Tutorial For Android

Card Camera App

2012-12-28T04:51:00.001+08:00

Releasing our newest android app https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ramentech.cardcamera.free with this app you could create cards (currently magic cards) and share to your friends.

Giving away free nexus 7

2012-10-19T23:29:00.000+08:00

Over at uPick.in we are giving away a free Nexus 7 :) or an Ipod Touch if like IOS. We need to reach 10000 votes for us to get the item shipped.
Go vote and share this link Free Nexus 7/IPod Touch
Thanks everyone

Introducing uPick.In

2012-10-16T06:59:00.001+08:00

As you may have figured out i havent post in a while, have been so busy with work and into a new venture after work.
Here is the part i introduce uPick.In while its not Android related (it will in the future :]) It would be what i would be busy with in the following months. uPick.In is our vision of what a poll/voting site should be in our day and age where we include sentence based poll (create a poll in sentence style) and a gallery poll (poll with external links) and more to come in the future :]

Here is an example of how to create a poll

If you have any suggestions or any comments with it, just drop it over at the comment page here or create a poll in http://www.upick.in/upick
Thanks everyone

Google IO 2012

2012-06-26T05:25:00.000+08:00

Within 2 days, Google IO would be live. Here is widget that would stream the developer conference.

Center Tab Item in TabWidget and HorizontalScrollView in Android

2012-06-25T00:54:00.000+08:00

So you have a TabWidget within HorizontalScrollView, and you want to center the selectedTab (either dynamically or if you have ViewPager on page scroll). On your TabHost, you'll have something like this.

<HorizontalScrollView
        android:id="@+id/horizontalScrollView"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:fillViewport="true"
        android:scrollbars="none"
        android:layout_weight="0"
        >

    <TabWidget
            android:id="@android:id/tabs"
            android:orientation="horizontal"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"

            />
</HorizontalScrollView>

On your activity/fragment

public void centerTabItem(int position) {
    tabHost.setCurrentTab(position);
    final TabWidget tabWidget = tabHost.getTabWidget();
    final int screenWidth = getWindowManager().getDefaultDisplay().getWidth();
    final int leftX = tabWidget.getChildAt(position).getLeft();
    int newX = 0;

    newX = leftX + (tabWidget.getChildAt(position).getWidth() / 2) - (screenWidth / 2);
    if (newX < 0) {
        newX = 0;
    }
    horizontalScrollView.scrollTo(newX, 0);
}

Say you have a viewPager, then you could use it like

public void onPageSelected(int position) {
    centerTabItem(position);
}

Explanation
final int screenWidth = getWindowManager().getDefaultDisplay().getWidth();
Get the phone's width, we need to to know where the center is (by dividing it by half)

final int leftX = tabWidget.getChildAt(position).getLeft();
Get the x position of the item we want to center, this is relative to its parent (horizontalScrollView)

newX = leftX + (tabWidget.getChildAt(position).getWidth() / 2) - (screenWidth / 2);
The center would be calculated based on horizontalScrollView.scrollTo, so the left x plus half the item width, would be negative value as the new x would scroll to the left of the parent, then if you minus (or plus since its going to the left plane/negative) to the half width value of the device then you will arrive in the center.

horizontalScrollView.scrollTo(newX, 0);
Scroll the tabWidget to the newX, y stays at 0

Hope this helps :)

Welcome 2012

2012-01-17T09:21:00.001+08:00

Belated happy new year, advance happy chinese new year. Last year, i was so preoccupied with a lot of stuff that i only blogged 6 times and only 1 of which is an android tutorial, this year it would definitely be more than 1 lol. And there are lots of great tutorial out there already and sites like Stackoverlow is great place to ask questions. Towards the end of the year last year, i created Generate Android Code to do some code generator, you guys check it out once in awhile.
To start this year, i cleaned up this blog's links and image links that linked to the wordpress version of this site :)

Going to ADL HK :)

2011-12-04T19:54:00.001+08:00

This year, like last year, i have a chance to go to Android Developer Labs on Dec 6, i hope i learn more about android and how to code in tablets :) Anyone going?

Create Content Provider - Android Tool

2011-06-20T05:30:00.000+08:00

Over at monmonja.com i created another tool (which i use most, so the generated code might make sense more to me) and its a tool to create content provider, the generated content provider class is one of the my oldest code structure which if someone knows a better way to do it then feel free to comment below and remember its an alpha tool so there might be some bugs on it.

Anyway without further talk, here is the link
http://www.generateandroidcode.com/android/contentProvider

Making Android tools

2011-06-12T18:33:00.002+08:00

Over at monmonja.com i'm completely rewriting the whole site with tools i use and the first tool is for Android. Making AlertDialog Check it out (Tested in Chrome, should work in Firefox, dont care about IE)

Testing Honeycomb

2011-04-17T01:06:00.002+08:00

Lately there had been news that there were only few (100 or else) native honeycomb apps and there were only 100k or less Motorola Xoom released so far. Thanks to Google for not playing nice to the devs (remember G1 dev phone? where is our dev tablet?)

I still love Android but this is madness, first Xoom is only released on few countries (US and Canada, and ?) the rest of the developers on the world are treated like they dont exist, this was okay with G1/Android 1.0 but i mean its Android 3.0 and there are tones of good developers outside these countries that is waiting to bring their app to tablet form.

Wait there's the emulator, the emulator is so slow (did adjust the memory, heapsize, launched at terminal) but its just not fun working on it.

So now i'll wait for a honeycomb tablet to release here in Hong Kong (probably ill get an asus eee transformer) before i continue with my android stuff. Probably ill just do some node.js or php zend stuff in the meanwhile.

To end this, the number of apps released for the honeycomb tablets vs the days honeycomb is released (in numbers) is just so bad. Google should call the devs to help them like they did with Android 1.0 then alienating them.

New work next month - healthguru.com

2011-03-27T19:05:00.000+08:00

I firstly apologies for not I havent post for a while (3 months) and i havent answer any of the questions on my comments and i have some articles that requires an update, one reason is that i have been having some side projects on backend stuff.

Anyhow next month ill be joining http://www.healthguru.com doing some php stuff. I believe i'll have more free time when i start my new job for i will work remotely therefore ill try to work on this blog and android stuff and hope i could blog more articles, answer the questions soon, and update some old articles.

In my pipeline:
Shoot & Learn tablet version (i stopped the update of the phone version for now)
A drawing app that reflects the drawing tutorials i have on the site
Expends the language translate tool in most of my app
Probably start to create a game?

Thats all my goal in 2011. Thanks.

Opening an Activity with string in Android

2011-01-06T22:52:00.001+08:00

This question has been asked here http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2387139 and http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2184226/how-to-use-variable-while-calling-new-activity-in-intent and my problem is similar but i cant see the destination classes coz the classes are from different libraries and therefore i need to open an activity based on just the string and here is how i fixed mine:

try {
  String className = 'com.almondmendoza.library.openActivity';
  Intent openNewIntent = new Intent( this, Class.forName( className ) );
  startActivity(  openNewIntent );
} catch (ClassNotFoundException e) {
  e.printStackTrace();  
}

Explanation
Here we use reflections and just convert our class name to a class object.

If you are interested in reflection we had blogged about it previously Access internal classes in Android and Calling Private Methods in Android

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Android 2010, Android 2011

2010-12-25T22:40:00.000+08:00

First of all Merry Christmas, and i'll be going into hibernation mode until the new year comes so Happy New Year as well :)

Android in 2010
* Our little green friend has been on its way to world domination, we just launch a new one into the outer space (Which later would be known as the origin of the terminators)
* Android is found in multiple devices, from Phones, to Tablets (Galaxy Tab having 10M sold), to Google TV (my sister in US got me one :-] ), and a lot more
* Froyo & Gingerbread released, Market got its much awaited update, rooting/custom roms/xda are still strong and awesome
* People still call upon fragmentation on Android, yes it is but i would say its just fragmented between low end device and high end device which is better then the linux/unix fragmentation, and unless you're a game programmer the chances you would get this hardcore fragmentation is really less.

Our Site
* This year has been a slow year for TutorialForAndroid.com and i hope i could make more tutorials next year
* Last year i shown i was doing something that could build android app easier, I announced it way too early and then Google created App Creator (I suggest everyone to give it a try), and i stopped the development and move on with something else like ShootAndLearn app

Android 2011
* Android would penetrate more market with Google TV having its app features, Tablets popping out left and right, PSP2 capturing the gaming community
* Android would not slow down its development, release often is better to push technology forward and Android is still young and evolving

* Quick Prediction on the future of Android (2011 and beyond)
* Finally i'll work for Google (ahahha) or be an Android programmer (I love WebProgramming too especially frontend technology like Javascript,Actionscript and CSS, yes Android is also frontend)
* PS4 would be announced as Google TV with PS and PSN
* Android would benefit from Chrome OS and vice versa (More apps would be web centric via webview)
* Java would not be the only language you can code Android with (currently you could do it) but future would be better (Javascript, Python or Ruby please)
* Android ndk would/should be married to Google Native Client (used in Chrome)
* O3D, WebGL, more HTML5 features to include in future version of Android
* Android would have WAC/Bondi features where you could call native functions from any website given you would grant them permission, Chrome OS might be the first to try this

As you can see most of my prediction expect PS4 is actually Android meeting Chrome OS, like what Eric Schmidt stated Android would eventually marry Chrome OS (Android 5.0?), this might not happen in 1 year time but most of the technologies between them are just overlapping each other and it make sense for them to meet later on (currently its still not ideal for it to happen).

To conclude our green friend has and would remain strong and I here would try to help more friends to get into the green robot army :) Merry Christmas and Happy New year to all of you

Previewing while Drawing with Canvas in Android

2010-12-14T23:29:00.000+08:00

After my site being gone from the web yesterday, its back :) it happens to be a blogger bug. Anyway i got a lot of request on how to preview your drawing, and continue our Drawing with Canvas series, here is how to preview while drawing.

Notes
• The files are uploaded in http://goo.gl/ecHpE
• The project was build in IntelliJ and it should be easy to import to Eclipse

What Do I Need
DrawingSurface

public class DrawingSurface extends SurfaceView implements SurfaceHolder.Callback {

  public boolean isDrawing = true;

  public DrawingPath previewPath;



  private Handler previewDoneHandler = new Handler(){

    @Override

    public void handleMessage(Message msg) {

      isDrawing = false;

    }

  };



  class DrawThread extends  Thread{

    @Override

    public void run() {

      commandManager.executeAll(c,previewDoneHandler);

      previewPath.draw(c);

    }

  };

}

Drawing Activity

public class DrawingActivity extends Activity implements View.OnTouchListener{

  public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {

    drawingSurface.previewPath = new DrawingPath();

    drawingSurface.previewPath.path = new Path();

    drawingSurface.previewPath.paint = getPreviewPaint();

    ...

  }

  private Paint getPreviewPaint(){

    final Paint previewPaint = new Paint();

    previewPaint.setColor(0xFFC1C1C1);

    previewPaint.setStyle(Paint.Style.STROKE);

    previewPaint.setStrokeJoin(Paint.Join.ROUND);

    previewPaint.setStrokeCap(Paint.Cap.ROUND);

    previewPaint.setStrokeWidth(3);

    return previewPaint;

  }



  public boolean onTouch(View view, MotionEvent motionEvent) {

    if(motionEvent.getAction() == MotionEvent.ACTION_DOWN){

      currentBrush.mouseDown(drawingSurface.previewPath.path, motionEvent.getX(), motionEvent.getY());

    }else if(motionEvent.getAction() == MotionEvent.ACTION_MOVE){

      currentBrush.mouseMove(drawingSurface.previewPath.path, motionEvent.getX(), motionEvent.getY());

    }else if(motionEvent.getAction() == MotionEvent.ACTION_UP){

      currentBrush.mouseUp(drawingSurface.previewPath.path, motionEvent.getX(), motionEvent.getY());

      drawingSurface.previewPath.path = new Path();

    }

  }

}

Quick Explanation

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Explanation
public boolean isDrawing = true;
Lets introduce something that would tell our app if we are drawing or not.

public DrawingPath previewPath;
Here we create another DrawingPath which would only do the preview for us

private Handler previewDoneHandler = new Handler(){
@Override
public void handleMessage(Message msg) {
isDrawing = false;
}
};
Here we create a handler to tell our app to stop drawing at the end of the last path it has drawn (this function should named differently, ahhah)

class DrawThread extends Thread{
@Override
public void run() {
commandManager.executeAll(c,previewDoneHandler);
previewPath.draw(c);
}
};
Here you draw the preview path and pass our complete handler to stop our app from drawing over and over

public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
drawingSurface.previewPath = new DrawingPath();
drawingSurface.previewPath.path = new Path();
drawingSurface.previewPath.paint = getPreviewPaint();
...
private Paint getPreviewPaint(){
...
}
Here we just initialize the previewPath with a different path (a kinda gray paint, 0xFFC1C1C1)

public boolean onTouch(View view, MotionEvent motionEvent) {
if(motionEvent.getAction() == MotionEvent.ACTION_DOWN){
nbsp; currentBrush.mouseDown(drawingSurface.previewPath.path, motionEvent.getX(), motionEvent.getY());
}else if(motionEvent.getAction() == MotionEvent.ACTION_MOVE){
currentBrush.mouseMove(drawingSurface.previewPath.path, motionEvent.getX(), motionEvent.getY());
}else if(motionEvent.getAction() == MotionEvent.ACTION_UP){
currentBrush.mouseUp(drawingSurface.previewPath.path, motionEvent.getX(), motionEvent.getY());
drawingSurface.previewPath.path = new Path();
}
}
Here we use the concept we understood from brushes Read the explanation here

Hope this helps :)

Drawing with Canvas in Android, Brushes

2010-12-08T00:10:00.000+08:00

Continuing with our Drawing in Canvas series, let us see how to implement brushes.

Introduction
Drawing lines is boring, lets draw something else

Notes
• We would introduce a new package com.almondmendoza.drawings.brush
• The files are uploaded in http://goo.gl/ecHpE
• The project was build in IntelliJ and it should be easy to import to Eclipse

What Do I Need
IBrush.java

public interface IBrush {

  public void mouseDown( Path path, float x, float y);

  public void mouseMove( Path path, float x, float y);

  public void mouseUp( Path path, float x, float y);

}

Brush.java

public class Brush implements  IBrush {

  public void mouseDown(Path path, float x, float y) {

    // add codes here if it would affect every brush

  }



  public void mouseMove(Path path, float x, float y) {

    // add codes here if it would affect every brush

  }



  public void mouseUp(Path path, float x, float y) {

    // add codes here if it would affect every brush

  }

}

Pen.java

public class PenBrush extends Brush{

  @Override

  public void mouseDown(Path path, float x, float y) {

    path.moveTo( x, y );

    path.lineTo(x, y);

  }



  @Override

  public void mouseMove(Path path, float x, float y) {

    path.lineTo( x, y );

  }



  @Override

  public void mouseUp(Path path, float x, float y) {

    path.lineTo( x, y );

  }

}

CircleBrush.java

public class CircleBrush extends Brush{

  @Override

  public void mouseMove(Path path, float x, float y) {

    path.addCircle(x,y,10,Path.Direction.CW);

  }

}

DrawingActivity.java

public class DrawingActivity extends Activity implements View.OnTouchListener{

  ...

  private Brush currentBrush;

  public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {

    ...

    currentBrush = new PenBrush();

    ...

  }



  public boolean onTouch(View view, MotionEvent motionEvent) {

    if(motionEvent.getAction() == MotionEvent.ACTION_DOWN){

      currentBrush.mouseDown(currentDrawingPath.path, motionEvent.getX(), motionEvent.getY());

    }else if(motionEvent.getAction() == MotionEvent.ACTION_MOVE){

      currentBrush.mouseMove( currentDrawingPath.path, motionEvent.getX(), motionEvent.getY() );

    }else if(motionEvent.getAction() == MotionEvent.ACTION_UP){

      currentBrush.mouseUp( currentDrawingPath.path, motionEvent.getX(), motionEvent.getY() );

      drawingSurface.isDrawing = true;

    }

    return true;

  }



  public void onClick(View view){

    switch (view.getId()){

      ...

      case R.id.circleBtn:

        currentBrush = new CircleBrush();

      break;

      case R.id.pathBtn:

        currentBrush = new PenBrush();

      break;

    }

  }

Quick Explanation

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Explanation
public interface IBrush {
public void mouseDown( Path path, float x, float y);
public void mouseMove( Path path, float x, float y);
public void mouseUp( Path path, float x, float y);
}
We begin by creating a brush interface so that our brushes would be united :)

public class Brush implements IBrush {
...
}
Our brush class would serve as base classes for our other brushes, here we can implement codes that would be shared across different brushes

public class PenBrush extends Brush{ ... }
From our previous article from the series we had implemented these codes directly on onTouch function on DrawingActivity, here we just move it to its own Brush class.

public class CircleBrush extends Brush{
@Override
public void mouseMove(Path path, float x, float y) {
path.addCircle(x,y,10,Path.Direction.CW);
}
}
In here we only make use of the mouseMove of our Brush class, as you can see we have path.addCircle where we could make other brushes by changing this to other function or adding more then one path (For other shapes available kindly refer to the Path Reference

public boolean onTouch(View view, MotionEvent motionEvent) {
if(motionEvent.getAction() == MotionEvent.ACTION_DOWN){
currentBrush.mouseDown(currentDrawingPath.path, motionEvent.getX(), motionEvent.getY());
}else if(motionEvent.getAction() == MotionEvent.ACTION_MOVE){
currentBrush.mouseMove( currentDrawingPath.path, motionEvent.getX(), motionEvent.getY() );
}else if(motionEvent.getAction() == MotionEvent.ACTION_UP){
currentBrush.mouseUp( currentDrawingPath.path, motionEvent.getX(), motionEvent.getY() );
drawingSurface.isDrawing = true;
}
return true;
}
We rewrote the function to use our brushes to do the paths so that we could change the brush and not care about this function.

public void onClick(View view){
switch (view.getId()){
...
case R.id.circleBtn:
currentBrush = new CircleBrush();
break;
case R.id.pathBtn:
currentBrush = new PenBrush();
break;
}
}
This is now we change brushes

Conclusion
To add new brushes, just create a new class that extends the Brush class.

My Battery Status 2.1.0

2010-12-07T01:20:00.000+08:00

Been fixing the UI part of My battery status for days, now its live, anyone can search them on the market (search for com.almondmendoza.monBattery). Next article should be back to our series :)

TutorialForAndroid first 1000 visit

2010-12-03T23:53:00.000+08:00

After 2-3 years of this site, I finally hit the 1000 visit one single day, which just means i'm atleast helping 1000 (if all reads the tutorial) or a lot of programmers to Android with these tutorials :)

I would like to thanks everyone, and as we go forward, i would like focus on making series (like the drawing series) and as a new step to this site and my career, im opening up suggestions on what i could blog thus making use of google moderator http://www.google.com/moderator/#15/e=40510&t=40510.40, anyone can suggest a topic (please be warned that i do need time to learn them as well and only after work)

Thanks again

Soft Kitty - Non Android

2010-11-28T00:10:00.000+08:00

Once in a while i would post non-android article and here is one of them.

Anyone watch the big bang theory must know this song, if not here is a video

And here is a guitar tab, ahhah
2 or B |--8-5-5--6-3-3--1-3-5-6-8---8-5-5--6-3-3--1-3-1--| (repeat nth times)

:)

Using library with resources in IntelliJ and Android

2010-11-25T01:13:00.001+08:00

As my previous articles indicates, im coding more Android in IntelliJ then eclipse (main reason is that it will let you forget you have a mouse). For those new to IntelliJ, like me, here is how i set up the library in IntelliJ so that both resources and code could be used.

Notes
• Im new to IntelliJ so if im doing something wrong, kindly comment below :)
• As of writing the resources between library cant be handle properly when compiled (you can still do the coding with it) thus we need the help of command line (ant install, adb install/uninstall), on the Bug tracker it was reported to be fine in nightly.

What Do I Need
• As of now you need the EAP of IntelliJ
• Lastest Android SDK
• You need to know how to create a project
• You need to know how to create a library

Instruction
1) Open your project's module settings

2) In Modules, click the add new module (see image below)

3) Select your library if you had previously created one

4) Browse to your libraries path/directory. and select the file with the extension .iml

5) First click on your project (the red circle) then on the dependencies tab, click on add then Module dependencies (it shall have only one module)

Command line
So you can code with your favorite IDE and now you want to debug it on the emulator. you could do (please refer to Developing in other IDE (You must have ant in your OS)

cd /path/to/your/project

ant debug

It will then tell you that where the apk is at

debug:

[echo] Running zip align on final apk...

[echo] Debug Package: /path/to/your/project/bin/shootAndLearn-debug.apk

Now you have to install it on the emulator, please refer to Android Debug Bridge page

adb uninstall com.almondmendoza.shootAndLearn

adb install bin/shootAndLearn-debug.apk

adb uninstall com.almondmendoza.shootAndLearn
We have to uninstall the apk from the emulator first before

adb install bin/shootAndLearn-debug.apk
installing it

Conclusion
I know the debugging part is kinda hard right now but the development/coding part is certainly a lot better (got to love the ctrl+w, ctrl+shift+a shortcuts) :)

Drawing with Canvas in Android, Saving your drawings

2010-11-21T02:02:00.002+08:00

Continuing with our Drawing in Canvas series, let us see how to save your drawings
Update:
May 5, 2011 - If saving the image is not that fine, this could come in handy http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5243547/decode-byte-array-to-bitmap-that-has-been-compressed-in-java

Introduction
We draw and saw our drawings are good, now lets save them

Notes
• The files are uploaded in http://goo.gl/ecHpE
• The project was build in IntelliJ and it should be easy to import to Eclipse
•

What Do I Need

DrawingSurface

public class DrawingSurface extends SurfaceView implements SurfaceHolder.Callback {
  private Bitmap mBitmap;
  private ...
  class DrawThread extends  Thread{
    ...
    @Override
    public void run() {
      Canvas canvas = null;
      while (_run){
        try{
          canvas = mSurfaceHolder.lockCanvas(null);
          if(mBitmap == null){
            mBitmap =  Bitmap.createBitmap (1, 1, Bitmap.Config.ARGB_8888);;
          }
          final Canvas c = new Canvas (mBitmap);
          c.drawColor(0, PorterDuff.Mode.CLEAR);
          commandManager.executeAll(c);
          canvas.drawBitmap (mBitmap, 0,  0,null);
        } finally {
          mSurfaceHolder.unlockCanvasAndPost(canvas);
        }
      }
    }
  }

  public Bitmap getBitmap(){
    return mBitmap;
  }

  public void surfaceChanged(SurfaceHolder holder, int format, int width,  int height) {
    // TODO Auto-generated method stub
    mBitmap =  Bitmap.createBitmap (width, height, Bitmap.Config.ARGB_8888);;
  }
}

DrawingActivity

public class DrawingActivity extends Activity implements View.OnTouchListener{
  ...
  private static File APP_FILE_PATH = new File("/sdcard/TutorialForAndroidDrawings");

  public void onClick(View view){
    switch (view.getId()){
      ...
      case R.id.saveBtn:
        final Activity currentActivity  = this;
        Handler saveHandler = new Handler(){
          @Override
          public void handleMessage(Message msg) {
            final AlertDialog alertDialog = new AlertDialog.Builder(currentActivity).create();
            alertDialog.setTitle("Saved 1");
            alertDialog.setMessage("Your drawing had been saved :)");
            alertDialog.setButton("OK", new DialogInterface.OnClickListener() {
              public void onClick(DialogInterface dialog, int which) {
                return;
              }
            });
            alertDialog.show();
          }
        } ;
         new ExportBitmapToFile(this,saveHandler, drawingSurface.getBitmap()).execute();
      break;
    }
  }


  private class ExportBitmapToFile extends AsyncTask {
    private Context mContext;
    private Handler mHandler;
    private Bitmap nBitmap;

    public ExportBitmapToFile(Context context,Handler handler,Bitmap bitmap) {
      mContext = context;
      nBitmap = bitmap;
      mHandler = handler;
    }

    @Override
    protected Boolean doInBackground(Intent... arg0) {
      try {
        if (!APP_FILE_PATH.exists()) {
          APP_FILE_PATH.mkdirs();
        }

        final FileOutputStream out = new FileOutputStream(new File(APP_FILE_PATH + "/myAwesomeDrawing.png"));
        nBitmap.compress(Bitmap.CompressFormat.PNG, 90, out);
        out.flush();
        out.close();
        return true;
      }catch (Exception e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
      }
      //mHandler.post(completeRunnable);
      return false;
    }

    @Override
    protected void onPostExecute(Boolean bool) {
      super.onPostExecute(bool);
      if ( bool ){
        mHandler.sendEmptyMessage(1);
      }
    }
  }
}

Quick Explanation

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Explanation
if(mBitmap == null){
mBitmap = Bitmap.createBitmap (1, 1, Bitmap.Config.ARGB_8888);;
}
final Canvas c = new Canvas (mBitmap);
c.drawColor(0, PorterDuff.Mode.CLEAR);
commandManager.executeAll(c);
This is the core of the saving part, in order for our drawing to be exported we have to create a canvas with bitmap to draw upon to, See Canvas Class for more info.

canvas.drawBitmap (mBitmap, 0, 0,null);
We put our bitmap to our original canvas (the surfaceView's canvas) so that we can see our drawings

public void surfaceChanged(SurfaceHolder holder, int format, int width, int height) {
mBitmap = Bitmap.createBitmap (width, height, Bitmap.Config.ARGB_8888);;
}
We would have to recreate our bitmap when we change the orientation (The drawings will currently be removed)

final Activity currentActivity = this;
Handler saveHandler = new Handler(){ ... }
We cant call the UI tread from another thread so we pass a handler to our AsyncTask, see Using Handler in Android for more information on Handlers

private class ExportBitmapToFile extends AsyncTask {
private Context mContext;
private Handler mHandler;
private Bitmap nBitmap;

public ExportBitmapToFile(Context context,Handler handler,Bitmap bitmap) {
mContext = context;
nBitmap = bitmap;
mHandler = handler;
}

@Override
protected Boolean doInBackground(Intent... arg0) {
try {
if (!APP_FILE_PATH.exists()) {
APP_FILE_PATH.mkdirs();
}

final FileOutputStream out = new FileOutputStream(new File(APP_FILE_PATH + "/myAwesomeDrawing.png"));
nBitmap.compress(Bitmap.CompressFormat.PNG, 90, out);
out.flush();
out.close();
return true;
}catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
//mHandler.post(completeRunnable);
return false;
}

@Override
protected void onPostExecute(Boolean bool) {
super.onPostExecute(bool);
if ( bool ){
mHandler.sendEmptyMessage(1);
}
}
}
In order for us to export the bitmap and not hard the UX of our app, we need to create a background thread for it, for more information on AsyncTask see the AsyncTask Class and Painless Threading

final FileOutputStream out = new FileOutputStream(new File(APP_FILE_PATH + "/myAwesomeDrawing.png"));
nBitmap.compress(Bitmap.CompressFormat.PNG, 90, out);
out.flush();
out.close();
This is default Java feature, if your now from Java then this just mean that you create a buffer where when we use that in mBitmap.compress the compressed bitmap would be buffered into that FileOutputStream (i hope i was clear in this. haha)

Reference
Most of the stuff here were back in 2009, most of them are in Google Groups.

Drawing with Canvas in Android, Undo/Redo with Command Pattern

2010-11-17T00:49:00.002+08:00

Update - Nov 21, 2010
Created a series over this topic over at Drawing with Canvas Series, more articles would appear in the future :)

Continuing our Drawing with Canvas in Android, lets implement Undo and Redo with Command Pattern

Introduction
We draw and make mistake, and when we do we may want to undo it and when we undo we might want to redo it. Lets use a common design pattern in dealing with undo (I believe this is a modified command pattern for the command manager but i might be wrong)

Notes
• This is a continuation of Drawing with Canvas in Android Renewed
• The files are uploaded in http://goo.gl/ecHpE
• The project was build in IntelliJ and it should be easy to import to Eclipse
•

What Do I Need
ICanvasCommand

public interface ICanvasCommand {
  public void draw(Canvas canvas);
  public void undo();
}

DrawingPath

public class DrawingPath implements ICanvasCommand{
  public Path path;
  public Paint paint;

  public void draw(Canvas canvas) {
    canvas.drawPath( path, paint );
  }

  public void undo() {
    //Todo this would be changed later
  }
}

CommandManager

public class CommandManager {
  private List currentStack;
  private List redoStack;

  public  CommandManager(){
    currentStack = Collections.synchronizedList(new ArrayList());
    redoStack = Collections.synchronizedList(new ArrayList());
  }

  public void addCommand(DrawingPath command){
    redoStack.clear();
    currentStack.add(command);
  }

  public void undo (){
    final int length = currentStackLength();
    if ( length > 0) {
      final DrawingPath undoCommand = currentStack.get(  length - 1  );
      currentStack.remove( length - 1 );
      undoCommand.undo();
      redoStack.add( undoCommand );
    }
  }

  public int currentStackLength(){
    final int length = currentStack.toArray().length;
    return length;
  }

  public void executeAll( Canvas canvas){
    if( currentStack != null ){
      synchronized( currentStack ) {
        final Iterator i = currentStack.iterator();
        while ( i.hasNext() ){
          final DrawingPath drawingPath = (DrawingPath) i.next();
          drawingPath.draw( canvas );
        }
      }
    }
  }

  public boolean hasMoreRedo(){
    return  redoStack.toArray().length > 0;
  }

  public boolean hasMoreUndo(){
    return  currentStack.toArray().length > 0;
  }

  public void redo(){
    final int length = redoStack.toArray().length;
    if ( length > 0) {
      final DrawingPath redoCommand = redoStack.get(  length - 1  );
      redoStack.remove( length - 1 );
      currentStack.add( redoCommand );
    }
  }
}

DrawingSurface

public class DrawingSurface extends SurfaceView implements SurfaceHolder.Callback {
  private CommandManager commandManager;

  public DrawingSurface(Context context, AttributeSet attrs) {
    ...
    commandManager = new CommandManager();
    ...
  }

  class DrawThread extends  Thread{
    ...
    @Override
    public void run() {
      Canvas canvas = null;
      while (_run){
        try{
          canvas = mSurfaceHolder.lockCanvas(null);
          canvas.drawColor(0, PorterDuff.Mode.CLEAR);
          commandManager.executeAll(canvas);
        ....
  }

  public void addDrawingPath (DrawingPath drawingPath){
    commandManager.addCommand(drawingPath);
  }

  public boolean hasMoreRedo(){
    return commandManager.hasMoreRedo();
  }

  public void redo(){
    commandManager.redo();
  }

  public void undo(){
    commandManager.undo();
  }

  public boolean hasMoreUndo(){
    return commandManager.hasMoreUndo();
  }
}

DrawingActivity
See the source should be simple enough to be understood :)

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Explanation
public interface ICanvasCommand {
public void draw(Canvas canvas);
public void undo();
}
In undo command pattern based we need need 2 methods, one is execute and the other is undo (we wont use undo currently)

public class DrawingPath implements ICanvasCommand{
public Path path;
public Paint paint;
public void draw(Canvas canvas) {
canvas.drawPath( path, paint );
}
public void undo() {
//Todo this would be changed later
}
}
Let us now implement our interface, the code should be easy to understand. canvas.drawPath( path, paint) would draw our path with the object's paint into our class.

currentStack = Collections.synchronizedList(new ArrayList());
redoStack = Collections.synchronizedList(new ArrayList());
We create 2 List (Its actually a Stack but seems Stack cannot be thread-safe and I dont freakin understand why there are a lot of Array variation in Java, its so messy), one called currentStack for the current paths, another is redoStack where we put the undo commands so we could do redos.

public void addCommand(DrawingPath command){
redoStack.clear();
currentStack.add(command);
}
Everytime we add a new command, we should clear the redoStack

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public void undo (){
final int length = currentStackLength();
if ( length > 0) {
final DrawingPath undoCommand = currentStack.get( length - 1 );
currentStack.remove( length - 1 );
undoCommand.undo();
redoStack.add( undoCommand );
}
}
When we do an undo, we pop the last command from the currentStack and push it to our redoStack. As you can see we implemented undoCommand.undo() we did this incase in the future we have some logics added to our undo function

public void executeAll( Canvas canvas){
if( currentStack != null ){
synchronized( currentStack ) {
final Iterator i = currentStack.iterator();
while ( i.hasNext() ){
final DrawingPath drawingPath = (DrawingPath) i.next();
drawingPath.draw( canvas );
}
}
}
}
We loop through our currentStack and do the execute part (.draw) from our command pattern.

canvas = mSurfaceHolder.lockCanvas(null);
canvas.drawColor(0, PorterDuff.Mode.CLEAR);
commandManager.executeAll(canvas);
In order for our undo/redo to work we have to somehow clear the canvas and drawColor(0, PorterDuff.Mode.CLEAR) helps us with that

Some of the codes are, i believe, logical thus i skip the explanation on them.

Drawing with Canvas in Android Renewed

2010-11-13T02:56:00.002+08:00

Update - Nov 21, 2010
Created a series over this topic over at Drawing with Canvas Series, more articles would appear in the future :)

Back one year ago, i blogged about Drawing with Canvas in Android, at that time i was creating a drawing app that never get released (lazy me). Now im planning to redo everything and share my learnings as i go on (I'm still doing the Shoot and Learn on the side). From the simple tutorial on how to draw canvas in android, lets explode this area further.

Introduction
Based on the Drawing with Canvas in Android lets put the SurfaceView into a separate class (you should know how to use custom view), create a DrawingPath class which would contain our Path and Paint object, and create a DrawingActivity where our touch events, buttons to change colors are located.

Notes
• The package i would use through this tutorial is com.almondmendoza.drawings
• The individual source are located at http://goo.gl/5GulF while the full ones is at https://sites.google.com/site/tutorialsformobileprogramming/android-tutorials/android-files
• In this tutorial we wont handle clearing up the images, undos/redos and screen rotations (all in future articles :) )

What Do I Need
Drawing Activity

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    ....
>
    <com.almondmendoza.drawings.DrawingSurface
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="match_parent"
            android:id="@+id/drawingSurface"
    />
    <LinearLayout
            .....
    >
    ......
    </LinearLayout>
</RelativeLayout>

Main Activity

Intent drawIntent = new Intent(this, DrawingActivity.class);
startActivity( drawIntent);

DrawingPath.java

public class DrawingPath {
  public Path path;
  public Paint paint;
}

Drawing Activity

public class DrawingActivity extends Activity implements View.OnTouchListener{
  private DrawingSurface drawingSurface;
  private DrawingPath currentDrawingPath;
  private Paint currentPaint;

  public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.drawing_activity);
    setCurrentPaint();
    drawingSurface = (DrawingSurface) findViewById(R.id.drawingSurface);
    drawingSurface.setOnTouchListener(this);
  }

  private void setCurrentPaint(){
    currentPaint = new Paint();
    currentPaint.setDither(true);
    currentPaint.setColor(0xFFFFFF00);
    currentPaint.setStyle(Paint.Style.STROKE);
    currentPaint.setStrokeJoin(Paint.Join.ROUND);
    currentPaint.setStrokeCap(Paint.Cap.ROUND);
    currentPaint.setStrokeWidth(3);
  }

  public boolean onTouch(View view, MotionEvent motionEvent) {
    if(motionEvent.getAction() == MotionEvent.ACTION_DOWN){
      currentDrawingPath = new DrawingPath();
      currentDrawingPath.paint = currentPaint;
      currentDrawingPath.path = new Path();
      currentDrawingPath.path.moveTo(motionEvent.getX(), motionEvent.getY());
      currentDrawingPath.path.lineTo(motionEvent.getX(), motionEvent.getY());
    }else if(motionEvent.getAction() == MotionEvent.ACTION_MOVE){
      currentDrawingPath.path.lineTo(motionEvent.getX(), motionEvent.getY());
    }else if(motionEvent.getAction() == MotionEvent.ACTION_UP){
      currentDrawingPath.path.lineTo(motionEvent.getX(), motionEvent.getY());
      drawingSurface.addDrawingPath(currentDrawingPath);
    }
    return true;
  }

  public void onClick(View view){
    switch (view.getId()){
      case R.id.colorRedBtn:
        currentPaint = new Paint();
        currentPaint.setDither(true);
        currentPaint.setColor(0xFFFF0000);
        currentPaint.setStyle(Paint.Style.STROKE);
        currentPaint.setStrokeJoin(Paint.Join.ROUND);
        currentPaint.setStrokeCap(Paint.Cap.ROUND);
        currentPaint.setStrokeWidth(3);
      break;
      case R.id.colorBlueBtn:
        currentPaint = new Paint();
        currentPaint.setDither(true);
        currentPaint.setColor(0xFF00FF00);
        currentPaint.setStyle(Paint.Style.STROKE);
        currentPaint.setStrokeJoin(Paint.Join.ROUND);
        currentPaint.setStrokeCap(Paint.Cap.ROUND);
        currentPaint.setStrokeWidth(3);
      break;
      case R.id.colorGreenBtn:
        currentPaint = new Paint();
        currentPaint.setDither(true);
        currentPaint.setColor(0xFF0000FF);
        currentPaint.setStyle(Paint.Style.STROKE);
        currentPaint.setStrokeJoin(Paint.Join.ROUND);
        currentPaint.setStrokeCap(Paint.Cap.ROUND);
        currentPaint.setStrokeWidth(3);
      break;
    }
  }
}

Drawing Surface

public class DrawingSurface extends SurfaceView implements SurfaceHolder.Callback {
  private Boolean _run;
  protected DrawThread thread;

  public DrawingSurface(Context context, AttributeSet attrs) {
...
  }

  public void addDrawingPath (DrawingPath drawingPath){
    thread.addDrawingPath(drawingPath);
  }

  class DrawThread extends  Thread{
    private SurfaceHolder mSurfaceHolder;
    private List mDrawingPaths;
    public DrawThread(SurfaceHolder surfaceHolder){
      mSurfaceHolder = surfaceHolder;
      mDrawingPaths = Collections.synchronizedList(new ArrayList());
    }

...

    public void addDrawingPath(DrawingPath drawingPath){
      mDrawingPaths.add( drawingPath );
    }

    @Override
    public void run() {
      Canvas canvas = null;
      while (_run){
        try{
          canvas = mSurfaceHolder.lockCanvas(null);
          synchronized(mDrawingPaths) {
            Iterator i = mDrawingPaths.iterator();
            while (i.hasNext()){
              final DrawingPath drawingPath = (DrawingPath) i.next();
              canvas.drawPath(drawingPath.path, drawingPath.paint);
            }
          }
        } finally {
          mSurfaceHolder.unlockCanvasAndPost(canvas);
        }
      }
    }
  }
....
}

Explanation
<com.almondmendoza.drawings.DrawingSurface
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:id="@+id/drawingSurface"
/>
We start off by using our custom view in our xml, its as simple as creating a class and using it on the layout.

public class DrawingPath {
public Path path;
public Paint paint;
}
From Drawing with Canvas in Android we learn to put an ArrayList of Path which have a single color, for us to have different colors on different path, we create a class which would be an List in our DrawThread later on.

private Paint currentPaint;
....
private void setCurrentPaint(){
currentPaint = new Paint();
currentPaint.setDither(true);
currentPaint.setColor(0xFFFFFF00);
currentPaint.setStyle(Paint.Style.STROKE);
currentPaint.setStrokeJoin(Paint.Join.ROUND);
currentPaint.setStrokeCap(Paint.Cap.ROUND);
currentPaint.setStrokeWidth(3);
}
Here we create a Paint that would serve as our current paint, and set the currentPaint at the start of our activity.

public void onClick(View view){
switch (view.getId()){
case R.id.colorRedBtn:
currentPaint = new Paint();
currentPaint.setDither(true);
currentPaint.setColor(0xFFFF0000);
...
break;
case R.id.colorBlueBtn:
currentPaint = new Paint();
currentPaint.setDither(true);
currentPaint.setColor(0xFF00FF00);
...
This is how we change the currentPaint's color, since we use the Paint object, you could use any of its property/methods thus making every Path beautiful :)

public boolean onTouch(View view, MotionEvent motionEvent) {
if(motionEvent.getAction() == MotionEvent.ACTION_DOWN){
currentDrawingPath = new DrawingPath();
currentDrawingPath.paint = currentPaint;
currentDrawingPath.path = new Path();
....
drawingSurface.addDrawingPath(currentDrawingPath);
}
return true;
}
In the previous tutorial, we bind our onTouch on the surfaceView directly, now we bind it in our activity, this way we could control the logic of the touches better (where you would apply your own shared touch library) and you could do things that doesnt harm the SurfaceView/Canvas.

public DrawThread(SurfaceHolder surfaceHolder){
mSurfaceHolder = surfaceHolder;
mDrawingPaths = Collections.synchronizedList(new ArrayList());
}
As stated earlier we would create a List of DrawingPath, but in able to manipulate it while our thread is running we need to make sure that its thread-safe thus we call Collections.synchronizedList(new ArrayList()); (I'm not sure about this since i never used threads in other language besides Javascript's webworker)

public void addDrawingPath (DrawingPath drawingPath){
thread.addDrawingPath(drawingPath);
}
From our activity we would pass a DrawingPath to our surfaceView which we would then pass it to our thread, we do this so that our thread would not be accessible to the outside world of our DrawingSurface, which i believe is better for we can inject logics that would deal with our SurfaceView before passing it to our thread.

public void addDrawingPath(DrawingPath drawingPath){
mDrawingPaths.add( drawingPath );
}
From our DrawingSurface to our DrawThread, we pass the a DrawingPath and add it to our list

synchronized(mDrawingPaths) {
Iterator i = mDrawingPaths.iterator();
while (i.hasNext()){
final DrawingPath drawingPath = (DrawingPath) i.next();
canvas.drawPath(drawingPath.path, drawingPath.paint);
}
}
Here we use the Iterator class to iterate over our DrawingPath list and draw our Path on the canvas.

Conclusion
Now we learn how to better put our codes and make sure it can be scale up (im a webdeveloper, ahha) in the future.

Hope this helps :)

Take Picture in Android with MediaStore.ACTION_IMAGE_CAPTURE

2010-10-30T23:26:00.001+08:00

Previously in Android when you want to capture an Image, you have to use SurfaceView and SurfaceHolder to preview the camera. MediaStore.ACTION_IMAGE_CAPTURE was introduced in Cupcake, Android 1.5, and has been the default way to capture images captured in Android.

What Do I Need
In Manafiest.xml
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.CAMERA" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />

In your activity

private static final int TAKE_PHOTO_CODE = 1;

private void takePhoto(){
  final Intent intent = new Intent(MediaStore.ACTION_IMAGE_CAPTURE);
  intent.putExtra(MediaStore.EXTRA_OUTPUT, Uri.fromFile(getTempFile(this)) ); 
  startActivityForResult(intent, TAKE_PHOTO_CODE);
}

private File getTempFile(Context context){
  //it will return /sdcard/image.tmp
  final File path = new File( Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory(), context.getPackageName() );
  if(!path.exists()){
    path.mkdir();
  }
  return new File(path, "image.tmp");
}

@Override
protected void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent data) {
  if (resultCode == RESULT_OK) {
    switch(requestCode){
      case TAKE_PHOTO_CODE:
        final File file = getTempFile(this);
        try {
          Bitmap captureBmp = Media.getBitmap(getContentResolver(), Uri.fromFile(file) );
          // do whatever you want with the bitmap (Resize, Rename, Add To Gallery, etc)
        } catch (FileNotFoundException e) {
          e.printStackTrace();
        } catch (IOException e) {
          e.printStackTrace();
        }
      break;
    }
  }
}

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Explanation
final Intent intent = new Intent(MediaStore.ACTION_IMAGE_CAPTURE);
intent.putExtra(MediaStore.EXTRA_OUTPUT, getTempFile(this) );
startActivityForResult(intent, TAKE_PHOTO_CODE);
This is the core of the code, here we call an intent from the MediaStore which would open up the camera app, then we pass the output path of the captured image to a temporary location (Always use a safe location to store the image). Here we use the Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory() which is our SDCard, again for safety reason check if the SDCard is present or not. Then we start the activity, expecting a result with code TAKE_PHOTO_CODE

final File file = getTempFile(this);
try {
Bitmap captureBmp = Media.getBitmap(getContentResolver(), Uri.fromFile(file) );
}...{}
Knowing where the output of the file will be, we would open that file and place it on a bitmap where we would do our magic

Conclusion
ACTION_IMAGE_CAPTURE has done a great job so that we wont implement our own implementation of the camera app, so use it.

Update History
Jan 17, 2012 - Visual Update

How to restart your own app in Android Tutorial

2010-10-28T01:00:00.000+08:00

After launching (now refactoring) Shoot and Learn [ Market Link | AndroidPit.com Link ] , its time to write what i have learn.

Senario
You want to restart your app because of some preference/setting changed, or you just want to restart your app.

Notes
This might not be the best solution thus if you have a better one kindly comment below :)

Introduction
First we need our main activity to be a routing activity (if you came from the web, most framework do this where you have an index page where it routes other calls to its right controller). This main activity we shall call PreMainActivity, in this tutorial we would only put the restart logic on this activity, you can put things like preloader, first run activity, etc.

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What Do I Need
In Manafiest.xml

<activity 
 android:name=".PreMainActivity"
 android:label="@string/app_name"
 android:launchMode="singleTop"
 android:configChanges="locale"
>
 <intent-filter>
  <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
  <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
 </intent-filter>
</activity>
<activity android:name=".Main"
 android:configChanges="locale"
/>

In PreMainActivity.java

public class PreMainActivity extends Activity {
 public static Boolean ENABLE_RESTART = false;
 
 @Override
 public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
  super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
  ENABLE_RESTART = true;
  restartMain();
 }
 
 @Override
 public void onRestart() {
  super.onRestart();
  restartMain();
 }
   
 public void restartMain(){
  if(ENABLE_RESTART == true){
   Intent mainIntent = new Intent(this, Main.class);
   mainIntent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP  );
   startActivity(mainIntent);
   finish();
  }else{
   finish();
  }
  ENABLE_RESTART   = false;
 }    
}

In your activity where you want to trigger the restart

PreMainActivity.ENABLE_RESTART = true;

Intent i = new Intent(this,PreMainActivity.class);

i.addFlags( Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP | Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_SINGLE_TOP);

startActivity(i);

Explanation
<activity

android:name=".PreMainActivity"

.... />

As stated in our introduction we would use a PreMainActivity as the receiver of our main action.

public static Boolean ENABLE_RESTART = false;
In our activity we would have a static variable to check if the activity should restart or not.

@Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
ENABLE_RESTART = true;
restartMain();
}
When our app is first launched we would need to turn the flag to true in order for our next activity to restart/start.

Intent mainIntent = new Intent(this, Main.class);
mainIntent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP );
startActivity(mainIntent);
finish();
With this code, i assumed that main is on the top of the activity stack therefore we could just relaunch it as clear the whole stack. See (http://developer.android.com/reference/android/content/Intent.html#FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP).

PreMainActivity.ENABLE_RESTART = true;
Intent i = new Intent(this,PreMainActivity.class);
i.addFlags( Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP | Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_SINGLE_TOP);
startActivity(i);
Combined with android:launchMode="singleTop" in our manifest file, we make sure that when we launch PreMainActivity we get a clear top, single top activity. Note I might be doing some redundancy on singletop flag.

Conclusion
This how you can restart your app but this is not the best solution, as stated above im in a refactoring mode, in where instead of having a static variable, i would pass data i.putExtra("RESTART", true); on the intent. Which is a better solution, but if you have any better idea please do comment below and ill try to be more active with this blog :)

Shoot and Learn

2010-10-16T03:25:00.000+08:00

After few months of developing an android app for fun, finally got to release one on the market :)
Firstly thanks to SK Lam (his daugher's blog), to my parents for letting me stay late, to my friends for their suppor, to all who tested the app and to everyone that would download it.

The app is an application for kids to learn objects around them by capturing it and learning it like flash cards. From the sound of that there shouldn't be anything special with the app right?
Yes and no, yes its a flash card app like other but no, it has a better UI and UX (i hope) and its colorful with different themes (Signs of being a frontend guy, ahah).

Another interesting aspect is the Language feature (which i would like to open source it later when its ready), in here users can crowd source the language translation so that the translation of the app would be from its user base and thats the fun part of it :)

There is still a lot of improvements on the app and on the codes level, so brace yourself for bugs.

Head over the market place and search for "shoottolearn" <-- easier to find it with this way

Next blogs would be sharing the how to do on the apps. Any features on my app that you guys want me to blog? Comment down below. Thanks