Analytics4Android update - working on XML parser

This is a progress update for the Analytics4Android Google Analytics Widget project for Android Mobile phones.

Not much seems to have happened since the end of March when I last made an update public. I have had the (mis)fortune of having too little time for this project that tangible progress has emerged. I am - however - still working on this project although I have not had much time to do so.

At the moment I am working on the XML parser that is to parse both the Analytics profile feed and data feed. This is both a work-in-progress as well as a learning-in-progress situation for me as I have not written or parsed XML files much in the past. When the work has progressed further I hope to see two jumps in both the profile feed parser and data feed parser.

So although there is no update on the version number on the Analytics4Android web page, work is still under way!

Android Books

I just picked up Android Application Development from O'Reilly and Beginning Android from Apress from my local library. I reserved them some time in mid February but as my local library did not have any copies themselves, they had to get them from another library, thus the long wait.

Android Application Development has been written with the experienced (Java) Developer in mind. Thus you should read this, if You want an introduction to the development process in Android. The book starts with an overview of the Android development kit and shows how to setup the Android SDK as well as the Eclipse IDE on either Windows, Linux or Mac OS X. It also has a common project 'MicroJobs' that it builds most of it's chapters around.


Beginning Android does not require you to be an experienced developer but you do need a set of basic Java skills. It does not cover how to setup your development tools and abstracts from the development tools choice throughout the book.

I know these are not new books (May '09 for Android Application Development and June '09 for Beginning Android) and that they do not cover Android 2.x but 1) I am a beginner into this field and these two books will be the first two that I am going to read 2) My phone (a Nordic HTC Hero) at the moment runs Android 1.5. Hopefully HTC will release Android 2.1 for us Europeans! (c'mon, HTC, pretty please, please ;-)

I am going to write a (small) book review of both as I get through them!

Jan

PS. I know that Mark Murphy has written Beginning Android 2 as well and I will look into that as soon as possible. First I need to learn to crawl ;-)