Introduction

Sneha — Sat, 08 Aug 2020 04:52:04 +0000

Welcome to this series on "How to upload your very first android app on playstore".

To publish your app on playstore, you must first have a developer account.

I strongly recommend each and every android developer to have a developer account of their own.

It is very affordable and easy to maintain.

The only condition is that you must be at least 18 years of age and then you can sign up to your developer account using your google account.

You need to pay $25 USD only (1,877 INR approx), which is a one-time registration fee, after which, you can use your developer account and publish unlimited number of apps for a lifetime.

You can pay the amount using the following credit or debit cards:

MasterCard
Visa
American Express
Discover (U.S. only)
Visa Electron (Outside of the U.S. only)

After entering your account details and accepting all terms and conditions you are now ready to publish your first app on playstore.

You will get most of this information on google developer support.

But my main motive in writing this post is to encourage android developers to create a developer account and publish atleast one app of their own on playstore.

If you need any help on the topic, feel free to contact me.

Your first app need not be great, it can be a very simple one.

This was my first app on playstore:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sneha.vtusgpaandcgpacalculator

This app is a very basic app that calculates the SGPA, CGPA and percentage for the students of Visvesvaraya Technological University.

The first version of my app could only calculate the results and had many issues with the layout.

Also, I didn't know how to debug the errors till the first two updates of my app and I faced alot of problems because of that. I used to rewrite my code completely each time I got errors and could not identify them easily.

Neither did I have any training in android, nor did I have a single go to person for the problems I faced in the beginning.

I was dependent solely on YouTube videos and online materials and used my very basic knowledge of java and oops concept in writing the programs.

In the second update, I changed all my xml files.
I studied about the different layouts and then shifted from linear layout to constraint layout for better compatibility with all screen sizes.

Next, I got to know about fragments, splash screens, introsliders, bottom navigation bar, drawer navigation, etc so I added them as well to my app.

I also added toasts, text watchers, etc.

Then, I thought of saving the calculations for future reference, and used SQLite for it.
(So that I could save the calculations in the phone itself for easy and free offline access.)

Gradually , I added admob and firebase integrations as well in it.

Now after you have made your first app and you think you are ready to publish it, you'll also have to decide how to build it, as an apk file or as an app bundle, I will be talking about that in the next post in this series.

After building your app, you have to choose how to release the app, between alpha or beta testing on the developer console or full production.
In the third post in this series, I will be talking about these three options in detail.

In the fourth and last post in this series, I will conclude by talking about making future updates in your app.

Introducing myself !

Sneha — Wed, 22 Jul 2020 08:52:59 +0000

So finally, I have decided to blog. I made a list of a few topics that I am interested in talking about, but I was wondering where to start with.

Then, I started to read different posts by the amazing people out here. And I found this lovely lady @pabiforbes and went to see what her first post is about. It was quite simple and nice, just an introduction of herself. However, I wonder how can someone be so precise!

So, I am also going to introduce myself first, instead of jumping to the technical discussions straight away.

To start with, I am an Indian and India is my heart and soul.

I don't know how to say it, I am still 22 years old or I am already 22 years old.

People around me expect me to be quite mature till now. But I am basically still a child trying to act like an adult. And this is how most people feel but they don't say it, I guess.

Moving further, I am a fourth year student (recently promoted) pursuing B.E. in Computer Science Engineering in Bangalore, Karnataka. Currently I am staying home, trying to stay safe, in Patna, Bihar during this pandemic. I am doing my second internship as an android developer.

I am learning something each and every moment including programming skills but not limited to that.

I will begin to share my experiences with java and android concepts as far as I know them till now. And as the never ending quest for knowledge continues, I'll keep posting here simultaneously.

My next post will be on
How to upload your very first android app on playstore.

Thank you !

DEV Community: Sneha

Introduction

Introducing myself !