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Mastering Android Development with Kotlin
Mastering Android Development with Kotlin

Mastering Android Development with Kotlin: Deep dive into the world of Android to create robust applications with Kotlin

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Mastering Android Development with Kotlin

Running your first Android application


We made our first screen and defined some specifics for the application itself. To be sure that what we did so far is ok, we do the build and run our application. We will run the completeDebug build variant. If you forgot how to switch to this build variant, we will remind you. Open Android Studio and the Journaler project. Open the Build Variants pane by clicking on the Build Variants pane on the left side of the Android Studio window or by choosing View |Tool Windows | Build Variants. The Build Variants pane will appear. Choose completeDebug from the drop-down list, as shown in the screenshot:

We will use this Build Variant as our main build variant for the try out execution, and for production build, we will use the completeDebug build variant. After we choose Build Variant from the drop-down list, it takes some time for Gradle to build the chosen variant.

We will run our application now. We will do it on an emulator first and then on a real live device...

Meet the Logcat


Logcat is an important part of everyday development. Its purpose is to display all logs coming from your device. It displays logs from an emulator or a live device connected. Android has several levels of log messages:

  • Assert
  • Verbose
  • Debug
  • Information
  • Warning
  • Error

You can filter log messages by these log levels (for example, when you need to see only errors--application crash stacktrace) or log tag (we will explain this later); or by keyword, regex, or the application package. Before we apply any filter, we will configure Android Studio so the log messages are colored differently.

Choose Android Studio | Preferences. In the search field, enter Logcat. Logcat coloring preferences appears, as shown in the following screenshot:

To edit coloring, you must save a copy of the current coloring theme. Choose your theme from the drop-down list and choose Save As. Choose some proper name and confirm:

Choose Assert from the list and uncheck Use inherited attributes to override the color. Make...

Using the Gradle build tool


During our development, we will need to build different build variants or run tests. Those tests can be executed for only certain build variants, if needed, or for all of them.

In the following examples, we will cover some of the most common Gradle use cases. We will start with cleaning and building.

As you remember, the Journaler application has the following build types defined:

  • debug
  • release
  • staging
  • preproduction

The following build flavors are also defined in the Journaler application:

  • demo
  • complete
  • special

Open terminal. To remove everything we built so far, and all temporally build derivates, execute the following command line:

./gradlew clean

It takes some time to do the cleaning. Then execute the following command line:

./gradlew assemble.

This assembles everything--all the build variants that we have in our application. Imagine the time impact it can have if we are dealing with a really big project. Therefore, we will isolate the build command. To build only the debug...

Debug your application


Now, we know how to log important application messages. During development, we will face situations when only logging messages is not enough when analyzing application behavior or investigating bugs.

For us, it's important to have the ability to debug an application code during its execution on real Android devices or on emulators. So, let's debug something! Open the main Application class and put the break point on line where we log the onCreate() method, as shown here:

As you can see, we set the break point at line 18. We will add more break points. Let's add it in our main (and only) activity. Put a break point in each lifecycle event at lines where we perform logging. 

We set breakpoints at lines 18, 23, 28, 33, 38, and so on. Run the application in debug mode by clicking on the debug icon or by choosing Run | Debug app. The application is started in debug mode. Wait a little bit and a debugger will soon enter the first break point we set.

The following screenshot...

Summary


In this chapter, you learned how to build and run your application from Android Studio IDE or directly from the terminal. We also analyzed some logs that we got from the emulator and real devices. And, in the end, we did some debugging.

In the next chapter, we will get familiar with some components of UI--screens, to be more precise. We will show you how to create new screens and how to add some stylish details to them. We will also discuss complex layouts of buttons and images.

Summary

In this chapter, you learned how to build and run your application from Android Studio IDE or directly from the terminal. We also analyzed some logs that we got from the emulator and real devices. And, in the end, we did some debugging.

In the next chapter, we will get familiar with some components of UI--screens, to be more precise. We will show you how to create new screens and how to add some stylish details to them. We will also discuss complex layouts of buttons and images.

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Key benefits

  • Leverage specific features of Kotlin to ease Android application development
  • An illustrative guide that will help you write code based Kotlin language to build robust Android applications
  • Filled with various practical examples build amazing Android project using Kotlin so you can easily apply your knowledge to real world scenarios

Description

Kotlin is a programming language intended to be a better Java, and it's designed to be usable and readable across large teams with different levels of knowledge. As a language, it helps developers build amazing Android applications in an easy and effective way. This book begins by giving you a strong grasp of Kotlin's features in the context of Android development and its APIs. Moving on, you'll take steps towards building stunning applications for Android. The book will show you how to set up the environment, and the difficulty level will grow steadily with the applications covered in the upcoming chapters. Later on, the book will introduce you to the Android Studio IDE, which plays an integral role in Android development. We'll use Kotlin's basic programming concepts such as functions, lambdas, properties, object-oriented code, safety aspects, type parameterization, testing, and concurrency, which will guide you through writing Kotlin code in production. We'll also show you how to integrate Kotlin into any existing Android project.

Who is this book for?

The book is for developers who want to build amazing Android applications in an easy and effective way. Basic knowledge of Kotlin is assumed, but you do not need any familiarity with Android development.

What you will learn

  • • Understand the basics of Android development with Kotlin
  • • Get to know the key concepts in Android development
  • • See how to create modern mobile applications for the Android platform
  • • Adjust your application s look and feel
  • • Know how to persist and share application database
  • • Work with services and other concurrency mechanisms
  • • Write effective tests
  • • Migrate an existing Java-based project to Kotlin
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Length: 378 pages
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Table of Contents

16 Chapters
Starting with Android Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Building and Running Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Screens Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Connecting Screen Flow Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Look and Feel Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Permissions Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Working with Databases Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Android Preferences Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Concurrency in Android Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Android Services Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Messaging Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Backend and API Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Tuning Up for High Performance Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Testing Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Migration to Kotlin Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Deploying Your Application Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Customer reviews

Top Reviews
Rating distribution
Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon 2.7
(11 Ratings)
5 star 36.4%
4 star 0%
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2 star 27.3%
1 star 36.4%
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DragiE!a DuriD Nov 30, 2017
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
This is one great book of a kind I was looking for for some time now.As a computer professional with few decades of experience, I am fairly often exposed to new fields and technologies. Android is one field I am new to and what I needed was a Mastering type book using some original enough approach to keep me motivated to go through... There comes Kotlin - motivating by virtue of being a creative new language, one I am reading about and using in small measure for now...High concentration of useful information, written in non-nonsense fast paced book. Just what I needed! Thanks to Milos and Packt for it!
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Girish Sawant Jun 07, 2018
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
Just got delivered this book today. Being 'Android developer' I have gone through all books related to kotlin but I liked this book. all topics are covered in the book right from scratch. This is book i was looking satisfied and lastly thanks to Amazon always superfast delivery before actual time :).
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Damir T. Nov 27, 2017
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
Great book!
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Milosav Miki Brajkovic Dec 07, 2017
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
Fantastic book really !!!I'm not that familiar with Kotlin, and this book helps me a lot.No need for stackoverflow, literally answer to all my questions is here :)Keep up with great work man, can't wait for second edition !!!
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Navid Rojiani Apr 04, 2018
Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon 2
I wanted to brush up on Android since it's been several years since I've written an Android app. Despite the "Who this book is for" saying that it's for someone with no familiarity with Android development, the book explains very little and glosses over key concepts like Activities and Fragments. Honestly you'd learn more just by reading the official Android Dev Guide articles. This book also seems very rushed and has several mistakes.This book would be fine for someone already familiar with Android who wants to learn how to write their apps in Kotlin, but I wouldn't recommend it for anyone new to Android. Instead of reading the rest of this, I'll be going back to the Big Nerd Ranch guide to Android (which I read years ago and recommend as a really great book for learning Android).Note: I stopped reading after 3.5 chapters because of the mistakes and I wasn't getting a solid review of key Android concepts, so the review is based on the first 115 or so pages.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
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