The SDKs distribution currently in the market.
Google has released the Android platform under following versions.
- Android 1.0
- Android 1.1
- Android 1.5
- Android 1.6
- Android 2.1
- Android 2.2
Android API Level is an integer value that uniquely identifies the framework API revision offered by a version of the Android platform. The Android platform provides a framework API that applications can use to interact with the underlying Android programming system. The framework API consists of:
- A core set of packages and classes
- A set of XML elements and attributes for declaring a manifest file
- A set of XML elements and attributes for declaring and accessing resources
- A set of Intents
- A set of permissions that applications can request, as well as permission enforcements included in the system
| Platform Version | API Level |
| Android 2.2 | 8 |
| Android 2.1 | 7 |
| Android 2.0.1 | 6 |
| Android 2.0 | 5 |
| Android 1.6 | 4 |
| Android 1.5 | 3 |
| Android 1.1 | 2 |
| Android 1.0 |
The above data will give you a peek into the Android marketplace for which you will create products.
The Android Development is done on two levels -
System Level – It involves modifying the Android system code and adapting it to various hardware platforms. It also involves creating additional services and features in the android system itself.
Application level – It involves creating software products and services which sits on top of the Android software stack and interacts with the hardware through the underlying Android platform.
In our free first chapter of the android development tutorial ebook, that is available for all, we will limit our discussion in this book only for Application level programming for Android and Android Marketplace. The System level programming is out of the scope of this free ebook and if you want to jump right into it, you should perhaps start with C and Linux kernel programming.
So now that we have defined the scope of our discussions we must outline what is the minimum requirement for you to learn the application programming for Android OS.
Android applications are built using Java. The Java byte code executes on a efficient and modified virtual machine known as Dalvik Virtual Machine. Dalvik does not align to Java SE nor Java ME Class Library profiles (e.g., Java ME classes, AWT or Swing are not supported). Instead it uses its own library built on a subset of the Apache Harmony Java implementation. So you need to know basic core java but it alone is not sufficient to leverage this great platform for creating great applications. However to follow this book you need to have a basic understanding of Java, XML, Eclipse and object oriented programming principles.
To summarize, you are expected to know the following basics before you jump into any Android Training -
Core Java – Standard Java programming is necessary to program applications for Android. You should understand operators, loops and should have a basic idea of classes and objects. You can refer here to brush up your java skills
XML – You should know what the XML standard is all about and how it is used in software applications.
Eclipse – If you have worked in any IDE for Java you should be ok with eclipse. You can read more about it here.
Object fundamentals– You will be able to create elegant and efficient programs if you know the basics of OOPs. Features like Inheritance, Polymorphism, Encapsulation and Overloading help us create efficient and organized software systems and it is expected that you as ajava programmer must know them. Look at the following links for these concepts
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