All app development requires an IDE (integrated development environment) to make it easier to use app development resources. Android isn’t any different. The popular app mobile platform has some important development tools that can be utilized to make the development process easier.
Let’s take a look at some of the main software development resources you need to create high-quality Android applications.
Android SDK Tools
Android Software Development Kit is a toolkit that lets developers build applications for Android operating systems. You’ll find databases, debuggers, and emulators in the SDK that allow you to start creating apps.
New releases of the Android Operating system are regularly launched, but framework tools implement additional Android features and are consistent with previous versions.
With the support of Android Emulator, you can evaluate the applications without using any actual hardware.
Libraries for Android
Since Android is open source and has a lot of collective interest, we can quickly locate the little bits of code that we can include. This can be achieved by connecting libraries to our program. Many libraries are located on the GitHub website.
The Retrofit library is utilized to access and use information from the cloud using Web services in the application. The format may be JSON. Then we can get the JSON and format it to show in the application by using the Retrofit.
Glide is a library that shows pictures from the cloud or local storage in a manner that preserves the screen resolution and can manage file launching, storing, and more. It is also supported by Google.
The Material Design Library lets you build a perfect lightweight software UI. It gives a range of custom UI components that provide extra interpretability to the application’s User interface.
Firebase
When developing your app, you don’t want to struggle with issues like security, system administration, data storage, servers, malfunction management, alerts, analytics, and more.
Firebase is the only answer to any of the above concerns. Many databases, such as SQLite, send you the data anytime you query for it, but the Realtime Database, such as Firebase, provides you the data whenever it is modified.
Often, both apps save data, such as a profile picture. Firebase offers you an easy way to store pictures on the server. Firebase provides a broad number of authentication schemes that can be found in the app.
Examples involve email/password verification, social account access, mobile authentication, and more.
Firebase crashlytics lets you repair problems that come with updates of the live software. Firebase also includes the monitoring functionality that helps you to track the use of the app for various custom events.
Almost all apps have a push notification option. Firebase SDK offers a convenient way to add a push message.
Code of Design
One of the major errors that a developer may create is not using the code design. Any concerns that happen due to weak or no system design are large loads of code in a single class or file, code is impractical for another developer, and it’s hard to debug.
With a strong code design, you get a simple code, low cost maintenance, and simplicity. Such developer-friendly code architectures for Android include MVC (Model View Controller), MVP (Model View Presenter) and MVVM (Model View ViewModel).
Gradle
Gradle is a build framework that allows build, evaluate and launch the software. This framework creates APK files from Java and XML files. There are two forms of Gradle scripts, the top level and the module level.
Databases
The Android OS has a database system known as SQLite that stores data locally within the device. There are several third-party server libraries on the marketplace that can be included with the app.
Conclusion
After reading the article, you should expect to have a simple understanding about which five important software development resources are required for Android app development. While this isn’t a full list, it’s a start for every emerging developer or Android development squad. Good luck with your app development journey!
