Archive
Android Asset Studio – The easiest way to create icons for your android apps!
Android Asset Studio is an online utility that lets you generate all kind of icons you may need for your android applications, starting with launcher icons, action bar and tab icons, notification icons, and menu icons. It even includes a simple 9-patch generator allowing you to create 9-patch images.
One of the trickier parts when creating the icons is that you should create them for all kinds of resolutions: ldpi, mdpi, hdpi, and xhdpi. With Android Asset Studio this is as simple as uploading an image. The tool generates automatically for you all the versions of the icon under all resolutions, and make them available as a downloadable zip archive.
The icons may be generated from an image uploaded, or from a clipart library, or from text. It’s a very convenient tool and I highly recommend using it if you want to have professional, good looking icons on all resolutions.
Android – [APP] Amazing Drunk Detection Scanner
Ready to go to party? Then don’t forget to put Amazing Drunk Detection Scanner in your pocket!
Drunk Detection Scanner is a simple application that helps you make fun with your friends. Make fun of your best friends by scanning their eye, and determine how drunk are they!
Here is how the prank works:
1. Just in the middle of the party open the Drunk Detection Scanner and say something like “Alright gentlemen, time to do some analysis!”
2. Invite one of your friends and tell him that this app will reveal how drunk he is.
3. Aim the camera close to your friend’s eye
4. Focus
5. Press “Start Scanning”
6. Wait till the result is calculated
7. Have fun!
DISCLAIMER:
Amazing Drunk Detection Scanner is a simple application designed for entertainment purposes only. It does not encourage the consumption of alcohol, and it does not take any legal responsibility.
Android – Scheduling an application to start later.
Recently I have been working on a simple application that should have the ability to start itself after a period of time, after the application is closed. Hopefully, it turned out that this is quite simple to implement, and to achieve this, the AlarmManager in conjuction with a BroadcastReceiver can be used.
The basic idea is as follows: the AlarmManger registers an intent, when the alarm goes off, the intent that had been registered automatically will start the target application if it is not already running. The BroadcastReceiver will be listening for that intent, and when the intent is received, it will start the desired activity from the application.
The broadcast receiver implementation looks like this:
public class OnAlarmReceive extends BroadcastReceiver {
@Override
public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
Log.d(Globals.TAG, "BroadcastReceiver, in onReceive:");
// Start the MainActivity
Intent i = new Intent(context, MainActivity.class);
i.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
context.startActivity(i);
}
}
Register the OnAlarmReceive in the AndroidManifest file:
<application
android:icon="@drawable/ic_launcher"
android:label="@string/app_name" >
// ......
<receiver
android:name=".OnAlarmReceive" />
</application>
And finally, here’s how to setup the alarm:
/**
* Sets up the alarm
*
* @param seconds
* - after how many seconds from now the alarm should go off
*/
private void setupAlarm(int seconds) {
AlarmManager alarmManager = (AlarmManager) getSystemService(ALARM_SERVICE);
Intent intent = new Intent(getBaseContext(), OnAlarmReceive.class);
PendingIntent pendingIntent = PendingIntent.getBroadcast(
MainActivity.this, 0, intent,
PendingIntent.FLAG_UPDATE_CURRENT);
Log.d(Globals.TAG, "Setup the alarm");
// Getting current time and add the seconds in it
Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance();
cal.add(Calendar.SECOND, seconds);
alarmManager.set(AlarmManager.RTC_WAKEUP, cal.getTimeInMillis(), pendingIntent);
// Finish the currently running activity
MainActivity.this.finish();
}
The last line from the code – finishing the current activity – is optional of course, but in case you need to finish the activity, here’s how to do.
For a live demo of the code, download the Amazing Cracked Screen application and see how it works. There you have the possibility to set up the delay in seconds when the application should start later and show the “broken” screen.
Amazing Cracked Screen
Hello everyone,
In this weekend I made a simple application just for fun – Amazing Cracked Screen, the main purpose being to trick your friends and make fun of them! Basically, what does the application is to simulate a broken phone screen.
The application includes 6 different broken screens, and provides the ability to set up a delay time when the app should start, so you can manage to give the phone to your friend.
Just start the application, select the desired broken screen and have fun!
How to create popups in Android
In this post I’ll show you how to create a popup window in Android. A popup window can be used to display an arbitrary view, and it can be very convenient in cases when you want to display an additional information, but don’t want or it’s not appropriate to launch a new activity or display a dialog.
The final output should look like this:
We will use the PopupWindow class to create the popup.
One thing I would like to mention is that we want the popup to be attached to the button that opened it. For example if the “Show Popup” button from the screenshot above would be positioned in the middle of the screen, we want the popup window stick to the button’s position. To achieve this, first we should get the button’s “x” and “y” position on the screen, and pass them to the popup window. Then will we use an offset to align the popup properly – a bit to the right, and a bit down, so it won’t overlap the whole button.
Another think I would like to mention is that we will use a 9 patch background image for the popup, so it will look more fancy. But of course you can skip it and put any background you want, or no background at all.
9 patch image:
Put the image into res/drawable directory.
1. Create a new project in Eclipse:
Project: TestPopup
Activity: TestPopupActivity
2. Open layout/main.xml file and add a button
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="fill_parent" android:background="#CCC" android:orientation="vertical" > <Button android:id="@+id/show_popup" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:text="Show Popup" /> </LinearLayout>
3. Create a new layout file: layout/popup_layout.xml that defines the layout of popup.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:id="@+id/popup" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:background="@drawable/popup_bg" android:orientation="vertical" > <TextView android:id="@+id/textView1" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:text="Popup" android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceLarge" /> <TextView android:id="@+id/textView2" android:layout_marginTop="5dp" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:text="This is a simple popup" /> <Button android:id="@+id/close" android:layout_marginTop="10dp" android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:text="Close" /> </LinearLayout>
4. And now the most interesting part. Open the TestPopupActivity and fill it with below code. Carefully read the comments to understand what’s going on.
public class TestPopupActivity extends Activity {
//The "x" and "y" position of the "Show Button" on screen.
Point p;
@Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.main);
Button btn_show = (Button) findViewById(R.id.show_popup);
btn_show.setOnClickListener(new OnClickListener() {
@Override
public void onClick(View arg0) {
//Open popup window
if (p != null)
showPopup(TestPopupActivity.this, p);
}
});
}
// Get the x and y position after the button is draw on screen
// (It's important to note that we can't get the position in the onCreate(),
// because at that stage most probably the view isn't drawn yet, so it will return (0, 0))
@Override
public void onWindowFocusChanged(boolean hasFocus) {
int[] location = new int[2];
Button button = (Button) findViewById(R.id.show_popup);
// Get the x, y location and store it in the location[] array
// location[0] = x, location[1] = y.
button.getLocationOnScreen(location);
//Initialize the Point with x, and y positions
p = new Point();
p.x = location[0];
p.y = location[1];
}
// The method that displays the popup.
private void showPopup(final Activity context, Point p) {
int popupWidth = 200;
int popupHeight = 150;
// Inflate the popup_layout.xml
LinearLayout viewGroup = (LinearLayout) context.findViewById(R.id.popup);
LayoutInflater layoutInflater = (LayoutInflater) context
.getSystemService(Context.LAYOUT_INFLATER_SERVICE);
View layout = layoutInflater.inflate(R.layout.popup_layout, viewGroup);
// Creating the PopupWindow
final PopupWindow popup = new PopupWindow(context);
popup.setContentView(layout);
popup.setWidth(popupWidth);
popup.setHeight(popupHeight);
popup.setFocusable(true);
// Some offset to align the popup a bit to the right, and a bit down, relative to button's position.
int OFFSET_X = 30;
int OFFSET_Y = 30;
// Clear the default translucent background
popup.setBackgroundDrawable(new BitmapDrawable());
// Displaying the popup at the specified location, + offsets.
popup.showAtLocation(layout, Gravity.NO_GRAVITY, p.x + OFFSET_X, p.y + OFFSET_Y);
// Getting a reference to Close button, and close the popup when clicked.
Button close = (Button) layout.findViewById(R.id.close);
close.setOnClickListener(new OnClickListener() {
@Override
public void onClick(View v) {
popup.dismiss();
}
});
}
}
Creating and Displaying a Custom Dialog in Android
In this post I would like to describe the process of creating and displaying a custom dialog. Though the Android documentation describes pretty well the topic, I faced some problems implementing it, and I would like to share my findings.
The final output should look like this:
1. The first issue I have encountered was that I was getting a BadTokenException in the onCreateDialog() method where I was instantiating the Dialog: android.view.WindowManager$BadTokenException: Unable to add window — token null is not for an application,
Context context=getApplicationContext(); Dialog dialog=new Dialog(context);
Well, though the Android documentation suggests to use getApplicationContext(); actually it turns out that this is not the proper way to do it and most likely it will throw an exception. The correct way is to use this, or “ActivityName”.this instead of getApplicationContext(). For example:
Context context=MainActivity.this; Dialog dialog=new Dialog(context);
2. The second issue I was facing was that I wanted to get rid off the standard dialog title.
Normally you would set the Dialog title with this:
dialog.setTitle("Dialog Title");
However, if you don’t want to display a standard title for your dialog, not calling the above line most probably won’t meet your expectations, because it will leave an empty space where the title should be.
Hopefully, this is an easy fix. Just call requestWindowFeature(Window.FEATURE_NO_TITLE); and you are done.
dialog.requestWindowFeature(Window.FEATURE_NO_TITLE);
To sum up with a concrete working example, below I presented an implementation of a simple custom dialog.
custom_dialog.xml:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" android:layout_width="250dp" android:layout_height="match_parent" android:background="#8F1A3B" android:orientation="vertical" > <TextView android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:layout_marginBottom="20dp" android:text="Custom Dialog" android:textSize="18dp" /> <Button android:id="@+id/restart" android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:text="Restart Game" /> </LinearLayout>
MainActivity:
public class MainActivity extends Activity {
Dialog dialog;
int DIALOG_GAME_RESTART=100;
@Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
// ............
}
@Override
protected Dialog onCreateDialog(int id) {
switch (id) {
case DIALOG_GAME_RESTART:
Context context=MainActivity.this;
dialog=new Dialog(context);
dialog.requestWindowFeature(Window.FEATURE_NO_TITLE);
dialog.setContentView(R.layout.custom_dialog);
Button restart=(Button)dialog.findViewById(R.id.restart);
restart.setOnClickListener(new OnClickListener() {
@Override
public void onClick(View v) {
dialog.dismiss();
//whatever code you want to execute on restart
}
});
break;
default: break;
}
return dialog;
}
}
ITMoldova – My First Android Application.
Although it has passed awhile since I published my first android application on Google Play, and I published already my second Android App meanwhile, I decided to write about it as well, as almost all my posts from this blog till now are findings and experience gained while I was working on ITMoldova app.
ITMoldova.com is a Moldavian site that provides daily IT News for romanian speaking people. The main purpose of Android application is to check the RSS feed of the site if there are any new articles. If it turns out that new articles have been published on the site, then launch a status bar notification and notify the user. And of course, the user is able to see the most recent articles and read them right from his device.
The application settings provides the ability to set up the desired interval of time, when the application should verify the RSS feed, plus the possibility to Turn On or Off this feature.
I have some doubts in regards to how many of my readers and visitors of this blog understand Romanian language, but just in case, here’s the Google Play download link: 
Here are the topics that will help you achieve this:
Creating A Simple RSS Application in Android
Understanding AsyncTask – Once and Forever
How to verify an RSS Feed if New Articles have been published.
Working With Services – IntentService
Showing status bar notifications in Android
Writing and Reading from SharedPreferences
Building a Custom Fancy ListView in Android
After reading (and exercising) the above tutorials, you should be able to build your own Cool RSS Application .
Please visit the Android Tutorials page for more Android tutorials.
How to verify an RSS Feed if New Articles have been published.
Recently I built an rss app for a site that publishes daily IT News – ITMoldova.com. The main feature of application is to launch a service in background (at a given interval of time), and check if new articles have been published on http://itmoldova.com site. If it turns out that new articles have been published, then fire a notification message and notify the user about this, something like this: “4 New Articles Published on ITMoldova.com”.
The mechanism to identify if new articles have been published on the site (and how many) is pretty straightforward: when the application is installed and launched for the first time, it parses the Rss Feed and creates a new entry in the SharedPreferences with the value of <pubDate> element, of the first item from the rss list (pubDate = publication date). Then, everytime the service starts, it parses the RSS Feed and checks the value of first item from the rss list against the value stored in SharedPreferences, if the value stored in SharedPreferences is less than value returned by the service, then it means that there are new articles and it’s time to notify the user! Lastly, update the SharedPreferences with the most recent pubDate.
For the sake of simplicity and keeping things consistent, I will post here only snippets of most relevant code, but this will be good enough to give you an idea about how things works.
To compare the dates we need to convert them to milliseconds. The getTime() method of Date class can help us return the number of milliseconds of a given date:
Date date=new Date(); int timeMilliseconds=date.getTime();
Below is the implementation of verifyDates(String, String) method that will be used by the Service. The method takes 2 string parameters, the pubDate of rss item, and the pubDate stored in SharedPreferences.
public class Tools {
public int newArticles;
public boolean hasMoreArticles = true;
public void verifyDates(String rssPubDate, String sharedPrefLastPubDate) {
if (hasMoreArticles) {
SimpleDateFormat df = new SimpleDateFormat("dd MMM yyyy HH:mm:ss Z", Locale.ENGLISH);
Date dLastPubDate = null;
Date dRssPubDate = null;
try {
dLastPubDate = df.parse(sharedPrefLastPubDate.substring(5));
dRssPubDate = df.parse(rssPubDate.substring(5));
} catch (ParseException e) {
Log.d("GREC", "Exception in verifayDates: " + e.getMessage());
e.printStackTrace();
}
//We want to count how many new articles were published.
if (dRssPubDate.getTime() > dLastPubDate.getTime()) {
newArticles++;
} else {
hasMoreArticles = false;
}
}
}
}
The service will parse the Rss Feed and do the comparison. Also, it will launch a status bar notification if it turns out that new articles were published.
public class RssService extends IntentService {
public RssService() {
super("ITMoldovaRssService");
}
@Override
protected void onHandleIntent(Intent intent) {
// Retrieve the date from SharedPreferences
String lastPubDate = getDateFromSharedPrefs();
// The AndroidFeedParser class helps us parse the Rss Feed.
AndroidFeedParser parser;
try {
parser = new AndroidFeedParser(new URL("http://itmoldova.com/feed/"));
List<Message> list = parser.parse();
if (list != null) {
for (int i = 0; i < list.size(); i++) {
// Verify the pubDate of each item, against pubDate stored in SharedPreferences
tools.verifyDates(list.get(i).getDate(), lastPubDate);
}
// Get the last pubDate and save it to SharedPreferences.
lastPubDate = list.get(0).getDate();
saveToSharedPreferences(lastPubDate);
}
} catch (MalformedURLException e) {
Log.d("GREC", "Malformed URL Exception: " + e.getMessage());
e.printStackTrace();
}
if (tools.newArticles > 0) {
displayNotification();
} else {
Log.d("GREC", "No new articles ");
}
}
}
The service begins with parsing the Rss Feed and return the list of items:
List<Message> list = parser.parse();
then iterate through it comparing the publication date:
for (int i = 0; i < list.size(); i++) {
// Verify the pubDate of each item, against pubDate stored in SharedPreferences
tools.verifyDates(list.get(i).getDate(), lastPubDate);
}
and then ends getting the most recent publication date and saving it to SharedPreferences:
// Get the last pubDate and save it to SharedPreferences. lastPubDate = list.get(0).getDate(); saveToSharedPreferences(lastPubDate);
If it turns out that new articles were published, display a status bar notification.
if (tools.newArticles > 0) {
displayNotification();
}
How to parse an XML feed and how to display a status bar notification are some helper topics you may need to take a look in order to fully complete this task.
How to simulate an incoming call in Android
1. Start the Android Emulator
2. Open up the windows console by going to Start -> Run (or Windows + R shortcut) and type in “cmd”. Press Enter. This should open the dos console.
3. Type in “telnet” and press enter. This should open the Telnet Console.
(At this stage you may experience some problems, the console may display the error: ‘telnet’ is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file. If this is the case, scroll down to see how to fix it, then return and continue the process)
4. Telnet Console being displayed, type in “o localhost 5554″. This will establish a connection with the emulator on port 5554 and open the Android Console. 5554 is the port number and you can see it on the title bar of the emulator window.
5. To simulate the call, type in “gsm call 099062274″
6. To cancel the call, type “gsm cancel 099062274″
7. Use “exit” to exit the Android Console, and “quit” to quit the Telnet client.
That’s it!
*How to fix the: ‘telnet’ is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file error.
When trying to invoke the telnet program you may experience the above error. The cause of this could be that the Telnet Client is turned off on your computer.
To turn it on, follow these steps:
1. Go to Control Panel
2. Click on Programs
3. Under Programs and Features section, click on Turn Windows features on or off. This should bring you the Windows Features pop-up.
4. Find the Telnet Client, select it, click OK.
My Android Apps
