The latter half of the course reveals the magic that happens after you hit the "Run" button in Android Studio. You'll also explore advanced Android topics, learning to configure free vs paid app flavors, create and integrate Android libraries, test your app, and prepare your app for the Play Store.
Why Take This Course
As your software projects get more ambitious, the process of building and deploying your apps will become more and more involved. However, modern software development requires rapid iterative releases, known as continuous delivery. Gradle is a next-generation build automation system that makes continuous delivery of complex projects a reality.
Gradle supports many languages and tools, and is tightly integrated with Android Studio. This course is useful for any developer seeking to understand Gradle, but focuses on Android builds. The default Android build settings are enough to put a simple debug app on your phone, but to build an app that's ready for the Google Play Store, you'll need to understand your build process and how to customize it.
What You Will Learn
LESSON 1
Gradle Fundamentals
Understand Gradle's capabilities and role in Java and Android builds.
Learn the Gradle task model
and put together your first build!
Explore the Gardle build lifecycle.
LESSON 2
Gradle for Java
Understand the Gradle plugin system
and explore the Java plugin.
Build and test Java projects.
Learn to use Gradle for Dependency management.
LESSON 3
Gradle for Android
Use Gradle in Android Studio.
Explore the features of the Gradle Android plugin and build process.
Build an Android app with free and paid product flavors.
LESSON 4
Advanced Android Builds
Create Android libraries and apps that depend on them.
Use advanced features of the Android Gradle Plugin to configure signing
obfuscation
and optimization.
Configure Android testing.
LESSON 5
Final Project
Build and test a joke telling app with a free ad-supported version and a paid version.
As a bonus
deploy a Google Cloud Messaging backend to supply the jokes.
Prerequisites and Requirements
This is an advanced course aimed at students with experience developing Android or Java apps. If you lack this experience, please take Developing Android Apps and Advanced Android App Development prior to taking this course.
To follow along with course activities, you must have access to the latest release of Android Studio.
You should have access to an Android device for running and testing your apps.
You should also be familiar with Github. Take our course on Using Git and Github if you lack this background.