howdy, amb!

Hi Mark

Are you open for questions?

absolutely!

cool (and thanks!)

i'm having some trouble with a MediaPlayer for a simple game

once in a while it will throw an "illegalstate" excp

i'm playing the sound from "R.raw.file"

(btw, howdy, fitz!)

my question is...do i have to catch the end of the sound (its short) and do anything special before calling start again?

hello

you have to prepare() or prepareAsync(), and you have to seekTo(0)

you'll see that in the Media/Audio sample project in the Advanced Android book

if you want it to immediately restart, or be in position to be started, after completion, you can register an OnCompletionListener

ok...what about orientation changes?

what about them?

do you need to do anything special if the sound happens to be playing when android restarts you?

um

you will either need to create a new MediaPlayer in the new activity instance, or you can try to create your MediaPlayer using the Application context and pass it from old to new via onRetainNonConfigurationInstance()

I haven't tried the later

er, latter

ok...i'll play around

THANKS!

happy to help!

fitz: do you have a question?

hang on - on phone

amb: if you have another question, go ahead

ok, thanks...

i'm concerned about how my layout will look on different devices...

i'm worried that all my controls won't be displayed. should i make emulators with diff sized displays/dpi config?

absolutely

is there a few setups that are good to test for?

those tell you what is in use, based on requests to the Android Market

yep, should've remembered that...thanks!

beyond that, it depends on what you're all trying to target (e.g., if you're aiming to be an early winner on tablets, you'll want to test on a tablet)

my friend has a xoom and i have a droid...

but in a standard emulator, my stuff ran off the bottom

ok in Advanced - you have Local Search (think it is lesson 17-19) and you have contact lookup by name, name and email etc. - question is I would like to tie local search to look into contacts only as a test - is this doable

fitz: presumably, though I haven't tried that particular mashup

basically tie local search to contacts on device

amb: if "standard emulator" is HVGA, that's not surprising

ok - will spend more time digging into it

right again (emulator was HVGA)

that'd be devices like the T-Mobile G1

they exist, but more devices are higher density/larger resolution nowadays

unfortunately, the screen sizes chart is old -- August 2010

i shrunk my font a little and it fits in HVGA, so i should be ok

i'm good question-wise...thanks for the help Mark

sure, no problem

can I use the search to look for calendar stuff - google calendar or does google calendar not actually reside on device?

there is no documented and supported API for accessing any local calendar data

you'll find some folk using an undocumented/unsupported/not-recommended content provider for the AOSP Calendar app

the google calendar is not considered local right?

however, that provider is subject to change (and has)

and it might not exist on any given device

"the google calendar" is a Web site

local calendar apps may be syncing with "the google calendar" via GData APIs

the AOSP Calendar app is one that does

so the icon for GMAIL on a droid is only bringing up a web interface?

no

no more than the AOSP calendar app is

Gmail is a Web site

the Gmail app is an app

the Gmail app gets data from the Gmail Web site via something or another

"the google calendar" is a Web site

the AOSP Calendar app is an app

the AOSP Calendar app syncs data with "the google calendar" via Google Calendar GData APIs

it may be that you and I are using "the google calendar" to mean different things, though

hmmm - confused a bit - so when you get a new phone in the set up if you enter in your gmail info it ties email icons to gmail - the screen that shows your email is a browser or an app - if app your saying google does not have an api for that correct?

the Gmail icon on the phone is an app

I am not aware of an API to access Gmail, besides IMAP and similar standard mail protocols

ok thanks

see you Mark (and thanks!)

see ya!

wonder if I should be doing major lifting of app on PC java app that comunicates with droid - hmmmm will need to think on it more

you lost me there

forget andriod for a min - I can build java app that goes in PC that can does searchs into google api's - then package the data and send to android device. Would rather do it all on Android device but it sounds like we do not have access for gdata from device

can do search...

well, there's a whole conference session at I|O for accessing GData on the device, so one presumes it is possible

for example from android your saying gmail is locked down right

I'm saying that I'm not aware of an API other than standard mail protocols

it's not like I've done an exhaustive search on the subject

and that will be the same for the PC and the phone

GData APIs are Web services

if there is one for Gmail, you'd be able to use it from wherever, given the right credentials

if there is none for Gmail, you will be unable to use one from anywhere

ok - well we have done the gdata stuff already in c# and have app already - it is just android that makes it different :)

ok thanks

maybe chillax a bit on those features until the Google presentation hits YouTube

ya I am sure it is a lack of my knowledge that is the problem :)

ok have a great day

hello again!

howdy, cactusmitch!

hello?

how can I help you today?

cactusmitch: how can I help you today?

I'll dig into your books before I ask my dumb questions. I use Eclipse too much. I haven't found "activityCreator.py" (page 27) in my android-sdk-windows directory tree yet.

what version of what book are you referring to?

activityCreator.py is not in any of the current books AFAIK

that has been out of date for nearly two years, IIRC

howdy, Julius!

hi

last minute

the chat is about to end -- do you have a quick question?

just woke up

sorta

just having trouble with an app widget

the problem is sening a broadcast from tha appwidget

when a utton is clicked

I have set up the PendingIntent and I can supply it an Intent

but I'm not sure how to make it send a broadcast

(if there isn't time no problem)

oops SDIPlayer should be My :)

I'm hoping for a way to use a big sqlite3 database in an app without having to enter data with "INSERTS," or "put.values" when the app is first onCreated. But that may be for another day when I have the vocabulary to ask an intelligible question

updateViews.setOnClickPendingIntent(R.id.my_imagebutton, ppi);

Julius: if MyService is a Service, that's not a BroadcastReceiver, so it can't receive a broadcast

can it not register to receive.. oh so maybe better to make a separate BR

cactusmitch: shipping a big database with an app is troublesome -- better to download it on first run

Julius: right

I set up aBRin the Service with an IntentFilter

ok I'll give that a shot

each channel of the Intent system (activity, service, broadcast) is separate and distinct

one cannot receive events from the other

ah

OK, that's it for today's chat

thank you!

nf

bfn

The one I downloaded in PDF form yesterday? Time's up for today?

cactusmitch: You did not download that PDF from the Warescription site. The public site, perhaps, for the free Creative Commons editions

the chat was for 2:30-3:30pm Eastern

two more next ewek

er, week

10am Eastern Monday

4pm Eastern Friday

as I'll be attending Google I|O in between

have a pleasant day!