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Glossary of Terms
 As we work closely together on perfecting your Android application, we at Android Application Developer will use certain technical words, phrases and terminology relevant to our work. The most common of these are:
.apk file
This stands for Android application package file. Every Android application is packed into a single file containing the entire application code (known as .dex files) and everything technically related to that application. It does not matter what the name of the file is, but it has to use the .apk extension.
.dex file
All Android programs are packaged into .dex (Dalvik Executable) files. Such files are then zipped into a .apk file on the user’s device.
Action
An action is a string value linked to an Intent, such as to vibrate a phone
Activity
This is a single screen within an application. Usually a full screen, an Activity can also be transparent or floating.
Adb
This is a debugging application and stands for Android Debug Bridge.
Application
Android applications consist of element known as activities, services, listeners, intent receivers, code, resources, assets and a single manifest. All these are packaged into a single application package file (.apk).
Canvas
This is a drawing surface used to compose the drawing a bitmaps, lines, circles and other geometric shapes. It is the simplest way to produce two-dimensional objects on a digital screen.
Content provider
Allows your application data to be seen by other applications. The provider takes care of query strings.
Davlik
Android’s virtual machine, the Davlik executes files in the Dalvik Executable (.dex) format for storage and memory-mappable execution. This is aimed specifically at the unique requirements of a small mobile device.
DDMS
Davlik Debug Monitor Service is a Graphic User Interface (GUI) application for screen capture, log dump and process examination.
Dialog
A floating window typically with button controls used to perform a simple function
Drawable
This is usually loaded onto another user interface element, often as a background image.
Intent
An object used to launch or communicate with other applications.An application despatches an intent to the Android system instead of to another application so it may target a specific application or multiple apps.
Intent Filter
Tells the system what types of intent it is willing to accept and under what criteria.
Layout Resource
An XML file portraying the layout of an Activity screen.
Manifest File
An XML file that describes an application’s name, version and components.
Nine-patch/9-patch/Ninepatch image
This is a bitmap resource that can be resized and used as backgrounds or other images.
OpenGL ES
Libraries used for fast and complex 3D images
Resources
Android supports a wide range of resource types, though most consist of resource strings, graphics or other media files. Application resources are always stored in a res/* subfolders.
Service
Runs in the background to perform regular action like playing music or monitoring network activity.
Surface
This represents a block of memory composited onto the screen. In practise, the Surface holds a Canvas object for drawing.
Theme
Properties such as text size, background colour bundled together to define default display settings.
Window
In any Android application, a Window is an object that dictates the look and feel of a generic window. Dialog and Activity use this to render a window.
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