Android Developer Toolbox
If you've read Getting Started
and Developing Apps, then you know
how to build an Android application. (If you haven't read those sections
you should now.)
Android is a large system though, and there's a lot to learn. The best apps always make the most of the
system's features. The links below tell you how to write code that bends the
system to your will, allowing you to create cool custom components and do
amazing things with the many available APIs.
- Design Philosophy
- A manifesto explaining a technical philosophy and perspective that
Android developers will find useful. By reading this page, you'll
learn how to write applications that perform well on embedded devices
(such as phone handsets), and that play nicely with other parts of the
system.
- Building Custom Components
- Explains how to create custom Android components, such as Views,
Services, and Content Providers. Read this, and you'll soon be
knocking out great-looking, efficient, and useful components. You can
use these to make your own application great, or you can share them
with other applications.
- Optional APIs
- Describes the APIs that provide access to optional Android
components, such as GPS and BlueTooth. Android aims to be more than
just another OS, and so the system supports all the features you could
hope for in a phone. This section will show you how to use the
Location-Based Services (such as GPS, compass, etc.), OpenGL 3D
graphics, Bluetooth, and accelerometer.
- Note that the APIs described in this section are all
optional; if your application truly requires one of
these APIs, you should be sure that it fails gracefully if the
features are not present on a given phone.