hello, Kathy!

Good morning.

how can I help you today?

I am thinking about trying to do a screen that displays something like flower shapes that are floating. and slowly moving When someone touches one of the flowers a message would pop up. Do you have anywhere you can direct met o find out how to do this?

I suspect that would typically be done using 2D graphics on a Canvas, and touch events on that same Canvas

this is how most 2D games work, for example

I have not delved into that area of Android, and so I do not have any specific advice regarding those techniques

you can try to achieve your desired effect using ImageView widgets and widget animations

animations are covered in _The Busy Coder's Guide to Advanced Android Development_

Okay. I have been doing some research and not finding much for the floating images that did not involve a lot of programming. So, maybe I won't do the floating and moving thing. I was hoping to find some built in basic things in Android to do it but I guess they aren't there.

well, I doubt there is a canonical definition of "floating"

Would just displaying a message when someone touches an image perhaps be easier?

well, yes

I did other searches besides floating like moving and other similar words.

just have an ImageView somewhere

add the android:onClick attribute to it in your layout XML

have the method you name in the android:onClick attribute display a message (e.g., Toast)

Thanks, that is helpful. When I do toast messages they don't stick around very long. Is there a way to make them not disappear so quickly. By the way I am a newbie at this.

Toasts are not designed to last very long

you can choose between Toast.LENGTH_SHORT (1-2 seconds) and Toast.LENGTH_LONG (3-4 seconds IIRC)

If I don't use a toast what would be the best way to display a message then?

there is no abstract "best"

what is "best" depends entirely on context

Ok, then, a better way?

alternatives include dialogs, notifications, or displaying something in the activity itself (e.g., the thing that has the ImageView the user tapped upon)

I have another question about doing wallpapers. I have some images that I would like to sell as wallpaper on Android. I would also like the wallpapers to be sized easily. Are there any tutorials or examples of this that you know of that I can look at?xah turlite

I have not played with any wallpaper imagery other than what comes standard on a device

by definition, bitmap images cannot "be sized easily"

I cannot really help you in this area, as it has nothing to do with Android application development

Well, I thought that I would have to develop some sort of an app to upload to the store to do the wallpapers.

Android has the notion of live wallpapers, but they are not images.

live wallpapers are apps

I looked in the store and saw that they were selling some wallpapers that I thought were not live. Are all of those wallpapers live then?

no clue

there is the WallpaperManager system service, which lets you get/set wallpaper

it has methods to give you the right wallpaper size

perhaps the apps are merely shells around using this service and using that to load in the correct wallpaper

personally, if I wanted wallpaper, I would simply download an image to the phone and set it as the wallpaper

I own some antique images that I thought might make some nice wallpapers that are unique and I do see people selling groups of wallpaper images in the store.

I'm not saying you can't sell wallpaper

I am saying that wallpaper management is not a topic covered in my books or any other development that I have done, and that I am not exactly a model target customer

howdy, David!

Good Morning.

David, do you have a question?

Yes. I implemented a bind service using an example in your book.

I have read that there is a piracy issue with android apps and so some (Angry Birds) are putting ads into their apps. Are there any companies that you might recommend to use for adding ads to apps?

It is working well. I'd like to add another service. I need your advice.

David: it is unusual for an application to need more than one service, though it is certainly possible

There is one callback function defined in the interface. Is it possible to add another callback?

Kathy: I have not written any ad-sponsored apps, and so I have little advice. You might consider AdWhirl as a "compatibility layer" to allow you to use multiple ad providers, though -- I have heard that some ad networks have difficulty supplying enough paid ads

David: sure

just add it to the Binder

But I have problem in onBind.

your Binder can expose as many methods as you want

what is your problem in onBind?

onBind returns only one listenr.

correct

or, more accurately, onBind() returns one Binder

implement more than one method on the Binder

I mean binder. So I have to put several callbacks in one binder. Correct?

if you need two distinct Binders for some reason, put something in the Intent to identify which you want for various circumstances (e.g., custom action string), and have onBind() choose the right Binder based upon that.

however, for an local service, I cannot think of a reason why you would need two Binders

Okay.

just add more methods to the existing Binder

I see. Thanks

I have a screen right now that has three spinners and a button. I would like to add some informational text beneath the spinners and above the button. What would be a good way to do that?

Kathy: use a TextView

Can Service send an Intent to Activity? Since it is not working, I have to stick with bind service. Is it correct approach?

morning

David: a service has many possible ways to communicate back to an activity, as is covered in the chapters on services in _The Busy Coder's Guide to Android Development_

Mark how was California - good show/sessions?

Ok, thanks. The app I am working on has three screens. I am using a separate activity for each screen display. Is that the correct way to do it?

one approach is to broadcast an Intent, picked up by the activity via a BroadcastReceiver registered via registerReceiver()

fitz: AnDevCon went reasonably well. Bigger than expected attendance.

Kathy: that is impossible to answer in the abstract

When using multiple screens when should you use a new activity for each one?

Kathy: that depends on what the "multiple screens" really are. I suggest that you read this blog post: http://commonsware.com/blog/2011/02/14/nat…

ya android around here is going nuts - was at meetup weekend hacakathon last weekend down at paypal - was huge and tons of VC's - so money should start to flow soon

fitz: was that called "andevcamp"? Christian Kurzke was tweeting about something named that.

so would it be worth next year going to this AnDevCon for 1k?

yes that was it

fitz: next AnDevCon will be in November, actually. Personally, I'm not a big conference-goer (I|O is about all I go to unless I'm speaking), so I'm a poor judge of value.

many of the presentations from this one are here: http://andevcon.com/speakerpresentations.html

had some demos Friday night included to Google presentations - think the audience knew a ton mode that these lead developers about there own products (Android 3.0) and API's - it was kind of funny

Besides reading your great books, do you have any recommndations for some good online video tutorials? Seeing something visually in addition to reading about it helps me learn better.

fitz: yeah, sometimes they send new developer advocates to events, or at least new to Android

cool thanks for link - ya these guys had pettagree - just think they were managers

Kathy: I have seen references to video tutorials, but I haven't been keeping track of links. The Google I|O conference videos are good and are up on YouTube, but I wouldn't describe them as "tutorials" per se.

fitz: Ah, ok. AnDevCon got lucky and snagged Romain Guy and Chet Haase for an Android 3.0 keynote, plus got Kiril Grouchnikov (sp?) and Chet for regular conference sessions.

By the way, I am in Austin and SXSW is coming up. There is a free Google event, but I do not know how much of it will be Android oriented, so I don't know if I should go and deal with the traffic, crowds and parking.

I am hoping that since the next one is also out here in CA, that the Google presence will keep up, as presentations by core Android team members are generally authoritative

Kathy: If you're referring to the League of Extraordinary Hackers or whatever it's called, I don't think that's Android specific. I'm not sure what else Google has going on at SXSW.

Yes, it was the League of Extraordinay Hackers. I can't afford a SXSW badge so I was just looking for free stuff.

Out of curiosity, how expensive is SXSZ? I've never gone.

er, SXSW

do you know if google IO will be broadcast live? I did not get ticket - was not fast enough

fitz: last year, the keynotes were live and the rest were later uploaded to YouTube

sorry no business questions today :)

A platinum pass is around $900 for a platinum and they go down to $375 I think. You can get the prices here at http://sxsw.com/attend

if you have a GTUG in your area, though, there may be some sort of simulcast beyond the keynotes

the global head of GTUGs was here at AnDevCon and mentioned something about this at a fireside chat

Kathy: that's not as bad as I was afraid of, but certainly not cheap

OTOH, Austin has great steaks... :-)

Yes, we do. We also have great trailer food.

ya the SV GTUG is a good group

the SV GTUG is bigger than my home town

Mark, Thanks for all your help.

Kathy: sure, sorry I didn't have better answers for some of your questions

and that's a wrap for today

Yes. I have one app, but it displays two icons because of another activity in my app. Do you have any suggestions how to remove the extra icon? I think it is due to the setContentView in another Activity.

if the icons in question are in the launcher, it is because you put the LAUNCHER <intent-filter> in both activities in the manifest

Thanks.

the next office hours chat is tomorrow, 4pm Eastern

have a pleasant day, everyone!

the android meetup group is even bigger