Android launcher

[IHateMyJob2004]

How hard would one of these be to make? I'm a very experienced software engineer and this would be my first Android app.

 

[purbeast0]

one would think a "very experienced software engineer" would be able to figure this out by them self pretty easily.

a 2 second google search, first result.

http://code.tutsplus.com/tutorials/build-a-custom-launcher-on-android--cms-21358

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

Ya, thanks. I did that. Hilarious, that's even the article that I already read. It's one thing to make a hello world quality launcher. And probably another thing to make a good one which is something a "very experienced software engineer" would be aware of. You would also know that a "very experienced software engineer" would try to seek out some subject matter experts that have already tinkered with launchers.

So thanks for nothing. Anything else that you would like to contribute? Perhaps that I should join an Android developer forum? Ya, I realize that also.

 

[purbeast0]

then change the question you are asking.

you literally said "how hard would it be to make a launcher" and there is a link with a line by line tutorial on how to do it, which is not hard at all.

if you are wondering about something else, ask it.

 

[Cogman]

Ya, thanks. I did that. Hilarious, that's even the article that I already read. It's one thing to make a hello world quality launcher. And probably another thing to make a good one which is something a "very experienced software engineer" would be aware of. You would also know that a "very experienced software engineer" would try to seek out some subject matter experts that have already tinkered with launchers.

So thanks for nothing. Anything else that you would like to contribute? Perhaps that I should join an Android developer forum? Ya, I realize that also.

Difficulty is going to depend on features. The hello world example shows that a minimum solution can be done in hours at pretty low difficulty.

 

[paperwastage]

Difficulty is going to depend on features. The hello world example shows that a minimum solution can be done in hours at pretty low difficulty.

For an intro project, I'd focus more on learning the environment needed for android development (since you have the step-by-step for the actual code)

• preload the necessary SDK/images from Android SDK manager -> takes forever if you have a slow connection
• Create the AVDs you want to test against (and look at alternatives like GEnymotion, need $ for commercial usages)
• Figure out what IDE you want... I highly recommend using Intellij (free community edition) or Android Studio (based on Intellij, free too) over Eclipse
• Learn gradle - I've a maven/ant guy at work, need to learn how to use gradle

etc

 

[WelshBloke]

Are you wanting to make one for fun or to be better than the ones already released.

I'd imagine that the former wouldn't be too bad if you keep it simple. As for the latter, good luck there. Launchers are pretty mature on android.

 

[velimark]

IHateMyJob2004, As you have already mentioned that you are a good developing experience, the query you have asked is contradictory. If you are experienced enough then you can easily go through other launchers currently being used by the customers, study their code and develop your own with ideal features.
With similar features, which are already available, your app will be of no use. I personally offer Android App Development services, and I use the same format before developing any Android application.

Link to personal commercial work deleted -- Programming Moderator Ken g6

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

then change the question you are asking.

you literally said "how hard would it be to make a launcher" and there is a link with a line by line tutorial on how to do it, which is not hard at all.

if you are wondering about something else, ask it.

When people ask questions, I do what I do as an "experienced software engineer". I gather requirements. So I typically ask OPs what exactly they want to do. So perhaps a proper response would be "Here's an article on the basics, what exactly do you want to do?"

Anyway. My more specific question is, how long would it take to make a launcher that is of the quality needed to release it on Google's store? I'm very busy and if this is a 100 hour ordeal I might do it. But a 500 hour ordeal and I'll probably forget about my idea.

I think a percentage of what I want to do is probably basic launcher stuff. The hard part is, how would I go about writing a custom app that runs as part of the launcher all of the time? I have a Moto G and the left most pane is some sort of app that is always running. Maybe it is easier to do than I think. Maybe very hard. Just trying to find someone that knows the answers already.

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

Are you wanting to make one for fun or to be better than the ones already released.

I'd imagine that the former wouldn't be too bad if you keep it simple. As for the latter, good luck there. Launchers are pretty mature on android.

I find all the launchers that are the "top launchers" to be pretty pathetic including the stock app on my Moto G apparently is using. I have not tried them mind you but I have read about the ones people tend to like. Their user interactions are all garbage.

 

[WelshBloke]

I have not tried them mind you but I have read about the ones people tend to like. Their user interactions are all garbage.

How do you know that their user interactions are all garbage if you haven't tried them?

Some of the popular ones are pretty user configurable. For instance you can set up a bunch of user gestures to do most things on Nova.

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

How do you know that their user interactions are all garbage if you haven't tried them?

Some of the popular ones are pretty user configurable. For instance you can set up a bunch of user gestures to do most things on Nova.

Looks like 90% of what I want my launcher to do is simple to author. The devil is in the details though.

I'll give Nova a shot. See what it can do. Is Nova a "power user" type launcher where you can learn shortcuts and it flows quickly?

I think I'm going to do a launcher just to see how to develop for Android. Luckily I spent about the last 10 years of my career doing Java so things should come quick. I just need to learn the new APIs it seems. I already got Androids article explaining the app manifest XML file. Is there a schema for that? I'm assuming that the IDE would know the manifest's schema so that Eclipse can handle auto-complete for me and provide suggestions.

 

[purbeast0]

don't bother with eclipse, it's the worst ide in the business (not just for android, for everything).

download android studio by jetbrains, it's a billion gazillion times better.

if you have done java for the past 10 years, you should be able to create an android app in about 5 minutes.

however, their documentation (as well as anything android sdk related that google does) is terribly organized though so have fun with that.

 

[clamum]

I second Android Studio. I started with Eclipse but not too long ago switched to Android Studio and like it quite a bit better. I still don't understand all the *redacted* about it but I like using it way more than Eclipse.

I had about 7 years software development experience in .NET (WinForms, WebForms, MVC), JavaScript, SQL, etc when I started Android app development on my own as a side project. I don't put a ton of time in it consistently but I've got an app nearly finished (relatively simple one, but still). And despite using Java for most of my undergrad CompSci career, it's not like I could just jump into Android dev and crank out an app in a day. Not even close, although I tend to be a bit of a perfectionist, especially when working on my own projects.

Being an experienced software dev you'll understand the concepts pretty easily, for the most part, but my previous 7 years dev experience in no way allowed me to breeze through Android development. Even now I feel I'm fairly noobish at it and I've been doing it off and on for a couple years or so.

Swearing redacted -- Programming Moderator Ken g6

 

[WelshBloke]

I'll give Nova a shot. See what it can do. Is Nova a "power user" type launcher where you can learn shortcuts and it flows quickly?
.

It's not so much that you need to learn shortcuts, more that you can set them up to do what you want.

Nova (prime) is a very customisable launcher. You can have it as simple as one homescreen and one dock page with no gestures right up to multiple homescreens, lots of docks and gestures up the wazzoo.

 

[sbpromania]

Hello IHateMyJob2004,
I think that you will find more answers if you post on XDA forum. There are a lot of guys that are trying to build custom launchers and others. So try performing a search on XDA and see what can you find.

Here is a good example: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2583692
or
http://code.tutsplus.com/tutorials/build-a-custom-launcher-on-android--cms-21358

I'm just curios what ideas of launcher do you have? What missing features would you implement?

 

[postmortemIA]

There's no way that job of this magnitude can be done in 100 hours. That's about 2.5 work weeks...Yes, to make a rough draft implementation you probably need just one week... but to test it and polish it, it will take time.