How to animate a layout?

How to animate a LinearLayout to look like a header sliding from right to left?
1. First design a layout file that contains the LinearLayout to which you want to set slide animation.

<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    tools:context=".MainActivity" >

    <fragment
        android:id="@+id/map"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        class="com.google.android.gms.maps.SupportMapFragment" />

    <LinearLayout
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="fill_parent"
        android:layout_alignParentTop="true"
        android:background="@drawable/transparent"
        android:gravity="center_vertical"
        android:orientation="vertical" >

        <LinearLayout
            android:layout_width="fill_parent"
            android:layout_height="50dp"
            android:layout_alignParentTop="true"
            android:background="@drawable/shape4"
            android:gravity="center_vertical|left"
            android:orientation="horizontal"
            android:paddingBottom="10dp"
            android:paddingRight="10dp"
            android:paddingTop="10dp" >

            <ImageView
                android:id="@+id/imageView1"
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:src="@drawable/map_small" />

            <TextView
                android:id="@+id/app_header"
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:text="@string/app_name"
                android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium"
                android:textColor="#ffffff"
                android:textStyle="bold" />

            <View
                android:layout_width="0dp"
                android:layout_height="1dp"
                android:layout_weight="1" >
            </View>

            <ProgressBar
                android:id="@+id/progressbar"
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content" />
        </LinearLayout>

        <RelativeLayout
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content" >

            <Button
                android:id="@+id/btn_showlayout"
                android:layout_width="40dp"
                android:layout_height="60dp"
                android:background="@drawable/touch" />

            <Button
                android:id="@+id/btn_hidelayout"
                android:layout_width="40dp"
                android:layout_height="60dp"
                android:background="@drawable/touch" />
        </RelativeLayout>
    </LinearLayout>

    <LinearLayout
        android:id="@+id/lay_holder"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_alignParentTop="true"
        android:background="@drawable/header"
        android:gravity="center_vertical|left"
        android:orientation="horizontal"
        android:paddingBottom="10dp"
        android:paddingLeft="10dp"
        android:paddingRight="10dp"
        android:paddingTop="10dp" >

        <EditText
            android:id="@+id/txtPlace"
            android:layout_width="150dp"
            android:layout_height="40dp"
            android:background="@drawable/shape1" />

        <Button
            android:id="@+id/btn_find"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_alignParentTop="true"
            android:layout_marginLeft="10dp"
            android:layout_toRightOf="@id/txtPlace"
            android:background="@drawable/selector"
            android:paddingBottom="7dp"
            android:paddingLeft="20dp"
            android:paddingRight="20dp"
            android:paddingTop="7dp"
            android:text="@string/str_btn_find"
            android:textColor="#ffffff" />

        <LinearLayout
            android:layout_width="fill_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_alignParentTop="true"
            android:layout_marginLeft="30dp"
            android:background="@drawable/transparent"
            android:gravity="center_vertical"
            android:orientation="vertical" >

            <TextView
                android:id="@+id/txtDistLbl"
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:text="Distance"
                android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceSmall"
                android:textColor="#ffffff" />

            <TextView
                android:id="@+id/txtDistance"
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:text="__"
                android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceSmall"
                android:textColor="#ffffff" />
        </LinearLayout>
    </LinearLayout>

    <LinearLayout
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="fill_parent"
        android:background="@drawable/transparent"
        android:gravity="bottom"
        android:orientation="vertical" >

        <View
            android:layout_width="0dp"
            android:layout_height="1dp"
            android:layout_weight="1" >
        </View>

        <com.google.ads.AdView
            xmlns:ads="http://schemas.android.com/apk/lib/com.google.ads"
            android:id="@+id/adView"
            android:layout_width="fill_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            ads:adSize="BANNER"
            ads:adUnitId="a15158707aecde1"
            android:gravity="bottom|center_horizontal" />
    </LinearLayout>

    <LinearLayout>
    </LinearLayout>

</RelativeLayout>
Note: Set the visibility of the LinearLayout you want to set animation to 'View.INVISIBLE'.
2. Add the following two methods to your activity class file:
public void animateLayout(){
    AnimationSet set = new AnimationSet(true);
    Animation animation = new AlphaAnimation(0.0f, 1.0f);
    animation.setDuration(250);
    set.addAnimation(animation);
    animation = new TranslateAnimation( Animation.RELATIVE_TO_SELF, 1.0f, Animation.RELATIVE_TO_SELF, 0.0f, Animation.RELATIVE_TO_SELF, 0.0f, Animation.RELATIVE_TO_SELF, 0.0f );
    animation.setDuration(900);
    set.addAnimation(animation);
    LayoutAnimationController controller = new LayoutAnimationController(set, 0.25f);
    holder.setLayoutAnimation(controller);
    holder.startAnimation(animation);
    holder.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
}

public void animateLayoutBack(){
    AnimationSet set = new AnimationSet(true);
    Animation animation = new AlphaAnimation(1.0f, 0.0f);
    animation.setDuration(900);
    set.addAnimation(animation);
    animation = new TranslateAnimation( Animation.RELATIVE_TO_SELF, 0.0f, Animation.RELATIVE_TO_SELF, 1.0f, Animation.RELATIVE_TO_SELF, 0.0f, Animation.RELATIVE_TO_SELF, 0.0f );
     animation.setDuration(1150);
    set.addAnimation(animation);
    LayoutAnimationController controller = new LayoutAnimationController(set, 0.25f);  
    holder.setLayoutAnimation(controller);
    holder.startAnimation(animation);
    holder.setVisibility(View.INVISIBLE); }

3. There will be two buttons set in same positions using relative layouts. When show button is clicked, it is set invisible, the LinearLayout scrolls from right to left and the hide hide button is set visible. Again when the Hide button is clicked, it is set invisible, the LinearLayout scrolls from left to right and is set invisible and the show button is set visible.

The method for performing the click of the two buttons are given below:

@Override public void onClick(View v) {
    if(v == btnShowLayout){
        btnShowLayout.setVisibility(View.INVISIBLE);
        btnHideLayout.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
        animateLayout();
    } if(v == btnHideLayout){
            btnShowLayout.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
            btnHideLayout.setVisibility(View.INVISIBLE);
            holder.setVisibility(View.INVISIBLE);
            animateLayoutBack(); }
}

Enjoy coding ! :)

Date Picker

1. Start a new project by name DatePicker
2. Open res/layout/main.xml file and insert the following

    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:orientation="vertical">
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:text=""/>

3. Open DatePicker.java and add the following members to the class:

    private TextView mDateDisplay;
    private Button mPickDate;
    private int mYear;
    private int mMonth;
    private int mDay;

    static final int DATE_DIALOG_ID = 0;

4. Add the following code for the onCreate() method:

    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.main);

        // capture our View elements
        mDateDisplay = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.dateDisplay);
        mPickDate = (Button) findViewById(R.id.pickDate);

        // add a click listener to the button
        mPickDate.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
            public void onClick(View v) {
                showDialog(DATE_DIALOG_ID);
            }
        });

        // get the current date
        final Calendar c = Calendar.getInstance();
        mYear = c.get(Calendar.YEAR);
        mMonth = c.get(Calendar.MONTH);
        mDay = c.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_MONTH);

        // display the current date (this method is below)
        updateDisplay();
    }

5. Add the updateDisplay() method:
    // updates the date in the TextView
    private void updateDisplay() {
        mDateDisplay.setText(new StringBuilder()
        // Month is 0 based so add 1
        .append(mMonth + 1).append("-")
        .append(mDay).append("-")
        .append(mYear).append(" "));
    }


6. initialize a new DatePickerDialog.OnDateSetListener as a member of the DatePicker class:

    // the callback received when the user "sets" the date in the dialog
    private DatePickerDialog.OnDateSetListener mDateSetListener = new DatePickerDialog.OnDateSetListener() {

        public void onDateSet(DatePicker view, int year, int monthOfYear, int dayOfMonth) {
            mYear = year;
            mMonth = monthOfYear;
            mDay = dayOfMonth;
            updateDisplay();
         }
    };

7. Now add the onCreateDialog(int) callback method to the HelloDatePicker class:
    @Override
    protected Dialog onCreateDialog(int id) {
        switch (id) {
            case DATE_DIALOG_ID:
                return new DatePickerDialog(this,mDateSetListener, mYear, mMonth, mDay);
        }
        return null;
    }

Application Fundamentals

Android applications are written in java programming language. After writing the code we can compile the code and build the entire application into Android package with an .apk suffix. Once the application is signed and is packed to apk, it can be installed in any android device.

Once apk is installed in android, each Android application lives in its own security sandbox:
> The Android operating system is a multi-user Linux system in which each
application is a different user.
> By default, the system assigns each application a unique Linux user ID (the ID
is used only by the system and is unknown to the application). The system sets
permissions for all the files in an application so that only the user ID
assigned
to that application can access them.
> Each process has its own virtual machine (VM), so an application's code runs in
isolation from other applications
> By default, every application runs in its own Linux process. Android starts the
process when any of the application's components need to be executed, then
shuts down the process when it's no longer needed or when the system must
recover memory for other applications

What is Android?

Android is a platform for applications to run on mobile devices. Android provides a more user friendly environment for mobile users, to work around using mobiles, when compared to other mobile operating systems. This software stack gives users a more attractive touch experience, which makes it more popular.

Android is an open source software, which uses Linux as its core. The feature that makes android more common among smartphone operating systems is licensing. Window operating system is another operating system used among smartphone, for which the hardware manufacturers need to pay for. Another factor that makes android stand forward, when compared to windows mobile is the cost of the device. The windows mobile devices are very expensive. But android provides smart phone devices for very less rates, which makes it common among common customers.