Beginning Android Web Apps Development: Develop for Android using HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript

✍ Scribed by Jon Westfall, Rocco Augusto, Grant Allen

• Publisher: Apress
• Year: 2012
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 277
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

With Beginning Android Web Apps Development, you'll learn how to apply HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, Ajax and other Web standards for use on the Android mobile platform, by building a variety of fun and visually stimulating games and other web applications! If you've done some basic web development, and you want to build your skills to create exceptional web apps, you'll find everything you seek in the discussions and examples in this book.

Each application you'll build in Beginning Android Web Application Development will show you solutions that you can apply to many of your own projects. Each example shares techniques and coding solutions that will inspire your own work. You'll learn how to tie your Android apps into Twitter through two apps that you'll build: Who's that Tweet?!, a quiz game based on celebrity accounts, and I Love Ham, a coding investigation into search phrases and rhyming.

Your Android web app development skills will then proceed in another direction, as you discover the power of HTML5 in two game apps: Scavenger Hunt, which introduces you to the HTML5 GPS location API, and Spies!, a location-based application that shows you how to use CSS3, Ajax, and HTML5 within multi-player environments. You'll also create an Android web application which checks the arrival time of buses and light-rails through the use of Portland, Oregon's open Tri-Met data API! This app is a great template for other apps you may want to build in the future, and showcases the important techniques for incorporating cloud-based apps into web games. After reading Beginning Android Web Apps Development, you will have built real apps and developed along the way the skills you'll need to create highly interactive, professional web applications... and, your journey will be engaging and enjoyable!

✦ Table of Contents

Title Page
Copyright Page
Contents at a Glance
Table of Contents
About the Authors
About the Technical Reviewer
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Who This Book Is For
How This Book Is Structured
Downloading the code
Contacting the Author
CHAPTER 1 Harnessing the Power of the Mobile Web
Basics of Web Design
Getting Started: HyperText Markup Language (HTML)
Getting Stylish: Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
Getting Interactive: JavaScript
Getting Informative: Extensible Markup Language (XML)
JSON: Human-Readable Data Interchange
The Mobile Web, Yesterday and Today
Knowing the Speeds (Or "What is 3G anyway?")
Languages and Protocols, Yesterday and Today
Concepts We Like-And What's Ahead!
Concept 1: Think Like A User
Concept 2: Don't Annoy the User
Concept 3: Test-Retest Reliability
Concept 4: Keep it Simple Stupid!
Coming Up
Chapter 2 Twitter Applications: Who's That Tweet?
JSONP
Setting Up Your Development Environment
Your First Mobile Web Application
The HTML
The CSS
The JavaScript
Summary
Chapter 3 Twitter Applications: I Love Ham
The HTML
The CSS
The JavaScript
Summary
Chapter 4 Basic Planning and Structuring of Your Application
Know Thy Audience
Giving People What They Want
Who Is My User?
Having a Plan
All Mobile Is Not the Same
Native Applications
Mobile Web Sites
So Which Do I Build?
Structuring Your Application
Wireframing / Mockup
HotGlooand Other Mockup Tools
User Movement: Navigation or Storyboard
Structuring Your Development
Code Structure
Folder Structure
Summary
Chapter 5 Handling Multiple Screen Resolutions with CSS 3
A History of Tired Eyes and Resolution Evolution
The Daily Droid
The Daily Droid's Base HTML Code
The Daily Droid's Semi-magical CSS Code
Media Queries
Summary
Chapter 6: Handling Different Browser Platforms
META Tags and the Viewport
A Little META History
The Viewport Element
The User Agent
The Nexus One User Agent
PHP User Agent Detection
JavaScript User Agent Detection
Introducing the JavaScript Agent Detection Code
Using JavaScript Agent Detection to Show Different Content to Different Platforms
.htaccess User Agent Detection
Summary
Chapter 7 Building an Impressive User Experience with jQuery Mobile
The Basics
Adding Multiple Pages
So - About Those Transitions
Let's Have a Dialog
Rolling Your Own Theme with ThemeRoller
Rolling it All Together: Simple Calc
Summary
Chapter 8 Building Visually Rich Internet Applications
Finding and Using Icons and Stock Photography
Iconfinder
Find Icons
Using an Icon
deviantART
iStockphoto
Guidance on Using Photos in Web Apps
Web Fonts
Google Web Fonts
Font Issues to Consider
CSS Frameworks
1140px Grid
Less Framework 4
320 and Up
Comparing Frameworks: About Jon!!
Adobe Fireworks
Summary
Chapter 9 HTML5 Location-Based Applications
The Mechanics of Geolocation
Understanding Device Capabilities
Understanding HTML5 Capabilities
Detecting Browser Geolocation Support
Exploring Our Sample Application
Building Our Basic Geolocation Application
Testing for Geolocation Support, Redux
Creating a Utility Function for Dynamic Page Changes
Reviewing the Basic HTML
Delving into the Coordinates
Dealing with the Four Corners of Android's Geolocation World
Where Am I?
What Am I?
What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
Where Am I Going?
Expanding Your Horizons with Maps
Adding a Map to Our Application
Other Location-based Services
Gaming Your Location
Gaming Your Location-for Fun!
Summary
Chapter 10 Using Cloud Services: A Transport Application
Introducing the "Move Me" Example Application
Examining the Code
Dealing with Global State
Customizing Location Markers
Preparing Our Map
Performing Local Transport Searches
Running Our Code
Improving the "Move Me" Example Application
Dealing with Other Transport Possibilities
Limitations to our Approach
Introducing Transit Data Resources
Making Use of Transport Schedules and Timetables
Reviewing GTFS Components
Dealing with Timetable Realities
Exploring GTFS Examples
Summary
Chapter 11 Pushing the Limits with Audio and Video
Audio for Mobile Web Apps
Utilizing the HTML5 audio Tag
Integrating Audio into Who's That Tweet?
Working with Audio Codecs
MP3
AAC
Ogg
Using the Audacity Audio Editor
Audio Data API
Adding Video to Mobile Applications
Using the HTML5 video Tag
Codecs
h.264/MPEG-4
Ogg Theora
WebM
Using Handbrake to Transcode Videos
Exploring on Your Own: Music Service APIs
"Scrobbling" Tracks to Last.fm
Tapping into the Power of Amazon's Product Advertising API
Summary
Chapter 12 Supercharging the User Experience with AJAX
What Is AJAX?
Asynchronous?
So What About the JavaScript and XML?
AJAX-of-the-Day
My News!
First: Create a Pipe
Second: Get the Output and Display It!
Username Availability
AJAX Considerations
POST vs. GET
Setting Asynchronous to False?
Summary
Chapter 13 PackagingYour Applications
Compressing Your Application
What Is Compression?
Compression Tools and Utilities
Finding a Hosting Solution
Evaluating Hosting Providers
Dreamhost
1and1
Media Temple
File Transfer Protocol
Deploying an Application Using Secure FTP
Versioning Your Software
Going Native
PhoneGap
Titanium Mobile
Closing Time
Index