The Busy Coder's Guide to Android Development Version 6.7 Released

Subscribers now have access to the latest release of The Busy Coder’s Guide to Android Development, known as Version 6.7, in all formats. Just log into your Warescription page and download away, or set up an account and subscribe!

This update includes:

• An appendix covering the M Developer Preview. I have elected to keep all of this consolidated for now in this appendix. Once Android M ships “for realz”, I will move all of the material from the appendix to more appropriate locations in the book. But, until then, if you want to learn more about M, head to the back of the book.

• A new chapter on adding custom diagnostic tools to debug builds of your app. Specifically, this chapter shows how you can add activities, Web servers(!), and overlays to debug builds with the minimum possible changes to the main sourceset, so the debug stuff will not ship in production.

• Updated material on RecyclerView (specifically SortedList), JUnit4 and UI Automator (new versions), BlackBerry (changes in the mix of tools for getting your apps on BB10), and Traceview (covering Android Studio’s native UI).

• Updated Android Studio references and descriptions to be accurate for the 1.2 series of releases.

• Another edition of the remote service binding example, this time blending in signature validation, so you know the service that you are binding to is the right one and not an imposter or hacked edition.

• A ton of other minor improvements, errata fixes, and the like.

Also, the PDF version is being built using some different tools. If you encounter any problems with Version 6.7’s PDF that you did not have with Version 6.6’s PDF, please let me know.

The next update is planned for the first half of August, and it will be primarily focused on deeper dives into what’s new in the M Developer Preview.

However, also note that the next update will begin the slow de-Eclipse-ification of the book. I have not used Eclipse in earnest in nearly a year, and so I no longer feel comfortable providing Eclipse-specific instructions. The next update (Version 6.8) will remove the Eclipse instructions from the tutorials, as part of a general cleanup up the tutorials. Then, over the next year or so, more and more of the Eclipse coverage will be pulled from the rest of the book, starting with the trails, and ending with the core chapters. Hence, if you are an Eclipse user, please plan on holding onto Version 6.7 in addition to taking on new updates, so you can retain the maximum amount of Eclipse information.