Starting point for making an app

[Mooncatt]

I've had my android for a few months now and just had a spark of an idea for making an app that would tie in to an existing program on a computer to control parts of it. I've never done any programming, so I'm not even sure this is something I'd want to get in to, or even know how long it'd take to get profecient enough to make said app. Since this will be for a proprietary program, I can't give out too many specifics about it. I will say that it involves camera based motion detection and I currently use a wireless keypad for the main controls to be used off camera, and that's really all the app would need to emulate. I'm looking for more than just a number pad, though. Something where the buttons will actually say what they do and preferably have some sort of thumbnail preview is what I'm looking for. This would also be something to tie in either via wifi or bluetooth with the computer I'm using it on.

I'm just a beta tester for the main program, so I don't have access to its code. So the other concern would be if I could just make the app a keypad emulator (essentially controlling the computer's key pad that the program picks up and not the program directly), or would code need to be added to the main prgram so it can communicate directly with my phone?

After looking around the site, this seemed to be the best place to start since I didn't see any other threads like this. If not, feel free to point me in the right direction.

 

[rosemark0206]

It would be very difficult to program just start programming if you never programmed before... To start you should first try to setup the emulator using eclipse... Download the ADB then eclipse and tie them together. Next get one of the emulators 'hello world' programs running.... then... i guess you just have to look at the code to figure it out. The layouts are in a folder under 'res/layouts' and then the java code hooks into the layouts on the onCreate method.

 

[MojaveHigh]

Android Developers

 

[alostpacket]

It would be very difficult to program just start programming if you never programmed before... To start you should first try to setup the emulator using eclipse... Download the ADB then eclipse and tie them together. Next get one of the emulators 'hello world' programs running.... then... i guess you just have to look at the code to figure it out. The layouts are in a folder under 'res/layouts' and then the java code hooks into the layouts on the onCreate method.

rosemark summed it up nicely. If you finish HelloWorld, and still enjoy programming, do the rest of the tutorials and see how you feel. Then maybe start with a more simple app than image capture and motion detection heh. That's complicated stuff even for serious programmers

 

[Mooncatt]

Maybe I wasn't being too clear in my first post. The motion capture and such is done on the main computer via webcam or other similar devices, the app would have only been to operate the common controls of the main program like the wireless number key pad does. Only the goal would be to have something with a greater operating range from the computer and not need a "cheet sheet" to know what button does what. In either case, I kinda figured what Rosemark said is the kind of reply I'd get. I think my answer was pretty clear when I didn't understand half of what he was saying. I.E. I've never heard of ADB, HelloWorld, Eclipse, etc. Nothing good is ever simple I guess when it comes to computers.

Still, I appreciate the replies. Who knows, maybe I'll look in to this more if I get the free time. I don't have a lot of that, which is why I like to try learning just what I need for the job at hand and not go through everything else.

 

[alostpacket]

Maybe I wasn't being too clear in my first post. The motion capture and such is done on the main computer via webcam or other similar devices, the app would have only been to operate the common controls of the main program like the wireless number key pad does. Only the goal would be to have something with a greater operating range from the computer and not need a "cheet sheet" to know what button does what. In either case, I kinda figured what Rosemark said is the kind of reply I'd get. I think my answer was pretty clear when I didn't understand half of what he was saying. I.E. I've never heard of ADB, HelloWorld, Eclipse, etc. Nothing good is ever simple I guess when it comes to computers.

Still, I appreciate the replies. Who knows, maybe I'll look in to this more if I get the free time. I don't have a lot of that, which is why I like to try learning just what I need for the job at hand and not go through everything else.

HelloWorld is a standard introductory type tutorial of any programming language. The goal is to get the app to print the text "Hello World!" on the screen.

ADB stands for Android Dubug Bridge, it's a program that runs on a pc that lets you debug apps on a phone or emulator.

Eclipse is the development environment most Android development is centered around. It's open-source programming software called an IDE (Interactive Development Environment). ADT is a plugin for eclipse that helps you manage the Android SDK (Software development kit). The SDK is a collection of tools and code that let you develop for Android.

For the very basics you can try here:
What is Android? | Android Developers

And then:
Introduction | Android Developers

And:
Installing the SDK | Android Developers


(almost the same link posted by Mojave)

Hope that helps