busy Coder’s Guide to Android Development.)

  • You need to be able to save your application instance state quickly and cheaply
  • Activities can be killed off at any time, so you have to save state more often than you might expect
  • Think of this process as "establishing a bookmark," so when the user returns the state will be as they left it
  • Saving instance state is handled by onSaveInstanceState(Bundle)
  • The default implementation of onSaveInstanceState will (probably) save things like the mutable state of widgets that are being displayed, like the text in a TextView (but it won't save whether or not a Button is enabled or disabled, or, as i've learned, a background image on a widget)
  • You can get that instance state in onCreate(Bundle) and onRestoreInstanceState(Bundle)
  • In some activities you won't have to implement onSaveInstanceState at all; this depends on your activity and what data it needs, etc.

The Activity onCreate method

  • onCreate is called when an Activity is created
  • OS calls this method "after the Activity instance is created but before it's put on a screen"
  • things you can/should do in this method include:
    • inflate widgets
    • put widgets on screen
    • get references to widgets
    • set listeners on widgets
    • connect to external data models
  • note: never call onCreate yourself
  • onCreate is called in three situations:
    • when the activity is first started, onCreate is called with a null parameter
    • if the activity was running and then killed, onCreate will be invoked with the Bundle you saved with a call to onSaveInstanceState
    • when the device orientation changes and you have accounted for that with different layouts

setContentView method

  • you will often call setContentView in your onCreate methods
  • setContentView inflates a layout and puts it on screen

onDestroy

The onDestroy method may be called:

  • when the activity is shutting down, because the activity called finish()
  • onDestroy is mostly used for cleanly/properly releasing resources you created in onCreate
  • because Android shut it down (such as when needing ram)
  • note: onDestroy may not get called if the need for ram is urgent.

onStart, onRestart, onStop

  • onStart is called (a) when an activity is first launched, or (b) when it's brought back to the foreground after having been hidden
  • onRestart is called when the activity is stopped and is now restarting (just after onStart)
  • onStop is called when the activity is about to be stopped

onPause and onResume

onPause:

  • onPause is called when the user is taken away from your activity, such as the starting of another activity
  • if you have resources locked up, release them here (background threads, camera, etc.).

onResume:

  • onResume is called just before your activity comes to the foreground, either after:
    • initial launch
    • being restarted from a stopped state
    • after a pop-up dialog was shown
  • onResume is a good place to refresh the UI, such as when polling a service, or if a pop-up dialog affects the view, etc.

Bundle

  • a Bundle is passed into the onCreate method
  • as you'll see, it's also passed into other Android lifecycle methods
  • an Android Bundle is a map/dictionary data structure that maps keys to values (i.e., key/value pairs)
  • a Bundle can contain the saved state of your views (among other things)
  • you can save additional data to a bundle and then read it back later
  • has methods like putInt, putSerializable, getInt, etc.

Fragment class

  • like an Activity, a Fragment is a controller class
  • fragments were introduced in Android 3.0 when they began to support tablets
  • tablets required more complicated/flexible layouts, and fragments were the solution
  • fragments let you create small widgets that you can plug into larger views
  • said another way, fragments help separate the ui into building blocks
  • usually a fragment manages a ui, or part of a ui
  • an activity's view contains a place where a fragment will be inserted
    • an activity is said to "host" a fragment by providing a spot in its view where the fragment can place its view
    • an activity may have several places for fragments
  • an activity can replace one fragment with another fragment
  • the Big Nerd book offers this advice: always use fragments (AUF)
  • a Fragment can use getActivity() to get a reference to its Activity
  • fragments are managed by the FragmentManager of the hosting Activity
  • FragmentManager - responsible for calling the lifecycle methods of the fragments in its list
  • to use fragments, your Activity must subclass FragmentActivity; AppCompatActivity is a subclass of FragmentActivity

Layouts (Containers)

  • you can create your UI views using XML or Java code, but XML is the preferred approach
  • of course XML layouts are verbose, but a nice thing is that they work well with the Android Studio designer
  • Android Studio also gives you helpful hints when you're searching for attributes to control your views (so it's not like you have to memorize every possible attribute)
  • widgets in your layouts are managed by either an Activity or a Fragment
  • Android has the following types of layouts (there may be a few more; I’ve used these so far):

LinearLayout

  • in a LinearLayout, widgets and child containers are lined up in either a column or a row, like a FlowLayout in Swing
  • a LinearLayout has five main controls:
    • orientation
    • fill model
    • weight
    • gravity
    • padding

RelativeLayout

  • a RelativeLayout lays out widgets based on their relationship to other widgets in the container
  • RelativeLayout has many configuration options that let you position widgets relative to each other, including these boolean values:
    • android:layout_alignParentTop - the widget's top should align with the top of the container
    • android:layout_alignParentBottom - the widget's bottom should align with the bottom of the container
    • android:layout_alignParentLeft - the widget's left side should align with the left side of the container
    • android:layout_alignParentRight - the widget's right side should align with the right side of the container
    • android:layout_centerHorizontal - the widget should be positioned horizontally at the center of the container
    • android:layout_centerVertical - the widget should be positioned vertically at the center of the container
    • android:layout_centerInParent - the widget should be positioned both horizontally and vertically at the center of the container
  • it also lets you specify a widget's position relative to other widgets:
    • android:layout_above - the widget should be placed above the widget referenced in the property
    • android:layout_below - the widget should be placed below the widget referenced in the property
    • android:layout_toLeftOf - the widget should be placed to the left of the widget referenced in the property
    • android:layout_toRightOf - the widget should be placed to the right of the widget referenced in the property
  • (there are more attributes than those. those came from an old version of a book titled, "The Busy Coder's Guide to Android Development")

Common attributes in layouts

  • match_parent - the view will be as big as its parent
  • wrap_content - the view will be as big as its contents require
  • @+id - the actual id will be in gen/R.java, inside a public static final class id { ...
  • gravity
  • more (todo) ...

UI Components/Widgets

  • ActionBar -
  • Dialogs -
  • Toasts - short lived popup messages
  • Menus - don't use these any more, use the ActionBar

Standard widgets are:

  • Button
  • TextView - use for labels (like JLabel)
  • EditText - editable text field (don’t forget you can set keyboard/input options)
  • Checkbox
  • RadioButton, RadioGroup
  • ToggleButton
  • Spinner ...
  • Picker (DatePicker, TimePicker)

Toast

A Toast is a short-lived message that appears in a little popup window. Create a Toast like this:

Toast.makeText(getActivity(), "Click!", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
  • you use Toasts to show messages to users, such as indicating that something was saved.
  • i also use Toasts for testing new code, like this:
@Override
public void onListItemClick(ListView listView, View view, int position, long id) {
    Crime crime = (Crime)(getListAdapter()).getItem(position);
        Toast.makeText(getActivity(), "Click!", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
    }
  • you can set the gravity on a Toast:
Toast t = Toast.makeText(getActivity(), "Click!", Toast.LENGTH_LONG);
t.setGravity(Gravity.TOP, 0, 0);
t.show(); ...

Snackbar messages

Snackbar messages are like Toasts, but they’re shown at the bottom of the display and attached to a view. You can create and display a Snackbar message like this:

Snackbar.make(
    view,
    "going to: " + url,
    Snackbar.LENGTH_LONG
)
.show();

Toolbar and ActionBar

  • the ActionBar was introduced in Android 3.0
  • it lets you put button/icon controls on your views. a typical button on a ListView is an "add" button, to let you add a new item
  • the ActionBar is still supported, but i think it's being replaced by a Toolbar
  • you used to have to use an ActionBarActivity to use an ActionBar, but you don't have to do that any more (as of Version ? (todo))
  • the Toolbar is newer than the ActionBar, and gives you more control than the ActionBar

Intents

  • you use an Intent to launch other activities
  • here's a simple example:
Intent i = new Intent(getActivity(), ImagePagerActivity.class);
startActivity(i);
  • here's another example where i pass an "extra" when starting a new Activity:
Intent i = new Intent(getActivity(), ImagePagerActivity.class);
i.putExtra("POSITION", position);
startActivityForResult(i, 0);

Android support library

From the Support Library docs:

  • When developing apps to support multiple API versions, Support Library provides a way to have newer features on earlier versions of Android, or gracefully fall back to equivalent functionality
  • Leverage these libraries to provide that compatibility layer
  • The Support Libraries also provide additional convenience classes and features not available in the standard Framework API for easier development and support across more devices
  • Originally a single binary library, the Support Library has evolved into a suite of libraries

Furthermore, “Here are the guidelines for when to use support library classes in place of Framework APIs”:

  • If you want to support a recent platform feature on devices that are running earlier versions of Android, use the equivalent classes from the support library
  • More sophisticated support library classes may depend on one or more additional support library classes, so you should use support library classes for those dependencies (use ViewPager with FragmentPagerAdapter or FragmentStatePagerAdapter)
  • If you do not have a specific platform feature you intend to use with your app in a backward compatible way, it is still a good idea to use support library classes in your app (ex: use ActivityCompat instead of the framework Activity class, so you can take advantage of newer features later on)

Android command line

I’m pretty weak on the Android command line right now, so I’ll just list a few of the commands I have used:

adb logcat
adb shell
adb push image1.jpg /data/data/com.alvinalexander.myapp/files

I see Android Studio run some of the following commands. It uses a command like this to install a new version of my app onto the emulator or physical device I use for testing:

pm install -r "/data/local/tmp/com.bignerdranch.android.criminalintent09"

Different ways to run Java threads

Here are a few ways to run Java threads in Android. First, the Java 8 lambda syntax using a Runnable:

Runnable runnable = () -> { 
    // your code here ...
};
Thread t = new Thread(runnable);
t.start();

Or the Java 8 Thread lambda syntax (without a Runnable):

Thread t = new Thread(() -> {
    // your code here ...
});

You can also use this lambda approach if you don’t want/need a reference to your thread:

new Thread(() -> // your code here).start();

If you can’t use Java 8 lambdas — or don’t want to — here’s the old thread syntax using a Runnable:

// pre java 8 lambdas
new Thread(new Runnable() {
    public void run() {
        // your code here ...
    }
}).start();

Here’s the old syntax without using a Runnable:

Thread thread = new Thread() {
    public void run() {
        // your code here
    }
}
thread.start();

You can also create a class to extend a Thread and then run it, like this:

public class MyThread extends Thread {
    public void run() {
        // your code here
    }
}
MyThread myThread = new MyThread();
myTread.start();

Here’s an approach that uses an AsyncTask with a Runnable, from the link shown:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/15472383/how-can-i-run-code-on-a-background-thread-on-android
AsyncTask.execute(new Runnable() {
   @Override
   public void run() {
      //TODO your background code
   }
});

Code snippets

This code shows how to determine which item in a ListView was selected:

@Override
public void onListItemClick(ListView listView, View view, int position, long id) {
    Crime crime = (Crime)(getListAdapter()).getItem(position);
        Toast.makeText(getActivity(), "Click!", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
    }

As shown, this code shows one way to show a Toast message:

Toast.makeText(getActivity(), "Click!", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();

That’s all for now

Reporting live from Boulder, Colorado, that’s all for now, but I’ll continue to add more Android tips as I learn them.

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