Top 5 Things to know before Building your First Android Application
7 minutes | Word Count: 1261Learning any new technology can be a frustrating and challenging task. When I first started learning Android application development, I invested a great deal of energy perusing the official documentation given by Google, and following various tutorials, again and again, attempting to remember all the grammar. Inevitably, I understood this was a finished exercise in futility. The quickest method to pick up anything is by doing. I realize you likely hear that always, but it’s as valid in software development as it is anyplace else.
In this article, I’ll clarify a portion of the exercises I learned on my journey to becoming proficient in Android application development, and the basic advances I took when I started to develop my first Android application.
I don’t get my meaning by a proficient? However, that definition will be different for everybody. For me, it implies a strong information base, the confidence to fabricate my ideas, and a valid form of my item in the Google Play store for others’ use. (As with everything else in life, you’ll see that confidence can sometimes mean everything with regards to software development.)
This article is gone for those of you who have a basic understanding of programming but are novices with regards to building Android apps. If you’re starting from scratch with zero programming experience, this stuff may be in a tight spot. However, dread not. Tell us you’re a learner in the comments area of this post, and if we get enough demands, we’ll make a post specifically for newbies.
The following are the 5 stages of building your first Android application – the exercises I learned while building mine.
1. Read the docs! (Or then again watch the video)
It might sound adage, but the first step you should take when learning anything is to peruse the primary areas of the official documentation. This is particularly evident when the makers of said technology offer such high-quality documentation, (for example, Google).
My philosophy of learning has consistently been learning by doing. However, before you can do this, you should attempt to comprehend the basic concepts and theories of Android development. The way to the beginning is to understand the precise moment when you must put down the documentation and start building.
When I first started getting to know Android, I read through all the documentation on the Android site, multiple times. Around then, it was merely content-based documentation – genuinely dry and dreary. Luckily for you, Google got around to producing a brilliant introductory video course, which can be accessed and utilized for nothing here. You can also Hire Android App Developer for Building your first android application.
I prescribe you pursue the introductory videos and do most of the hands-on tasks they suggest. Do these two, three, even four times if required. You should stop once you realize how to do the basics. These are:
- The most effective method to introduce Android Studio.
- The most effective method to make your first task.
- The most effective method to redo the interface (utilizing XML designs).
- The most effective method to switch between different exercises.
- The most effective method to take client info and show a yield.
- Instructions to run and test your app.
If you’re starting Android development from scratch, at present you may consider how overpowering this rundown is. My best exhortation to you is this: Have patience.
Keep in mind, the objective of these first steps isn’t to turn into a proficient Android engineer medium-term. The objective is to become familiar with the essentials to give you an establishment for you to expand upon so you can start working ideas individually.
When you have pursued the preparation videos, and have finished the basics above, you are prepared for the subsequent stage.
2. Build something, anything!
When you know the basics, you should apply this learning immediately. Do this by thinking of honest thought. The key is to keep it dead basic — you won’t pull a Zuckerberg and manufacture Facebook 2.0 following learning Android. Your thought should be primary enough with the goal that it doesn’t include confounded back-finishes or graphics processing.
It likewise shouldn’t be something that will profit, either. It only must be an underlying thought that you can execute with the necessary information of Android application development that you’ve gained from the first step.
Can’t consider anything? Here are three ideas that will ideally demonstrate to you how basic I need you to make it for Android device:
- A mini-computer app that enables you to include subtract and partition two numbers.
- A spelling game app that presentations words with wrong spellings and the client need to address them.
- When I first started, I constructed an extremely straightforward, maths game app called “Math Wars.” You can get at present, download it here to perceive what I mean when I state basically.
3. Read the docs (once more)
After you’re finished building your first basic app, I prescribe you go over the documentation once more. This may seem like an exercise in futility, but if you re-read it, you’ll understand exactly the amount you’ve mastered during this procedure. You’ll additionally find the opportunity to take a gander at the documentation with a crisp point of view and unmistakably more setting than when you first set out. Things that didn’t bode well at first will be impeccably clean. You’ll start to see how things work and why, which will thusly start building your confidence in the language.
4. Have Patience
The way to learning anything (particularly programming) is to have patience. Regardless of whether you’re an experienced programmer, it sets aside some effort to adapt new advancements. I understand exactly how little I know when I at long last bounce in and start building things.
The key is to continue attempting, and never at any point, surrender. Continue building things, continue alluding to the documentation, and continue attempting new imaginative approaches to get things dispatched.
5. Document Your Work
One approach that has helped me much during the time has been to keep an individual “codebase” (for example database) of code scraps, comments, and notes. This will enable you to complete things rapidly as you go.
I like to do this by making every day content documents (utilizing notebook or whatever supervisor you like), and putting away them in Google Drive so I can go without much of a stretch pursuit through them. More as of late, I’ve been exploring different avenues regarding putting these on an open Git repository on GitHub. This enables you to effortlessly share your code and get info and criticism from other individuals on the web. (This is additionally an extraordinary method to build up your certifications as an engineer, more on this in a future post).
The sorts of things I keep in the codebase are directions and code bits that I much of the time use but are difficult to recall off the highest point of my head.
Final Words!!!
When you’ve put the time in figuring something out, ensure you spare it and add comments to detail what you did and how you did it. After some time, you will develop a rich library of tips and guidance that you can use to make sense of things and help other people later down the line. Likewise, make sure to back up any documentation that you use. Whether it’s from this blog or another site – recall that it probably won’t be online until the end of time. So, it’s ideal to store your notes and keep a sorted-out record of them. You’ll never know when you’ll require it!