How to start Android Development?

It is completely fine to get scared of Android Development. I am quite sure no Android Developer out there has ever been confident about Android Development in the starting. So how to start it?

Starting Android Development and setting up the environment

So this might be a bit difficult for starters, but then what is easy at starting. So lets first start with the discussion of OS. If you have a MacOS, its perfect. Other Operating Systems like, Windows and Linux(of your choice) work perfectly fine as well. For dual-booting of Ubuntu alongside Windows you may follow this :

Congratulations, the first step to decide your OS is complete. Now is the turn for software to be used. It is called Android Studio. There are multiple IDE’s present, but no IDE has as many tools and regular updates as Android Studio, since it is maintained my Google itself. So I would like you to follow New Boston’s video for setting up AS(Android Studio) but you can go for other sources as well. I am providing a list of sources for setting up AS.

For Windows :

For Mac :

For Ubuntu or any Linux OS :

You may take time to set up but don’t worry. This was the toughest part in Android Development.

Getting started with your first app :

Now, this sounds really cool. So let’s get straight to the point. Everyone starts with developing a basic calculator(Why? No idea. :-P). So you can follow The New Boston for it.
Now, don’t expect to get everything at one go. You need to have a good concept of OOPS for learning Android if you don’t do learn OOPS first. After developing this app learn few necessary topics android :

1. Recycler View and List View(You can ignore this, recycler view is very efficient).
2. Networking using Retrofit and Volley(I prefer Retrofit).
3. Concept of shared preferences.
4. Integrating libraries like Glide(Image loading and caching library).
5. Go for API integrations like Google Maps, Firebase and as per requirements.

I will be sharing my git profile here :

thakersamveg608 - Overview

https://github.com/ECellNitrr/ECellApp2k18 This project has covered almost all topics and you may go through it. This is a live project and you can find this application here :

ECell NIT Raipur - Apps on Google Play

After you have learned necessary topics, the next most important thing is to learn architectures for maintaining your codes. It is always good to learn the latest architecture and hence you can go for MVVM(Model View- View Model) architecture. Tutorials point has explained it, but implement it to understand it better.

MVVM Tutorial

After you have gone through all of this, the next big thing is following good coding standards. I will be uploading a new blog for only this purpose regarding all the good coding standards you need to follow while coding for developing an android application. For now, you may go through this :

Android Code Style And Guidelines

Now, in industry, you don’t work alone. You work with 100’s or 1000’s of developers. Hence code sharing is very frequent and not possible mechanically. For this we use GIT. This is provided by many companies like Github, BitBucket etc. So you need to learn git as well. I am sharing a great source below, but Git is nothing but practise.

Git Tutorial: Learn Git Basics For Free | Codecademy

Last and and most important for any Android developer is to how to Google things. The errors and bugs you might be facing, have already been faced by thousands of developers already. So know how to Google and StackOverflow is your best friend.

What’s next?

Once you develop your first application, run it on phone and see an application working, you will be really excited to learn Android Development. So keep this spirit up, because Android Development needs a lot of motivation and hard work. You may get bore after few apps or find Android Development tough, if you give up now, then you won’t be able to learn Android forever.

Remember, own project may help you to start but they don’t let you grow. Try doing some live projects. Go for developing an android application for your college committees or do an internship somewhere. Later once you are a bit confident, you can go for freelancing as well.

Thank you for reading, hope it helped you. I will be writing more soon. Feel free to comment your queries or any advice or topics for next blog. Happy coding !!