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Leveraging the Power of the Android Platform

by Jim Wilson

Android provides a powerful threading model and rich background execution capabilities. In this course, you'll learn how to leverage these capabilities through the use of AsyncTask, Handlers, Services, Job Scheduler, Broadcast Receivers, and more.

What you'll learn

Modern applications include many rich time-based and background behaviors that extend well beyond direct interaction with the user. In this course, Leveraging the Power of the Android Platform, you'll learn how to use the powerful capabilities of the Android platform to create applications that incorporate these and other related behaviors. First, you'll explore how to utilize the Android threading model, AsyncTasks, Handlers, and StrictMode to effectively perform long-running work in a way that doesn't impact the user experience. Next, you'll discover how to use Android Services for background work that can be safely performed even after the user exits your application. After that, you'll learn how to use the Android Job Scheduler to create background jobs that rely on run criteria such as networking and power requirements, and delegate those jobs to the Android system for management and execution. Additionally, you'll cover how to use Android Broadcasts and Broadcast Receivers to publish information from one application, and allow other applications running on the same device to subscribe to that information. Finally, you'll delve into scheduling time-sensitive tasks using the Android Alarm Manager. By the end of this course, you'll have the skills and knowledge to create your own Android applications that incorporate the rich time-based and background execution behaviors required to create a successful application.

Table of contents

About the author

Jim Wilson is president of JW Hedgehog, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in solutions for the Android, iOS, and Microsoft platforms. Jim has over 30 years of software engineering experience, with the past 15 years heavily focused on creating mobile device and location-based solutions. He has co-founded multiple software-related startups and has served in a consulting role at several more. After nearly a decade as a Microsoft Device Application Development MVP, Jim now focuses on developing A... more

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