Don’t Ever Get Stuck As An Android Developer (Part 1)
Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you’ll find one at the end of your arm… As you grow older you will discover that you have two hands. One for helping yourself, the other for helping others — Audrey Hepburn
It is a common occurrence to need help while practicing coding or while developing that your dream App. There is a popular saying that the most important characteristic of a pro developer or what makes that your guy a world class developer is the ability to find help and get one. But how do you get help if you don’t know where to look to? How do you find help if you don’t know how to do that?
In this post, I will discuss some major helpful resources, links and how-to-dos that will help you as an Android developer; with all these in your arsenal, you will never get stuck in your development journey. Follow me as I equip you!!!
The official Android developer documentation (developer.android.com)
This is the best place to learn about Android development and to keep informed about the newest Android development tools. The page contains a wealth of information kept current by Google. It’s a good practice to cultivate the habit of always consulting the documentation because even every other tutorial and courses are based on information obtained from the documentation. Major subsections of the documentation that you can also explore are:
This section is about Material Design, which is a conceptual design philosophy that outlines how apps should look and work on mobile devices. Useful links into the Design section include:
- Material Design Guidelines
- Style
- Using the Material Theme
- Components — Buttons
- Dialogs design guide
- Gestures design guide
- Notification Design Guide
- Icons and other downloadable resources
- Design — Patterns — Navigation
- Material Palette Generator
developer.android.com/develop/
This section covers API information, reference documentation, tutorials, tool guides, and code samples. Useful links into the Develop section include:
· Android Application Fundamentals
· Working with System Permissions
developer.android.com/distribute/
This section covers information about putting an app on Google Play, Google’s digital distribution system for apps developed with the Android SDK. You can also check through developer.android.com/distribute/stories/index.html to learn about other Android developers, their apps, and their successes with Android and Google Play. You can also use the Google Play Console to grow your user base and start earning money. Popular useful links under this section include:
Installing offline documentation
The Android developer documentation can be accessed even when you are not connected to the internet. To do this, install the Software Development Kit (SDK) documentation using the SDK Manager. Follow these steps:
- Select Tools > Android > SDK Manager.
- In the left column, click Android SDK.
- Select and copy the path for the Android SDK Location at the top of the screen, as you will need it to locate the documentation on your computer:
4. Click the SDK Tools tab. You can install additional SDK Tools that are not installed by default, as well as an offline version of the Android developer documentation.
5. Click the checkbox for “Documentation for Android SDK” if it is not already installed, and click Apply.
6. When the installation finishes, click Finish.
7. Navigate to the sdk directory you copied above, and open the docs directory.
8. Find index.html and open it.
The Android studio documentation (developer.android.com/studio/intro)
The Android studio documentation is the place where you get to download the latest version of Android studio or any other version you need; read the release notes for the newest version of Android Studio; learn about the features of the newest version; watch video tutorials about using Android Studio. Useful links into the Android Studio documentation include:
· Create App Icons with Image Asset Studio
· Add Multi-Density Vector Graphics
· Create and Manage Virtual Devices
· Measure App Performance with Android Profiler
Watching Developer videos
In addition to the Android and Android Studio documentation, the Android Developers YouTube channel is a great source of tutorials and tips. You can subscribe to the channel to receive notifications of new videos by email.
At this point, I will end the first part of this post. I hope this was helpful, if it was, please hit the clap button as many times as you can and share with others!
Follow this link to read Part 2 of this article https://link.medium.com/BLUySVXIN0
Thanks for reading!