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A Content Provider in Android is a component that encapsulates data and provides it to other applications upon request. In essence, it's a data layer abstraction that enables inter-app communication.
Content providers are primarily used to read and write data that's private to your application but needs to be shared with other apps or within your own app across different components. They offer a flexible structure for data storage and management by effectively hiding the underlying data storage mechanism.
Many Android system applications provide data access through Content Providers — like the Contacts app, for instance. When you want to access data from the contacts app in your application, you use the Contacts Content Provider, which allows you to query the contact data and display it in your own app, without needing to understand how that data is stored and retrieved.
An Activity in Android is essentially a single screen with a user interface. For example, an email application might have one Activity showing a list of new emails, another Activity for composing an email, and another for reading emails. If an application has more than one Activity, then one of them must be marked as the "parent" Activity, which is the first screen to appear when the user launches the application. Each Activity is implemented as a subclass of the base Activity class. It's a crucial component of any Android app, and it can exist in several states such as running, paused or stopped, as defined by the Activity Lifecycle.
The Android Notification system is essentially a way of telling the users about events that happen in your app, even when it is not running. Notifications in Android appear in the top system-wide Notification Drawer, and may also appear as icons, sounds, vibrations, or flashing lights.
To create a notification, you use the NotificationCompat.Builder class, setting the properties of the notification like icons, colors, sounds, vibrate mode, action when clicked, and more. Once you've set all the properties, calling the build() function on the Builder will generate the final notification object.
This notification object is then passed to the system via the NotificationManager class, typically using the notify() method, which takes an ID for the notification and the notification object itself. The ID allows you to later update or cancel the notification. Once the notification is passed to the NotificationManager, Android handles the rest, making sure your notification gets seen at the right place and the right time.
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In Android, a Service is a component that can perform long-running operations in the background and does not provide a user interface. There are three different types of Services, each serving a particular purpose:
Foreground Services perform operations that are noticeable to the user. For example, an audio app would use a foreground service to play music. Even if the user switches to another app, the music continues to play, letting the user know that there's an ongoing process. Foreground services must display a Notification to keep the user informed about the operation.
Background Services perform tasks that aren't directly noticed by the user. For instance, if an app needs to download files, it might start a background service to handle the download process while the user continues interacting with the app. However, with Android 8.0 (API level 26) and above, these services are subjected to system restrictions to protect user's device battery life.
Bound Services offer a client-server interface that allows components to interact with the service, send requests, get results and even do so across processes with interprocess communication (IPC). They're bound to the other app components, and the service runs as long as there is at least one component bound to it.
Remember, the type of service you choose depends largely on the needs of your application and how user interaction is expected.
In Android, an Intent is a sort of messaging object used to request an action from another app component. There are two types of Intents: Implicit and Explicit.
Explicit Intents are used when we know the component which needs to respond to the intent. For instance, if you want to navigate from one activity to another within your app, you define an explicit intent, specify the Activity you want to start, and the Android system directly starts that Activity.
Implicit Intents, on the other hand, do not name a specific component. Instead, they declare a general action to perform, like "view a map" or "take a picture." The Android system then determines the appropriate component for the intent by comparing the Intent with all available app components and their intent filters, and if a suitable component is found, the system delivers the Intent to that component.
Android Architecture is a layered architecture composed of different components, each serving a distinct purpose. The components, starting from the bottom layer, are as follows:
The Linux Kernel is the foundation of the Android Architecture, where all the system services like security, memory management, process management, network stack, and driver model reside. It provides fundamental system functionalities to the upper layers.
Above this, we have the Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL). HAL is a library of interfaces that Android uses to communicate with device drivers, including camera, bluetooth, etc.
The next layer comprises two parts: the Android Runtime and the native libraries. The Android Runtime contains core libraries and the Dalvik Virtual Machine. Essential libraries like Open GL for 2D and 3D graphics rendering and SQLite for database support are part of the native libraries.
Lastly, at the top, we have the Application Framework layer which provides higher-level services like Activity Manager, Content Providers, View System to the applications. Activities, services, content providers, and broadcast receivers are all part of this layer. The Application layer is where your Android applications reside, and they interact with the underlying system via intents, services, and the user interface classes.
In Android, an Adapter acts as a bridge between the UI component and the underlying data for that view. The Adapter provides access to the data and is responsible for making a View for each item in the data set. For example, when you have information in an Array or a Database and you want to view it in a ListView or a GridView, you use an Adapter to fetch the data and convert each entry into a View that can then be added to the ListView.
It's important to note that an Adapter doesn't just pull raw data from a source and add it to a view; it's also responsible for creating a nicely formatted UI component, typically through the use of a layout inflater that reads a layout XML file and "inflates" it to create the final UI components. This allows the Adapter to handle complex tasks like embedding images and other media into a list item, applying different fonts and colors to different elements, and more.
The AndroidManifest.xml file is a crucial part of an Android application as it provides essential information to the Android system. This information helps Android system to understand what your application consists of and how to run it.
This file contains details like the package name of the application, components of the application (Activities, Services, Broadcast Receivers, Content Providers), required minimum level of Android API, list of permissions the application needs from the device like internet access, phone book access, camera access, etc., and other features like whether the app should run in landscape, portrait or both.
So, the Android system will not be aware of the presence of an application without the AndroidManifest.xml file and consequently, will not be able to run it. Therefore, this file is the entry point of any Android application and plays a crucial role in application execution.
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With over 18 years of experience in Android development and leading teams. Right now, I work at Scania Group in Sweden as a Lead Android …
With 20 years of software engineering experience, I specialize in building high-quality native Android apps and TV applications using modern tools like Jetpack Compose, Kotlin, …
👋 I am Prateek. I am a Senior Engineer at Doist, working on the Todoist mobile apps, and a published author of several books on …
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I am a Google Certified Associate Android Developer (AAD) and Android Nanodegree Graduate. * More than 9 years of working experience in Android. * An …
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