ANDROID

Introduction

Android is a Linux based operating system it is designed primarily for touch screen
mobile devices such as smart phones and tablet computers. The operating system have
developed a lot in last 15 years starting from black and white phones to recent smart phones or
mini computers. One of the most widely used mobile OS these days is android. The android is
software that was founded in Palo Alto of California in 2003.

The android is a powerful operating system and it supports large number of

applications in Smartphones. These applications are more comfortable and advanced for the
users. The hardware that supports android software is based on ARM architecture platform.
The android is an open source operating system means that it’s free and any one can use it. The
android has got millions of apps available that can help you managing your life one or other way
and it is available low cost in market at that reasons android is very popular.

Architecture
Android operating system is a stack of software components which is roughly divided
into five sections and four main layers as shown below in the architecture diagram.
Linux kernel
At the bottom of the layers is Linux - Linux 3.6 with approximately 115 patches. This
provides a level of abstraction between the device hardware and it contains all the essential
hardware drivers like camera, keypad, display etc. Also, the kernel handles all the things that
Linux is really good at such as networking and a vast array of device drivers, which take the
pain out of interfacing to peripheral hardware.

Libraries
On top of Linux kernel there is a set of libraries including open-source Web browser
engine WebKit, well known library libc, SQLite database which is a useful repository for
storage and sharing of application data, libraries to play and record audio and video, SSL
libraries responsible for Internet security etc.

Android Libraries
This category encompasses those Java-based libraries that are specific to Android
development. Examples of libraries in this category include the application framework
libraries in addition to those that facilitate user interface building, graphics drawing and
database access. A summary of some key core Android libraries available to the Android
developer is as follows −
 android.app − Provides access to the application model and is the cornerstone of all
Android applications.
 android.content − Facilitates content access, publishing and messaging between
applications and application components.
 android.database − Used to access data published by content providers and includes
SQLite database management classes.
 android.opengl − A Java interface to the OpenGL ES 3D graphics rendering API.
 android.os − Provides applications with access to standard operating system services
including messages, system services and inter-process communication.
 android.text − Used to render and manipulate text on a device display.
 android.view − The fundamental building blocks of application user interfaces.
 android.widget − A rich collection of pre-built user interface components such as
buttons, labels, list views, layout managers, radio buttons etc.
 android.webkit − A set of classes intended to allow web-browsing capabilities to be
built into applications.

Having covered the Java-based core libraries in the Android runtime, it is now time to turn
our attention to the C/C++ based libraries contained in this layer of the Android software stack.

Android Runtime
This is the third section of the architecture and available on the second layer from the
bottom. This section provides a key component called Dalvik Virtual Machine which is a kind
of Java Virtual Machine specially designed and optimized for Android.
 The Dalvik VM makes use of Linux core features like memory management and
multi-threading, which is intrinsic in the Java language. The Dalvik VM enables every
Android application to run in its own process, with its own instance of the Dalvik virtual
machine.
The Android runtime also provides a set of core libraries which enable Android
application developers to write Android applications using standard Java programming
language.

Application Framework
The Application Framework layer provides many higher-level services to applications
in the form of Java classes. Application developers are allowed to make use of these services in
their applications.

The Android framework includes the following key services −

 Activity Manager − Controls all aspects of the application lifecycle and activity stack.
 Content Providers − Allows applications to publish and share data with other
applications.
 Resource Manager − Provides access to non-code embedded resources such as strings,
color settings and user interface layouts.
 Notifications Manager − Allows applications to display alerts and notifications to the
user.
 View System − An extensible set of views used to create application user interfaces.

Applications
You will find all the Android application at the top layer. You will write your
application to be installed on this layer only. Examples of such applications are Contacts
Books, Browser, Games etc.
Application components are the essential building blocks of an Android application.
These components are loosely coupled by the application manifest file AndroidManifest.xml
that describes each component of the application and how they interact.

There are following four main components that can be used within an Android
application −

Sr.No Components & Description

Activities
1
They dictate the UI and handle the user interaction to the smart phone screen.
Services
2
They handle background processing associated with an application.
Broadcast Receivers
3
They handle communication between Android OS and applications.
4 Content Providers
 They handle data and database management issues.

Activities
An activity represents a single screen with a user interface, in-short Activity performs
actions on the screen. For example, an email application might have one activity that shows a
list of new emails, another activity to compose an email, and another activity for reading
emails. If an application has more than one activity, then one of them should be marked as the
activity that is presented when the application is launched.

An activity is implemented as a subclass of Activity class as follows –

public class MainActivity extends Activity

{

Services
A service is a component that runs in the background to perform long-running
operations. For example, a service might play music in the background while the user is in a
different application, or it might fetch data over the network without blocking user
interaction with an activity.

A service is implemented as a subclass of Service class as follows –

public class MyService extends Service

{

Broadcast Receivers
Broadcast Receivers simply respond to broadcast messages from other applications
or from the system. For example, applications can also initiate broadcasts to let other
applications know that some data has been downloaded to the device and is available for
them to use, so this is broadcast receiver who will intercept this communication and will initiate
appropriate action.

A broadcast receiver is implemented as a subclass of BroadcastReceiver class and each message

is broadcaster as an Intent object.

public class MyReceiver extends BroadcastReceiver

{
public void onReceive(context,intent)
{
}
}
Content Providers
A content provider component supplies data from one application to others on
request. Such requests are handled by the methods of the ContentResolver class. The data
may be stored in the file system, the database or somewhere else entirely.

A content provider is implemented as a subclass of ContentProvider class and must implement a

standard set of APIs that enable other applications to perform transactions.

public class MyContentProvider extends ContentProvider

{
public void onCreate()
{
}
}

Additional Components
There are additional components which will be used in the construction of above
mentioned entities, their logic, and wiring between them. These components are –

S.No Components & Description

Fragments
1
Represents a portion of user interface in an Activity.
Views
2
UI elements that are drawn on-screen including buttons, lists forms etc.
Layouts
3
View hierarchies that control screen format and appearance of the views.
Intents
4
Messages wiring components together.
Resources
5
External elements, such as strings, constants and drawable pictures.
Manifest
6
Configuration file for the application.