Basic Prerequisites of Learning Android app development


Introduction

Android is one of the most famous mobile operating systems. It is a leader of mobile operating systems having a market share of around 70 %. Due to this learning android app development is beneficial as the users using this operating system is huge. So there is a huge demand for learning Android app development. In this article we will take a look at Basic Prerequisites of Learning Android app development.

Basic Prerequisites of Learning Android app Development

It is easy to develop simple android applications. We can simply use some basic knowledge and can create simple applications using drag and drop functionality provided by Android Studio. But for creating a complex applications one should have proper understanding of the 4 main core components of android which are as follows −

  • Activities.

  • Content Providers.

  • Services.

  • Broadcast Receivers.

Activities

Activity is one of the main components which we will get to see in every android application. It is used to communicate with the user who is using a mobile application. Activity consists of all the UI widgets which we have to display within our application. There are different types of activities which we can use within our application such as Empty Activity, Google Maps activity, Navigation Drawer Activity and others.

Content Providers

Content Provider is also one of the main components of android. It is used to share the data within your mobile device across different applications which are installed in the mobile device. For example we can get the images stored inside the users gallery within our android application. In this way we are able to access users' device data within our android application. This is possible with the help of Content Providers. Similarly content providers help us to read SMS, contacts, songs and other data stored within the users device within our Android application.

Services

Services are present in most of the applications and they are generally used to perform some background tasks within our application. For example in many music applications users will be able to hear songs while interacting with the other application, so the songs are being played in the background with the help of services. Services provide us with the power to perform some tasks in the background thread without any continuous interaction between user and the application.

Broadcast Receivers

Broadcast Receivers in android are used for app communication with the android systems. It is used to perform some actions within our android application based on some events which are being performed within our android device. In most of the applications we get to see while signing up the app automatically reads the OTP from the SMS and verifies the user. To read this OTP from the incoming message which is also considered as one of the events being performed within android application broadcast receivers are used.

Above are the 4 main concepts of Android Development one should definitely learn to master in Android development. Now we will talk about the basic prerequisites which are required for Android Development.

Knowledge of Programming

Before learning android development one should have basic knowledge of programming. One should be able to understand what variables, methods, functions are in any programming language and how to use them. He should also have knowledge on different data structures used in any programming languages such as Arrays, Stacks, Queues and others. Some little knowledge of any programming language will be beneficial to you before learning Android app development.

Learn Java or Kotlin

For starting with Android app development you should have a basic understanding of Java or Kotlin programming language. You can choose any of the two programming languages but you should consider learning Kotlin as Google has declared Kotlin as the official programming language for android mobile app development. If you are able to write code in Java then Kotlin programming language will be easy for you to learn.

Basic understanding of OOPS concepts

Anyone can develop a basic android application without learning OOPS concepts but for building complex android applications. It is necessary to have the understanding of OOPs concepts that will help you to maintain the code quality of your project and make the code easily readable. There are 4 main concepts of OOPS which you should focus on

  • Inheritance − This concept of OOPs is used to inherit the properties of a parent class into its child class. When we have to use some properties of a class into another class in that case we have to use the concept of inheritance to inherit the properties of the parent class in child class.

  • Polymorphism − As the name itself suggests in many ways. We can use this OOPS concept to perform some operations within our project using different ways. With the help of polymorphism inherited class can be acted in different ways.

  • Abstraction − Abstraction is used within an android application to display the data which is required and hiding the non essential data. For example if we are performing any operation within an android application we only display final result to our user and hides the process which is happening behind the hood which is use to generate that result.

  • Encapsulation − Encapsulation is used to bind the code and data together within an android application. For example in android applications use this concept when we want to set the data from our java/kotlin file to the UI components which we are creating in our xml file.

Conclusion

In the above article we have taken a look on What are the basic prerequisites which are required for starting with android development.

Updated on: 20-Feb-2023

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