Testing and securing android studio applications: Debug and secure your Android applications with Android Studio

Cruz Zapata

Antonio HernÃ¡ndez NiÃ±irola

$19.99 per month

4.6 (5 Ratings)

Paperback Aug 2014 162 pages 1st Edition

Cruz Zapata

Antonio HernÃ¡ndez NiÃ±irola

$19.99 per month

4.6 (5 Ratings)

Paperback Aug 2014 162 pages 1st Edition

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Description

If you are a developer with some Android knowledge, but you do not know how to test your applications using Android Studio, this book will guide you. It is recommended that you are familiar with Android Studio IDE.

What you will learn

Control the execution of your Android application by working with the debugging environment in Android Studio
Mitigate the existing vulnerabilities in Android applications
Create unit tests to verify the state and behavior of an activity
Use local storage and encryption appropriately to preserve the privacy of your application data
Ensure that communications between your applications and external servers are safe by protecting network connections
Choose the appropriate authentication method for your Android application
Set up the test environment to create test cases
Create functional tests to check the interaction between components

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SuJo Nov 19, 2014

Testing and Securing Android Studio ApplicationsWhat an amazing book, securing applications is so important and yet I find games that are exploitable because they don't follow security practices which result in a terrible experience. There are zero day hacks for many games on both the iOS and Android markets, and this book would be the holy grail for developers for securing their applications. The book was practical and very easy to follow. I enjoyed the coverage over each authentication method, and I was delighted to find out about the HTTPS utilization in applications, I figured it was the de facto standard, boy was I wrong.If you're developing applications then you should pickup a copy of this book, it is a real eye opener. Before I conclude this review it is highly noteworthy to mention the coverage on unit testing, I find many books ignore this completely and shouldn't. I'm very glad this book included it and didn't leave it out!Publisher Link: https://www.packtpub.com/application-development/testing-and-securing-android-studio-applications

Amazon Verified review

Rossi Pietro Alberto Oct 06, 2014

The book is composed by eleven chapters that on the whole are the basis to secure an Android application.The first chapter introduces the various terms of security and the different types of vulnerability that can occur. A very important chapter because it provides the basis to understanding the rest of the book. Also, it describes the various types of tests: unit, integration, validation, system and acceptance.The second chapter describes the architecture of Android operating system and the basics regarding the permission, Intent and content provider, highlighting the possible problems that could occur managing these badly.Android has various tools to monitor of an application. The third chapter introduces the DDMS tool. It includes various tools like Thread monitor, Network Statistics, File Explorer, etc...all are described briefly to get an idea of what the Android SDK provides us.The fourth chapter describes how to make common actions safe, like database communication, avoid SQL Injection, and validation of input.The problem of the privacy is widespread in IT habit and what the fifth chapter suggests is to secure our data, saved on shared preference or storage, encrypting the data themselves. The examples of codes are very explicative and simple to understand.The sixth chapter continues with the file of the previous chapter, adding one more security level over the network connection, recommending the HTTPS protocol that allows us to have encrypt and secure communication.There exists several types of authentication, besides the common username and password. The seventh chapter describes the various types of authentication, based on different factors underlining these phrases: “something the user knows”, for user and password or pin code, “something the user has”, for TOTP, and “something the user is”, for biometric authentication.Also, the chapter describes how to use the AccountManager class to manage the possible account saved on the device.The eighth and nineth chapters talk about testing out-and-out, differentiating between unit tests and functional tests. They start with a simple test project, up to examining all the classes that promote test developing, important to prevent bugs after publishing the application. As a test-developer, reading these chapters is very important to understand how to work with the Android platform.The tenth chapter describes foreign libraries to facilitate the creation of tests, a thing that could speed up the writing of tests.The last chapter explains the possible parts of application to be tested, for example the behaviour without stable internet connection or when to change the orientation of the screen.The book, in its own small way, is great to identify the basic aspects regarding the testing and the safety of the application. Every developer should have a copy of this book in his library. Highly reccomended.

Alain Couniot Oct 17, 2014

"Testing and Securing Android Studio Applications" is a book everybody involved in serious Android application development should read. Despite many years spent in various IT roles, with an accent on architecture, methodology and security, I have learned from this book. (And should I add: what I have not learned was nicely and adequately introduced and explained by the authors). Let's be clear: despite addressing all the (too often neglected because considered boring) aspects of professional Android developments, the book is too concise to qualify as a "Bible" in its domain. It won't turn you into an Android Jedi developer (not to say, Ninja ;-) ). However all relevant topics are covered, albeit very briefly, by a well-balanced mix of theory and practical considerations. The book is structured taking the typical application life cycle as a foundation and is very well structured indeed. The authors have succeeded in turning "un-sexy" topics into an interesting reading, with a few examples. Tools and libraries are briefly mentioned (maybe too tersely) and their respective strengths and weaknesses are analysed. A highly recommended reading.

Shane Nov 05, 2014

A robust and secure product plays a major role to success in the Android market place. "Testing and Securing Android Studio Applications". The introduction is at a high level but this book quickly gets into some deeper Android programming techniques. I appreciated how threads were covered in Chapter 3 and found it useful in the application I'm developing. Overall this is a well organized text and an good reference for anyone developing with Android.

Kevin P Nov 13, 2014

The usefulness of this book really depends on your Android development skills. I found it a bit too much high level. It touches a lot of interesting things, but then the deep research is left to the reader, which is a pity.I wasn't sure what to expect from the combination of testing and security. Then I figured it actually makes sense, because you need to test the security measures you're taking. But the book does not cover that at all. First there is a high level overview of security and then there is a high level overview of testing, both smacked together into one book.I'm still rating it 4 stars because it can be a very interesting introduction to both these topics for a lot of people. If you've looked into security and testing Android apps a bit yourself, this book is probably not for you.

Testing and securing android studio applications: Debug and secure your Android applications with Android Studio

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