Overview of Android

Unit 1
Overview of Android
What is Android?
• Android is an open-source operating system based on Linux with a Java programming interface
for mobile devices such as Smartphone (Touch Screen Devices who supports Android OS) as
well for Tablets too.
• Android was developed by the Open Handset Alliance (OHA), which is led by Google. The Open
Handset Alliance (OHA) is a consortium of multiple companies like Samsung, Sony, Intel and
many more to provide services and deploy handsets using the android platform.
• In 2007, Google released a first beta version of the Android Software Development Kit (SDK)
and the first commercial version of Android 1.0 (with name Alpha), was released in September
2008.
• In 2012, Google released another version of android, 4.1 Jelly Bean. It’s an incremental update
and it improved a lot in terms of the user interface, functionality, and performance.
• In 2014, Google announced another Latest Version, 5.0 Lollipop. In Lollipop version Google
completely revamped the UI by using Material Designs, which is good for the User Interface as
well for the themes related.
• All the source code for Android is available free on Git-Hub, Stack overflow, and many more
websites. Google publishes most of the code under the Apache License version 2.0.

Android Features
This is a powerful open-source operating system which provides a lot of great features, those are

• It is open-source and we can customize the OS based on our requirements.

• It supports connectivity for GSM, CDMA, WIFI, NFC, Bluetooth, etc. for telephony or data
transfer. It will allow us to make or receive a calls / SMS messages and we can send or retrieve
data across mobile networks
• By using WIFI technology we can pair with other devices using apps
• Android has multiple APIs to support location-based services such as GPS
• We can perform all data storage related activities by using lightweight database SQLite.
• It has a wide range of media supports like AVI, MKV, FLV, MPEG4, etc. to play or record a variety
of audio/video and having a different image format like JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP, MP3, etc.
• It has extensive support for multimedia hardware control to perform playback or recording
using camera and microphone
• It has an integrated open-source WebKit layout-based web browser to support HTML5, CSS3
• It supports a multi-tasking; we can move from one task window to another and multiple
applications can run simultaneously
• It will give a chance to reuse the application components and the replacement of native
applications.
• We can access the hardware components like Camera, GPS, and Accelerometer
• It has support for 2D/3D Graphics

Feature Description

Beautiful UI Android OS basic screen provides a beautiful and intuitive user interface.

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 Overview of Android

Feature Description

Connectivity GSM/EDGE, IDEN, CDMA, EV-DO, UMTS, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, LTE, NFC and WiMAX.

Storage SQLite, a lightweight relational database, is used for data storage purposes

H.263, H.264, MPEG-4 SP, AMR, AMR-WB, AAC, HE-AAC, AAC 5.1, MP3, MIDI, Ogg
Media support
Vorbis, WAV, JPEG, PNG, GIF, and BMP

Messaging SMS and MMS

Based on the open-source WebKit layout engine, coupled with Chrome's V8

Web browser
JavaScript engine supporting HTML5 and CSS3.
Android has native support for multi-touch which was initially made available in
Multi-touch
handsets such as the HTC Hero.
User can jump from one task to another and same time various application can run
Multi-tasking
simultaneously.
Widgets are resizable, so users can expand them to show more content or shrink
Resizable widgets
them to save space

Multi-Language Support single direction and bi-directional text.

Google Cloud Messaging (GCM) is a service that let developers send short message
GCM
data to their users on Android devices, without needing a proprietary sync solution.
A technology that let apps discover and pair directly, over a high-bandwidth peer-to-
Wi-Fi Direct
peer connection.

Android Beam A popular NFC-based technology that let

Android History
Initially, Google launched the first version of Android platform on Nov 5, 2007, from that onwards
Google released a lot of android versions under a codename based on desserts, such as Apple Pie,
Banana Bread, Cupcake, Donut, Éclair, Froyo, Gingerbread, Jellybeans, KitKat, Lollipop,
marshmallow, nougat etc. and made a lot of changes and additions to the android platform.

The following table lists the different version details of android which is released by Google from
2007 to till date.

Release Date Version API Level Version Name

September 23, 2008 Android 1.0 1 Apple Pie

February 9, 2009 Android 1.1 2 Banana Bread

April 30, 2009 Android 1.5 3 Cupcake

September 15, 2009 Android 1.6 4 Donut

October 26, 2009 Android 2.0 5

Eclair
December 3, 2009 Android 2.0.1 6

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 Overview of Android

Release Date Version API Level Version Name

January 12, 2009 Android 2.1 7

May 20, 2010 Android 2.2 8

January 18, 2011 Android 2.2.1 8

Froyo
January 22, 2011 Android 2.2.2 8

November 21, 2011 Android 2.2.3 8

December 6, 2010 Android 2.3 9

February 9, 2011 Android 2.3.1 9

Gingerbread
July 25, 2011 Android 2.3.3 10

September 2, 2011 Android 2.3.4 10

February 22, 2011 Android 3.0.x 11

May 10, 2011 Android 3.1.x 12 Honeycomb

July 15, 2011 Android 3.2.x 13

October 18,2011 Android 4.0 14

October 19, 2011 Android 4.0.1 14

November 28, 2011 Android 4.0.2 14 Ice Cream Sandwich

December 16, 2011 Android 4.0.3 15

February 4, 2012 Android 4.0.4 15

July 9, 2012 Android 4.1 16

July 23, 2012 Android 4.1.1 16

October 9, 2012 Android 4.1.2 16

November 13, 2012 Android 4.2 17 Jelly Bean

November 27, 2012 Android 4.2.1 17

February 11, 2013 Android 4.2.2 17

July 24, 2013 Android 4.3 18

October 31, 2013 Android 4.4 19

Kitkat
Android 4.4.1, 4.4.2,
June 23, 2014 19
4.4.3, 4.4.4
October 17, 2014 Android 5.0 21
Lollipop
March 09, 2015 Android 5.1 22

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 Overview of Android

Release Date Version API Level Version Name

October 5, 2015 Android 6.0 23

Marshmallow
December 7, 2015 Android 6.0.1 23

August 22, 2016 Android 7.0 24

Nougat
October 4, 2016 Android 7.1 25

Android 8.0 26 O
Android Architecture
Android architecture is a software stack of components to support mobile device needs. Android
software stack contains a Linux Kernel, collection of c/c++ libraries which are exposed through an
application framework services, runtime, and application.
Following are main components of android architecture those are
1. Applications
2. Android Framework
3. Android Runtime
4. Platform Libraries
5. Linux Kernel
In these components, the Linux Kernel is the main component in android to provide its operating
system functions to mobile and Dalvik Virtual Machine (DVM) which is responsible for running a
mobile application.

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 Overview of Android

Applications
The top layer of the android architecture is Applications. The native and third-party applications
like contacts, email, music, gallery, clock, games, etc. whatever we will build those will be installed
on this layer only.
The application layer runs within the Android run time using the classes and services made
available from the application framework.

Application Framework
The Application Framework provides the classes used to create Android applications. It also
provides a generic abstraction for hardware access and manages the user interface and application
resources. It basically provides the services through which we can create a particular class and
make that class helpful for the Application creation.
The application framework includes services like telephony service, location services, notification
manager, NFC service, view system, etc. which we can use for application development as per our
requirements.

Android Runtime
Android Runtime environment is an important part of Android rather than an internal part and it
contains components like core libraries and the Dalvik virtual machine. The Android run time is the
engine that powers our applications along with the libraries and it forms the basis for the
application framework.
Dalvik Virtual Machine (DVM) is a register-based virtual machine-like Java Virtual Machine (JVM).
It is specially designed and optimized for android to ensure that a device can run multiple instances
efficiently. It relies on the Linux kernel for threading and low-level memory management.
The core libraries in android runtime will enable us to implement android applications using
standard JAVA programming language.

Platform Libraries
The Platform Libraries includes various C/C++ core libraries and Java-based libraries such as SSL,
libc, Graphics, SQLite, Webkit, Media, Surface Manger, OpenGL, etc. to provide support for Android
development.
The following are the summary details of some core android libraries available for android
development.

• Media library for playing and recording audio and video formats
• The Surface manager library to provide a display management
• SGL and OpenGL Graphics libraries for 2D and 3D graphics
• SQLite is for database support and FreeType for font support
• Web-Kit for web browser support and SSL for Internet security.

Linux Kernel
Linux Kernel is a bottom layer and heart of the android architecture. It manages all the drivers such
as display drivers, camera drivers, Bluetooth drivers, audio drivers, memory drivers, etc. which are
mainly required for the android device during the runtime.
The Linux Kernel will provide an abstraction layer between the device hardware and the remainder
of the stack. It is responsible for memory management, power management, device management,
resource access, etc.

PROF. HARSH KANTAWALA, ASST. PROF, GCET. 5

 Overview of Android

Android Studio Installation for Development Environment

To set up an Android development environment in a system we need to install the following
components.
1. Eclipse IDE
2. Eclipse Plugin
3. Android SDK

To make the android development environment setup process simple Google introduced a new
android IDE called Android Studio. The Android Studio will contain all the required components
like Eclipse IDE, Eclipse Plugin and Android SDK so we do not need to download the components
separately.

Android Studio is the official IDE for android development and it is based on IntelliJ IDEA software.
It is available for Windows, MAC, and LINUX operating systems.

We can download the latest version of Android Studio from the following URL.

Download Android Studio

Here, I am going to explain how to install android studio on a windows machine which is having
windows 10 operating system.

PROF. HARSH KANTAWALA, ASST. PROF, GCET. 6

 Overview of Android

PROF. HARSH KANTAWALA, ASST. PROF, GCET. 7

 Overview of Android

This is how we can set up an Android development environment on a windows machine which is
having windows 10 operating system using android studio IDE.

*Note: This is the 2.3.3 version of Android Studio. Newer version may be different look.

Developing First Android Application

To implement the android hello world app first we need to set up a development environment using
android studio IDE which is freely provided by Google for Android developers.

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 Overview of Android

Select the New Project for the first-time project creation.

• However, we can choose Import Project if we would like to import a project from any source.
• Open Project from the list is for open projects created with either Android Studio.
• Check out from Version Control, we can check out a copy of a project that is under version
control. This is a great way to quickly get up to speed with an existing project.
• For the selection “New Project” from the above option, then the next screen will be open like
this, where we must mention our Project’s name, Company domain and Project location (we
called it the main path where this application will be saved) because the Package name will be
created automatically as we create the project in Android Studio.

• Select the different platforms and SDK targets like as shown below based on our requirements.

• Wear: We use this option for Android Watches which we can wear to our hand and use the
same functionality as we do with the Android devices. You can call, set the alarm, capture
images, and many more things easily.
• TV: We use this option for SmartIPTV which is very common these days. We can see our
favorite channels like we see in our Home Televisions and make the changes in the channel
easily.

PROF. HARSH KANTAWALA, ASST. PROF, GCET. 9

 Overview of Android

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 Overview of Android

Android Layout File (activity_main.xml)

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout xmlns:android="http://schem
as.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
tools:context="com.example.helloworld.MainActivity">

<TextView
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Hello World!"
app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintLeft_toLeftOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintRight_toRightOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent" />
</android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout>

Android Main Activity File (MainActivity.java)

package com.example.helloworld;
import android.support.v7.app.AppCompatActivity;
import android.os.Bundle;
public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {
@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
}
}

PROF. HARSH KANTAWALA, ASST. PROF, GCET. 11

 Overview of Android

Android Manifest File (AndroidManifest.xml)

The AndroidManifest.xml file contains information of your package, including components of the
application such as activities, services, broadcast receivers, content providers etc.
It performs some other tasks like:
• It is responsible to protect the application to access any protected parts by providing the
permissions.
• It also declares the android Api that the application is going to use.
• It lists the instrumentation classes. The instrumentation classes provide profiling and other
information’s. These information’s are removed just before the application is published etc.
• This is the required xml file for all the android application and located inside the root directory.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
package="com.example.helloworld" >
<application
android:allowBackup="true"
android:icon="@mipmap/ic_launcher"
android:label="@string/app_name"
android:roundIcon="@mipmap/ic_launcher_round"
android:supportsRtl="true"
android:theme="@style/AppTheme" >
<activity android:name=".MainActivity" >
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER
" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>
</application>
</manifest>

Elements of the AndroidManifest.xml file

The elements used in the above xml file are described below.

<manifest>: manifest is the root element of the AndroidManifest.xml file. It has package attribute
that describes the package name of the activity class.

<application>: application is the sub element of the manifest. It includes the namespace
declaration. This element contains several sub elements that declares the application component
such as activity etc.
The commonly used attributes are of this element are icon, label, theme etc.

• android:icon represents the icon for all the android application components.
• android:label works as the default label for all the application components.
• android:theme represents a common theme for all the android activities.

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 Overview of Android

<activity>: activity is the sub element of application and represents an activity that must be
defined in the AndroidManifest.xml file. It has many attributes such as label, name, theme,
launchMode etc.
android:label represents a label i.e. displayed on the screen.
android:name represents a name for the activity class. It is required attribute.

<intent-filter>: intent-filter is the sub-element of activity that describes the type of intent to
which activity, service or broadcast receiver can respond to.

<action>: It adds an action for the intent-filter. The intent-filter must have at least one action
element.
Run Android Hello World App
To run android applications, we need to click on Run button or press Shift + F10 like as shown
below

If you want to run on VM you can follow below steps.

Now our android hello world application will show the result like as shown below

PROF. HARSH KANTAWALA, ASST. PROF, GCET. 13

 Overview of Android

Here, I am going to use my android phone for the testing purpose, for using phone into a android
studio, first turn on developer options as well as USB debugging from settings of your phone. For
that you can follow these steps.

You can select, USB or Wi-Fi as well. Here just select name of your phone and then click on run to
test app on your phone.

Dalvik Virtual Machine | DVM

• As we know the modern JVM is high performance and provides excellent memory
management. But it needs to be optimized for low-powered handheld devices as well.
• The Dalvik Virtual Machine (DVM) is an android virtual machine optimized for mobile devices.
It optimizes the virtual machine for memory, battery life and performance.
• Dalvik is a name of a town in Iceland. The Dalvik VM was written by Dan Bornstein.
• The Dex compiler converts the class files into the .dex file that run on the Dalvik VM. Multiple
class files are converted into one dex file.
Below is the compiling and packaging process from the source file:

The javac tool compiles the java source file into the class file.
The dx tool takes all the class files of your application and generates a single .dex file. It is a platform-
specific tool.
The Android Assets Packaging Tool (aapt) handles the packaging process.

PROF. HARSH KANTAWALA, ASST. PROF, GCET. 14