What Is OpenGL ES?
OpenGL ES is an application programming interface (API) for advanced 3D
graphics targeted at handheld and embedded devices such as cell phones,
personal digital assistants (PDAs), consoles, appliances, vehicles, and avionics.
OpenGL ES is one of a set of APIs created by the Khronos Group. The
Khronos Group, founded in January 2000, is a member-funded industry
consortium that is focused on the creation of open standard and royaltyfree
APIs for handheld and embedded devices.
In the desktop world there are two standard 3D APIs, DirectX and OpenGL.
DirectX is the de facto standard 3D API for any system running the
Microsoft Windows operating system and is used by the majority of 3D
games on that platform. OpenGL is a cross-platform standard 3D API for
desktop systems running Linux, various flavors of UNIX, Mac OS X, and
Microsoft Windows. It is a widely accepted standard 3D API that has seen
significant real-world usage. The API is used by games such as the Doom and
Quake series, user interfaces as in Mac OS X, workstation computer-aided
design (CAD) applications like CATIA, and digital content creation applications
such as Maya and SoftImage|XSI.
PART ONE: APPLICATION BASICS
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION OT FLEX
CHAPTER TWO: GETTING STARTED
CHAPTER THREE:WORKING WITH ACTIONSCRIPT
CHAPTER FOUR: LAYOUT AND CONTAINERS
CHAPTER FIVE: DISPLAYING FORMS AND CAPTURING USER INPUT
CHAPTER SIX: VALIDATING USER INPUT
CHAPTER SEVEN: FORMATTING DATA
CHAPTER EIGHT: HALO DATAGRIDS, LISTS AND TREES
CHAPTER NINE: SPARK LISTS
CHAPTER TEN: LIST CUSTOMIZATION
PART TWO: APPLICATION FLOW AND STRUCTURE
CHAPTER ELEVEN: EVENTS
CHAPTER TWELVE: APPLICATION NAVIGATION
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: INTRODUCTION TO POP-UPS
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: VIEW STATES
CHAPTER FIFTEEN:WORKING WITH DATA SERVICES
CHAPTER SIXTEEN: OBJECTS AND CLASSES
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: CUSTOM COMPONENTS
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: ADVANCED REUSABILITY IN FLEX
PART THREE: THE FINISHING TOUCHES
CHAPTER NINETEEN: CUSTOMIZING THE EXPERIENCE
CHAPTER TWENTY:WORKING WITH EFFECTS
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: DRAG AND DROP
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO: CHARTING
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE: DEBUGGING AND TESTING
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR:WRAPPING UP THE PROJECT
When Macromedia first released Flash MX in 2002, the product was branded as the new
way to build Rich Internet Applications (known by the acronym RIA). The term was
invented at Macromedia to describe a new class of applications that would offer the
benefits of being connected to the Internet, including access to various types of Web-based services,
but would solve many of the nagging issues that had been inherent in browser-based applications
since the mid-1990s. Using Flash Player to host graphically rich applications delivered as
Flash documents would address issues such as the ongoing differences between Web browsers in
implementation of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and JavaScript. And because such applications
would be able to leverage Flash Player’s original strengths, including animation and delivery of rich
media (audio and video) to the desktop, the applications could be both functional and visually
compelling.
The first push into the new frontier of RIAs met with mixed success. Many applications built and
delivered with Flash MX and ColdFusion MX (Macromedia’s recommended middleware application
server software at the time) were very impressive. Perhaps the best known of this class is the
iHotelier hotel reservations application, which is still used by many large hotels around the world.
The application presents customers with a Flash-based interface they can use to find and reserve
hotel rooms from a visually intuitive single-screen interface. A customer can input information and
get a nearly instantaneous response without having to navigate the multi-page interface of classic
HTML-based Web applications.
Meanwhile, developers who were creating these applications were madly pulling their hair out.
Building data-centric applications in Flash meant that they were working with a binary source file,
making it difficult to integrate with source control systems. At the time, ActionScript wasn’t particularly
object-oriented (although this part of the situation improved drastically with the release of
ActionScript 2 in Flash MX 2004), and there was no enforcement of code placement standards. Its
loose data typing and lack of strong compile-time error checking or debugging tools led to phenomena
such as “silent failure” — the moment when something that’s supposed to happen doesn’t,
and no information is offered as to the reason.
In large multi-developer environments, figuring out where to put the code in a Flash document
was a significant part of the application planning process, because the product wasn’t really
designed for application development. And the ActionScript editor built into Flash gave experienced
developers fits. Java developers, in particular, were used to sophisticated code editors, and
working in Flash slowed their productivity and increased their frustration.
Now is an exciting time for mobile developers. Mobile phones have never been more popular, and
powerful smartphones are now a popular choice for consumers. Stylish and versatile phones packing
hardware features like GPS, accelerometers, and touch screens, combined with fixed-rate, reasonably
priced data plans provide an enticing platform upon which to create innovative mobile applications.
A host of Android handsets are now available to tempt consumers, including phones with QVGA
screens and powerful WVGA devices like the Motorola Droid and the Google Nexus One. The real
win though, is for developers. With much existing mobile development built on proprietary operating
systems that restrict the development and deployment of third-party applications, Android offers an
open alternative. Without artificial barriers, Android developers are free to write applications that take
full advantage of increasingly powerful mobile hardware and distribute them in an open market.
As a result, developer interest in Android devices has exploded as handset sales have continued to grow.
In 2009 and the early parts of 2010 more than 20 Android handsets have been released from OEMs
including HTC, Motorola, LG, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson. Android devices are now available in over
26 countries on more than 32 carriers. In the United States, Android devices are available on all four
major carriers: T-Mobile, Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint. Additionally, you can now buy the unlocked
Google Nexus One handset directly from Google at http://www.google.com/phone.
Built on an open source framework, and featuring powerful SDK libraries and an open philosophy,
Android has opened mobile phone development to thousands of developers who haven’t had access
to tools for building mobile applications. Experienced mobile developers can now expand into the
Android platform, leveraging the unique features to enhance existing products or create innovative
new ones.
Using the Android Market for distribution, developers can take advantage of an open marketplace,
with no review process, for distributing free and paid apps to all compatible Android devices.
This book is a hands-on guide to building mobile applications using version 2 of the Android software
development kit. Chapter by chapter, it takes you through a series of sample projects, each introducing
new features and techniques to get the most out of Android. It covers all the basic functionality as well
as exploring the advanced features through concise and useful examples.
Google’s philosophy is to release early and iterateoften. Since Android’s first full release in October
2008, there have been seven platform and SDK releases. With such a rapid release cycle, there are likely
to be regular changes and improvements to the software and development libraries. While the Android
engineering team has worked hard to ensure backwards compatibility, future releases are likely to date
some of the information provided in this book.
Nonetheless, the explanations and examples included here will give you the grounding and knowledge
needed to write compelling mobile applications using the current SDK, along with the flexibility to
quickly adapt to future enhancements.
Part I: What is Android—The Big Picture
Chapter 1: Targeting Android
Chapter 2: Development environment
Part II: Learning Android’s Key Technologies
Chapter 3: User Interfaces
Chapter 4: Intents and Services
Chapter 5: Storing and Retrieving Data
Chapter 6: Networking
Chapter 7: Telephony
Chapter 8: Notification and Alarms
Chapter 9: Graphics and Animation
Chapter 10: Multimedia
Chapter 11: Location Based Services
Part III: Android applications for the Real Device
Chapter 12: Putting it all together: A Field Service Application
Chapter 13: Hacking Android
One day, in the not too distant future, I fully expect my grandmother to ask me about
Facebook. She’s particularly hip, as grandmothers go, and is already all over email. She
even occasionally “surfs” the Web to read up on the latest events in her native South
Africa! You might not think she falls into Facebook’s target demographic, but I would
hate to be the person standing between her and her Mac if anyone told her that she
could learn even more about her beloved Toronto Maple Leafs by registering for a
Facebook account. She is, after all, their number-one fan.
There’s an important takeaway in there for everyone who has picked up this book in a
bookstore and is weighing the idea of building a Facebook empire: my grandmother,
and millions of people like her, are waiting for you to build the application that lures
them into the world’s fastest growing social network. Please don’t disappoint her,
because I’m her number one fan, and I have no objection to getting a little rough in the
corners, if you know what I mean.
