Creative Android Apps

Speech to Text Using Android SDK

2013-03-23T11:09:00.002-07:00

Speech to Text using Android APIs

You can create a simple application using the google speech engine and convert the voice to text.

Create an android project and create the following res layout

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_above="@+id/textView1"
    android:layout_toLeftOf="@+id/textView1"
    android:gravity="center"
    android:orientation="vertical" >
 
    <ImageButton
        android:id="@+id/btnSpeak"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_margin="10dp"
        android:layout_marginRight="10dp"
        android:layout_marginTop="10dp"
         />
 
    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/txtText"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_marginLeft="10dp"
        android:layout_marginRight="10dp"
        android:layout_marginTop="10dp"
        android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceLarge" />
 
</LinearLayout>

Now you can use the following activity code to add in your sample application.

package com.example.speech2text;

import java.util.ArrayList;
 
import android.app.Activity;
import android.content.ActivityNotFoundException;
import android.content.Intent;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.speech.RecognizerIntent;
import android.view.Menu;
import android.view.View;
import android.widget.ImageButton;
import android.widget.TextView;
import android.widget.Toast;
 
public class MainActivity extends Activity {
 
    protected static final int RESULT_SPEECH = 1;
 
    private ImageButton btnSpeak;
    private TextView txtText;
 
    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
 
        txtText = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.txtText);
 
        btnSpeak = (ImageButton) findViewById(R.id.btnSpeak);
 
        btnSpeak.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
 
            @Override
            public void onClick(View v) {
 
                Intent intent = new Intent(
                        RecognizerIntent.ACTION_RECOGNIZE_SPEECH);
 
                intent.putExtra(RecognizerIntent.EXTRA_LANGUAGE_MODEL, "en-US");
 
                try {
                    startActivityForResult(intent, RESULT_SPEECH);
                    txtText.setText("");
                } catch (ActivityNotFoundException a) {
                    Toast t = Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(),
                            "Opps! Your device doesn't support Speech to Text",
                            Toast.LENGTH_SHORT);
                    t.show();
                }
            }
        });
 
    }
 
    @Override
    public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
        getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.activity_main, menu);
        return true;
    }
 
    @Override
    protected void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent data) {
        super.onActivityResult(requestCode, resultCode, data);
 
        switch (requestCode) {
        case RESULT_SPEECH: {
            if (resultCode == RESULT_OK && null != data) {
 
                ArrayList<String> text = data
                        .getStringArrayListExtra(RecognizerIntent.EXTRA_RESULTS);
 
                txtText.setText(text.get(0));
            }
            break;
        }
 
        }
    }
}

Using Speech Engine in Android

2013-03-21T22:14:00.000-07:00

This post is focusing on speech engine in Android SDK. The TTS engine is very important component of the Android SDK and the Android 4.0 version has great APIs to write the custom TTS engines.

Here i am explaining a sample code to use the TTS engine in your android application.

Create the following layout in your android application.

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:orientation="vertical"
    android:layout_height="match_parent" >

<TextView android:id="@+id/msglabel"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:text="Enter some text in english:"
/>
<EditText android:id="@+id/inputtext"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
/>
<Button android:id="@+id/speakenglish"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:text="speak in english"
/>

</LinearLayout>

Here is the code of the sample speak activity you can just copy and paste this in your application project.

package com.example.speaksample;

import android.os.Bundle;
import android.app.Activity;
import android.view.Menu;
import android.view.MenuItem;
import android.support.v4.app.NavUtils;

import android.app.Activity;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.view.View.OnClickListener;
import android.widget.Button;
import android.view.View;
import android.widget.EditText;
import android.speech.tts.TextToSpeech;
import android.speech.tts.TextToSpeech.OnInitListener;
import android.content.Intent;
import java.util.Locale;
import android.widget.Toast;

public class speaksample extends Activity implements OnClickListener, OnInitListener {
    //Create the TTS object
    private TextToSpeech TTSObject;
    //status check code
    private int DATA_CHECK_CODE = 0;
        //create the Activity
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_speaking_android);
                //get a reference to the button element listed in the XML layout
            Button speakButton = (Button)findViewById(R.id.speakenglish);
                //set the click listener
            speakButton.setOnClickListener(this);
            //check for TTS data
            Intent checkTTSIntent = new Intent();
            checkTTSIntent.setAction(TextToSpeech.Engine.ACTION_CHECK_TTS_DATA);
            startActivityForResult(checkTTSIntent, DATA_CHECK_CODE);
    }
        //respond to button clicks
    public void onClick(View v) {
            //get the text entered
            EditText inputtext = (EditText)findViewById(R.id.inputtext);
            String data = inputtext.getText().toString();
            speakInEnglish(data);
    }
        //speak the user text
    private void speakInEnglish(String speech) {
            //speak straight away
            TTSObject.speak(speech, TextToSpeech.QUEUE_FLUSH, null);
    }
        //act on result of TTS data check
    protected void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent data) {
        if (requestCode == DATA_CHECK_CODE) {
            if (resultCode == TextToSpeech.Engine.CHECK_VOICE_DATA_PASS) {
                //the user has the necessary data - create the TTS
            TTSObject = new TextToSpeech(this, this);
            }
            else {
                    //no data - install it now
                Intent installTTSIntent = new Intent();
                installTTSIntent.setAction(TextToSpeech.Engine.ACTION_INSTALL_TTS_DATA);
                startActivity(installTTSIntent);
            }
        }
    }
        //setup TTS
    public void onInit(int initStatus) {
            //check for successful instantiation
        if (initStatus == TextToSpeech.SUCCESS) {
            if(TTSObject.isLanguageAvailable(Locale.US)==TextToSpeech.LANG_AVAILABLE)
                TTSObject.setLanguage(Locale.US);
        }
        else if (initStatus == TextToSpeech.ERROR) {
            Toast.makeText(this, "TTS engine fails", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
        }
    }
}

If you like the code please share your feedback.

Thanks

open a facebook page on browser in android

2013-03-20T11:03:00.001-07:00

Open a facebook page in Android Application

To open a facebook page in your android application you can create the following method and call this method in a class derived from activity

This will run the facebook page of the user in a different activity window.

public static Intent getOpenFacebookIntent(Activity acty,String szUserId,String szUserName) {

           try {
               acty.getBaseContext().getPackageManager().getPackageInfo("com.facebook.katana", 0);
            return new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW, Uri.parse("fb://profile/" + szUserId));
           } catch (Exception e) {
            return new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW, Uri.parse("https://www.facebook.com/" + szUserName));
           }
        }

If you like the code please provide your feedback.

Android Read SMS

2013-03-20T10:57:00.001-07:00

Reading the SMS inbox from Android phone

Here is the quick way to read all the SMS stored in the inbox on android.

package com.csr.targetplus;

import java.util.List;

import android.net.Uri;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.app.Activity;
import android.database.Cursor;
import android.util.Log;
import android.view.Menu;
import android.view.MenuItem;
import android.widget.ArrayAdapter;
import android.widget.TextView;
import android.support.v4.app.NavUtils;

public class TargetPlus extends Activity {

    private static final String TAG = null;

    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        TextView view = new TextView(this);
        Uri uriSMSURI = Uri.parse("content://sms/inbox");
        Cursor cur = getContentResolver().query(uriSMSURI, null, null, null,null);
        String sms = "";
        while (cur.moveToNext()) {
            sms += "From :" + cur.getString(2) + " : " + cur.getString(11)+"\n";         
        }
        view.setText(sms);
        setContentView(view);
    }

    @Override
    public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
        getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.activity_target_plus, menu);
        return true;
    }

    
}

call on a telephone number

2012-10-21T04:21:00.000-07:00

This post is describing that how to make a call from the Android phone using Intent.ACTION_CALL.

Start a activity with as follows and pass your telephone number

Intent callIntent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_CALL);
callIntent.setData(Uri.parse("tel:" + <your tel number>));
activity.startActivity(callIntent);

To check the state of the phone call and actions setup a call listener as follows

private class EndCallListener extends PhoneStateListener { 
    @Override
    public void onCallStateChanged(int state, String incomingNumber) {
        if(TelephonyManager.CALL_STATE_RINGING == state) {
            Log.i("contactus", "RINGING, number: " + incomingNumber);
        }
        if(TelephonyManager.CALL_STATE_OFFHOOK == state) {
            Log.i("contactus", "OFFHOOK");
        }
        if(TelephonyManager.CALL_STATE_IDLE == state) {
            if (incomingNumber.equals(szListentelNumber) == true) {
                 Intent i = activity.getBaseContext().getPackageManager()
                        .getLaunchIntentForPackage(
                                activity.getBaseContext().getPackageName());
                    i.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP);
                    activity.startActivity(i);
             }
            Log.i("contactus", "IDLE" + incomingNumber);
        }
    }
}
public void setUpCallListener(String szTelNumber) {
     this.szListentelNumber = szTelNumber;
     EndCallListener callListener = new EndCallListener();
     TelephonyManager mTM = (TelephonyManager)activity.getSystemService(Context.TELEPHONY_SERVICE);
     mTM.listen(callListener, PhoneStateListener.LISTEN_CALL_STATE);
    
}

Enjoy the coding with Android and if you like this simple post please provide your feedback.

Thanks
Creative Android Apps

Twitter Live Streaming - Sample Code

2012-08-02T04:27:00.001-07:00

Social media is the key ingredient of applications and integrating the social media platform with mobile applications the key of success for your mobile applications.

The large social networks could not fit to one single mobile application increasing the opportunity for all mobile developers to create more interesting and creative small apps for mobile devices with this social platforms.

Twitter is one of the popular social networking platform. The update on twitter is very fast as tweets are small in size. Twitter introduced the live streaming APIs to get the updates in real time from twitter live streaming service.

You can integrate the twitter live streaming in your android application as described in this post.

Create a default activity project in eclipse for android and create the following layout for your application in activity_main.xml.

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:orientation="vertical" >
<Button
android:id="@+id/StartTweetsButton"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_gravity="left"
android:text="Start Tweets"
android:onClick="startTweets" />
<Button
android:id="@+id/StopTweetsButton"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_gravity="left"
android:text="Stop Tweets"
android:onClick="stopTweets" />
<EditText
android:id="@+id/SearchText"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content" >
</EditText>
<ListView android:id="@+id/TweetsList"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
></ListView>
</LinearLayout>

Now replace the default activity class code by the following code

import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.InputStream;
import java.io.InputStreamReader;
import java.net.URI;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.List;
import org.apache.http.HttpResponse;
import org.apache.http.auth.AuthScope;
import org.apache.http.auth.UsernamePasswordCredentials;
import org.apache.http.client.methods.HttpGet;
import org.apache.http.impl.client.DefaultHttpClient;
import org.json.JSONObject;
import android.os.AsyncTask;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.app.Activity;
import android.content.Context;
import android.util.Log;
import android.view.Menu;
import android.view.View;
import android.widget.EditText;
import android.widget.ListView;
import android.widget.SimpleAdapter;
import android.widget.Toast;



public class MainActivity extends Activity implements View.OnClickListener {

    private List<HashMap<String,String>> mTweets = new ArrayList<HashMap<String,String>>();
    private SimpleAdapter mAdapter;
    private boolean m_Running = false;
    private String m_SearchKeyWord = "";
    final int MAXLIST = 10;
    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
        //create a list view and bind with simple adapter
        mAdapter = new SimpleAdapter(this, mTweets, android.R.layout.simple_list_item_2, new String[] {"Tweet", "From"}, new int[] {android.R.id.text1, android.R.id.text2});
        ListView lv = (ListView)findViewById(R.id.TweetsList);
        lv.setAdapter(mAdapter);
        //create a list view and bind with simple adapter
    }
   
    public class StreamTask extends AsyncTask<Context, Boolean, Boolean> {
        protected Boolean doInBackground(Context... arg0) {
            try
            {
            DefaultHttpClient client = new DefaultHttpClient();
            String userName = "XXXXXXX";
            String password = "XXXXXXX";
            UsernamePasswordCredentials creds = new UsernamePasswordCredentials(userName, password);
            client.getCredentialsProvider().setCredentials( new AuthScope(AuthScope.ANY_HOST, AuthScope.ANY_PORT), creds);
            HttpGet request = new HttpGet();
            String m_SearchKeyWord = null;
            request.setURI(new URI("https://stream.twitter.com/1/statuses/filter.json?track=" + m_SearchKeyWord));
            HttpResponse response = client.execute(request);
            InputStream in = response.getEntity().getContent();
            BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader( new InputStreamReader(in) );
            handleTweets(reader);
            
            in.close();
            }
            catch (Exception e) {
            Log.e("SampleTwitter", "doInBackground_" + e.toString());
            }
            return true;
        }
         private void handleTweets( BufferedReader reader ) {
                try {
                    String line = "";
                    
                    do
                    {
                        line = reader.readLine();
                        JSONObject tweet = new JSONObject(line);
                        HashMap<String, String> tweetMap = new HashMap<String, String>();
                        if (tweet.has("text")) {
                            Log.i("SampleTwitter","Tweet : " + tweet.getString("text"));
                            tweetMap.put("Tweet", tweet.getString("text"));
                            tweetMap.put("From", tweet.getJSONObject("user") .getString("screen_name"));
                            Log.i("SampleTwitter","From : " + tweet.getJSONObject("user") .getString("screen_name"));
                            mTweets.add(0, tweetMap);
                            if (mTweets.size() > MAXLIST) 
                            {
                                mTweets.remove(mTweets.size() - 1);
                            }
                            publishProgress(true);
                        }
                    } while (m_Running && line.length() > 0);
                }
                catch (Exception e) {
                    Log.e("SampleTwitter", "handleTweets_" + e.toString());
                }
            }
         
        
    
        protected void onProgressUpdate(Boolean... values) {
            super.onProgressUpdate(values);
            mAdapter.notifyDataSetChanged();
            Log.d("SampleTwitter", "Im in onProgressUpdate()");
        }
        
    }
    public void stopTweets(View view ) {
        m_Running = false;
        for(int idx=mTweets.size()-1;idx>=0;idx--)
            mTweets.remove(idx);
        if(mTweets.size() ==1)
            mTweets.remove(0);
        mAdapter.notifyDataSetChanged();
    }
   public void startTweets(View view) {
        
        if( m_Running == false ) 
        {
            EditText edt = (EditText)findViewById(R.id.SearchText);
            m_SearchKeyWord =  edt.getText().toString();
            if( m_SearchKeyWord.length() > 0 ) 
            {
                StreamTask st = new StreamTask();
                st.execute();
                m_Running = true;
                
            }
            else 
            {
                Toast.makeText(this, "Please enter the search keyword", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
            }
        }
        else 
        {
            Toast.makeText(this, "Already Running", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
        }

    }

    @Override
    public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
        getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.activity_main, menu);
        return true;
    }
    @Override
    public void onClick(View arg0) {
        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
        
    }

    
}

This sample is getting the twitter updates from real time stream API and showing that in a list view. you need to change the username and password values in doInBackGround() method to connect to the twitter.

The following is URL on which we can send a https request to get the tweets update in real time based on the tag value or search keyword.

https://stream.twitter.com/1/statuses/filter.json?track=?

The AsyncTask is the best way to implement the tweets updates in background. The StreamTask in the sample is extending the AsyncTask and implementing the doInBackGround() method to create a https connection with twitter service and receive a JSON response. The JSON response is parsed by the
handleTweets() method. The method extract the text tweets and add in the hash map to update in the list view.

To update the UI in background function in AsyncTask the publishProgress will send the update to the onProgressUpdate method of AsyncTask.

mAdapter.notifyDataSetChanged();

This call will send a signal to the list view adapter about the change of data and the UI thread update the list view.

See the output of the sample here

Twitter Live Streaming

if you like the post then please provide your feedback.

Thanks
Creative Android Apps

Using Camera in Android Application

2012-08-01T11:50:00.001-07:00

The picture speaks more then your words. The picture is the key ingredient for a application interacting with physical world.

Android provides the very easy interface with the existing camera application to quickly integrate the camera function to your application. You can take picture and easily access the image data in your application with very few line of code in android.

This post is explaining the quick integration of the existing camera application with your own android application.

To capture the photo from existing camera application you can use the following line of code.

private void dispatchTakePictureIntent(int actionCode) {
    Intent PictureIntent = new Intent(MediaStore.ACTION_IMAGE_CAPTURE);
    startActivityForResult(PictureIntent, actionCode);
}

To get the photo in your application you simple need to implement onActivityResult() method which. The image data bundled in the extras as a bitmap and return to the caller in onActivityResult method.

private void onActivityResult(Intent intent) {
    Bundle extras = intent.getExtras();
    Bitmap mImageBitmap = (Bitmap) extras.get("data");
    
}

Now you can play with this bitmap data in your application.

Thanks
Creative Android Apps

Google Place APIs

2012-07-26T22:00:00.000-07:00

Google Place APIs

Google Place API is a service which provides the search system for places. The search with the google place API can be perform by two ways.

1) Text String Search - a normal search specify the search string as text
2) User location based search - a search specified based on the location parameters (latitude,longitude)

You can integrate the places search based on the location in your android application. See the previous example to determine the location of a user and draw a overlay icon pointed to that location of the user.

This post is explaining the implementation of place search by google place API.

The HTTP URL for the place search is as follows

https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/place/search/output?parameters

The output could be json or xml and the required parameters are as follows

key - Your application key.
location - latitude,longitude of the place to search
radius - search area in which the search should perform for location
sensor - true or false based on the request is initiated by a devices having a location sensor (GPS) enabled or disabled

The following is the list of optional parameters to refine your search

Keyword — A term to be matched against all content that Google has indexed for the place

Language — The language code, indicating in which language the results should be returned.

Name — A term to be matched against the names of Places. Results will be restricted to those containing the values passed here.

Rankby — Specifies the order in which results are listed. Possible values are:

· Prominence - This option sorts results based on their importance.
· Distance - This option sorts results in ascending order by their distance from the specified location.
· Types — Restricts the results to places matching at least one of the specified types. Types must be separated with a pipe symbol (type1|type2|etc).
· Pagetoken — Returns the next 20 results from a previously run search.

Code : The following few line of code explain how can you call google web service in your application.

    String result = "";
    HttpClient httpclient = new DefaultHttpClient();
    HttpGet request = new HttpGet(url);
    ResponseHandler<String> handler = new BasicResponseHandler();
    try {
        result = httpclient.execute(request, handler);
    } catch (ClientProtocolException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    } catch (IOException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
    httpclient.getConnectionManager().shutdown();

The Google Place APIs provide a quick way to integrate the context aware search to your application.

If you like the post please provide your feedback.

Thanks
Creative Android Apps

Exception networkonmainthreadexception in Android

2012-07-24T12:01:00.000-07:00

Exception networkonmainthreadexception in Android

This exception is due to the StrictMode introduced on honeycomb or later android devices to not allow the network operations in main thread.

The solution to this exception is that you implement a thread for network operation instead of implementing in main thread.

The alternative method is to disable the option which is enable by default in honeycomb and later android OS.The previous versions of android OS allowed the main thread to create the network connections.

Disabling the StrictMode in Android

StrictMode.ThreadPolicy policy = new StrictMode.ThreadPolicy.Builder().permitAll().build();
StrictMode.setThreadPolicy(policy);

If you like the solution please provide your comments.

Thanks
Creative Android Apps

Integrating Facebook in Android Apps

2012-07-23T22:09:00.000-07:00

Quick integration of facebook on android platform

Hello Creative Android Developers,

This post is explaining the integration of facebook a powerful social media with android applications.

facebook the powerful social media provides the enrich developer APIs to integrate the facebook features in applications. You can create lots of derivative social apps from facebook and can add a social touch to your app with facebook interaction.

This post is focusing on developing the android application with facebook APIs. The facebook SDK could be download from https://github.com/facebook/facebook-android-sdk/

Once you download the facebook-android-sdk you need to create an android project to compile the facebook-android-sdk code and create a library for facebook APIs.

Now you can create your sample code by using the above library as reference in your application.

Create a simple android application project and replace the activity code as follows.

You need to register your application on facebook platform and get the application id from the platform.

package com.example.samplefacebook;

import android.os.Bundle;

import android.app.Activity;
import android.content.Intent;
import android.view.Menu;
import android.view.MenuItem;
import android.support.v4.app.NavUtils;
import com.facebook.android.*;
import com.facebook.android.Facebook.*;

public class MainActivity extends Activity {

   
    @Override
    public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
        getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.activity_main, menu);
        return true;
    }

    
    Facebook facebook = new Facebook("YOUR APP ID");

    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

        facebook.authorize(this, new DialogListener() {
            @Override
            public void onComplete(Bundle values) {}

            @Override
            public void onFacebookError(FacebookError error) {}

            @Override
            public void onError(DialogError e) {}

            @Override
            public void onCancel() {}
        });
    }

    @Override
    public void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent data) {
        super.onActivityResult(requestCode, resultCode, data);

        facebook.authorizeCallback(requestCode, resultCode, data);
    }
    
}

This is the simple code for invoking the login interface with single-sign-on (SSO) of the facebook from your android application.

You need to add the following permission to access the facebook platform.

Add the following line in AndroidManifest.xml of the sample.

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET"/>

Now running the application we show the following output

Facebook - (SSO) in Android App

Now you can make your apps more social with facebook. If you like the post then please provide your feedback.

Thanks
Creative Android Apps

Sample Code - Implementing the sensor in Android

2012-07-22T10:23:00.000-07:00

Sample Code - TYPE_LIGHT sensor to get the screen brightness for android device

Android provide the android.hardware framework to implement the sensors. you could get a quick understanding of android sensor framework for our previous post.

http://creativeandroidapps.blogspot.in/2012/07/basics-of-sensors-on-android-platform.html

This post will explain the implementation of SensorEventListener for the TYPE_LIGHT sensor. The light listener is used to control the brightness of the screen.

You need to create a Android Application Project in your eclipse editor and modify the Activity class to extend with SensorEventListener. See the following code of the sample.

package com.example.samplesensor;

import android.hardware.Sensor;
import android.hardware.SensorEvent;
import android.hardware.SensorEventListener;
import android.hardware.SensorManager;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.app.Activity;
import android.content.Context;
import android.view.Menu;
import android.view.MenuItem;
import android.widget.Toast;
import android.support.v4.app.NavUtils;

public class MainActivity extends Activity implements SensorEventListener {

    private SensorManager mSensorManager;
    private Sensor mLight;

    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        mSensorManager = (SensorManager) getSystemService(Context.SENSOR_SERVICE);
        mLight = mSensorManager.getDefaultSensor(Sensor.TYPE_LIGHT);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
    }

    @Override
    public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
        getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.activity_main, menu);
        return true;
    }

    @Override
    public void onAccuracyChanged(Sensor arg0, int arg1) {
        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
        
    }

    @Override
    public void onSensorChanged(SensorEvent arg0) {
        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
        float lux = arg0.values[0];
        Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(), "Sensor Value " + lux, 1000).show();
    }

    @Override
      protected void onResume() {
        super.onResume();
        mSensorManager.registerListener(this, mLight, SensorManager.SENSOR_DELAY_NORMAL);
      }

      @Override
      protected void onPause() {
        super.onPause();
        mSensorManager.unregisterListener(this);
      }
}

Get the instance of the system service of sensor manager and get the TYPE_LIGHT sensor from the system.
You need to implement the two callback methods provided by the SessionEventListener.

The sensor need to register on the onResume() and onPause() methods of activity class.

The TYPE_LIGHT sensor only returns the one value which is brightness of the device screen. The brightness of the screen is measured by lux unit.

One lux is equal to one lumen per square metre.

If you like the example please provide your feedback.

Thanks
Creative Android Apps

Sensors framework for Android

2012-07-22T09:38:00.001-07:00

Android Sensor Framework

Android provides a development framework to develop the applications with various sensors described in the following post.

http://creativeandroidapps.blogspot.in/2012/07/basics-of-sensors-on-android-platform.html

Android provides a android.hardware package which includes the following four classes for sensor management.

SensorManager - Sensor Manager is a class to manage the various sensors provides the methods to list the sensors available on the device, register the sensor listeners and acquire the sensors data. You can use this class to create an instance of the sensor service.

Sensor - This class provides the methods specific to a sensor. The sensor manager returns the sensor object which can use to handle the sensor functions which depends on the type of the sensor.

SensorEvent - The framework defines this class to handle the sensor events and create a object of sensor event. A sensor event object includes the raw sensor data, the type of sensor that generated the event, the accuracy of the data, and the timestamp for the event.

SensorEventListener - The sensor event listener provides the two callback methods to implement to receive the sensor events when sensor changes its value or when sensor accuracy changes.

Now you can see the next article to create quick sample for sensors on android platform.

http://creativeandroidapps.blogspot.in/2012/07/sample-code-implementing-sensor-in.html

If you like the post please provide your feedback.

Thanks
Creative Android Apps

Basics of Sensors on Android Platform

2012-07-22T08:15:00.000-07:00

Basics about the sensors in Android

The sensors add a value to the Android device just like our sense organs add a value to our life. Android platform provide a rich set of sensors which could be use by applications in many ways. This post will describe about the various sensors and its use for applications on android platform.

Most of the sensors will measure the device motion , orientation and environmental changes. Android divide the sensors in two categories.

Hardware Sensors - The hardware sensors are the physical components embedded on the device and measure the environmental changes like acceleration, geomagnetic field strength, and device rotations.

Software Sensors - The software sensors are not embedded as physical components, they are basic derive the sensor values for hardware devices. The software sensors are also known as virtual sensors.
The gravity sensors are the example of software sensors.

According to the usage the android provides the following types of sensors

Motion Sensors
Environmental Sensors
Position Sensors

Its not necessary that all devices have all type of sensors, most of the android devices have accelerometer and magnetometer. The device could also have multiple sensors of same type.

see the list of sensors for android platform with there usage.

Sensor	Type	Description	Common Uses
TYPE_ACCELEROMETER	Hardware	Measures the acceleration force in m/s2that is applied to a device on all three physical axes (x, y, and z), including the force of gravity.	Motion detection (shake, tilt, etc.).
TYPE_AMBIENT_TEMPERATURE	Hardware	Measures the ambient room temperature in degrees Celsius (°C). See note below.	Monitoring air temperatures.
TYPE_GRAVITY	Software or Hardware	Measures the force of gravity in m/s2that is applied to a device on all three physical axes (x, y, z).	Motion detection (shake, tilt, etc.).
TYPE_GYROSCOPE	Hardware	Measures a device's rate of rotation in rad/s around each of the three physical axes (x, y, and z).	Rotation detection (spin, turn, etc.).
TYPE_LIGHT	Hardware	Measures the ambient light level (illumination) in lx.	Controlling screen brightness.
TYPE_LINEAR_ACCELERATION	Software or Hardware	Measures the acceleration force in m/s2that is applied to a device on all three physical axes (x, y, and z), excluding the force of gravity.	Monitoring acceleration along a single axis.
TYPE_MAGNETIC_FIELD	Hardware	Measures the ambient geomagnetic field for all three physical axes (x, y, z) in μT.	Creating a compass.
TYPE_ORIENTATION	Software	Measures degrees of rotation that a device makes around all three physical axes (x, y, z).	Determining device position.
TYPE_PRESSURE	Hardware	Measures the ambient air pressure in hpa or mbar.	Monitoring air pressure changes.
TYPE_PROXIMITY	Hardware	Measures the proximity of an object in cm relative to the view screen of a device. This sensor is typically used to determine whether a handset is being held up to a person's ear.	Phone position during a call.
TYPE_RELATIVE_HUMIDITY	Hardware	Measures the relative ambient humidity in percent (%).	Monitoring dewpoint, absolute, and relative humidity.
TYPE_ROTATION_VECTOR	Software or Hardware	Measures the orientation of a device by providing the three elements of the device's rotation vector.	Motion detection and rotation detection.
TYPE_TEMPERATURE	Hardware	Measures the temperature of the device in degrees Celsius (°C).	Monitoring temperatures.

You can develop very interesting applications around sensors like motion sensor based games, weather applications, motion detection applications, checking your position and much more.

Android provides a complete development framework is android SDK to manage the sensors. Please read the following post to get more details on the android framework.

If you like the post please provide your feedback as comments.

Thanks

Creative Android Apps

Basics of Dialog Box in Android

2012-07-19T11:01:00.000-07:00

Dialog Box in Android

Dialog Box is the best way to show the message popup in an application or on screen selection for user inputs. The Android provides the dialog interface which could be integrate with activity to get the user inputs as well as provide the responses to user.

Android defines the Dialog as class to create the dialog which can be display with in an activity. You should not use the Dialog class directly as the extended classes are also defined by Android which you can use directly in your application.

The four major type of Dialog classes are as follows

AlertDialog - is the most useful dialog class and most of the dialog interfaces could be design using the AlertDialog. You can define your controls to customize the Alert Dialog UI.

Android - AlertDialog

ProgressDialog - is used to show the progress as a progress bar or progress wheel. You can define your controls to customize the ProgressDialog also.

Android - Progress Wheel

Android - Progress Bar

DatePickerDialog - is used to select a date by the user.

TimePickerDialog - is used to select a time by the user.

Android - Pickers (Date and Time)

If you like the post please provide your feedback.

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Creative Android Apps

Android Jelly Bean released to play on Open Source

2012-07-19T10:33:00.000-07:00

Excitement Over - Google Released Jelly Bean Source Code in AOSP

After a lot of excitement for Jelly Bean (Android 4.1) Google recently released its version to the open source community to develop and release the future versions and releases.

Very soon we can see more and more devices running the Jelly Bean (Android 4.1). Currently Google released the native binaries for Nexus 7 tablet and Galaxy Nexus. Google's Jean Baptiste Queru recently announced the release of Android 4.1 on AOSP (Android Open Source Project). The name of the tagged release is android-4.1.1_r1 as JBQ stated in the Android Building Group. The name of the development branch is jb-dev. We recommended that you create new clients, even if you're working in the master branch.It'll make your clients smaller and faster to sync.

Now the developers can create there customized builds of Jelly Bean and create new applications with new android power of Jelly Bean. Jelly Bean is released with lots of exciting features and APIs for developers providing new means to sharing the applications and connecting the devices.

See more about the android 4.1 Jelly Bean Features here

http://creativeandroidapps.blogspot.in/2012/06/whats-new-in-jelly-belly-android-41.html

You can download the latest source code from https://android.googlesource.com/.

If you like the post please share to your friends and feedback us with your valuable comments.

Thanks
Creative Android Apps

Restarting Innovation - Big Software Sliced into Small Apps

2012-07-18T21:51:00.000-07:00

Restarting Software World By Slicing the Big Software into small apps

The software world is restarting the innovation by slicing the big software into small apps and serving to large community! real users.

Today's web world is changing the definition of the software from development to usage. The Big Software is now sliced into small apps and reaching to more real consumers. The complex technologies moved into black box and the simple technologies are in hand of end users.

The changes are already started in year 2008 when the mobile applications market started emerging. Now you can see the social apps and much more is very hot today.

The next future of the business will be Apps which redefine the business by giving better access to all the end users.You can see the changes that now the big accounting software's turned into personalized accounting apps, social activities are associated with technology using apps,banking software is sliced into small apps and distributed to its real end users.

This exciting change is happening due to advancement in web technologies, users awareness and device revolution to create a better interconnect world. The businesses are reducing there cost of operations, developers could get more opportunities and end users will have more access and confidence.

The smart phones, smart tablets and more smart embedded devices are increasing in the world and motivating the developers to create more beautiful world around the technologies.

The desktop apps, web apps, cloud apps, mobile apps, social apps and much more ways of apps are emerging to create a better life for every one.

The traditional and legacy software applications will be completely removed from the world and the new era of software will be start where the big technology will be served into small and creative apps to its real end users.

So are you ready to join the restart of software innovation. Push the button of apps and start new innovation.

If you like the post please share your comments.

Thanks
Creative Android Apps

Sample Code for Open GL in Android

2012-07-18T11:23:00.000-07:00

Sample Code for Open GL in Android

Now your basic Open GL ES concepts are clear as written in the previous post (http://creativeandroidapps.blogspot.in/2012/07/basics-of-opengl-in-android.html) you are ready to create something with OpenGL on Android in your creative application.

This post is explaining a very popular sample for the Open GL for the new developers to quickly understand the implementation of Open GL functions and classes. For a basic Open GL project you need to create a activity class where you host your GLSurfaceView. The render something on the view we need to implement the GLSurfaceView.Renderer interface.

See here the code of my sample class.

Create a Activity Class

package com.example.sampleopengl;

import android.os.Bundle;
import android.app.Activity;
import android.view.Menu;


public class MainActivity extends Activity {

    private MyGLSurfaceView mGLView;
    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        mGLView = new MyGLSurfaceView(this,null);
        setContentView(mGLView);
        
    }

    @Override
    public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
        getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.activity_main, menu);
        return true;
    }

    
}

See the highlighted code which you need to add in your activity class after implementing the following two classes.

Now create a class named MyGLSurfaceView which extends the GLSurfaceView to set as the view of activity.

package com.example.sampleopengl;

import android.content.Context;
import android.opengl.GLSurfaceView;
import android.util.AttributeSet;
import android.view.MotionEvent;

public class MyGLSurfaceView extends GLSurfaceView {

    MyGLRenderer mRenderer;
    public MyGLSurfaceView(Context context, AttributeSet attrs) {
        super(context, attrs);
        // TODO Auto-generated constructor stub
        mRenderer = new MyGLRenderer();
        setRenderer(mRenderer);
    }
    //change the color on touch
    public boolean onTouchEvent(final MotionEvent event) {
        queueEvent(new Runnable(){
            public void run() {
                mRenderer.setColor(event.getX() / getWidth(),
                        event.getY() / getHeight(), 1.0f);
            }});
            return true;
        }

}

See the implementation of the Renderer which will render the color.


package com.example.sampleopengl;
import javax.microedition.khronos.egl.EGLConfig;
import javax.microedition.khronos.opengles.GL10;

import android.opengl.GLSurfaceView;

public class MyGLRenderer implements GLSurfaceView.Renderer {
    private float mRed;
    private float mGreen;
    private float mBlue;
    
      public void setColor(float r, float g, float b) {
        mRed = r;
        mGreen = g;
        mBlue = b;
    }

    @Override  //function draw the opengl graphics
    public void onDrawFrame(GL10 gl) {
        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
         gl.glClearColor(mRed, mGreen, mBlue, 1.0f);
         gl.glClear(GL10.GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT | GL10.GL_DEPTH_BUFFER_BIT);
        
    }

    @Override
    public void onSurfaceChanged(GL10 gl, int w, int h) {
        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
        gl.glViewport(0, 0, w, h);
        
    }

    @Override
    public void onSurfaceCreated(GL10 gl, EGLConfig arg1) {
        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
        
        
    }


}

Now you can run the sample code and see the following result as your first sample of Open GL on android.

Open GL - Color 1

On touch you will see a color change on the Open GL surface view created in activity.

Open GL - Color 2

If you like the post please provide your feedback.

Thanks
Creative Android Apps

Basics of OpenGL in Android

2012-07-17T22:05:00.000-07:00

Basics about OpenGL ES for Android

OpenGL is an open graphics library to create the high performance 2D and 3D applications.The OpenGL ES is a specification for the embedded devices. The devices comes with GPU (graphics processing unit) accelerate the OpenGL functions and draw the high quality graphics on the screen.

There is lot of stuff on OpenGL which is not useful to start quickly with OpenGL ES on Android. This post is giving a quick start-up for developers to easily understand the basic about the OpenGL ES concepts around the Android application development.

OpenGL is a cross platform library and supports on multiple platforms.

Android support the OpenGL interface programming using the application development in java as well as the native (NDK) support.

The Android SDK has a android.opengl package to create the OpenGL graphics in android applications.

The android.opengl is a static interface and implements the OpenGL ES 1.0/1.1 specifications to create a high performance graphics in 2D and 3D.

The two main classes which need to implement in an OpenGL based application on android platform are as follows.

GLSurfaceView - GLSurfaceView provides a View class to implement with OpenGL 2D and 3D APIs just like the normal SurfaceView in Android. You can extend the GLSurfaceView class to create your own class and use that View to create for your activity.

All the events you want to handle on this view need to implement in the class you extended with GLSurfaceView.

GLSurfaceView.Renderer - This is an interface which provides the class to draw the OpenGL objects in GLSurfaceView. You should implement a separate class for Renderer and use that class to associate with GLSurfaceView instance by using the setRenderer method.

Now you can start trying with OpenGL samples for Android.

See the first sample here

http://creativeandroidapps.blogspot.in/2012/07/sample-code-for-open-gl-in-android.html

If you like this article then please provide your valuable comments.

Thanks
Creative Android Apps

Sample Code - Add a Image on Google Map

2012-07-16T21:08:00.000-07:00

Add a Image on Google Map using Overlay

Integration of Google Map with location applications provides a better navigation for user. You can add custom images , text and view on the Map View using the Overlay class provided by Google APIs.

See the previous post to integrate the location listener with your basic google map view.

http://creativeandroidapps.blogspot.in/2012/07/sample-code-update-google-map-using.html

This post will focus on adding a image on the map view on the detected location by the location listener.

You can use the Overlay class from com.google.android.maps package.

Now create a new class "GLocate.java" in your sample application which is extending the com.google.android.maps.Overlay class.

See the code as follows

package com.example.gmapsample;

import android.graphics.Bitmap;
import android.graphics.Canvas;
import android.graphics.Paint;
import android.graphics.Point;
import android.location.Location;
import android.util.Log;

import com.google.android.maps.GeoPoint;
import com.google.android.maps.MapView;

public class GLocate extends com.google.android.maps.Overlay{

    GeoPoint location = null;
    Bitmap overlay_img = null;
    public GLocate(GeoPoint location)
    {
        super();
        this.location = location;
    }
    
    public void setImage(Bitmap bmp)
    {
        this.overlay_img = bmp;
    }
    
    @Override
    public void draw(Canvas canvas, MapView mapView, boolean shadow)
     {
         super.draw(canvas, mapView, shadow);
         //translate the screen pixels
         Paint p = new Paint();
         Point screenPoint = new Point();
         mapView.getProjection().toPixels(this.location, screenPoint);
         Log.i("GLocate","draw : x = "+ screenPoint.x + "y= " + screenPoint.y);
         //add the image
         canvas.drawBitmap(overlay_img,screenPoint.x, screenPoint.y , p); //Setting the image  location on the screen (x,y).
         mapView.invalidate(); //redraw the map view
     }

 }

Now integrate the class in your main activity code as follows (see the highlighted lines of code)

 @Override
        public void onLocationChanged(Location location) {
        // A new location update is received.  Do something useful with it. 
            Log.i(TAG,"Location Listener start");
            String coordinates[] = {""+location.getLatitude(), ""+location.getLongitude()};
            double lat = Double.parseDouble(coordinates[0]);
            double lng = Double.parseDouble(coordinates[1]);
            GeoPoint p = new GeoPoint((int) (lat * 1E6),(int) (lng * 1E6));
            Bitmap bmp = BitmapFactory.decodeResource(getResources(), R.drawable.caalogo);
            GLocate gl = new GLocate(p);
            gl.setImage(bmp);
            List listOfOverLays = mapView.getOverlays();
            listOfOverLays.clear();
            listOfOverLays.add(gl);
            mapController.animateTo(p);
            mapController.setZoom(4);
            mapView.invalidate();     

        }

Now run the application and send the location update using the DDMS tool explained in previous post (http://creativeandroidapps.blogspot.in/2012/07/sample-code-update-google-map-using.html ).

The output of the application is as follows.

Google Map - Overlay Image

Please provide your valuable feedback.

Thanks
Creative Android Apps

Sample Code - Update Google Map using Location listener

2012-07-16T10:24:00.000-07:00

Sample Code - Update Google Map using Location listener

Implement the basic example of google map as explained in the following post.

http://creativeandroidapps.blogspot.in/2012/07/google-map-in-android-application.html

This post will focus on implementing the location listener and update the location in google map.

You need to add the following code for the location listener in the class extending the MapActivity class (see the GMapSample class from the previous sample)

private final LocationListener listener = new LocationListener() {

        @Override
        public void onLocationChanged(Location location) {
            // A new location update is received.  Do something useful with it.  
             Log.i(TAG,"Location Listener start");
             String coordinates[] = {""+location.getLatitude(), ""+location.getLongitude()};
                double lat = Double.parseDouble(coordinates[0]);
                double lng = Double.parseDouble(coordinates[1]);
                GeoPoint p = new GeoPoint(
                (int) (lat * 1E6),
                (int) (lng * 1E6));
                mapController.animateTo(p);
                mapController.setZoom(7);
                mapView.invalidate();     

        }

        @Override
        public void onProviderDisabled(String provider) {
            Log.i(TAG,"Location disable");
        }

        @Override
        public void onProviderEnabled(String provider) {
            Log.i(TAG,"Location enabldes");
        }

        @Override
        public void onStatusChanged(String provider, int status, Bundle extras) {
        }
    };

Now add a location manager object in class as follows

private LocationManager locMgr;

Add the following lines of highlighted code in the onCreate Method to register the location listener with location manager.

@Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_gsample);
        mapView = (MapView) findViewById(R.id.map_view);      
        mapView.setBuiltInZoomControls(true);
        locMgr = (LocationManager)getSystemService(Context.LOCATION_SERVICE);
        //register the location listener with location manager       
        locMgr.requestLocationUpdates(LocationManager.GPS_PROVIDER, 0, 0, listener);
        GeoPoint point = new GeoPoint(latitudeE6, longitudeE6);

        mapController = mapView.getController();
        mapController.animateTo(point);
        mapController.setZoom(7);
        mapView.invalidate();     
                          
    }

The eclipse will not automatically add the import required for location APIs

import android.location.Location;
import android.location.LocationListener;
import android.location.LocationManager;

Now when you run the application you can see the following output.

To send the location data to the emulator for testing you can use the DDMS tool

DDMS Tool

select the emulator device and go to the Emulator Control. See the Location Controls and update the location data and click send to send the location data to the emulator running the application.

If you like the post then please provide your feedback.

Thanks
Creative Android Apps

Get Application Key for Google Map

2012-07-15T21:56:00.000-07:00

Get the apiKey for Google Map

Google Map integration in your android application requires a key to integrate with your application.

This post will explain the procedure to get the apiKey for your android application for Google and explain the integration of Google Map with your application.

To get the apiKey we need to follow the following steps

Locate the debug.keystore
Locate the keytool.exe
Generate the MD5 fingerprint using keytool and debug.keystore
Get the API Key from Google by providing the MD5 fingerprint

You can find the debug.keystore file user directory of your operating system

For Example : C:\Users\XXXX\.android\debug.keystore

You can find the keytool.exe in your %JAVA_HOME%\bin\keytool.exe

Now run the following command to get the MD5 fingerprint

C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.6.0_01\bin>keytool.exe -list -alias androiddebugkey

-keystore C:\Users\t\.android\debug.keystore -storepass android -keypass android

See the output of the command as following screen shot

MD5 fingerprint with Key Tool

Now register this MD5 fingerprint to get the Google Map API Key as follows

Go to the following link

https://developers.google.com/android/maps-api-signup

Copy the MD5 fingerprint and click on Generate Key to get your application key.

Add the application key value to the MapView XML object as follows

 <com.google.android.maps.MapView
                 android:id="@+id/map_view"
                 android:layout_width="fill_parent"
                 android:layout_height="fill_parent"
                 android:apiKey="0HvaRYYCBNDap4SKY0HN-XXXXXXXXXXXXXX"
                 />

Now you are ready to use the Google Map in your application see here how to integrate the basic google map object in your application.

http://creativeandroidapps.blogspot.in/2012/07/google-map-in-android-application.html

If you like the post then please provide your feedback.

Thanks
Creative Android Apps

Google Map in Android Application - Sample Code

2012-07-15T21:23:00.000-07:00

Sample Code - Google Map in Android Application

Location aware applications on android platform needs an intuitive way to present the location information.
Google provides a set of APIs to integrate the Google Map for development of android applications and bundled as Google APIs.

This post is focusing on Google Map object integration with android application.

Create a Android application project "GMapSample" and open the default class file generated in the src directory as the main activity class. See here the project creation dialog

Create New Android Application Project Using Eclipse

To create the Google Map in the application you need to select the Build SDK as Google APIs (API15). If this is not available then you need to update the SDK and download using Android SDK Manager.

The following includes need to add in order to integrate the Google Map with your application.

import com.google.android.maps.GeoPoint;
import com.google.android.maps.MapActivity;
import com.google.android.maps.MapController;
import com.google.android.maps.MapView;

The MapActivity extends the basic Activity class of Android and provides the Google Map as the user interface.

In order to access the Google Map in your application you need to get a Application Key and define the Google Map object in your application XML layout.

 <com.google.android.maps.MapView
                 android:id="@+id/map_view"
                 android:layout_width="fill_parent"
                 android:layout_height="fill_parent"
                 android:apiKey="0HvaRYYCBNDap4SKY0HN-XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX"
                 />

To get the API key for your application see the following link.

http://creativeandroidapps.blogspot.in/2012/07/get-application-key-for-google-map.html

Now replace the code of main activity class by following code

package com.example.gmapsample;

import android.os.Bundle;

import android.view.Menu;
import com.google.android.maps.GeoPoint;
import com.google.android.maps.MapActivity;
import com.google.android.maps.MapController;
import com.google.android.maps.MapView;


public class GMapSample extends MapActivity{

    private static final String TAG = "GMapSample";
    private MapView mapView;
    private MapController mapController;
    private static final int latitudeE6 = 17421306;
    private static final int longitudeE6 = 78457553;
    
    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_gsample);
        mapView = (MapView) findViewById(R.id.map_view);   //get the map view resource added in XML file   
        mapView.setBuiltInZoomControls(true);
        GeoPoint point = new GeoPoint(latitudeE6, longitudeE6); //defines the geo location
        mapController = mapView.getController(); //get the map controller
        mapController.animateTo(point); // show the location defined by geopoint
        mapController.setZoom(7);  //setting the map zoom level
        mapView.invalidate();  //redraw the map   
                          
    }

    @Override
    public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
        getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.activity_gsample, menu);
        return true;
    }
    
    @Override
    protected boolean isRouteDisplayed() {
        return false;
    }
}

while compiling the application you will get some error because we have not added the use of google APIs in AndroidManifest.xml file of the application.

Add the following line in your application manifest file.

<uses-library android:name="com.google.android.maps" />

Add the following permissions also to manifest file.

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION"/>
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION"/>
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET"/>

To run the application you need to define a AVD from the AVD Manager as follows

AVD for Google Map

Running the application will give the following output.

Android Application with Google Map

Please provide your feedback. The next post for the Google Map is on the way.

Thanks
Creative Android Apps

Sample Code - Creating Option Menu in Android

2012-07-14T11:13:00.000-07:00

Sample Code - Create a Option Menu for Android Application

The option menu is a core menu of the application which provides the basic navigation for applications.

I have written this post the explain the use of option menu in android application.

The best way to create an option menu is to define the option menu in a XML file and inflate the menu resource in onCreateOptionMenu method.

Create a project and define an activity as CreativeMenus (you can use any other name for your activity).

Create the XML file in res->layout directory as menu.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <item android:id="@+id/action1"
          android:icon="@drawable/ic_launcher"
          android:title="@string/action1"
          />
    <item android:id="@+id/action2"
          android:icon="@drawable/ic_launcher"
          android:title="@string/action2" />
    <item android:id="@+id/action3"
          android:icon="@drawable/ic_launcher"
          android:title="@string/action3" />
    <item android:id="@+id/action4"
          android:icon="@drawable/ic_launcher"
          android:title="@string/action4" />
</menu>

Now implement the activity class as follows

package com.example.creativeapps;

import android.app.Activity;
import android.content.Intent;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.view.Menu;
import android.view.MenuInflater;
import android.view.MenuItem;

public class CreativeMenus extends Activity {

    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.main);
      }
    
    @Override
    public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
        MenuInflater inflater = getMenuInflater();
        inflater.inflate(R.layout.menu, menu);
        return true;
    }
    
    
    @Override
    public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item) {
        // Handle item selection
         switch (item.getItemId()) {
            case R.id.action1: //start another activity
                startActivity(new Intent(this, CreativelayoutsActivity.class));
                return true;
            case R.id.action2:
                //TODO: handle the code for action 2
                return true;
            case R.id.action3:
                //TODO: handle the code for action 3
                return true;
            case R.id.action4:
                //TODO: handle the code for action 4
                return true;
            default:
                return super.onOptionsItemSelected(item);
        }
    }
}

To handle the click events on action items you need to implement the onOptionsItemSelected method of your activity class. Get the unique id defined for each item to handle the proper action for click on menu item.

See in the above example we are starting the another activity on click of action1. you can extend the example by implementing your own actions.

Menus are good to implement for version lower then 3.0 for Android version 3.0 or greater implement the action bar.

Please provide your feedback and share this to your creative android friends.

Creative Android Apps

Basics about Menu in Android

2012-07-14T06:41:00.001-07:00

Menus in Android

Menu is the basic navigation method for an application which provides an interactive way to interact with user interface and defines the application actions for its users.

In Android version 2.3.X (API level 10) the Menu is the basic building block of the application invoked by the system when user press the menu button on device. In later versions from Android 3.0 on-wards this is replaced by an action bar on the top of device.

Android defines the three type of menus for applications

Option Menu

The option menu is the primary collection of action items for an application. If you are developing an application for android devices running the Android 2.3.X or lower version then option menu will be created by the system when ever user press the menu button on device.

The Android 3.0 converts this into more effective method using the action bar.

Contextual Menu

A contextual menu is a floating menu invoked when user performs a long click on an element of the view.

Popup Menu

A popup menu displays a list of items in a vertical list that's anchored to the view that invoked the menu.

You can define the menus in your android application as XML resources which could be inflate in your activity or fragment.

See here a sample file defining a menu for an application

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <item android:id="@+id/myaction1"
          android:icon="@drawable/ic_myaction1"
          android:title="@string/myaction1"
          android:showAsAction="ifRoom"/>
    <item android:id="@+id/help"
          android:icon="@drawable/ic_help"
          android:title="@string/help" />
</menu>

Handling input events in Android

2012-07-10T12:00:00.001-07:00

Handling Input Events in Android

The input events are the key elements for the user interface on mobile devices. The mobile devices has many ways to interact with device need to be handle in programming.

In android you can intercept the events passed by the user during interaction with your app and implement the callback to process the events. In android the activity presents the view to the user and each view object will generate the events based on user interaction.

This events could be intercept by each view object using the callback methods or event listeners. In case if you are creating your custom view object you can implement the event handlers for your view object.

Event Listeners

An event listener is an interface in the View class that contains a single callback method. These methods will be called by Android framework when the View to which the listener has been registered is triggered by user interaction with the item in the user interface.

See the list of event listener callback methods here

Event	Listener Callback method	Description
onClick()	View.onClickListener	This is called when the user either touches the item (when in touch mode), or focuses upon the item with the navigation-keys or trackball and presses the suitable "enter" key or presses down on the trackball.
onLongClick()	View.onLongClickListener	This is called when the user either touches and holds the item (when in touch mode), or focuses upon the item with the navigation-keys or trackball and presses and holds the suitable "enter" key or presses and holds down on the trackball (for one second).
onFocusChange()	View.onFocusChangeListener	This is called when the user navigates onto or away from the item, using the navigation-keys or trackball.
onKey()	onKeyListener	This is called when the user is focused on the item and presses or releases a hardware key on the device.
onTouch()	onTouchListener	This is called when the user performs an action qualified as a touch event, including a press, a release, or any movement gesture on the screen (within the bounds of the item).
onContextMenu()	onContextMenuListener	This is called when a Context Menu is being built (as the result of a sustained "long click").

You can use the View.setEventListener() to register the events with view object.

There are two ways to implement the event listener for a view object.

Register the event listener with view object

Example Code :

// Create an raw implementation of OnClickListener
private OnClickListener mTestListener = new OnClickListener() {
    public void onClick(View v) {
      // do something when the button is clicked
    }
};

protected void onCreate(Bundle savedValues) {
    ...
    // Capture our button from layout
    Button button = (Button)findViewById(R.id.testbutton);
    // Register the onClick listener with the implementation above
    button.setOnClickListener(mTestListener);
    ...
}

Implement the event listener on activity class

Example Code :

public class ExampleActivity extends Activity implements OnClickListener {
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedValues) {
        ...
        Button button = (Button)findViewById(R.id.corky);
        button.setOnClickListener(this);
    }

    // Implement the OnClickListener callback
    public void onClick(View v) {
      // do something when the button is clicked
    }
    ...
}

onLongClick(),onKey() and onTouch() events return a boolean value. If return true then the event will not propagate further to event listener.

Event Handlers

An event handler is required to implement when you are extending the view object to create your own view object.

You can implement the following basic event handler

onKeyDown(int, KeyEvent) - Called when a new key event occurs.
onKeyUp(int, KeyEvent) - Called when a key up event occurs.
onTrackballEvent(MotionEvent) - Called when a trackball motion event occurs.
onTouchEvent(MotionEvent) - Called when a touch screen motion event occurs.
onFocusChanged(boolean, int, Rect) - Called when the view gains or loses focus.

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Creative Android Apps