Building Android Apps: Accessing Data from the Internet

Skillsoft issued completion badges are earned based on viewing the percentage required or receiving a passing score when assessment is required. Networking is crucial for real-world Android apps to enable seamless communication between the apps and external services, such as remote servers, databases, and application programming interfaces (APIs). Networking allows applications to store data in a persistent manner on remote servers and access this data in a well-designed and secure manner. In this course, you will learn the essential aspects of networking operations in Android applications, empowering you to interact with APIs and handle network requests effectively. We will provide an overview of the clients available for accessing REST points and guide you through best practices for accessing the Internet from your app. Next, you will set up and configure an Android Views Project. We will explore the powerful Glide library, which allows you to efficiently load and display images, even in image-heavy applications. Then, we will use real-world APIs to make GET requests using the HTTPUrlConnection client and parse JSON using the Gson library. You will master app architecture structuring, create data and user interface (UI) layers in your app, and implement robust data handling mechanisms. By incorporating coroutines, you will gain proficiency in fetching data from the backend in a more concise and structured manner. By the end of this course, you will have acquired a comprehensive skill set in Android networking, enabling you to create modern apps that interact seamlessly with APIs and deliver dynamic content from the web.