Things to remember prior to Android apps development

We are living in a mobile age, and it is no wonder that smartphone apps are the hottest thing right now. Did you know that the global app market is expected to touch $143 billion by 2016? Under the circumstance, being an Android apps development professional can be a lucrative career. Android has soared past all its competitors and the market is steadily expanding with every passing day.

You can make a fortune by developing Android apps but you should understand that there are millions of apps in the market and making an impression is not the easiest of jobs. Here are a few things that you should keep in mind before developing an app:

New concepts work best

Yes, it's understandable that a successful Android app has a lot of imitators. The primary reason is that the success of an app guarantees that there is a demand for such a product in the market. However, you should avoid copying directly from any app. Unless your app has some unique features, it's unlikely that people will be drawn to it. Try coming up with a new concept. Also, be prepared for the fact if your app is successful, others will copy it too.

Optimization techniques for more exposure

Android app market is crowded with millions of apps and it's rather easy to get lost. Therefore, you should focus on optimization strategies on Android app stores like Google Play. For instance, you should optimize your app name and description, so that people can easily find it. Getting more exposure should be on the top of your priority list. Emphasiize on building a loyal user base. Satisfied users help to make the app popular by “word of mouth”. Effective customer support can also make a major difference.

A few tips to go viral

Organic traffic from search engines or Android stores are not the only ways to attract users. You might use a few tricks to make things work for you. Here are some of them:

• In-app advertisement: Yes, advertisements can be annoying for the users. However, a properly placed and properly timed ad might not be disruptive and can be helpful. Revenues from advertisements will cover a substantial part of app development costs.

• Affiliate marketing/tie-ups: This will cost you money but teaming up with a popular network will get you a lot of exposure. Paid reviews and banner advertisements are effective solutions that boost downloads on android stores.

• Time your launch: It's not a bright idea to launch your app on just any fine morning. Unless it's urgent, schedule the release for holiday season like Christmas time. During holidays, people are usually glued to their devices and fresh traffic hit the Android stores. Chances are that a properly optimized app will receive a decent exposure at this time.

Your app needs to solve an issue. Don't just give shape to an idea in the form of an app. Make a product with a purpose and it will surely be a success.   

Android apps development can earn you a fortune, but prior to development you should focus on a few key issues. Read on to know more.  

Android apps development: A few things to remember

Market for mobile apps is growing on an exponential scale worldwide. Especially, Android apps have a bigger market than its competitors. Therefore, it is not surprising that Android apps development has gained a lot of momentum in the recent years. Nonetheless, there are a number of things you should consider before submitting an app to Google Play or any other Android store.

  

Have you registered as an Android developer?

This is a mandatory step and you can't distribute your app(s) if you are not a registered Android developer.

Test your app with care

A buggy app, no matter how well you promote it, will never have too many active users. So better test the app thoroughly using an Android device. Avoid using emulators because they can give you incorrect results leading to wrong assumptions from your end. Check for Android market licensing, so that no one can rob you of your intellectual property.

Do you have an app icon

App icon is an integral part of your branding process. If users don't recognize your app by the icon, chances are that they might forget about the brand sooner or later if similar Android apps turn up in the market. For the same reasons, you should try coming up with a unique name for your app, so that it doesn't get lost in the market.

Have you removed the back up files?

Make sure that you get rid of back up files, log files or any other irrelevant data prior to app submission in the Android market. Also, remember that it is important to turn off the debug feature. Next, you need to have a version number for your app. Whenever you update your app and upload it to Android stores, the version number should be updated. Thus, users will know that the app is regularly updated and they are using the latest version.

Post-compilation process, your app would need a digital signature. You can sign the app with your key. Any errors in this step will result in serious problems.

Additionally, you might need to register for a permanent Maps API key in case you are using Google Maps.

Considerations before development phase

Before you start developing your app, ask yourself a few questions:

• If you create an app just for the sake of creating it, it's going to help nobody. Your app should have a clear purpose and there should be an existing demand for such an app in the market. Consider doing a thorough research/market survey before starting the development process. In other words, apps should ideally be designed to solve a pain. Otherwise, chances are that the app will fail to have an impression on the users and even if some Android users download it, they would not use it.
  
• Will people be willing to pay for using the app? Ideally, a mobile app should be initially free and could be made a paid app depending on user response. Alternatively, the app can be advertisement supported.

While Android apps development can be a rewarding career and offers lots of opportunities, some important things should be kept in mind before submitting your app to the Android market place. Read on to know a few of them.

Though the Android platform offers lots of opportunities for developers, some important considerations are required. You should remember the above tips before going ahead.

Learning Android Apps Development The Eclipse Way

This blog is an introduction to building a complete Android app. The chapter includes creating a new app project, exploring the components of an Android app, setting up the emulator to run and test apps, and building a variation of the traditional mobile application.

Starting a New Project

Eclipse is a powerful, open source, integrated development environment (IDE) that facilitates the creation of desktop, mobile, and web applications. Eclipse is a highly versatile and adaptable tool. Many types of applications and programming languages can be used by adding different “plug-ins.” For example, plug-ins are available for a very large number of programming languages as diverse as COBOL, PHP, Java, Ruby, and C++, to name a few. Additionally, plug-ins provide the capability to develop for different platforms, such as Android, Blackberry, and Windows. Many of the tools in the Eclipse IDE will be explained through the act of developing an Android app.

Android is a mobile operating system designed for smartphones and tablets. The operating system is very powerful, enabling access to a diverse set of hardware resources on a smartphone or tablet. Android is provided by Google and is continually updated, improved, and extended. This makes the development of apps for Android smartphones and tablets both exciting and challenging. As with Eclipse, the many features of the Android environment are best explained through the act of developing an app.

Setting Up the Workspace

Eclipse uses the concept of a workspace for organizing projects. Because Eclipse can be used to develop many types of applications, this is very useful. A workspace, in reality, is just a folder on some drive on your computer. The folder contains the application’s code and resources, code libraries used by the application, and metadata that is used to keep track of environment information for the workspace.

To begin, run Eclipse. The Workspace Launcher dialog window opens, asking which workspace you want to use. The default workspace is displayed in the dialog window’s text box. Most IDEs are designed with the idea that developers are going to be working on the same machine each time they work on a project. This can cause problems in the education environment where students do not have the ability to work on the same machine and/or store their work on the machine they are currently working on. If you are using your own machine, you can skip to the next section; your workspace was created when you installed Eclipse and is ready to go. However, if you are working in an environment where you cannot use the same machine each time, you need to set up a workspace on either a flash drive or on a network drive. Determine which of these options is best for your situation and perform the following steps:

• Create a folder in your selected location named workspace
• Go back to the Workspace Launcher and browse to your new folder
• Click Open Preferences on the dialog window and browse to the sdk folder. This is usually located in the .android folder
• Click OK to close the dialog window. Your workspace is now ready to begin Android development

While working on such projects, you have to think beyond your imagination. Work above your expertise. Then only you can achieve success in Android apps development projects. There are many ways to learn about the subject. One of them is to follow blogs where you will find discussions have been made on some projects as well. I will try to add some of my past projects in my next blog if possible. Till then happy learning. Time to go mobile!

Mobile website development trends for 2014

2013 has been a transitional year for mobile web development. RWD or Responsive Web Design has dubiously been one of the leading trends of mobile website development. Now, the question is which mobile web development trends are going to emerge in 2014? More and more number of people are taking to Smartphones. People nowadays are more likely to use their phones in order to look up for products, services, businesses and social networking websites. Therefore, it is extremely important to develop a proper website to get better business turnover.

Mobile web development trends

The greatest problem that users mostly face while using mobile web applications is in scrutinizing web pages and texts. There have been times when some features of a page may have gone missing. So, this year the mobile website developers are looking to improve on those fonts. Some of the emerging trends of mobile web development for 2014 are :

1. Flat design trend is on – With Apple's iOS7 release, flat design trend has become the yardstick for mobile web designs and development. Apple has become the trailblazer. Everyone seems to follow what ever Apple brings forth. So, with the release of iOS7 and the flat design, more and more number of websites are bringing newer type of flat design every year. This trend is there to continue through 2014.
   
2. Typography would be of importance – Web development for mobile is going to focus more on typography. As of now, the reading experience for mobile and tablet is still highly different. However, now web developers have started exploring various avenues to produce even better websites and applications on the basis of typography.
3. Growing importance of contextual awareness – People are going to own more number of mobile devices. Most of these may have different screen sizes and resolution. In such a situation, it would be extremely important for mobile web developers to construct websites that can easily adapt to various types of screen sizes. The better the experience for the customers, better is going to be the success rate of web developers. Greater usage of RWD and RESS or Responsive Design with Server Side Components is going to take place in and after 2014.
   
4. Customized designs on the rise – Throughout 2014 and beyond the demand for customized web application experience is going to be on the rise. So, customized web designs like that of custom fonts too are on the rise. With the introduction of flat design by iOS7 and Windows 8, more number of brands are designing individualistic custom fonts. This is definitely going to help improve user experience.

These trends of 2014 may not simply end with the end of 2014, but may continue beyond that. Furthermore, the line between mobile applications and PC is fast melting away. So, it would be extremely important for web developers to adapt to this sharp change as fast as possible. It would thus be necessary to devote time towards learning and updating your web development skills, so that you can stay on top of this ever-changing and competitive world of mobile development. 

Most excellent and popular Android applications for kids

Android has been fast in climbing to the top of the list of best operating systems for Smartphones. In addition, Android Application Development has doubled in the last few years. 

Every other day, one or more number of Android applications are being developed and there are such huge variety of these applications that, it caters to numerous types of people all over the world. Cell phones have become all the more popular with the development of Android applications. These apps have even found their way into the world of kids. There are so many apps that, it can become hard to decide or choose the best Android apps available.

List of the best Android based kids apps

Android apps are not only fun, but can be educational too. As a responsible parent, you will simply be required to install parental monitors on your phone, to ensure that kids do not misuse it. Here's a list containing some of the best android applications developed till date and helpful for kids:

1. Coin Catcher – This is an unique application which teaches your kid how to save and keep a tab on their savings. Furthermore, this app also helps the kids learn how pennies are different than dimes and nickels and vice versa. Once you commence the game, coins start falling from the sky, in three units. In order to collect the coins, you will have to move and tilt the device from side to side. The game can be played in two modes. One is the Story Mode and the other is the Coin Rush Mode. .

2. Marley's Math Farm – This is a complete educational game. Here too, money is used as the basis of education and the game teaches kids how to do math. With the help of this game, your kids will not only learn to add or subtract, but will also learn how to count coins and dollars. The game has five levels of difficulty and players can win prizes in the form of currency, for giving right answers.

3. Dr. Seuss Band – In this game/musical application, Android Apps Developers have linked up rock band musical with Dr. Seuss and his fun rhymes. There are 10 Seuss rhymes and various instruments are used to play the music. The instruments are almost similar to the ones described by Dr. Seuss in his rhymes. You can not only tap through the songs, but you can also do another interesting thing. That is, you can swap parts of the instruments in order to create various symphonic sequences. So, this game can not only help kids know about different colors, shapes and words, but at the same time can help kids learn a lot about music and rationality.

4. Math Ninja – This application helps develop and improve your kids ability on mental math. Unlike the textbooks, this is the complete opposite of the boring techniques. Although, the game involves normal mathematics, it gets more interesting as the game mode changes from one to another. For example, in the Arcade Mode, you are constantly being attacked by a ninja – Math Ninja. In order to survive, you will have to solve various math practices. So, this definitely is interesting than the boring math classes.

These are only some of the android apps created by Android Apps Developers. There are numerous other types of applications available too. So, you can see that it is not always a waste of time and money to let your kids use Android applications.

Nine Essential Things Drupal Developers Need For Projects

If you are a site owner or manager of a development team — someone who helps web developers stay productive and on-task — you face an interesting challenge. You need to support, motivate and coordinate a group of people who are basically doing magic. Even though the web is completely mainstream, the knowledge of how it all actually works is classic “sufficiently advanced technology.”

What do Drupal developers need to succeed? As someone who’s been on both sides of the table and peeked behind the curtain, I have some general tips to share:

Version Control

This might be tricky if your developers do not want to use it, but in this modern era there’s really no excuse not to learn, love and religiously use version control. It is the engineer’s “undo” and the best way to collaborate with others on projects.

While there are some niche tools that still have appeal, the undisputed leader in this space is Git. If you are developing your website without a git-based workflow at the foundation, consider stopping until you can get that in place.

Local Development Support

Nothing is faster than local development — where a developer sets up the “full stack” on their desktop or laptop, using their personal computer as client, server and development environment. You cut all network latency out of the picture completely, and let a high-powered modern CPU focus on delivering pages for one user only. You can also work without an Internet connection, which can come in handy.

In order to get this going, you will need ways to easily sync with the rest of the development team. Version control handles that for code, but you will need an efficient method to quickly grab database and files snapshots.

Online Workspace

This sounds contrary to local development, and it is, but it is no less important. If you do not have an online workspace that will enable you to easily share your project with other team members, it is going to make your process a nightmare of bureaucracy and slowdowns. You will need both online and local development if you want to move fast.

Continuous Integration Tools

One thing that makes projects chaotic is when unexpected bugs crop up. The whole “it worked on my machine” conversation is everyone’s least favorite. For the sake of developer sanity and the project’s velocity, you need to ensure that developers are working against the latest code and up-to-date content, and that several different developers’ changes are tested together frequently.

An Environment That Matches Producion

Going along with the Continuous Integration point, there is nothing more frustrating than a bug that manifests in production. These can be absolute killers, and it is crucial that you have places to develop and test your code that are running all the same things as production: same versions of service, same filesystem, same architecture, same everything.

Access To Debug

f you are trying to figure out a bug, and it works locally but not in the deployment pipeline, you’ve got to get direct access to start hunting it down. Speculatively making git commits and pushing them up to see if they fix the issue makes everyone die inside. It is also cumbersome and slow.

Drush Remotes

Drupal developers love Drush, the “Drupal shell”. Drush is a command-line utility for performing several common tasks on a Drupal site without having to log in or use a web browser. It is awesome for automation or batch jobs. In order to make use of it in an online context, you need to provide SSH access to each of your environments, and then configure an “alias” file so developers can run drush commands from their laptops in the online environments.

Power Tools

The modern website performance stack goes well beyond LAMP. You need to make sure your developers have access to Redis, Solr and can test their work with a reverse-proxy cache like Varnish. Otherwise, they will be missing out on great features, and setting themselves up for bugs in deployment.

Integration Points

If you are ever stuck trying to think up a conversation-starter with a group of developers, ask them what text editor they use. Everyone has their own favorite tools, from command-line to full IDEs. There is no one solution that will solve all your development needs, and outside of the few general points I have made above, it is generally not productive to force developers to standardize.

Instead, you get everyone aligned on the major points — using version control, developing and testing against the same stack, frequently integrating changes, using a solid deployment pipeline to go live — and then let them do whatever makes them the most productive. These kinds of tools and techniques are a part of every pro Drupal developers playbook.

Drupal Developers – Working On Custom Drupal Development

Drupal has indeed become one of the most popular content management systems (CMSs) used by a majority of web developers all over the world. Rich in modules and themes, Drupal has served as an excellent option for designing and developing business websites, job portals, informative sites, e-commerce sites etc. Recent years have witnessed a considerable improvement in the count of Drupal developers who’ve come up with great web development solutions for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). In this post, I will be covering the reasons why custom Drupal development solutions have been chosen by a majority of SMEs.

Reason # 1 - Drupal is highly modular

The modular nature of Drupal makes it the best fit for developing e-commerce websites and employment portals. With Drupal, you get handy tools to manage your site’s content, track statistics and handle multiple users at one time. This web development platform provides flexibility to build solid websites, tailor-made for SMEs.

Reason # 2 - Drupal offers easy customization and integration with other applications

Customization plays a crucial role in keeping the website up to date. As a small/medium-sized enterprise owner, you ought to update your website to increase your business success. Using Drupal you need not edit the entire coding for your website. All you need to do is upload the customization codes to the modules and you are done. In addition to this, you can also avail the flexibility of integrating third-party applications into your site to give it uniqueness.

Reason # 3 - Reduced Set-up and ownership costs

Unlike other Open Source Softwares, Drupal is available free of royalties and fees. You can start using the software without the need to pay expensive upgrade fees, administrative overheads, maintenance fees and management costs. The easy-to-install and user-friendly nature of Drupal makes it the best bet for SMEs who are not comfortable enough in spending a lot on installation and usage of website development softwares.

Reason # 4 - Reliability, security and quality guaranteed

Drupal’s source code undergoes many rounds of tests performed by trained professionals. These testing experts make sure to prevent the source code from security breaches, hack attacks and virus attacks. Thus, with Drupal CMS , Drupal developers can rest assured about developing a website or web application that does not need you to indulge in virus checking, downtime or data loss.

Reason # 5 - Drupal supports a variety of content types

Drupal has been quite popular among SMEs that need to manage their site’s content on a regular basis. With Drupal, you can create and manage different content types ranging from videos, blogs and polls to podcasts and statistics. Hence, irrespective of what type of content you want for your site, custom Drupal development makes things possible for you.

Conclusion

So, if you too own a small or mid-sized business organization, choosing Drupal for your web development needs can benefit you to the fullest. Hiring a proficient Drupal developer can aid you in meeting your web development requirements in a time-efficient and result-oriented way.