From d83a98f4ce9cfa908f5c54bbd70f03eec07e7553 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: The Android Open Source Project Date: Tue, 3 Mar 2009 18:28:45 -0800 Subject: auto import from //depot/cupcake/@135843 --- docs/html/guide/basics/building-blocks.jd | 76 ------------------------------- 1 file changed, 76 deletions(-) delete mode 100644 docs/html/guide/basics/building-blocks.jd (limited to 'docs/html/guide/basics/building-blocks.jd') diff --git a/docs/html/guide/basics/building-blocks.jd b/docs/html/guide/basics/building-blocks.jd deleted file mode 100644 index b8a609e..0000000 --- a/docs/html/guide/basics/building-blocks.jd +++ /dev/null @@ -1,76 +0,0 @@ -page.title=Building Blocks -@jd:body -

Android Building Blocks

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You can think of an Android application as a collection of components, of -various kinds. These components are for the most part quite loosely coupled, -to the degree where you can accurately describe them as a federation of -components rather than a single cohesive application.

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Generally, these components all run in the same system process. It's -possible (and quite common) to create multiple threads within that process, -and it's also possible to create completely separate child processes if you -need to. Such cases are pretty uncommon though, because Android tries very -hard to make processes transparent to your code.

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These are the most important parts of the Android APIs:

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-
AndroidManifest.xml
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The AndroidManifest.xml file is the control file that tells the system - what to do with all the top-level components (specifically activities, - services, intent receivers, and content providers described below) - you've created. For instance, this is the - "glue" that actually specifies which Intents your Activities receive.
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{@link android.app.Activity Activities}
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An Activity is, fundamentally, an object that has a life cycle. An - Activity is a chunk of code that does some work; if necessary, that work - can include displaying a UI to the user. It doesn't have to, though - some - Activities never display UIs. Typically, you'll designate one of your - application's Activities as the entry point to your application.
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{@link android.view.View Views}
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A View is an object that knows how to draw itself to the screen. - Android user interfaces are comprised of trees of Views. If you want to - perform some custom graphical technique (as you might if you're writing a - game, or building some unusual new user interface widget) then you'd - create a View.
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{@link android.content.Intent Intents}
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An Intent is a simple message object that represents an "intention" to - do something. For example, if your application wants to display a web - page, it expresses its "Intent" to view the URI by creating an Intent - instance and handing it off to the system. The system locates some other - piece of code (in this case, the Browser) that knows how to handle that - Intent, and runs it. Intents can also be used to broadcast interesting - events (such as a notification) system-wide.
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{@link android.app.Service Services}
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A Service is a body of code that runs in the background. It can run in - its own process, or in the context of another application's process, - depending on its needs. Other components "bind" to a Service and invoke - methods on it via remote procedure calls. An example of a Service is a - media player; even when the user quits the media-selection UI, she - probably still intends for her music to keep playing. A Service keeps the - music going even when the UI has completed.
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{@link android.app.NotificationManager Notifications}
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A Notification is a small icon that appears in the status bar. Users - can interact with this icon to receive information. The most well-known - notifications are SMS messages, call history, and voicemail, but - applications can create their own. Notifications are the - strongly-preferred mechanism for alerting the user of something that needs - their attention.
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{@link android.content.ContentProvider ContentProviders}
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A ContentProvider is a data storehouse that provides access to data on - the device; the classic example is the ContentProvider that's used to - access the user's list of contacts. Your application can access data that - other applications have exposed via a ContentProvider, and you can also - define your own ContentProviders to expose data of your own.
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