Faculty Training Program On Android Skilling
May 8th – May 12th, 2017
A Faculty Training Programme on “Android Skilling” was organized in association with Google and Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam Technical University, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh from 8th May to 12th May, 2017 at I.T.S Engineering College, Greater Noida. The objective of the programme was to help the faculty learn Android Operating System based Application Development and to equip them with the required skills and knowledge to teach the students. Faculties from various colleges attended the training programme. Ms. Sheetal Saigal-Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering from Dronacharya Group of Institutions, Greater Noida attended the training programme.
Day 1: 8th May 2017
Mr. Girish Kumar Shakya, CEO of Clairvoyant Software Solution started the session with the explanation of basics of Mobile Operating System Android, Installation of Android Studio, creating first Android App and deploying the app to an emulator and Android's basic user interface building blocks. He cited the examples of text view, edit text, scroll view, button, check box etc. Properties, creation and layout of views were discussed. The lifecycle of application component activity was also discussed. Mr. Shakya said that the activities are loosely tied together to make an App. Activities can be organized in parent-child relationships in the Android manifest to aid navigation. An intent was discussed which is a description of an operation to be performed, meant to start activities, start services and deliver broadcasts.
Mr. Shakya stated that Mobile Applications are increasingly playing a vital role in businesses with a larger customer base as well as workforce relying on the convenience of access on-demand to information and solutions. Apps analytics firm Flurry finding suggest that 80% of the mobile device time is spent on Apps. He stressed that since Smart Phones market is dominated by Android- based devices therefore, learning Android Apps development will be an added advantages for the students.
Day 2: 9th May 2017
Mr. Shakya Started with the explanation of user input controls like buttons, dialogs, contextual menus, checkboxes etc. He explained how users interact with Apps, and navigates between activities. Various types of menus like App bar with options menu, contextual menu and pop – up menu were implemented. Generic Android Class – Drawable was discussed which is used to represent any kind of graphic. Image Asset Studio was also discussed. Styles were discussed which are collection of attributes that define the visual appearance of a view like color, font, font size etc. Testing methods of user interface like provide input to all UI views, check returned output and perform all user UI actions with views etc. were discussed.
Day 3: 10th May 2017
Mr. Shakya started with the training of steps to connect to Internet which includes – adding permissions to Android Manifest, checking network connection, creating worker thread, implementing background tasks and processing results. How to make a connection using third party library like Volley was discussed. Steps for creating Broadcast receiver were also discussed. An application component called Service that can perform long-running operations in the background and does not provide a user interface was covered. Notification which is a message displayed to user outside regular app UI was covered. Notifications can be viewed anytime in the notification drawer. All concepts were practically implemented.
Day 4: 11th May 2017
On the 4th Day, Mr. Shakya started with basic concepts of database like transaction, ACID properties, SQL Database and queries in SQL Database. Various types of storage options like files, internal storage, external storage etc were discussed. Internal storage is always available it uses device’s file system whereas external storage is not always available, it can be removed. Internal storage is best when you are sure that neither the user nor other apps can access your files. External storage is best for files that don’t require access permissions. Data connectivity in Android Studio is done using SQLite database. It is a primary storage for user or app data. Implementation of SQLite was done using the concepts of cursors. Database methods for executing queries were discussed. Other storage option like Firebase was discussed. Realtime database in Firebase was discussed in which data is synchronized in realtime to every connected client.
Day 5: 12th May 2017
Mr. Shakya started with the concepts of permission, performance and security. App must get permission to do anything that uses data or resources that the app did not create, uses network, hardware, features that do not belong to it, affects the behavior of the device or affects the behaviour of other apps. Permissions are listed in android manifest. Examples of permissions include permission to connect to the Internet, permission to use data from Content Provider, permission to access Wifi etc. Performance of an app depends upon its speed, responsiveness, smoothness, consistency and resource-efficiency. Android has built in security features. It keeps user’s private data safe. It treats user’s private data with integrity. Local files containing sensitive data is encrypted. If an app accesses personal information like passwords or usernames, it might need a privacy policy explaining how it uses and stores user data. Finally the steps were discussed for publishing the app, steps were like preparing the app for release, generating signed APK, uploading to Google Play, run alpha and beta tests and finally publishing it to the world. Android Application Package file (APK) is needed to publish an app on Google play. It is an executable file in which each Android application is compiled and packaged in a single file that includes all the app's code, resources, assets, and manifest file. To signup for Google Play, go to Google Play Developer Console, accept agreement, pay the registration fees, enter your details and publish your app on Google Play.
The programme concluded with the feedback on the course by the participants. Participants thanked the trainer Mr. Girish Kumar Shakya for conducting the valuable training session. His huge experience had helped participants to learn the technology.
Director of I.T.S. Engineering College Dr. Vineet Kansal also thanked the trainer and all the participants and ensured that all participants had well understood the course. He informed that soon AKTU will introduce the course in the curriculum and he hoped that each participant was now empowered to teach the course.