Android beginners course: android application project structure

      Welcome again in this android development course created to help you achieve your goals and become an android apps developer.

      After teaching you how to create your first android application project with eclipse, we will move to the next step and discover the basic structure of an android application project.

      Android projects are built into an .apk file witch contains all application resources and source code. Some of these sources are generated by default when you create a new project as a default basic structure for the application.


      The basic structure of an android project contains:

         /src : this folder contains java source code files. for example "mainactivity.java".

        /gen : This is an auto-generated java library and files such as R.java file witch contains references and indexes to all the resources used in the application. this folder is generated during the mobile app development. Files in this folder should not be edited. If you miss up with these files the app may not compile.

         /libs : folder that contains precompiled libraries (JAR archives) used as third party libraries to develop the mobile app. ( For example, when the app need to communicate with a web service, you need to impliment a third party library like KSOAP as a protocle to controle messanging between the app and the web service.)

         /res : this folder contains all the application resources like drawable files, layouts...
in this folder we have:
                 -/drawable : drawable shapes and objects like bitmap files.
                 -/layout : xml files for screen layouts.
                 -/menu : xml definitions for application menus.

         /assets : used to store raw asset files.

         /bin : This is the output directory of the build. The final .apk file is placed in this folder.

         AndroidManifest.xml file : this is the controlling file that describes the nature of the application and all its components. it enumerates all activities, services, intents, content prviders and contains all permissions required to run the application.

         project.properties: this file contains project properties and settings such as the build target.

Waiting for your comments, see you next tutorial.