[AndroidThings Tut 0] Getting Started with Android Things

Introduction to Android Things Framework

Android Things allows you to make amazing IoT devices with simple code. It makes developing connected embedded devices easy by providing the same Android development tools, best-in-class Android framework, and Google APIs that make developers successful on mobile. Android Things extends the core Android framework with additional APIs provided by the Things Support Library.

Building Your First Android Things Device

Prerequisite

Before you begin building apps for Things, you must:

• Update your SDK tools to version 25.0.3 or higher The updated SDK tools enable you to build and test apps for Things.
• Update your SDK with Android 8.0 (Oreo), API 26 or higher The updated platform version provides new APIs for Things apps

Create Android Things Project

Choose The Form Factor and Minimum SDK

Add AndroidThings Empty Activity

Configure Activity and finish

Added Library

Android Things devices expose APIs through support libraries that are not part of the Android SDK. The new project wizard automatically adds a dependency to the support library to your app-level build.gradle file:

The wizard adds <uses-library> to your app's manifest file to make this prebuilt library available to the app's classpath at run time.

Home Activity

An application intending to run on an embedded device must declare an activity in its manifest as the main entry point after the device boots. Note that the wizard applies an intent filter containing the following attributes

• Action: ACTION_MAIN
• Category: CATEGORY_DEFAULT
• Category: IOT_LAUNCHER

For ease of development, this same activity includes a CATEGORY_LAUNCHER intent filter so Android Studio can launch it as the default activity when deploying or debugging.

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