Corsi di Studio del Dipartimento di Culture, Politica e Società

The course introduces basic principles and techniques of programming with the Android operating system using the Java language.The main objective is to enable the student, given the functional requirements of an application intended for the Android system, to build a software solution created through the following activities:

• Definition of necessary functionalities / cases .
• "Build or reuse" analysis to find out if the required features are already available through system services
• Establish the application's reaction to external events (system messages, intent from other apps ..)
• Define the navigation of the App
• Write the configuration / layout files
• Implement missing features
• Complete life cycle callbacks

The search for an efficient and more efficient solution will be privileged, considering the peculiarities of the typical software execution environment.

At the end of the course, the student will:

• Master the "Android Studio" integrated development environment.
• Know the basic concepts of the Android system, including: the life cycle of an App, the mechanisms made available for the construction of the graphic interface, the collaboration between applications residing on the device. communication with remote services, the use of environmental sensors through the interfaces made available by the system.
• 
  Be able to search on the Web for the best solutions to the problems encountered and adapt them to the context in question. given the substantial impossibility of knowing completely a system of such complexity and in continuous evolution
• 
  Know how to design Software that makes the best use of the limited resources of the device.

The teaching material is available on a Moodle website at the following web address

https://elearning.unito.it/scuolacle/course/view.php?id=1511

The material consists of books in electronic format, folders containing sample Software projects, presentations in "Google Slides" format. The latter contain, in addition to the text, explanatory comments in audio and video format.

The student follows the lessons and carries out exercises on his Personal Computer. The content of the material on the Moodle site is very similar to what is presented during the lesson. Given the complexity of the concepts exposed, the theoretical parts alternate several times in a single lesson with exercises.

Compatibly with the limitations in force for the prevention of infections, the lessons are held in the presence of others through Web Conference tools

In both cases the lesson is recorded and made available on the Moodle website.

The practices described above aim to reduce the gap between the opportunities made available between attending and non-attending students.

The pupil will implement the project of a simple Android App on a theme proposed by the teacher, following the guidelines illustrated during the exercises. The evaluation will be based on the following criteria, listed in order of decreasing importance:

1. The App is effective, the requirements have been interpreted literally
   
2. the App is efficient, it realizes the user's needs with the minimum number of commands
   
3. the App is treated in the aesthetics of the user interface
   
4. the App has additional features
   

It is possible to carry out the project in groups of up to 3 people, but a proportionately higher quality of the implementation is required

• The "Android Studio" integrated development environment.
• Basic concepts of the Android system: Activities, Intents, Views, "Broadcast Receivers", "Content Providers", Application life cycle and activity levels.
• Exchange of information between intra-app activities and inter-app
• Graphic interface design: View and Fragment
• The Content Providers
• HTTP / JSON remote communication with other systems
• Use of sensors
• The Android notification system

The teaching material is identical for attending and non-attending students.

Since the Android system is rapidly evolving, it is very difficult to find paper books that do not become quickly obsolete. A link to an online tutorial is provided below:

https://www.tutorialspoint.com/android/android_tutorial.pdf

This is instead the link to the official online documentation:

https://developer.android.com/

Questions and answers site on Android:

https://stackoverflow.com/