What Should Be Included For Android Application Development?

As a powerful and hugely popular mobile operating system, Android attracts many developers to build mobile apps to target the mobile devices running on this platform. As the mobile platform is open source, programmers also get the option to tweak, twist and improve it according to their specific requirements. The mobile app development frameworks have further made it easier for programmer to switch to Android application development within a very short span of time.

But with every other company launching Android apps, it has become essential for developers to understand the latest trends in mobile application development. At the same time, they have to explore innovative ideas to optimize the look, feel, performance and security of the application. On the whole, a developer has to make and implement a comprehensive application development plan that must include several key factors.

Things that Must be Included in Android App Development

Mobile Payment
Mobile devices have become an inseparable part of modern lifestyle. In addition to gathering information on a variety of products or services, users also use mobile device to purchase the items on the go. So many users will love to use an app that allows them to make payment for the product or service in a quick, hassle-free and secure app. You can always consider designing apps with features of a mobile wallet that allows users to carry out financial transactions on the go, while keeping their sensitive financial data secure and inaccessible.

Cloud Technologies
Each user wants to access both personal and business data immediately regardless of his current location. Therefore, many people are using Cloud technologies to store a variety of information. As the technology enables users to access the information stored in the Cloud at their own pace and convenience, many enterprises have started investing in Cloud computing. Your Android app can surely meet the new trends in storing information when it supports Cloud technologies.

Health Tips and Advice
The busy lifestyle and packed professional schedules of modern people makes it difficult for them to follow a balanced diet and exercise regime. So an increasing number people are gathering health tips and advice by using their Android mobile devices. In addition to providing regular health tips and advice, the app will further enable the users to get relevant solutions by consulting a doctor. At the same time, the app can help users in remaining fit and active through regular exercise and yoga. You can always consider developing healthcare apps to target the users who are getting conscious about their health.

Blend Social Media into the App
Similar to mobile applications, social media has also become an integral part of modern lifestyle. Many people use social media to evaluate the pros and cons of a variety of products and services. At the same time, users also love to share their recent activities and achievements through social networking platforms. So you must consider blending social media seamlessly into the Android app. Along with allowing users to share photos, videos and posts on major social networking platforms, the app also needs to allow them access these websites in quick and convenient way.

Animation Effect
The choice of Android apps varies from one user to another. But most users decide about downloading a mobile app based on its look and feel. So you must explore options to optimize the aesthetic appeal of the application, along with its features, functionality and performance. Many reports have highlighted how animation effect can make an app look attractive and exciting. So you must consider designing apps with adequate animation effects to impress users belonging to different age groups.

The must-include things for Android app development keep changing on a constant basis. Also, these factors are affected by the frequent changes in user choice and technologies. So each developer must stay tuned to the ongoing trends in mobile application development to build a powerful Android app that will surely attract and impress users.

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How to Perform Android Automated Testing

Android app testing is an essential part of the development process. Especially for Android OS, it is very important because the devices are very different from each other. They vary from each other in screen size and resolution, version, form factor, instruction set of the processor, front camera, NFC, external keyboard and so many other different factors. In such a scenario, automated Android testing provides an architecture and powerful tools that tests every aspect of android application at every level from unit to framework.

Many Android test suites are based on JUnit. The Android JUnit extensions provide component-specific test case classes. JUnit extensions test Android API. A functional test checks if the activity was correctly started. A unit test just tests the functionality of a certain component. These classes provide helper methods for creating mock objects and methods that help one control the lifecycle of a component.

Android SDK tools are available in plenty for building and testing such as Eclipse with ADT and also in command-line form for use with other IDEs. These tools gather data from the application under test and use this information to automatically create file, manifest both the file as well as directory structure for the test package. There are two utilities available in Android SDK to control Android devices: ADB (Android Debug Bridge) and Monkeyrunner. Monkeyrunner is an API used for testing devices with Python programs and its UI is a command-line tool for stress-testing. These two send pseudo-random events to a device.

The Android SDK provides the following tools to support automated, functional UI testing for its application:

• uiautomatorviewer - A GUI tool to scan and analyze the UI components of an Android application.
• uiautomator - A Java library containing APIs to create customized functional UI tests and an execution engine to automate and run the tests.
• InstrumentationTestRunner - A primary Android test runner class which extends JUnit test runner. framework.It runs any the test case classes provided by Android and supports all possible types of testing.

If one plans to test the application, the app must be installed first on a test device, analyzed UI components of the app and must be ensured that the application is accessible by the test automation framework.

1. Create automated tests to simulate specific user interactions on application.

2. Compile test cases into a JAR file and install it on test device along with your app.

3. Run the tests and view the test results.

4. Correct any bugs or defects discovered in testing.

Various Automated Testing methods used are:

• Testing with Monkey
• Testing with MonkeyRunner
• Testing with getevent and sendevent
• Testing with Robotium

These methods can work wonders testing the android apps. A properly constructed testing process that combines different testing methods including automated testing is an essential part of a high quality application development process.

Advantages of Android Automated Testing

• It brings flexibility to the application.
• Programming skills are not required to record event sequence.
• Actions are described at the application UI level.
• Script does not depend of the screen orientation and screen resolution.
• Automated scripts can check the state of an application only after an action.
• Avoids redundancy of effort in testing.

With the above advantages, developers can leverage automated android app testing methods and techniques to make their lives easier and mobile app development fun!

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