Android Concurrency

Write Apps for Maximum Performance and Responsiveness “Threading and concurrency are as important in mobile as they are in large, distributed systems. This book does an excellent job of re-introducing us to the basic concepts and describing how to apply them to the Android framework. Even the most experienced Android developer should pick up at least a few tricks from these pages.” —Dave Smith, PE, Google Developer Expert for Android Mastering concurrency is critical to developing software with superior performance and responsiveness. This is especially true for Android, where interruptions are frequent and abrupt, and in order to be correct, programs must be aware of component and process lifecycles in addition to being thread safe. You need a deep, Android-specific understanding of concurrency—and Android Concurrency delivers it. This guide in Addison-Wesley’s Android Deep Dive series for experienced Android developers helps you leverage today’s multi-core processors and heavily cached architectures, as well as major improvements built into Android 5 (Lollipop). Top Android developer and consultant Blake Meike strips the magic and mystery from concurrent programming and presents intensely practical solutions for everything from inter-thread communication to network communication. Meike introduces a simple but powerful architectural framework you can use to address new issues whenever they arise, and offers expert guidance for debugging even highly complex concurrency issues. Android Concurrency combines in-depth knowledge, proven patterns and idioms, and world-class insights for avoiding performance-killing mistakes. For serious Android developers, it will be an indispensable resource. You will • Gain new clarity about what concurrency really is, and how concurrent processes work • Master best practices for writing concurrent code that’s more robust and less susceptible to weird, hard-to-diagnose errors • Review the Java concurrency mechanisms Android’s constructs are built upon • Shape an approach to concurrency that reflects the unique characteristics of the Android environment • Avoid widespread misconceptions that lead Android developers into trouble • Make the most of AsyncTask—but only when it’s the right tool for the job • Leverage the powerful, lightweight Looper/Handler framework to support scheduled, asynchronous tasks and execute many message types • Use the Android Service component to separate business logic from UI • Understand the differences between started and bound services and use them effectively for intra- and inter-process communication • Perform scheduled tasks, including tasks requiring polling and explicit scheduling • Track down problems via static analysis, annotations, and assertions

Developing applications for the Android mobile operating system can seem daunting, particularly if it requires learning a new programming language: Kotlin, now Androidâ??s officialdevelopment language. With this practical book, Android developers will learn how to make the transition from Java to Kotlin, including how Kotlin provides a true advantage for gaining control over asynchronous computations. Authors Pierre-Olivier Laurence, Amanda Hinchman-Dominguez, G. Blake Meike, and Mike Dunn explore implementations of the most common tasks in native Android development, and show you how Kotlin can help you solve concurrency problems. With a focus on structured concurrency, a new asynchronous programming paradigm, this book will guide you through one of Kotlin's most powerful constructs, coroutines. Learn about Kotlin essentials and the Kotlin Collections Framework Explore Android fundamentals: the operating system and the application container and its components Learn about thread safety and how to handle concurrency Write sequential, asynchronous work at a low cost Examine structured concurrency with coroutines, and learn how channels make coroutines communicate Learn how to use flows for asynchronous data processing Understand performance considerations using Android profiling tools Use performance optimizations to trim resource consumption

Master Android development using a variety of Kotlin features About This Book Leverage specific features of Kotlin to ease Android application development An illustrative guide that will help you write code based Kotlin language to build robust Android applications Filled with various practical examples build amazing Android project using Kotlin so you can easily apply your knowledge to real world scenarios Who This Book Is For The book is for developers who want to build amazing Android applications in an easy and effective way. Basic knowledge of Kotlin is assumed, but you do not need any familiarity with Android development. What You Will Learn Understand the basics of Android development with Kotlin Get to know the key concepts in Android development See how to create modern mobile applications for the Android platform Adjust your application's look and feel Know how to persist and share application database Work with Services and other concurrency mechanisms Write effective tests Migrate an existing Java-based project to Kotlin In Detail Kotlin is a programming language intended to be a better Java, and it's designed to be usable and readable across large teams with different levels of knowledge. As a language, it helps developers build amazing Android applications in an easy and effective way. This book begins by giving you a strong grasp of Kotlin's features in the context of Android development and its APIs. Moving on, you'll take steps toward building stunning applications for Android. The book will show you how to set up the environment, and the difficulty level will grow steadily with the applications covered in the upcoming chapters. Later on, the book will introduce you to the Android Studio IDE, which plays an integral role in Android development. We'll use Kotlin's basic programming concepts such as functions, lambdas, properties, object-oriented code, safety aspects, type parameterization, testing, and concurrency, which will guide you through writing Kotlin code into production. We'll also show you how to integrate Kotlin into any existing Android project. Style and approach In this book, you'll master Android development using Kotlin through real application examples. We'll introduce you to basic Android concepts and offer guidance from the first steps to the final project. In each chapter, we'll develop one important application functionality as a development milestone. As we progress, you'll become more experienced in Android and our application will progress toward a real-world product. Finally, when we complete the application's development, we'll write proper tests to ensure it's production ready.

Explore Android's core building blocks and APIs in depth with this authoritative, updated guide to create compelling apps that work on a full range of Android devices, using proven approaches to app design and implementation.

Concurrent Programming on Android is a step-by-step guide that builds a complete picture of the concurrency constructs available on the Android platform. This book is for Android developers who want to learn about the advanced concepts of Android programming. No prior knowledge of concurrency and asynchronous programming is required. This book is also targeted towards Java experts who are new to Android.

Unlock the power of multi-core mobile devices to build responsive and reactive Android applications About This Book Construct scalable and performant applications to take advantage of multi-thread asynchronous techniques Explore the high-level Android asynchronous constructs available on the Android SDK Choose the most appropriate asynchronous technique to implement your next outstanding feature Who This Book Is For This book is for Android developers who want to learn how to build multithreaded and reliable Android applications using high-level and advanced asynchronous techniques and concepts. No prior knowledge of concurrent and asynchronous programming is required. This book will also be great for Java experts who are new to Android. Whether you are a beginner at Android development or a seasoned Android programmer, this book will guide you through the most basic and advanced asynchronous constructs used in Android programming. What You Will Learn Get familiar with the android process model and low-level concurrent constructs delivered by the Android SDK Use AsyncTask and loader framework to load data in the background, delivering progress results in the meantime Create services that interact with your activity without compromising the UI rendering Learn the working of Android concurrency on the Native Layer Interact with nearby devices over Bluetooth and WiFi communications channels Create and compose tasks with RxJava to execute complex asynchronous work in a predictable way Get accustomed to the use of the Android Loader construct to deliver up-to-date results In Detail Asynchronous programming has acquired immense importance in Android programming, especially when we want to make use of the number of independent processing units (cores) available on the most recent Android devices. With this guide in your hands you'll be able to bring the power of Asynchronous programming to your own projects, and make your Android apps more powerful than ever before! To start with, we will discuss the details of the Android Process model and the Java Low Level Concurrent Framework, delivered by Android SDK. We will also guide you through the high-level Android-specific constructs available on the SDK: Handler, AsyncTask, and Loader. Next, we will discuss the creation of IntentServices, Bound Services and External Services, which can run in the background even when the user is not interacting with it. You will also discover AlarmManager and JobScheduler APIs, which are used to schedule and defer work without sacrificing the battery life. In a more advanced phase, you will create background tasks that are able to execute CPU-intensive tasks in a native code-making use of the Android NDK. You will be then guided through the process of interacting with remote services asynchronously using the HTTP protocol or Google GCM Platform. Using the EventBus library, we will also show how to use the Publish-Subscribe software pattern to simplify communication between the different Android application components by decoupling the event producer from event consumer. Finally, we will introduce RxJava, a popular asynchronous Java framework used to compose work in a concise and reactive way. Asynchronous Android will help you to build well-behaved applications with smooth responsive user interfaces that delight the users with speedy results and data that's always fresh. Style and approach This easy-to-follow guide is full of code examples of real-world use cases. Each asynchronous topic is explained sequentially, from the most basic and low-level to the more advanced, using concise and effective language. Some lifecycle flows and concepts feature illustrations to help you understand the complex interactions between Android entities.

The Complete Guide to Customizing Android for New IoT and Embedded Devices Inside the Android OS is a comprehensive guide and reference for technical professionals who want to customize and integrate Android into embedded devices, and construct or maintain successful Android-based products. Replete with code examples, it encourages you to create your own working code as you read--whether for personal insight or a professional project in the fast-growing marketplace for smart IoT devices. Expert Android developers G. Blake Meike and Larry Schiefer respond to the real-world needs of embedded and IoT developers moving to Android. After presenting an accessible introduction to the Android environment, they guide you through boot, subsystem startup, hardware interfaces, and application support--offering essential knowledge without ever becoming obscure or overly specialized. Reflecting Android's continuing evolution, Meike and Schiefer help you take advantage of relevant innovations, from the ART application runtime environment to Project Treble. Throughout, a book-length project covers all you need to start implementing your own custom Android devices, one step at a time. You will: Assess advantages and tradeoffs using Android in smart IoT devices Master practical processes for customizing Android Set up a build platform, download the AOSP source, and build an Android image Explore Android's components, architecture, source code, and development tools Understand essential kernel modules that are unique to Android Use Android's extensive security infrastructure to protect devices and users Walk through Android boot, from power-on through system initialization Explore subsystem startup, and use Zygote containers to control application processes Interface with hardware through Android's Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) Provide access to Java programs via Java Native Interface (JNI) Gain new flexibility by using binderized HAL (Project Treble) Implement native C/C++ or Java client apps without bundling vendor libraries

Learn Java for Android Development, Third Edition, is an update of a strong selling book that now includes a primer on Android app development (in Chapter 1 and Appendix C, which is distributed in the book’s code archive). This book teaches programmers the essential Java language skills necessary for effectively picking up and using the new Android SDK platform to build mobile, embedded, and even PC apps, especially game apps. Android development is hot, and many programmers are interested in joining the fun. However, because this technology is based on Java, you should first obtain a solid grasp of the Java language and its APIs in order to improve your chances of succeeding as an effective Android app developer. This book helps you do that. Each of the book’s 16 chapters provides an exercise section that gives you the opportunity to reinforce your understanding of the chapter’s material. Answers to the book’s more than 700 exercises are provided in an appendix. A second appendix provides a significant game-oriented Java application, which you can convert into an Android app. Once you complete this one-of-a-kind book written by Jeff Friesen, an expert Java developer and JavaWorld.com columnist, you should be ready to begin your indie or professional Android app development journey. What you’ll learn The Java skills necessary for Android development The core Java language fundamentals Classes, objects, inheritance, polymorphism, and interfaces Advanced Java language features (such as generics) The basic Java APIs necessary for Android (such as the String class and threading) The Collections Framework for organizing objects The Concurrency Utilities for simplifying multithreading Classic and New I/O Networking and database access Parsing, creating, and transforming XML documents Additional APIs for creating and accessing ZIP and JAR files, and more Who this book is for This book is for any programmer—including existing Java programmers and Objective-C based iPhone and iPad programmers— of any skill level who needs to obtain a solid understanding of the Java language and foundational Java APIs before jumping into Android app development. Table of Contents 1. Getting Started with Java 2. Learning Language Fundamentals 3. Discovering Classes and Objects 4. Discovering Inheritance, Polymorphism, and Interfaces 5. Mastering Advanced Language Features Part 1 6. Mastering Advanced Language Features Part 2 7. Exploring the Basic APIs Part 1 8. Exploring the Basic APIs Part 2 9. Exploring the Collections Framework 10. Exploring the Concurrency Utilities 11. Performing Classic I/O 12. Accessing Networks 13. Migrating to New I/O 14. Accessing Databases 15. Parsing, Creating, and Transforming XML Documents 16. Focusing on Odds and Ends 17. Appendix A: Solutions to Exercises 18. Appendix B: Four of a Kind 19. Appendix C: Getting Started with Android*** ***NOTE: Appendix C is not included in the physical book. Instead, it's distributed as a PDF file that's bundled with the book's code.

Write More Robust and Maintainable Android Apps with Kotlin “Peter Sommerhoff takes a practical approach to teaching Kotlin by providing a larger set of code listings that demonstrate language features and by guiding readers through the development of two Android apps step by step. . . . Peter finds a good balance between what is essential and what can be left to readers, so this book is an efficient yet comprehensible source for starting programming with Kotlin.” –Bernhard Rumpe, Professor of Software Engineering, RWTH Aachen University The Kotlin language brings state-of-the-art programming techniques and constructs to Android development. Kotlin for Android App Development will help you rapidly understand Kotlin’s principles and techniques, apply Kotlin in production app development, integrate Kotlin with existing Java code, and plan a migration to Kotlin, if you choose. If you have at least basic programming experience (with any language), Peter Sommerhoff’s well-crafted overview and examples will help you get quickly up-to-speed with the Kotlin language, its constructs, and its advanced functional and object-oriented capabilities. Once you’ve mastered these foundations, Sommerhoff walks you through two complete app development projects, introducing best practices and emerging patterns for writing code that’s robust, concise, readable, and highly performant. Understand Kotlin’s goals, principles, advantages, design, and constructs Take full advantage of functional programming in the Kotlin environment Write more concise and reusable code using Kotlin’s object-oriented features Interoperate with existing Java code, and plan a migration to Kotlin Use coroutines to efficiently handle concurrency Capture data via third-party APIs, map it to internal data representations, and present it to users Master best practices for architecting Kotlin Android apps Improve productivity and readability by creating simple domain-specific languages in Kotlin