Android UI Programming and Testing Here is a compact yet deep technical step-by-step guide to how to begin to program and test the UI of Android mobile smartphones and tablets, all in one page with clickable flowcharts, wise tips, but without the sales hype and confusing generalities. Related topics elsewhere on this same website (WilsonMar.com):   1. Android Index - Gurus, Websites, Books, Classes, Videos, Chats, etc.   2. Android Versions   3. Android Mobile Devices   4. Mobile Carrier Selection   5. Android Watches   6. Android Device Usage Basics   7. Android App Side-loading   8. Android App Markets and Reviewers   9. Android Utility Apps 10. Android User Apps 11. Android USB Connections 12. Android OS Rooting and Rooted Apps 13. Android App Frameworks 14. Android Java Eclipse Development Setup 15. Android Emulators 16. Android Java Programming and Testing 17. Android App Localization and Testing 18. Android Lifecycle and Testing 19. Android Data Management and Testing 20. Android User Preferences and Experience Features 21. Android UI Programming and Testing 22. HTML5 Features 23. HTML5 Coding and Testing 24. Android User Controls Coding and Testing 25. Android Hardware Control and Testing 26. Android Services Coding and Testing 27. Android App Monetization 28. Android App Marketing 29. Mobile VuGen Scripting for Load Testing 30. Lua Programming

Topics this page: Java Layout Layout Positioning Layout Fields Sliding Home Screen List Views API Demos Forground Accessibility Screen Sizing Code Screen Design Screen Sizing Code Action Bar Fragments Preference Headers Async Preferences Styles and Templates Ads Colors Menus Buttons List Widgets Selection Widgets Charts and Graphing Fonts 9-Patch Graphics Animations Open GL 3D Dialogs Haptics Vibrate Your comments???

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Layout by Procedural Java Coding

In addition to XML, Java logic can be defined.

(similar to Swing)

Layout Positioning Declarative XML

Most tutorials about defining UI focus on coding XML.

<RelativeLayout specifications for screens are based on wrap_content, match_parent,

Layout Height wrap_content keeps it smaller than fill-parent.
Layout width fill_parent or weight (percentage of screen)

Property Layout Weight specifies how "greedy" a widget is for space. Default 0.

Property Layout Gravity aligns content of widget within a parent.
Property gravity="center" aligns content within itself.

TODO: RTF (Right-To-Left) language layout.

TESTING EXE: TODO: This program scans the XML and identifies what to look for while testing. Especially helpful for verification of localization.

Layout Fields

Android's IMF (Input Method Framework) provides soft keyboards appropriate to field types:

inputType
text
number
phone
email
datetime
date
time

Email addresses are still text:

<TableRow>
	<TextView android:text="Email address:" />
	<EditText android:inputType="text|textEmailAddress" />
</TableRow>

Notice the field name after the | character.

<TextView android:text="Signed decimal number:" /> 
<EditText android:inputType="number|numberSigned|numberDecimal" /> 

Sliding Home Screen

SlidingDrawer container in a FrameLayout.

WEBSITE: DroidDraw can be used to design rudimentary screens.

List Views

ListView in Android supports header and footer views -- views that do not belong to the underlying adapter but otherwise show up in the list and scroll along with the contents. However, they only work if you have not yet set your own adapter and are therefore not terribly flexible.

LIB: CommonsWare Android Components: SackOfViewsAdapter is another way of approaching this. You provide the Views that make up the rows, and the adapter feeds them to Android as if they were newly created.

The SackOfViewsAdapter is designed to be subclassed, mostly to determine how isEnabled() behaves, so you can control which of those views are selectable and which simply scroll with the list.

ReorderingCursorAdapter maintains its own internal sequence information and maps everything from list positions to their corresponding current positions in the Cursor.

LIB: Mark Murphy's TouchListView: A Drag-and-Drop Capable ListView

LIB: Android Components: EndlessAdapter a wrapper for an existing ListAdapter that adds "endless list" capability. When the user scrolls to the bottom of the list, if there is more data for this list to be retrieved, your code gets invoked in a background thread to fetch the new rows, which then get seamlessly attached to the bottom of the list.

LIB: CommonsWare Android Components: WakefulIntentService

LIB: CWAC ViewSwiper: Gesture-Driven ViewFlipper Replacement

LIB: CommonsWare Android Components: ParcelHelper

LIB: CommonsWare Android Components: AdapterWrapper

LIB: CommonsWare Android Components: MergeAdapter accepts a mix of Adapters and Views and presents them as one contiguous whole to whatever ListView it is poured into. This is good for multiple data sources, or a handful of ordinary Views to mix in with lists of data.<

LIB: CWAC AndDown: Markdown Utility Library

API Demo

The API Demo application from
\android-sdk\docs\resources\samples\ApiDemos\src\com\example\android\apis\...

Category	App	Lower Level	Notes
App	Activity	-
	Alarm	Alarm Controller
		Alarm Service
	Device Admin	-
	Dialog	-
	Intents	Get Music
	Launcher Shortcuts	-
	Menu	Inflate from XML
	Notification	IncomingMessage
		Notifying Service Controller
		NotifyWithText
		Status Bar
	Preferences	1. Preferences from XML
		2. Launching Preferences
		3. Preference Dependencies
		4. Default values
		5. Preferences from code
		6. Advanced preferences
	Search	Invoke Search
		Query Search Results
	Service	Foreground Service Controller
		Local Service Binding
		Local Service Controller
		Messenger Service
		Remote Service Binding
		Remote Service Controller
		Service Start Arguments Controller
	Text-To-Speech	-
	Voice Recognition	-
Content	Assets	Read Asset
	Resources	-
	Storage	External Storage
Graphics	???	-
Media	Media Player	-
	Video View	-
OS	Morse Code	-
	Sensors	-
	SMS Messaging	-
Text	Linkify	-
	LogTextBox	-
	Marquee	-
Views	Animation	-
	Auto Complete	-
	Buttons	-
	Chronometer	-
	Controls	-
	Custom	-
	Date WIdgets	-
	Expandable Lists	-
	Focus	-
	Gallery	-
	Gallery	-
	Grid	-
	ImageButton	-
	ImageSwitcher	-
	ImageView	-
	Layout Animation	-
	Layouts	-
	Lists	-
	Progress Bar	-
	Radio Group	-
	Rating Bar	-
	ScrollBars	-
	Seek Bar	-
	Spinner	-
	Tabs	-
	Text Switcher	-
	Visibility	-
	WebView	-

Foreground

stopForeground() is called automatically when a service exits.

startForeground() elevates a service to the foreground. Controls what appears in the status bar by passing a notification class instance.

A notification signals the user that an event has taken place, by displaying an icon in the status bar rather than taking focus and interrupting the user.

LIB: MrTips is a 2-Class library to enable display of help tips in apps.

Designing For Accessibility

Designing for accessibility from the start makes the development effort a lot easier for everyone. End-users with disabilitites have it tough enough without us adding to their frustration.

Screen Design for Screen Size

TOOL: Pencil Project is a free and opensource Firefox plug-in tool for making diagrams and GUI prototyping.

Complex apps usually have various related screens. Address data inputs have several related elements, such as continent > country > state > city > town > street address, etc..

Selecting an item on a tree view of topics yields a list. Selecting a list item shows the content associated with the selected item.

On the smallest screen, different screens within an activity can be selected when the user presses the Menu/Options button and selecting another screen. If there are more than 6 choices, the sixth is a More icon to see more options.

On next larger screens, a TabHost always displays an icon for each of alternate screen of the activity.

On even larger screens, all the different screens represented in the tab may be presented on different parts of the screen are always visible.

Traditionally in HTML, JavaScript selects among different CSS files befitting the screen size recognized.

Java Code to Identify Screen Size in Object Property Bit-Mask

APP: MyTest from Motorola
to detect device density
dynamically at runtime.

To programmically get and display the device density values:

    	DisplayMetrics metrics = new DisplayMetrics();
    	getWindowManager().getDefaultDisplay().getMetrics(metrics);
    	
    	String screen_density = Integer.toString(metrics.densityDpi);
    	Log.e(TAG, "Screen density (metrics.densityDpi) is " + screen_density);
    	
    	String logical_density = Float.toString(metrics.density);
    	Log.e(TAG, "Logical density (metrics.density) is " + logical_density);

To take action based on screen size, this code defines a new Configuration object instance (myConfig), obtains its defaults.

    	Configuration myConfig = new Configuration();
	myConfig.setToDefaults();

Alternative 1, to do something for each size using a switch statement. Among default properties is a myConfig.screenLayout word made up of several bits (1's and 0's). The & in Java selects words which contain 1 bits also in the same position within bit-mask Configuration.SCREENLAYOUT_SIZE_MASK.

    	myConfig = getResources().getConfiguration();
    	switch (myConfig.screenLayout & Configuration.SCREENLAYOUT_SIZE_MASK) {
		case Configuration.SCREENLAYOUT_SIZE_LARGE: {
			Log.e(thisAppName, "Screen size is large");
			// break;	
		}
		case Configuration.SCREENLAYOUT_SIZE_NORMAL: {
			Log.e(thisAppName, "Screen size is normal");
			// break;	
		}
		case Configuration.SCREENLAYOUT_SIZE_SMALL: {
			Log.e(thisAppName, "Screen size is small");
			// break;	
		}
		case Configuration.SCREENLAYOUT_SIZE_UNDEFINED: {
			Log.e(thisAppName, "Screen size is undefined");
			// break;
		}
		// else?
	}

TODO: Add X-LARGE to code above.

Alternative 2, to do something only for a specific size:

	if(getResources().getConfiguration().screenLayout & Configuration.SCREENLAYOUT_SIZE_LARGE)
		==Configuration.SCREENLAYOUT_SIZE_LARGE) {
		// process large
	}else{
		// process smaller
	}

To get the aspect ratio of the device:

    	switch (myConfig.screenLayout & Configuration.SCREENLAYOUT_LONG_MASK) {
		case Configuration.SCREENLAYOUT_LONG_NO: {
			Log.e(TAG, "The screen is not long");
			break;
		}
		case Configuration.SCREENLAYOUT_LONG_YES: {
			Log.e(TAG, "The screen is long");
			break;
		}
		case Configuration.SCREENLAYOUT_LONG_UNDEFINED: {
			Log.e(TAG, "The aspect ratio is not defined");
			break;
		}	
    	}	

Action Bar

New with Honeycomb (API 11):
REF: Framework: Action Bar and REF: ActionBar Class

SAMPLE APP: Action Bar Compatibility

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
	super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
	setContentView(R.layout.main);
	
	// setup Action Bar for tabs
	final ActionBar actionBar = getActionBar();
	actionBar.setNavigationMode(ActionBar.NAVIGATION_MODE_TABS);
	
	// remove the activity title to make space for tabs
	actionBar.setDisplayShowTitleEnabled(false);
	
	// instantiate fragment for the tab
	Fragment artistsFragment = new ArtistsFragment();
	
	// add a new tab and set its title text and tab listener
	actionBar.addTab(actionBar.newTab().setText(R.string.tab_artists)
	.setTabListener(new TabListener(artistsFragment)));
	Fragment albumsFragment = new AlbumsFragment();
	actionBar.addTab(actionBar.newTab().setText(R.string.tab_albums)
	.setTabListener(new TabListener(albumsFragment)));
}

Fragments

Dianne Hackborn wrote
the code and presents it in
Android 3.0 Fragments API posted 03 February 2011.

EBOOK: Wei-Ming Lee's description

ARTICLE: icecreamfragments

ARTICLE: Example by Donn Felker

How ironic. Google is fixing fragmentation with fragments.

APP: iosched used during Google's I/O 2010 conference was written with a single codebase that works on both smart phones and tablets.

On a smaller form-factor phone, selecting an item in fragment 1 (a list) starts Activity 2 showing fragment 2 (to show details for the item selected from the list).
On a larger form factor tablet, fragments 1 and 2 (headers and detail) are both shown at the same time on the same screen. Selecting an item shown in fragment 1 updates fragment 2.

Fragments are driven from main.xml within res/layout.

	<fragment 
	class="com.agilevent.repairshop.VehiclesListFragment"
		android:id="@+id/vehicles"
		android:layout_width="fill_parent"
		android:layout_height="fill_parent"
	/>

LIB: The compatibility library: android-support-v4.jar from within android-sdk/extras/android/compatibility needs to be imported into the libs folder of every project. Use the V4 library because it supports both phones and tablets (most devices on the market) with the minimum API of 4. Introduced with Android Honeycomb for tablets only, v13 contains v4, but its minimum API must be 13.

Right click on the jar, Build Path > Add to Build Path. This makes the jar show up under Referenced Libraries in the Package Explorer.

bit.ly/MapFragmentSupport fixes SDK code to map fragment to inherit MapActivity() instead of Activity(). The downside is that this applies to all activities. This is not fixed as of Ice Cream Sandwich.

DOWNLOAD: Action Bar Sherlock by @jakewharton extends the compatibility library. The library will automatically use the native action bar when available or will automatically wrap a custom implementation around your layouts. This allows you to easily develop an application with an action bar for every version of Android back through 1.6.

Preference Headers and Detail

To display preferences as headers and details together on side-by-side panels on tablets with clusters of preferences, Android 3.0 code overrides onBuildHeaders() to call loadHeadersFromResource() which loads headers in a separate XML resource file instead of overriding onCreate() to call addPreferencesFromResource(). To ensure backward compatibility, some developers created a separate activity to handle preferences (such as in the OI Preferences app).

Conditional Java Class Compilation for SharedPreference Commit/Apply

How to have your (Cup)cake and eat it too
Prior to Honeycomb, developers coded editor.commit() after changing preferences with SharedPreferences.Editor to write (persist) preference information to (a persistent) XML file. To avoid a hidden source of slow file system access disk I/O burdening the main application thread, a new thread is started for background execution.

import android.content.SharedPreferences;
...
	static class CommitAsyncStrategy extends AbstractPrefsPersistStrategy {
		void persistAsync(final SharedPreferences.Editor editor) {
			(new Thread() {
				@Override
				public void run() {
					editor.commit();
				}
			}).start();
		}

This need to spawn a new thread became unnecessary when Honeycomb introduced the asynchronous editor.apply() method that is asynchrous by internal design.

import android.content.SharedPreferences.Editor;
	public class ApplyStrategy extends AbstractPrefsPersistStrategy {
		@Override
		void persistAsync(Editor editor) {
			editor.apply();
		}
	}

Both new and old (commit and apply) functions can exist in the same single code base by using code to detect what version is being run, as shown by Mark Murphy's Tuning Android Applications book and CPU-Java/PerfsPersist sample app

private static AbstractPrefsPersistStrategy initImpl(){

	int sdk=new Integer(Build.VERSION.SDK).intValue(); // deprecated
	if (sdk<Build.VERSION_CODES.HONEYCOMB) {  // sdk<11
		return(new CommitAsyncStrategy()); // do old editor.commit() within async coding
	} else {
		return(new ApplyStrategy()); // do new editor.apply() without extra async coding.
	}
}

With this code, older versions won't choke (issue VerifyError) on the new Honeycomb-specific code because it is in a separate class in the separate ApplyStrategy().java file.

To take advantage of Java's conditional class loading strategy, both the new ApplyStrategy() and old CommitAsyncStrategy() class definitions extend AbstractPrefsPersistStrategy which is called from onCreate() to initiate processing.

	private static final String KEY="counter";
	...
		SharedPreferences prefs=PreferenceManager.getDefaultSharedPreferences(this);
		int counter=prefs.getInt(KEY, 0);
		((TextView)findViewById(R.id.value)).setText(String.valueOf(counter));

		AbstractPrefsPersistStrategy.persist(prefs.edit().putInt(KEY, counter+1));

In the above code, the getInt() method of the prefs.object obtains an index for the KEY named "counter". Just the number is displayed on the screen when the app is executed.

The persist method is then invoked.

abstract public class AbstractPrefsPersistStrategy {
	abstract void persistAsync(SharedPreferences.Editor editor);
	private static final AbstractPrefsPersistStrategy INSTANCE=initImpl();

	public static void persist(SharedPreferences.Editor editor) {
		INSTANCE.persistAsync(editor);
	}
	private static AbstractPrefsPersistStrategy initImpl() {
		// where branching between old and new
	}

Since INSTANCE was defined as a static variable containing "initImpl()", INSTANCE.persistAsync(editor); is evaluated to initImpl().persistAsync(editor).

initImpl() is where branching between old and new occurs.

Simularly, the Java compiler knows to ignore (not include in binary code generated) source code which definitely won't be executed, such as code within an entry expression that always evaluates false. The compiler knows that by definition static final variables won't ever change within the program. So this approach also won't bloat the size of compiled java code.

This conditional class loading is also used in
Contacts Spinners within the tree/master section of Mark Murphy's Advanced Android As of Android 2.0, android.provider.Contacts is deprecated in favor of android.provider.ContactsContract.

Styles and Templates

TIP: For flexibility, to avoid typing the same specs in, create a New > Android XML File style.xml file in the values folder so changes can be done in one place. Within this files,
android:gravity="center" and android:textSize="30dp" is copied to the title style file and replaced with
style="@style/title" (not android:style=).

Just as web page CSS, define title, textSize, etc.

LIB: ViewFlow UI widget provides a horizontally scrollable ViewGroup with items populated from an Adapter.

Coding Layout View Inflation

Reading the code snippet below from the bottom up, a label inside a TextView is obtained from a layout after it has been inflated by the inflate method of the inflater object of the inflater class of type LayoutInflater. The view representing a row container is obtained by the getLayoutInflator() from the Activity.

	LayoutInflater inflater=getLayoutInflater(); 
	View row=inflater.inflate(R.layout.row, parent, false);
	TextView label=(TextView)row.findViewById(R.id.label);
	label.setText(items[position]);

“Inflation” refers to the act of converting an XML layout specification into the actual tree of View objects the XML represents. This involves, for each element: creating an instance of the specified View class, walk the attributes, convert them into property setter calls, iterate over all child elements.

UI Controls = Widgets

View-derived classes are also called widgets or controls.

LIB: Time wheels, carousels, spinners, and other slick GUI control widgets are built using the $300-$1,000/year droidUX, which also improves performance by caching and recycling views.

Hierarchies?

For those who have programmed Java Swing:
Activities in Android refers almost to a (J)Frame in Swing.
Activity groups?
Views in Android refers to (J)Components in Swing.
TextViews in Android refers to a (J)Labels in Swing.
EditTexts in Android refers to a (J)TextFields in Swing.
Buttons in Android refers to a (J)Buttons in Swing.

HTC OpenSense SDK for matching the UI of HTC phones. But do we really need more fragmentation? HTC also has an SDK for 3D.

Selection Widgets

Selection Widgets???

Rotating icons from CodeProject.

Lists with Drag and Drop

ListView and ListActivity explained by Lars Vogel

Fancy Lists???

http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/ui/drag-drop.html

Resort lists.

Charting and Graphing

LIB: $150/$500/developer GraphWidget displays a horizontal time scrolling time-line for visualizing real-time (live) input data.

LIB: $400/developer Artfulbits library to display charts.

LIB: $339/developer TeeChart, with a APP: demo rated 3.5, from Steema (in Spain), also provides libraries for .NET, Java, ActiveX / COM, PHP and Delphi VCL controls of charts, guages, and maps for Real-time, Business, Financial, and Scientific apps.

Ads to Monitize Apps

After Google purchased in 2010 Admob for mobile ads, click-to-call ads began to appear.

Ads on mobile screens typically are at the bottom.

Context Menus

The equivalent of right-clicking an item on a PC is to "Tap and hold" on an item on an Android device.

For and example task:: Edit (Update/Change), Complete, Postpone, Delete.

Customizing Menus

The default app menu comes with an orange color.

Use the PopupWindow class to make it look prettier with advice from Menus My Way.

Icons

See Android.com's Screen Support explanation

TOOL: Asset Studio
generates icons shown by the
Launcher, Menus, Action bar, Tabs, Notifications.
It also merges your app inside
device frames of various devices
(currently limited to Nexus and Xoom).

To change the app's icon, replace the graphics files, all named icon.png in these "drawable" folders containing static graphic resources (JPG, etc.) stored according to density:

Folder	Resolution (Density)	Icon pixels	Default Icon
drawable-hdpi This is the normal size used by 75% of users	high	72x72
drawable-ldpi	low	36x36
drawable-mdpi	medium	40x40

NOTE: Emphirically Honeycomb notification icons are best at 64x64, and 48x48.

If a different graphic file name is desired, change the AndroidManifest.xml file

<application android:icon="@drawable/icon" 

The .png file type is assumed.

Buttons

Specify each clickable button in the Manifest.xml:

<Button android:id="@+id/button_1" android:text="Button 1" android:onClick="fireIntent">
</Button>

The value "fireIntent" is the method in your app's activity java code:

public void fireIntent(View view) {
   Intent intent = null;
   switch (view.getId()) {
      case R.id.Button01:
         //TODO get an intent
         startActivity(intent);
         break;
   }
}

Scaleable 9-Patch PNG Graphics

This topic is illustrated by
39:00 into Class 2, Part 2
of Marko's Bootcamp Mar. 8, 2011,
and also in his WEBSITE: ebook.

Borrowing a pattern from quilting circles, Android's NinePatch class manipulates 2D PNG bitmaps in a matrix of nine sections for automatic flexible scaling.

Using a graphics manipulation tool such as Adobe Photoshop,
The four corners are unscaled.
The four edges are scaled in one axis.
The middle is scaled in both axes and transparent to provide a selection around a rectangle.

TOOL: Draw 9-Patch WYSIWYG graphics editor (Java program) is used to create NinePatch images. Identify the dividing line for patches by selecting pixels at the edge.

WEBSITE: android9patch.blogspot.com provides 9-Patch images on an app:
APP: $4.88 9-Patch viewer app

Colors

LIB: CommonsWare Android Components: ColorMixer

Fonts

The OHA had the Ascender company create the 3 "Droid" fonts Android recognizes in manifest files: android:typeface="serif", "sans" (sans-serif), and "monospace".

FreeType fonts used by the OS are in folder /system/fonts. Some developers put alternate fonts in /sdcard/fonts/, and switch between them from the Android Recovery Terminal.

To use that sans-serif TrueType font on Windows Mobile 7, I copy the segoeuil.TTF and segoeui.TTF files from XDA. here. There are 4 fonts installed with Visual Studio 2010 into C:\WIndows\Fonts: Segoe WP, Segoe WP N, Segoe WP N SemiLight Regular, and Segoe WP SemiLight Regular. On Vista, run the ttf executable (as an administrator).

Undeterred by its 70KB size, I code my app to use it within onCreate(): into my app's assets/fonts/ folder.

	TextView tv=(TextView)findViewById(R.id.custom);
	Typeface face=Typeface.createFromAsset(getAssets(),"fonts/???.ttf");
	tv.setTypeface(face);

	File font=new File(Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory(),"MyFont.ttf");
	if( font.exists() ){
		tv=(TextView)findViewById(R.id.file);
		face=Typeface.createFromFile(font);
		tv.setTypeface(face);
	}else{
		// Default uses default "sans" font instead if anything is wrong.
		findViewById(R.id.filerow).setVisibility(view.GONE);
	}

TESTING: In addition to providing the code above, Mark Murphy warns that a custom font may not supply a correct elipsis character or the complete set of UTF-8 international glyphs.

To obtain the current user selection by Android in FONT_SCALE in System.Settings

Status Bar Notifications

Notifications are an important part of the user interface. When you miss a call or an incoming SMS message arrives, a notification appears briefly at the top of the screen. To see the history of notifications, swipe down from the top edge of the screen.

CODE: Display Status Bar Notification

        NotificationManager nm = (NotificationManager) 
            getSystemService(NOTIFICATION_SERVICE);
        nm.cancel(getIntent().getExtras().getInt("NotifID")); 

The calling activity:

        //---get the notification ID for the notification; 
        // passed in by the MainActivity---
        int notifID = getIntent().getExtras().getInt("NotifID");
 
        //---PendingIntent to launch activity if the user selects 
        // the notification---
        Intent i = new Intent("net.learn2develop.AlarmDetails");
        i.putExtra("NotifID", notifID);  
 
        PendingIntent detailsIntent = 
            PendingIntent.getActivity(this, 0, i, 0);
 
        NotificationManager nm = (NotificationManager)
            getSystemService(NOTIFICATION_SERVICE);
        Notification notif = new Notification(
            R.drawable.icon, 
            "Time's up!",
            System.currentTimeMillis());
 
        CharSequence from = "AlarmManager - Time's up!";
        CharSequence message = "This is your alert, courtesy of the AlarmManager";        
        notif.setLatestEventInfo(this, from, message, detailsIntent);
 
        //---100ms delay, vibrate for 250ms, pause for 100 ms and
        // then vibrate for 500ms---
        notif.vibrate = new long[] { 100, 250, 100, 500};        
        nm.notify(notifID, notif);

Animations

2D OpenGL ES

OpenGL ES 2.0 Tutorial

3D

Auto-stereoscopic (glasses-free) 3D displays are all the rage in 2011.

Unfortunately, each device manufacturer has it's own SDK.

DOWNLOAD: LG Real3D SDK for implementing Real3D applications and content for LG Optimus 3D devices.

DOWNLOAD: Samsung SDK

Dialogs

Generally, we avoid dialogs. They limit user flexibility in navigation. Mark says the more complex the thing in the dialog, the less likely it is that it should be in a dialog in the first place

Haptic (Vibrate) Effects

Immersion's YouTube channel
Setup Demo 20:00 into video
Haptics non-verbal touch feedback fulfills a need for tactile satisfaction.
Haptics are useful when sounds are distracting to others (in a meeting, theater, on a train, etc.).
Haptics communicates almost silently with different patterns (unique one for each contact).

Some device manufacturers add rumble effects to their devices not invokable via standard Google vibe() function, which is not consistently implemented across actuators (vibe motors) on various devices.

1. Download sample app code MyFirstHapticApp and bouncingballsample
   or create a new app or open an existing app source folder.
2. Download the UHL (Universal Haptic Layer) from Immersion labs for MOTIV SDK.
The UHL ensures consitency across devices.
The UHL emulates intended effects on Motorola and HTC devices which does not have Immersion's embedded software.
Samsung and LG and Nokia have Immesion's software.
Setup Demo 27:50 into video
3. In Windows Explorer, double-click on the downloaded files to unzip it.
4. In Eclipse, right-click on the package to create a new libs folder.
Unlike Java JVM libraries, third-party Android libraries cannot be added via Build Path "User Library" because the Dalvik JVM need them converted to a special format.
5. Right-click libs and choose Import > General > File System, then Next. Across From directory:, click Browse and navigate thru the filesystem to find the downloaded library's parent directory (such as UHL_v3.4.73).
6. Click OK, then click the directory name (not the checkbox) in the left pane, then check the relevant JAR in the right pane (the 180KB UHL.jar). Click Finish. This copies the library file into your project workspace root folder.
7. Right-click on your project, in the context menu, choose Build Path > Configure Build Path... Click the Libraries tab, then Add JARs..., navigate into the libs directory to highlight the new JAR. Click OK and OK to automatically convert the new JAR for use by Dalvik.
8. The jar should now appear under Reference Library. Click on the [+] to expand and see its classes.
9. Right-click on the libs folder to create /libs/armeabi folder.
10. From the unzip window drag their 129 KB libImmEmulatorJ.so native library copied to the app's /libs/armeabi folder.
11. In Eclipse, refresh project to see libs/armeabi/libImmEmulatorJ.so in the Project.
12. Navigate to Project > Properties > Java Build Path > Configure Build Path…
13. Click on Add External JARs…
Code Demo 24:00 into video
14. Open the app's AndroidManifest.xml. In the permissions tab, add element Permission. Name “android.permission.VIBRATE”. Or edit text after <application tag:

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

15. In the src folder java code add
    import com.immersion.uhl.Launcher;
16. Under the src folder, to the main Activity class or other application-wide class (above onCreate) add a Launcher member:

    private Launcher m_launcher;
    

17. Within the main Activity onCreate() function, Instantiate the Launcher object:

    try{
    	m_launcher = new Launcher(this);
    }catch (RuntimeException e){
    	Log.e(“My App”, e.getMessage());
    }
    

18. To play a haptic effect with magnitude and pulsing frequency controlled dynamically to tie with what is happening in the app.

    public void btnPlayEffectClicked(View view) {    	
    	try{
    		// Strength is from 1 to 100.
    		m_launcher.play(Launcher.BOUNCE_100);
    		// m_launcher.play(Launcher.DOUBLE_STRONG_CLICK_100);
    		// ramp:
    		// staccato:
    	}catch(RuntimeException e) {
        		mTxtOut.append("Error: " + e.getMessage());
    	}
    

19. In Activity onPause() function, stop haptic effects in case a phone call is received:

    	try{
    		m_launcher.stop();
    	}catch (RuntimeException e) {}
    

APP: EffectPreview demos 14 major vibration effects (124 if various strengths are counted)

QUESTION: What are the "standard" meanings of the MOTIV haptics:

Effect	Meaning	Note
CONFIRM FIELD	single short soft	-
CONFIRM SCREEN	single short medium	-
WARNING	single long hard	-
PREPARE	single short soft then short hard	-
ALERT	single short hard then short soft	-
ERROR	single long hard then short low	-
CAUTION	triple long hard	-
WAKEUP	4 long hard	-
etc.	?	?

“Integrated with Immersion MOTIV Haptic Effects” to your app description page.