The Busy Coder's Guide To Android Development

by Mark L. Murphy

This update:

Adds a chapter on hosting slices, plus updates the existing coverage of publishing slices

Updates the Android 9.0 appendix for the final release of 9.0, plus extends coverage of the StrictMode callback option added in 9.0

Adds a section on using ListAdapter with RecyclerView

Updates the material on LeakCanary for version 1.6.1

Updates the chapter on Samsung DeX to cover the DeX Pad

Updates the chapter on Chrome OS to cover Chrome OS tablets and Chromeboxes (Chrome OS desktop devices)

Retires the chapter on embedding a Web server in an Android app

Has a slight change to the PDF formatting rules to try to keep images and their preceding paragraphs together

Has other bug fixes and minor improvements

Genres: Programming, Reference

ebook

First published September 27, 2012

Reviews

[Dmytro Chaban]

I've been reading this book aggressively for a 7 months, moreover, I've been starting reading this book about 3-4 times from the 2015 summer. And I'll include this date as a the best day ever in the year. "Dobby is free?". I must be happy but now I'm realized that I finished reading awesome source of information. I'm feeling like ended my first book for java. But still I'm happy that I've become more intelligent with it.
About the book, I'ts the most valuable contribution for your future in android development ever(or at least on a level with documentation). This book covers mostly all that needs you to build: social app, readers, schedulers, business application, securely and many many more kinds of. I'm not sure that the main idea is to read through all this book as I did. But you can read main chapters and use it as a guide library later on. Still I'm happy that I've read this book from start to end and gained incredible amount of knowledge. 5 stars with wish to put all 100+.

[Ivan]

This book gives full understanding of how Android works and how to develop good android apps. The book covers a lot of aspects of Android development.

[Michael Koltsov]

This year i’ve tried to give Android as a developmnent platform a second try. Previously i had a harsh experience with it, mostly because of the fact that it’s environment was inmature. Eclipse with it’s sophisticated Android plugin and Ant were not helping me in keeping sanity at all. It was a mess! Everytime i was executing Android’s emulator my Macbook Pro was acting as it was a typewriter with no multitasking at all.

This time everything has changed. Android’s dev tools became very mature, as well as the Android’s ecosystem.

Basically, i had to start from scratch in the Android learning process. It’s learning curve is very lean, but at the same time Android’s API is very broad and it’s still constantly changing.

This book is a perfect solution, it consists of 2000+ pages! It covers most of the topics i had to deal with. It has a Github repository, which has a enormous broadth of examples! From simple activities to dealing with NDK, this book has a chapter and a code to tackle in.

My only issue with it is the price. Currently it costs more than 40 bucks, which is kinda huge for an ebook. I had my concerns with it, that’s why i went on with a free outdated version. If i’ll find a way to make some money with Android, i’ll totally buy a full version which is updated with every major Android release!

My score 5/5

[Reka Locsei]

The most comprehensive book on Android out there. Clearly written by someone in the know, who really understands all the topics in depth and has been around doing and teaching Android since its inception. I really felt that the explanations were more insightful then those from other Android books - am really glad I've found this one!
Even though it doesn't have the latest Android Jetpack elements, it is still well worth for the breadth and depth in all those other topics that didn't really change. I'd recommend it mostly to experienced developers.

[Kai]

The bible of Android development. Over 4000 pages long. 11 years of CommonsWare's wisdom distilled here, with code samples. Read "The Elements of Android Jetpack" first, which covers Android's recent transition to Kotlin, then come back to this book to expand your knowledge on topics not covered in the other book.

[Locsei]

The most comprehensive book on Android out there. Clearly written by someone in the know, who really understands all the topics in depth and has been around doing and teaching Android since its inception. I really felt that the explanations were more insightful then those from other Android books - am really glad I've found this one!

[Vikarti]

This is a must read book for anybody who wants to call eirself Android Developer

[Bagus Santoso]

Amazing book with constant update from the author. Everything about Android API is inside this giant books. 4000+ pages you know.

[Stanislav]

HUGE collection of Android tutorials.

[Moh.Nsr]

Very good informative book, the longest book I have read.
But I do not think that it still valid now at 2024, most of the concepts became deprecated.

[mirabilos]

CC-BY-SA available at: https://commonsware.com/Android/

Codebeispiele: https://github.com/commonsguy/cw-omnibus

[Alessandro Pellizzari]

Preciso che ho letto la versione 5.7 (inizio 2014).

Ho comprato la versione aggiornata di questo manuale dopo che lo avevo letto e molto apprezzato, diversi anni fa, quando era ancora diviso in due. Ora conta oltre 2000 pagine.

Purtroppo la qualità è calata, con la "fusione".
Cerca di dare un ordine di argomenti in base a come dovrebbero servire durante lo sviluppo di un'applicazione da zero, ma il risultato è un minestrone che passa di palo in frasca, con una parvenza di applicazione sviluppata, per la prima metà del libro, e diventa totalmente casuale nella seconda metà.

Inoltre per tutto il libro basa gli esempi e le spiegazioni su ActionBarSherlock che, per quanto sia un'ottima libreria, non è il modo ufficiale per usare fragment e altre caratteristiche di Android 4, e che non ha compatibilità 1:1. Fortunatamente l'autore ha promesso che dopo l'estate aggiornerà il libro riscrivendo tutti gli esempi con il framework standard.

Tra i lati positivi, sicuramente la completezza. È il manuale che copre più argomenti in assoluto, spesso anche argomenti coperti da nessun altro manuale. Alcuni, purtroppo, in maniera poco più che tangenziale.
Le spiegazioni sono abbastanza chiare, anche se non sempre.

Onestamente non saprei se consigliarlo. Sfruttando qualche offerta, si possono trovare due o tre manuali che coprano gli stessi argomenti, forse in maniera meglio spiegata.
Di sicuro ha il vantaggio di avere tutti gli aggiornamenti gratuitamente per un anno, il che spesso copre anche una nuova versione di Android.

[Vyacheslav Petrukhin]

Much more than just a book. When you read an ordinary book, especially a technical book, very often you can face a lot of difficulties - the book can be outdated, some important topics can be explained the way that isn't enough for you to get them or not as deeply as you need it. This book is distributed by its author via subscription on commonsware.com and it's something alive - not just carven in stone until next edition, which may or may not be published some day. What you get is a clean, detailed, up-to-date Android developement description and tutorials, which became even cleaner, updated with new API's, new Android Studio versions every 1-2 months. I wish I had books with the same distribution model and material quality for every technology I use in my work every day.

[Alessandro Pellizzari]

Forse il miglior libro sulla programmazione Android. Copre praticamente tutti gli argomenti di base per lo sviluppo di un'applicazione classica, con descrizioni chiare e numerosi esempi di codice brevi e ben studiati. Non tratta di argomenti avanzati come i widget per la home o l'uso della fotocamera o dei servizi di sistema, lasciati alla versione "Advanced" dello stesso autore.

[Joe Sacher]

Decent coverage of much of getting started with Android app development. Pace and coverage is better than I have seen in comparable books.

[Derek Verlee]

This is the Android book to have for either learning or reference.
Necessary for any Android developer from total newbies to wizened gurus.
Regularly updated, worth the subscription.

[Jure]

This is not a book to be read from start to finish so i am removing it from my 'currently reading bookshelf'
It is avery nice book though! Currently already in 5.8 version!

[Oluwaseun Popoola]

You wanna give android development a whirl, this book is frigging more than enough to get you started. Happy coding

[Anatoly Kaverin]

Great source of DO & Don't for Android engineering.
Most common pitfalls not mentioned in Android docs and solutions to them you will find here.

[Jure]

A very good all around Android dev. book