In my post, Practical Android for the Business User, I promised a follow-up on Android development (the SDK or software development kit). As a preface to the rest of my post you need to know that I HATE syntax. Luckily for me Google has created two Android development environments. The first environment which is not reviewed in this post involves learning specific code in conjunction with JAVA.
Being a five year veteran coach of Lego Robotics, I was thrilled to discover Google's other Android development environment … which is a LabView / Lego Robotics Programming like visual building blocks development environment, the App Inventor:
I found the service straight forward, and with a little bit of effort, not difficult to learn. Here is a short video overview: (access much more extensive training and videos)
Remember, you don't need to be a registered Android Marketplace developer to install your own apps. There are Android apps like APKatcher which allow you to email your completed app ready for installation to your Android smartphone. (see screenshot given below)
Finally, here is a screenshot of the actual App Inventor environment.
(click to maximize)
Although not strictly related to actual development in Android using Google, I did discover that lots of people (including me) had difficulty getting the ADB service to initially run (a necessary software installation step). Here is some key information which I discovered (my thanks to ksfrogman who posted this information on AndroidForum.Com):
- Copy the adb, AdbWinApi.dll, and AdbWinUsbApi.dll files from your SDK platform tools folder to your tools folder
- If your smartphone does not have default Google USB drivers, an approach like the one I used for my HTC Incredible smartphone may work for installing drivers.
Good luck! Have fun!