Android Project Structure - In Details

Ashirbad Swain — Tue, 10 Jan 2023 05:23:37 +0000

Project Structure

The Android project structure generally contains:

app
Manifest file
Java/Kotlin
res Directory
Gradle Script

app
It describes the fundamental characteristics of the app and defines each of its components.

Manifest File
Manifest file plays an integral role as it provides the essential information about your app to the android system, which the system must have before it can run any of the app’s code.

Manifest file performs various tasks such as

It names the Java package for the app as the package name serves as a unique identifier for the application.

It protects the application by declaring permission in order to access protected parts of the API and interact with other applications.

Manifest file declares the minimum level of the Android API and lists the libraries which is linked with the application.

Manifest file list the instrumentation classes. These classes provide profiling and other information as the application runs, but this information is removed as soon the application is publishes. It remains only till the application is in development mode.

The Manifest includes many types of information, the main ones are:

Package name
Components of the app, such as activities, fragments and services
Permissions needed from the user

Java/Kotlin

This folder contains the .java/.kt source files for your project. By default, it includes an MainActivity.java source file.
Under this, you create all the activities which have .java extensions and all the code behind the application.
MainActivity.java is the actual file which gets converted to a dalvik executable and runs your app.

res Directory

It is a directory for files that define your app’s user interface. You can add TextView, Button etc. to build the GUI and use its various attributes like android:layout_width, android:layout_height etc which are used to set its width and height.
The res directory is where you put things such as images, strings and layouts. It’s included in every android project, and you can see it in Android Studio res directory.
Inside of the res directory, are sub folders for the following types of resources. You may have a subset of these directories, depending on the types of the resources you are using in your app.

Different Resource Directories

Gradle Scripts
This is an auto generated file which contains compileSdkVersion, buildToolsVersion, applicationID, minSdkVersion, targetSdkVersion, versionCode and versionName.

Thank You!

Android Versions - A Complete Guide

Ashirbad Swain — Mon, 09 Jan 2023 17:07:31 +0000

Android is a mobile operating system based on a modified version of the Linux kernel and other open source software, designed primarily for touchscreen mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets.

The list of all Android versions till date with the features.

The posts contains:

Android Version name
API Levels
Features
Release Dates etc.

Android 1.5 Cupcake
Android 1.5 was released on April 27, 2009 and it is the first Android version to officially get a dessert nickname. Android 1.5 was known as Android Cupcake and it was developed by Google with API 3.

Android 1.6 Donut
Android 1.6 Donut was released on September 15, 2009, just a few months after the launch of the Android 1.5 Cupcake and it came with the API 4. This was also called the fourth version of the Android and it introduced some distinctive features.

Android 2.0 Eclair
Android 2.0 Éclair came with an API level of 5 to 7 and it was released on October 26, 2009, again, a fourth major Android update to get released in 2009. The fifth version of Android aka Android 2.0 Éclair offered many features.

Android 2.2 Froyo
Android 2.2 Froyo was made available to the public on May 20, 2010, and it came with API 8. This version was unveiled during Google I/O 2010 conference and it offered several optimizations when compared to Android 2.0 Eclairs.

Android 2.3 Gingerbread
Android 2.3 Gingerbread was also launched in 2010, to be exact on December 6, 2010, with API 9 to 10. This version introduced features like NFC support and VoIP calls. The Nexus S smartphone from Samsung was the first device to launch with this OS, which was also the first Nexus smartphone from Google that represented stock Android OS.

Android 3.0 Honeycomb
Android 3.0 Honeycomb was released on February 22, 2011 and it came with API 11 to 13. This version of Android was designed for large screen devices like tablets and the Motorola Xoom was the first product to ship with Android 3.0 Honeycomb.

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich
Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich was released on October 18, 2011, and it came with an API version from 14 to 15. This version was designed to offer a unified experience for both smartphones and tablets. It was also the first Android version to support Face Unlock on select devices.

Android 4.1 Jelly Bean
Android 4.1 Jelly Bean got official on July 9, 2012, and it came with an API of 16 to 18. Android Jelly Bean is also officially the 10th iteration of Android and it was developed to offer performance improvements along with smooth user experience when compared to Android 4.0.

Android 4.4 KitKat
Android 4.4 KitKat got official on October 31, 2013 and it came with an API of 19 to 20. This version of Android was developed to offer an improved user experience on devices with limited hardware capabilities.

Android 5.0 Lollipop
Android 5.0 Lollipop offered a major design overhaul when compared to Android 4.4 KitKat and it was released on November 12, 2014 and it came with an API version 21 to 22. This version of Android offered a redesigned UI and it also replaced Dalvik with ART or Android Runtime to improve application performance and battery optimization.

Android 6.0 Marshmallow
Android 6.0 Marshmallow was released on October 5, 2015, based on API 23. It offered a new permission architecture to improve user-privacy and it also natively supported USB Type-C port and a physical fingerprint sensor.

Android 7.0 Nougat
Android 7.0 Nougat with an API version of 24 to 25 was released on August 22, 2016. Nougat offered support for Vulkan API for better graphics rendering along with a new app notification format.

Android 8.0 Oreo
Android 8.0 Oreo got launched on August 21, 2017, and this version was based API 26 to 27. Oreo was the first Android version to support Bluetooth 5.0 and wide color gamut.

Android 9 Pie
Android 9 Pie got official on August 6, 2018, with API 28 and it offered a refreshed material design with a new style of navigation buttons. Till today, a lot of smartphones are still based on Android 9 Pie.

Android 10
Android 10 was released on September 3, 2019, based on API 29. This version was known as Android Q at the time of development and this is the first modern Android OS that doesn’t have a dessert code name. It offered a complete full-screen user interface with a redesigned navigation system, which is a bit similar to the modern iPhones.

Android 11
Android 11 was released on September 8, 2020 and this version was based on API 30. It comes with features like conversation notifications and this is also the first official Android version to offer built-in screen recorder.

Android 12
Android 12 was released on September, 2021 and this version was based on API 31.

Android 13
Android 13 was released on 15 August, 2022 and this version was based in API 33.

That’s it. Thank you for reading.

DEV Community: Ashirbad Swain

Android Project Structure - In Details

Android Versions - A Complete Guide