Monday 20 February 2012

Android Widget Development Tutorials

Having recently approached Android widget development for the first time, I know how little helpful information there seems to be on the subject. In this article I'll run through a few of the better tutorials I've found in my research.

These are some basic introductions of mine:
Creating an Android Battery Widget
Developing Android Widgets

Here are some others:

Android Developers Guide and Official Resources
Here are the main pages of interest on the official guide, including development and design:
App Widgets
Introducing home screen widgets and the AppWidget framework
App Widget Design Guidelines

These are of course the best place to start and the best place to pick up the basics. However, for guidance on specific widget types, you will likely need to look outside of the official sites. If you happen to be creating a widget in which you need to check the state of the battery level, see this page:
Monitoring the Battery Level and Charging State

Vogella
Vogella is Lars Vogel's site, which is an excellent resource for all things Android. In this tutorial he runs through creating a widget app of any kind, including the design, Java programming and XML coding required:
Android Homescreen Widgets

BuildMobile
This BuildMobile tutorial is a good, easy to follow basic guide on creating a widget for the Android platform:
How to Code an Android Widget

Kasper Holtze
This is another easy to follow, detailed and practical guide, a good starting point to get to grips with the basic steps involved. To create a real widget you will need to carry out further development but this is a good start:
How to Make a Simple Android Widget

Do It Yourself Android
Another thorough overview of all basic tasks involved in creating any widget app, this tutorial also gives some helpful guidance on design for widgets:
Developing Android Home Screen Widgets

That's it for the moment, if I come across any more useful resources on Android development I will add them here - please feel free to add any you have found in the comments.