Building a Mobile Employee Directory – Step 1: Display a ListActivity with some data

A few years ago I came across this tutorial for Building a mobile employee directory sample with Flex and Flash Builder.

The following few posts will outline what I have learned by developing  a Native Android App with similar functionality.

Employee Directory App

To start, create a new blank app in eclipse by selecting File, New Android Application Project.  I have set my Application Name to “Employee Directory”, my project name to “EmployeeDirectory”, and my package name to “com.himebaugh.employeedirectory”.  Click next through all the default settings. Modify MainActivity.java & activity_main.xml to the code below.

MainActivity.java

package com.himebaugh.employeedirectory;

import android.app.ListActivity;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.view.Menu;
import android.widget.ArrayAdapter;

//  GOAL: Build a native android Mobile Employee Directory 

//	** The result is similar to the sample with Flex and Flash Builder 
//	see http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flex/articles/employee-directory-android-flex.html

//	PURPOSE: Learning how to build an Android App.

//	Step 1: Create a blank App in eclipse. Modify it to display a ListActivity with some data.
//			1) activity_main.xml  (in res/layout)

public class MainActivity extends ListActivity {

	@Override
	protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
		super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
		setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

		String[] values = new String[] { "Employee 1", "Employee 2", "Employee 3", "Employee 4", "Employee 5", "Employee 6", "Employee 7", "Employee 8", "Employee 9", "Employee 10" };
		ArrayAdapter<String> adapter = new ArrayAdapter<String>(this, android.R.layout.simple_list_item_1, values);
		setListAdapter(adapter);

	}

	@Override
	public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
		// Inflate the menu; this adds items to the action bar if it is present.
		getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.main, menu);
		return true;
	}

}

activity_main.xml  (in res/layout)

<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:paddingBottom="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"
    android:paddingLeft="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
    android:paddingRight="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
    android:paddingTop="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"
    tools:context=".MainActivity" >

<!--     <TextView -->
<!--         android:layout_width="wrap_content" -->
<!--         android:layout_height="wrap_content" -->
<!--         android:text="@string/hello_world" /> -->

    <ListView
        android:id="@android:id/list"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"
        android:layout_alignParentTop="true" >
    </ListView>

</RelativeLayout>

Screenshot of the application

Tags: Employee Directory Example

Category: Android Application Development