Using%20Android%201.5%20SDK

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Using Android 1.5 SDK

• May 26, 2009
• Jim Steele
• Send comments to dijieming_at_yahoo.com

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Software Development Kit (SDK) History

• SDK1.0 on first Android handsets (G1s)
• SDK1.1 released for dev phones, then over-the-air
  upgrade to G1s
• Development branch cupcake
• SDK1.5 is the merge of cupcake into the main
  branch. The same will happen for each future
  drop to cupcake.
• Android 1.5 will be pushed to G1s very soon

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Features of SDK1.5_r1(of Interest to Developers)

• SDK1.5_r1
• Smart Virtual Keyboard, support for 3rd party
  keyboards
• Widgets on home screen
• Bundled ones are analog clock, calendar, music
  player, picture frame, and search
• Third-party widgets allowed via App Bazaar
• Live Folders (updates real-time, e.g. data,
  tweets, dynamic shortcuts)
• Video recording
• Stereo Bluetooth support
• SD memory card support (not sure of limitations,
  differs with sources)
• Removed end-user root access (unless tethered to
  computer with SDK)
• RecognizerIntent speech recognition
• Faster GPS location gathering (using AGPS)
• In Android 1.5, but not the SDK
• View Google Talk friends' status in Contacts,
  SMS, MMS, GMail, and Email apps
• Batch actions such as archive, delete, and label
  on Gmail messages
• Upload videos to Youtube, Upload photos on Picasa
• SDK1.5_r2 security update

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Getting Started

• Install SDK 1.5
• Android Development Tools Uninstall old ADT and
  install ADT 0.9 (Eclipse)
• Update each project to select Build Target
  (produces gen/ dir with R.java)
• android list targets
• After SDK upgrade, need to create an Android
  Virtual Device (AVD) to run any application in
  the emulator
• Select AVD, might need to use command line for
  first, but then can do through Eclipse for
  additional ones
• android create avd --name cupcake --target 2

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Example Soft Keyboard
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Future-Proofing Appshttp//android-developers.blo
gspot.com/2009/04/future-proofing-your-apps.html

• Technique to Avoid, 1 Using Internal/Unsupported
  APIs
• Technique to Avoid, 2 Directly Manipulating
  Settings
• For instance, some apps turn on GPS without
  asking the user, and others might turn on data
  roaming. As a result, applications can no longer
  directly manipulate the values of certain system
  Settings, even if they previously had permission
  to do so
• Technique to Avoid, 3 Going Overboard with
  Layouts (rare)
• Technique to Avoid, 4 Bad Hardware Assumptions
• Android 1.5 includes support for soft keyboards,
  and there will soon be many devices that run
  Android but do not have physical keyboards. If
  your application assumes the presence of a
  physical keyboard (such as if you have created a
  custom View that sinks keypress events) you
  should make sure it degrades gracefully
• Technique to Avoid, 5 Incautious Rotations
• Devices running Android 1.5 and later can
  automatically rotate the screen, depending on how
  the user orients the device. Some 1.5 devices
  will do this by default, and on all others it can
  be turned on by the user. This can sometimes
  result in unpredictable behavior from
  applications that do their own reorientations