VK Contest: Messenger for Android. How it was!?

    Have a nice time of day!

    How many people want to do development for Android, but due to certain circumstances they still can’t start (someone does not have time, someone is bored just to solve examples, laziness, uncertainty)? How many people add each, seemingly interesting and useful, article on the hub to favorites and score? Before the VKontakte contest for developing an instant messenger for Android, I was among the number of users described above. But at one fateful moment, everything changed ...

    A little more than a month ago a post flashed on a hubVKontakte announced a contest for the messenger for Android. I don’t know why and why, I just wanted to drop the kapets into this train, which was done. For the purposes, initially there was NOT a clause on the prize fund. I do not believe that the guy who first started writing will be able to write an essay in at least 3. After all, there are a lot of participants in the competition and there are specials. offices that also ride on this train. In addition, a permanent place of work does not allow one to be distracted by the development of the application during working hours, therefore, if we subtract the time for work, sleep, family from the allotted 1.5 months of data according to the conditions of the competition, very little remains. But (in my opinion), in 1.5 months it is more than real for a beginner to make a fully functional project.

    In this article, I would like to share links to resources that have somehow contributed to the advancement of the stated goals of the rules. I hope someone comments on their list of solutions in the comments.

    So, recall the details:

    In the toga, the application should look something like this:



    This is my first “project” for Android. In a fairly short time (defined by the condition of the task), I managed to learn a lot of new and interesting features of development for Android and mechanisms for solving specific problems.

    The initial step in becoming an android developer for me was to learn the following lessons . Lessons quite understandable for the beginning developer, the number of which is constantly increasing. These lessons provide basic knowledge that helps a novice navigate a topic pretty well.

    Taking a pencil, I threw a rough plan of action and made my fatal mistake. And the mistake was in the absence of at least approximate deadlines for the execution of functionality.



    The data on the condition of the task of the image of the interface elements, for the most part, had to be processed before use.

    I started my work with Tabs:

    Next, I decided to use the animation

    Soon, the time came to interact with the VK API. The article gave me a good impetus

    Then it's time to customize your ListViews.

    Loading avatars

    Work with AsyncTask

    To work with the database

    Decompile apk

    Push notifications

    But happiness would never be so complete if a couple of weeks before the end of the contest, Google did not release a new version of GCM. Having created such a gesture of trouble for many participants in the competition. For those who did not manage to get the details of C2DM, there are two ways left: use the new GCM or decompile one of the applications laid out in the market.

    Well, do not forget google in conjunction with stackoverflow still works wonders.

    Examples of the works of the contest participants can be found in the market ( one , two , three , four ). By the first link, the author has released a lot of versions. All of these projects can be decompiled and see who implemented this or that part of the functional.

    In the bottom line, I managed to understand some of the principles of Android applications in a short time (it is worthwhile to highlight AsyncTask and work with ListView). Unfortunately, yesterday I decided to get off the train, because I just do not have time to provide "fully completed work" at 21:00 MSK 10/07/12. Alas.

    I did not publish my unfinished application in the market because there are no plans for its development and support.

    Good luck to the participants.

    UPD: dirty code

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