I want to ask the user to enter their yearly income, after which the screen will flip and their after-tax income will be displayed in a table format for all Canadian provinces. (And for the future: all US states). The problem I ran into is creating a TableRow for each Canadian province in my main.xml. There are 13 provinces and territories, so 13 is not that bad to copy & paste in the main.xml; however, as soon as I have to copy & paste more than 2 times I start cringing and nausea kicks in. Personally I think “copy & paste” should not be in the programming vocabulary. Not only that, but I have 13 provinces now, what about when I have to enter 50 states! So, I had to find a way to create these new TableRow rows programmatically inside my TableLayout layout.

A great source for code snippets and answers to Android questions is http://www.anddev.org. I’m sure if you’re dabbling with Android then you’ve already come across this site. The particular post I read to do this is this one: Dynamically add rows to TableLayout. Commenters on that post were having problems getting this to work, but after I imported all the correct classes (android.widget.TableRow.LayoutParams is an important one to use) everything worked from the first time. I forced Eclipse to find most of the classes for me.

Below is the code from anddev.org, with my changes for my Taxman Android app. I’m too lazy to do a full-out beginning-to-end tutorial for this code snippet.

First I set my constants at the top of the Activity class:

public class Activity1 extends Activity implements OnTouchListener{

    int PROVINCE_Alberta = 0;
    int PROVINCE_BC = 1;
    int PROVINCE_Manitoba = 2;
    int PROVINCE_NewBrunswick = 3;
    int PROVINCE_Newfoundland = 4;
    int PROVINCE_Northwest = 5;
    int PROVINCE_NovaScotia = 6;
    int PROVINCE_Nunavut = 7;
    int PROVINCE_Ontario = 8;
    int PROVINCE_PEI = 9;
    int PROVINCE_Quebec = 10;
    int PROVINCE_Saskatchewan = 11;
    int PROVINCE_Yukon = 12;

    int numProvinces = 13;

There are 13 of them this time, there will be 50 of them for the States… technically this could be made into something much more malleable like an external config-type XML file.

Then in the onCreate method I created an array of String objects that will house all these provinces:

        String[] provinces = new String[numProvinces];
        provinces[PROVINCE_Alberta] = "Alberta";
        provinces[PROVINCE_BC] = "British Columbia";
        provinces[PROVINCE_Manitoba] = "Manitoba";
        provinces[PROVINCE_NewBrunswick] = "New Brunswick";
        provinces[PROVINCE_Newfoundland] = "Newfoundland and Labrador";
        provinces[PROVINCE_Northwest] = "Northwest Territories";
        provinces[PROVINCE_NovaScotia] = "Nova Scotia";
        provinces[PROVINCE_Nunavut] = "Nunavut";
        provinces[PROVINCE_Ontario] = "Ontario";
        provinces[PROVINCE_PEI] = "Prince Edward Island";
        provinces[PROVINCE_Quebec] = "Quebec";
        provinces[PROVINCE_Saskatchewan] = "Saskatchewan";
        provinces[PROVINCE_Yukon] =  "Yukon";

And right underneath that I create a TableRow for each item in the array provinces:

        // Get the TableLayout
        TableLayout tl = (TableLayout) findViewById(R.id.maintable);

        // Go through each item in the array
        for (int current = 0; current < numProvinces; current++)
        {
            // Create a TableRow and give it an ID
            TableRow tr = new TableRow(this);
            tr.setId(100+current);
            tr.setLayoutParams(new LayoutParams(
                    LayoutParams.FILL_PARENT,
                    LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT));   

            // Create a TextView to house the name of the province
            TextView labelTV = new TextView(this);
            labelTV.setId(200+current);
            labelTV.setText(provinces[current]);
            labelTV.setTextColor(Color.BLACK);
            labelTV.setLayoutParams(new LayoutParams(
                    LayoutParams.FILL_PARENT,
                    LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT));
            tr.addView(labelTV);

            // Create a TextView to house the value of the after-tax income
            TextView valueTV = new TextView(this);
            valueTV.setId(current);
            valueTV.setText("$0");
            valueTV.setTextColor(Color.BLACK);
            valueTV.setLayoutParams(new LayoutParams(
                    LayoutParams.FILL_PARENT,
                    LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT));
            tr.addView(valueTV);

            // Add the TableRow to the TableLayout
            tl.addView(tr, new TableLayout.LayoutParams(
                    LayoutParams.FILL_PARENT,
                    LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT));
        }

The main.xml contains the following for the TableLayout:

        <TableLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
                android:layout_width="fill_parent"
                android:layout_height="fill_parent"
                android:stretchColumns="0,1"
                android:id="@+id/maintable" >
        </TableLayout>

And here is the final result:

So far I have the Ontario taxes working :). If you make $50,000 in Ontario, you’d be taking home $38,285.53.

For this I will be implemented OnTouchListener and overrided the method OnTouch().

To start off, we need to create an Activity with two screens. The two screens will be implemented using a ViewFlipper in the main.xml layout file. Follow the steps in this blog post to set yourself up: Android: Switching screens in an Activity with animations (using ViewFlipper).

1. Now that you have yourself set up, open the Activity1 class.

2. Make the class implement OnTouchListener. The top of the class will look like this:

...
import android.view.View.OnTouchListener;

public class Activity1 extends Activity implements OnTouchListener{
...

2. You will have to override the OnTouch() method as well. If you were using eclipse, it might have created the method stub for you:

    @Override
    public boolean onTouch(View arg0, MotionEvent arg1) {
        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
        return false;
    }

Here is the method that you need to use instead:

    public boolean onTouch(View arg0, MotionEvent arg1) {

        // Get the action that was done on this touch event
        switch (arg1.getAction())
        {
            case MotionEvent.ACTION_DOWN:
            {
                // store the X value when the user's finger was pressed down
                downXValue = arg1.getX();
                break;
            }

            case MotionEvent.ACTION_UP:
            {
                // Get the X value when the user released his/her finger
                float currentX = arg1.getX();            

                // going backwards: pushing stuff to the right
                if (downXValue < currentX)
                {
                    // Get a reference to the ViewFlipper
                     ViewFlipper vf = (ViewFlipper) findViewById(R.id.details);
                     // Set the animation
                      vf.setAnimation(AnimationUtils.loadAnimation(this, R.anim.push_left_out));
                      // Flip!
                      vf.showPrevious();
                }

                // going forwards: pushing stuff to the left
                if (downXValue > currentX)
                {
                    // Get a reference to the ViewFlipper
                    ViewFlipper vf = (ViewFlipper) findViewById(R.id.details);
                     // Set the animation
                     vf.setInAnimation(AnimationUtils.loadAnimation(this, R.anim.push_left_in));
                      // Flip!
                     vf.showNext();
                }
                break;
            }
        }

        // if you return false, these actions will not be recorded
        return true;
    }

What I’ve done is added a CASE statement. On press down of the finger we save the current X value. On press up of the finger, after the dragging motion has finished, I check the X value again. I compare the two X values and I make a logical decision whether I should switch the screens forwards or backwards.

3. For the above to work, you need to add a global variable called downXValue that will store the X value when the finger was pressed down. Add the line below at the top of the class:

...
public class Activity1 extends Activity implements OnTouchListener{

    private float downXValue;

    /** Called when the activity is first created. */
    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
...

4. Now, you we will edit the main.xml layout. This is different from the main.xml from the previous post in two ways:

• The two buttons that switched the views have been removed, because we don’t need them anymore and
• I added an ID to the main LinearLayout so that I may reference it in my code.

Here is the entire main.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:orientation="vertical"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent"
    android:background="#ffffff"
    android:id="@+id/layout_main"
    >

    <ViewFlipper android:id="@+id/details"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="fill_parent">  

        <LinearLayout
               android:orientation="vertical"
            android:layout_width="fill_parent"
            android:layout_height="fill_parent"
            android:background="#ffffff">

            <TextView android:id="@+id/tv_country"
            android:layout_width="fill_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:textColor="#000000"
            android:textStyle="bold"
            android:textSize="18px"
            android:text="Country" >
            </TextView>
            <Spinner android:text=""
            android:id="@+id/spinner_country"
            android:layout_width="200px"
            android:layout_height="55px">
            </Spinner>
        </LinearLayout> 

        <LinearLayout
               android:orientation="vertical"
            android:layout_width="fill_parent"
            android:layout_height="fill_parent"
            android:background="#ffffff">

            <TextView android:id="@+id/tv_income"
            android:layout_width="fill_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:textColor="#000000"
            android:textStyle="bold"
            android:textSize="18px"
            android:text="Income" >
            </TextView>
            <EditText android:text=""
            android:id="@+id/et_income"
            android:layout_width="200px"
            android:layout_height="55px">
            </EditText>
        </LinearLayout> 

    </ViewFlipper>

</LinearLayout>

5. We will have to add a listener for the OnTouch() event in the OnCreate() method of the Activity1 class will be. Add the following two lines:

...
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

        // Set main.XML as the layout for this Activity
        setContentView(R.layout.main);

        // Add these two lines
        LinearLayout layMain = (LinearLayout) findViewById(R.id.layout_main);
        layMain.setOnTouchListener((OnTouchListener) this);
...

6. You should also remove the two Button OnClick() events and listeners, because those buttons do not exist anymore. Here is the final version of the Activity1.java class:

package com.warriorpoint.taxman3;

import android.app.Activity;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.view.MotionEvent;
import android.view.View;
import android.view.View.OnTouchListener;
import android.view.animation.AnimationUtils;
import android.widget.ArrayAdapter;
import android.widget.LinearLayout;
import android.widget.Spinner;
import android.widget.ViewFlipper;

public class Activity1 extends Activity implements OnTouchListener{

    float downXValue;

    /** Called when the activity is first created. */
    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

        // Set main.XML as the layout for this Activity
        setContentView(R.layout.main);

        // Add these two lines
        LinearLayout layMain = (LinearLayout) findViewById(R.id.layout_main);
        layMain.setOnTouchListener((OnTouchListener) this); 

        // Add a few countries to the spinner
        Spinner spinnerCountries = (Spinner) findViewById(R.id.spinner_country);
        ArrayAdapter countryArrayAdapter = new ArrayAdapter(this,
                    android.R.layout.simple_spinner_dropdown_item,
                    new String[] { "Canada", "USA" });
        spinnerCountries.setAdapter(countryArrayAdapter);

    }

    public boolean onTouch(View arg0, MotionEvent arg1) {

        // Get the action that was done on this touch event
        switch (arg1.getAction())
        {
            case MotionEvent.ACTION_DOWN:
            {
                // store the X value when the user's finger was pressed down
                downXValue = arg1.getX();
                break;
            }

            case MotionEvent.ACTION_UP:
            {
                // Get the X value when the user released his/her finger
                float currentX = arg1.getX();            

                // going backwards: pushing stuff to the right
                if (downXValue < currentX)
                {
                    // Get a reference to the ViewFlipper
                     ViewFlipper vf = (ViewFlipper) findViewById(R.id.details);
                     // Set the animation
                      vf.setAnimation(AnimationUtils.loadAnimation(this, R.anim.push_left_out));
                      // Flip!
                      vf.showPrevious();
                }

                // going forwards: pushing stuff to the left
                if (downXValue > currentX)
                {
                    // Get a reference to the ViewFlipper
                    ViewFlipper vf = (ViewFlipper) findViewById(R.id.details);
                     // Set the animation
                     vf.setInAnimation(AnimationUtils.loadAnimation(this, R.anim.push_left_in));
                      // Flip!
                     vf.showNext();
                }
                break;
            }
        }

        // if you return false, these actions will not be recorded
        return true;
    }

}

That’s it! Run it!

You will see that the button is gone and dragging across to the left or right will switch the screens!

Disclaimer: The back animation is not perfect, I still have to figure out why. It flickers a little. If you figure it out to animate properly please drop me a comment. Thanks!

I tried doing animations on the opening and closing of activities, but I haven’t figured that out yet fully. So instead, I will show you how to use animations when switching on objects/layers inside the same activity. It will still look like you are switching screens, but all the layout data will be in one single XML. If we were to switch between activities, each activity would have had (usually) its own layout XML.

And in the post coming after this one, I’ll show you how to start this animation and switch the screen while dragging your fingers on the touch screen. Let me be a little more precise: while dragging one finger on the touch screen. I’m not sure if the OS handles multi-touch right now – or if that’s something the device has to enable – or both.

Back to the topic: how to switch between layers using animations to make it look like you are changing screens… we will be using a ViewFlipper widget in the layout XML.

1. Create a new Android project, unless you already have one

2. Create a new Activity class that extends android.app.Activity.

3. Create a new directory under the /res directory and call it anim

4. Right-click on the new directory called anim and Import all the XML files from: Android_SDK\Platform\android-1.5\samples\ApiDemos\res\anim.

These are animations created using XML. The same animations can be created in code, but these are ready for us to use in XML.

5. Open res\layout\main.xml and copy/paste the following in:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:orientation="vertical"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent"
    android:background="#ffffff"
    >

    <ViewFlipper android:id="@+id/details"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="fill_parent">  

        <LinearLayout
               android:orientation="vertical"
            android:layout_width="fill_parent"
            android:layout_height="fill_parent"
            android:background="#ffffff">

            <TextView android:id="@+id/tv_country"
            android:layout_width="fill_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:textColor="#000000"
            android:textStyle="bold"
            android:textSize="18px"
            android:text="Country" >
            </TextView>
            <Spinner android:text=""
            android:id="@+id/spinner_country"
            android:layout_width="200px"
            android:layout_height="55px">
            </Spinner>
            <Button android:text="Next"
            android:id="@+id/Button_next"
            android:layout_width="250px"
                android:textSize="18px"
            android:layout_height="55px">
        </Button>
        </LinearLayout> 

        <LinearLayout
               android:orientation="vertical"
            android:layout_width="fill_parent"
            android:layout_height="fill_parent"
            android:background="#ffffff">

            <TextView android:id="@+id/tv_income"
            android:layout_width="fill_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:textColor="#000000"
            android:textStyle="bold"
            android:textSize="18px"
            android:text="Income" >
            </TextView>
            <EditText android:text=""
            android:id="@+id/et_income"
            android:layout_width="200px"
            android:layout_height="55px">
            </EditText>
            <Button android:text="Previous"
            android:id="@+id/Button_previous"
            android:layout_width="250px"
                android:textSize="18px"
            android:layout_height="55px">
            </Button>
        </LinearLayout> 

    </ViewFlipper>        

</LinearLayout>

This is a little long, let’s inspect it more closely.

• The outmost layer is a LinearLayout.
• It contains only one inner layer: ViewFlipper
• The first-level layers inside ViewFlipper will be the screens!
  • • ViewFlipper contains 2 LinearLayouts. Each LinearLayout is 1 screen.
• The first LinearLayout contains a label, a spinner (a dropdown), and a button
• The second LinearLayout contains a label, an edit view (input box), and a button

6. Here is what Activity1.cs looks like:

package com.warriorpoint.taxman3;

import android.app.Activity;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.view.View;
import android.view.animation.AnimationUtils;
import android.widget.ArrayAdapter;
import android.widget.Button;
import android.widget.Spinner;
import android.widget.ViewFlipper;

public class Activity1 extends Activity {
    /** Called when the activity is first created. */
    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

        // Set main.XML as the layout for this Activity
        setContentView(R.layout.main);

        // Add a few countries to the spinner
        Spinner spinnerCountries = (Spinner) findViewById(R.id.spinner_country);
        ArrayAdapter countryArrayAdapter = new ArrayAdapter(this,
                    android.R.layout.simple_spinner_dropdown_item,
                    new String[] { "Canada", "USA" });
        spinnerCountries.setAdapter(countryArrayAdapter);

        // Set the listener for Button_Next, a quick and dirty way to create a listener
        Button buttonNext = (Button) findViewById(R.id.Button_next);
        buttonNext.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
            public void onClick(View view) {
                // Get the ViewFlipper from the layout
                ViewFlipper vf = (ViewFlipper) findViewById(R.id.details);

                // Set an animation from res/anim: I pick push left in
                vf.setAnimation(AnimationUtils.loadAnimation(view.getContext(), R.anim.push_left_in));
                vf.showNext();
        }
        });

        // Set the listener for Button_Previous, a quick and dirty way to create a listener
        Button buttonPrevious = (Button) findViewById(R.id.Button_previous);
        buttonPrevious.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
            public void onClick(View view) {
                // Get the ViewFlipper from the layout
                ViewFlipper vf = (ViewFlipper) findViewById(R.id.details);
                // Set an animation from res/anim: I pick push left out
                vf.setAnimation(AnimationUtils.loadAnimation(view.getContext(), R.anim.push_left_out));
                vf.showPrevious();
        }

        });        

    }
}

Let’s try and decipher the code:

• First I set the main.xml to be the layout for this Activity
• I input Canada and USA as the values in my dropdown (the Spinner object)
• Then I create two listeners for the two buttons that I have Button_next and Button_previous
• Each button does the following:
  • • Gets a reference to the ViewFlipper
    • Sets an animation by passing it the context of this class and an animation from a res/anim XML file
    • showNext() or showPrevious() is called – which literally flips between the LinearLayouts in the ViewFlipper widget in the main.xml either forwards or backwards

That’s it! Run it!

Look at that fancy Spinner!

Click Next and watch it flow!

Disclaimer: There is a problem with the back animation when you press “Previous”. It flickers a little and doesn’t flow properly backwards. I still have to figure out why. If anyone knows why, drop me a comment below!

Next up: Removing the “Next” and “Previous” buttons and switching screens by using your finger to drag on the touch screen.

WTF? Why? What did I do wrong this time, again?

You can find the answer very easily:

1. Open a command prompt window.

2. Go to the SDK_directory\tools\

3. Run “abd logcat”

This will show you all logs that the Android system produces as you click around. Some of the logs will be related to the Exceptions getting thrown because of your app.

Null Pointer! But… you still need to decipher where this Null Pointer is from.

I had trouble adjusting to what an “Activity” was and how to handle it. Here is a quick and dirty way to create an Activity, and to switch to another Activity (think of it as another screen) on the click of a button.

1. Create a new Android project – or you might already have one created.

2. Add a new Class that extends android.app.Activity. You need a total of two classes that extend Activity. You will switch from one Activity to another.

3. Now, we’ll create two XML files to store the layout of each Activity. Under the res/layouts directory create a copy of main.xml

4. Each XML file will contain 1 button. On the click of the button, the Activities will switch.

main.xml will contain:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:orientation="vertical"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent"
    android:background="#ffffff"  >

    <TextView
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:textColor="#000000"
    android:text="This is Activity 1" />

       <Button android:text="Next"
        android:id="@+id/Button01"
        android:layout_width="250px"
            android:textSize="18px"
        android:layout_height="55px">
    </Button>    

</LinearLayout>

main2.xml will contain:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:orientation="vertical"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent"
    android:background="#ffffff"  >

    <TextView
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:textColor="#000000"
    android:text="This is Activity 2" />

       <Button android:text="Previous"
        android:id="@+id/Button02"
        android:layout_width="250px"
            android:textSize="18px"
        android:layout_height="55px">
    </Button>    

</LinearLayout>

So each Activity will have a text that says “This is Activity x” and a button to switch the Activity.

5. Add the second Activity to the main manifest file. Open AndroidManifest.xml and add:

        <activity android:name=".Activity2"></activity>

The final result will look similar to this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
      package="com.warriorpoint.taxman2"
      android:versionCode="1"
      android:versionName="1.0">
    <application android:icon="@drawable/icon" android:label="@string/app_name">
        <activity android:name=".Activity1"
                  android:label="@string/app_name">
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
                <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
            </intent-filter>
        </activity>
        <activity android:name=".Activity2"></activity>
    </application>
    <uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="3" />
</manifest>

If you forget to do this, then the you will get a Null Pointer exception because “Activity2” will not be found at runtime. It took me some time to find out how to find what Exception was getting thrown as well. I will include how to debug and look at Exceptions in another future post.

5. Open Activity1.java and enter the following code:

package com.warriorpoint.taxman2;

import android.app.Activity;
import android.content.Intent;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.view.View;
import android.widget.Button;

public class Activity1 extends Activity {
    /** Called when the activity is first created. */
    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.main);

        Button next = (Button) findViewById(R.id.Button01);
        next.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
            public void onClick(View view) {
                Intent myIntent = new Intent(view.getContext(), Activity2.class);
                startActivityForResult(myIntent, 0);
            }

        });
    }
}

Here’s a quick explanation of what this does:

- setContentView(R.layout.main) makes sure that main.xml is used as the layout for this Activity.

- Gets a reference to the button with ID Button01 on the layout using (Button) findViewById(R.id.Button01).

- Create san OnClick listener for the button – a quick and dirty way.

- And the most important part, creates an “Intent” to start another Activity. The intent needs two parameters: a context and the name of the Activity that we want to start (Activity2.class)

- Finally, the Activity is started with a code of “0”. The “0” is your own code for whatever you want it to mean. Activity2 will get a chance to read this code and use it. startActivityForResult means that Activity1 can expect info back from Activity2. The result from Activity2 will be gathered in a separate method which I will not include here.

6. Open Activity2.java and enter the code below:

package com.warriorpoint.taxman2;

import android.app.Activity;
import android.content.Intent;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.view.View;
import android.widget.Button;

public class Activity2 extends Activity {

    /** Called when the activity is first created. */
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.main2);

        Button next = (Button) findViewById(R.id.Button02);
        next.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
            public void onClick(View view) {
                Intent intent = new Intent();
                setResult(RESULT_OK, intent);
                finish();
            }

        });
    }

This code does the following:

- Sets main2 as the layout for this Activity

- Gets a reference to Button02 and creates an OnClick listener

- In the OnClick listener, the Activity finishes with finish(). setResult() returns information back to Activity 1. In this example, it returns no information; and Activity1 doesn’t even have the listener to receive this information anyway.

That’s it! Run it!

The app will load in Activity 1:

When you click the button you will see Activity 2. There are no animations, no tweens, etc, so the screen will just “change”. I’ll talk about animations in future posts.

And clicking on the button “Previous” here will go back to Activity1.

Still to come:

1. How to create animations when switching screens.

2. How to switch using a dragging motion of your finger.

3. How to see a log of the exceptions that your app throws.

I’ve been a fan of Google’s mobile operating system Android for quite a while – technically since I heard about it 2 years ago. I’ve been unfortunate to live in Canada, because none of the telco companies here have carried any phones with Android (only HTC phones for now, but Samsung seems to be coming out with something soon).

But, on June 2nd 2009 Rogers is coming out with the HTC Dream and the HTC Magic and Google Android will be here! And on June 3rd Google Android will be in my hands. [I’m not going to be a geek and get it on the very first day it comes out, come on!]

So, in expectation of this date, I started playing around with Android and developing my own applications. To start off, it’s been absolutely easy, pleasant, and a breeze to setup. It was like stealing candy from a kid. I followed the instructions from the Android – Developers website and using Eclipse as my environment I was creating mobile applications in less than 30 mins.

To get the SDK follow this link: http://developer.android.com/sdk/1.5_r2/index.html
To read the installation instructions follow this link: http://developer.android.com/sdk/1.5_r2/installing.html
And I recommend using Eclipse if you do want to get the “30 mins effect”.

I wanted to test out the different functions/features that Android offers out of the box, so I thought of a simple app which would allow me to have a goal and thus opportunities to experiment. I am going to write a “tax” application. Unfortunately, this tax application will not fill out your taxes. It will calculate how much the government has to take from you each year. You will enter your country (Canada only for now), you will enter your income, and the result will be a summary of your take-home pay and taxes due, by province (or states for the US – eventually). I’m going to call it “The Taxman”.

I’ve just started this mini app, and as I go along I will post snippets of code that I found difficult to come up with – to help out anyone that is looking for the exact same solution. Also, I have a full-time job, so it will take me a month to complete this silly app :), so my posts might be infrequent.

This weekend I had a chance to start it off and I had trouble with a couple of things. I will write a separate post on each one over the next couple of weeks. Here’s three of those things:

1. How to switch from one screen to another (also called Activities)

2. How to switch screens with an animation effect

3. How to switch screens using a dragging motion with your finger – you know, iPhone stylez.

That’s it for now… those 3 posts will be coming out very, very soon!

Well, here I am, half a year later, trying to find out what happened to those stocks.

This is the original chart from June 29th 2008 that got me started:

This is the chart on January 1st 2009, from the On-Demand Index page:

Yikes! The return over the last year is -47%! The return since Jan 1 is -11%!

There is only ONE company on that list that has posted an increase in the past half year,
athenahealth (ATHN)
June 2008: 30.2
January 2009: 36.08
%: 19.47%

All the others are in the red, with an honourable mention going to
Salesforce.com (CRM)
June 2008: 68.6
January 2009: 26.61
%: -61.2%

Here’s a complete listing of the changes since June 2008:

Ok, ok, you can blame the economy.  But maybe the market still hasn’t warmed up to the idea of SaaS as much as this blog has. Or, just as the original article claims, these are companies just like any other and they are suffering the same ups and downs as all other companies - the industry they are in is just a small portion of the overall formula.

For example, salesforce was hugely overvalued at $60 (personal opinion), while athenahealth keeps signing more contracts [1] [2].

I really want to say: look, all companies but one have posted decreases, this means SaaS is still new and not being adopted. However, I know in my heart that so many companies in the red must have some kind of influence from the sagging economy. It would be quite the coincidence if they are all red because of their industry.

That’s all for now. I will check back on these stocks soon. Maybe when the economoy is stabalized in 2 years, looking at these figures will make more sense.

Either way, if a company made single tenant software that had superb usability and configure-ability; would it still garner the same success? I’ve said it before; software as a service is just that, a service. It doesn’t matter what architecture. As long as your customers don’t own and maintain the software or the hardware then that’s “service”. It doesn’t matter what flavor it comes in. This is one of those terms that the marketing department keeps hyping up to prove that there really is some innovation in their software. Because in this world, big words sell software. Don’t let a Suit with a degree in International Relations fool you next time. They’re wasting blog paper!

Just a few days ago, Microsoft’s Live Mesh was awarded Best Technology Innovation / Achievement at the Crunchies awards. Sure this is no Garnter. But it’s one of the only times that a bunch of Google-horny journalist admit that Microsoft has made a great product. Not surprisingly, Live Mesh is a product that I extremely love. I’ve been harping about it to all my friends.

To put simply, Live Mesh’s strategy is to enhance the Windows platform. To webify it if you will. You install Mesh on all your devices and it will keep your files and folder in sync all the time. You’re probably thinking “OK, so what”. Built into Mesh is the Live Desktop so you no longer need to be at your computer to access your files. All you need is a computer with Internet access. In fact, the Live Desktop is so slick that it feels like you’re using Remote Desktop through the browser. The more I use Mesh, the more I find ways to make my life easier. This is what I can do with Mesh:

• Work on a file on my desktop, close it, go home and continue working on it from my laptop. No uploading required
• Keep my IE bookmarks in sync on all my computers
• Have the code I’m working on available anywhere without checking it in
• My music is available on all my devices
• Install Mesh on my phone, take a picture and it’s on my desktop. Goodbye USB cable
• Share files with my friends by dragging it into a folder
• My data is always backed up on another machine or in the cloud

Mesh is one of the components of Microsoft’s Azure strategy. The other half is focused on providing managed hosting for applications and services. Although Mesh is a little further developed than the other components of Azure, I’m really looking forward to what Microsoft releases in the coming year. And for all those “2009” predictions … really?

Feel free to try Live Mesh today!

Sinclair Schuller over at SaaS Blogs poses an interesting question: Is it the right time for ISVs to enter the SaaS market in this economy? Will the economic turmoil provide an big opportunity for subscription software?

Sinclair argues that companies aren’t looking to cut monthly recurring expenses to reduce cost. Instead they’re looking to cut large expenditures or big ticket items that will make a significant dent on cost. Therefore Schuller argues that SaaS is, in a sense, is immune to corporate downsizing for the reasons above.

I’d like to add my thoughts to this discussion. First of all let’s assume that we’re talking about software that is business critical like CRM or ERP. As a SaaS provider, your product has to have some degree of importance for your customers’ day-to-day operation. Otherwise, it doesn’t matter economic crisis or not, you’ll be out of business sooner or later.

With this in mind, I would say that companies ARE NOT going to make an all-or-nothing decision. The CIO is not going to say “Should we completely scrap our Salesforce CRM to cut costs?” Instead, they will begin to throttle their consumption of these services to reduce their monthly costs. I mean isn’t this the value prop for SaaS? So instead of doing the right thing and buying a login for each employee. They’ll start doubling up or sharing logins. Or they’ll only provide logins for sales reps and not the marketing department. Or they’ll downgrade their version since they extra features aren’t always mission critical. Anyways you get the idea. Just think, when money is tight at home; you don’t stop eating you just eat less.

So I’d suggest to ISVs looking at getting into SaaS to pay close attention to the pricing model and make it recession proof. Just because you offer hosted services doesn’t mean people will flock to your company. This is not like the movie Field of Dreams with Kevin Costner where “if you build it, they will come”.

Take for example, Omniture. Their pricing is NOT based on per user. I can create as many users as I want because it’s based on the amount of data you send to their system. Basically, Omniture is BI system where marketers can embed code into their website to collect data and analyze visitor behaviour. In this case, you can’t really throttle the amount of money you spend on Omniture. What you pay is directly related to the amount of traffic on your site. And what are you going to do, tell people to stop visiting your site? Or will slowly stop implementing Omniture across your entire site? You could do that, but without the intelligence you wouldn’t be know how to enhance your site and generate more sales. So this doesn’t give customers a way to throttle their consumption but at the same time it provides a critical service for the company and thus cannot be axed altogether.

I think that’s the key. Figure out a subscription model that is well within your customer’s budget make it difficult to throttle. If you provide extreme value to your customers then it’s difficult to be on the cutting block. It’s best to nail this down before acquiring a single customer. The pricing model isn’t something that you can just change without pissing everybody off. Why else do you think Telcos charge per minute for your mobile, but charge a flat rate for the landline? I bet it even costs the Telcos less when you make a call on your cell phone than your home phone. But what’s done cannot be undone and if they all of a sudden started charging per minute at home, hell would break loose.