Download Teach Yourself Android Application Development in 24

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HOUR 17: Adding Social Features
. After a friend relationship has been established, more application features
could be added, including challenges, messaging, notifications…the sky’s the
limit. Use your imagination.
The complete implementation of the friends feature as described in this hour may
seem incomplete—and it is! Any application incorporating a similar friends features
should, at minimum, allow the player to manage (for example, view, delete) his or
her existing friend relationships. However, these improvements are left as exercises
for the reader.
Integrating with Social Networking
Services
Social networking has really come into its own in the past few years, allowing people to connect, keep in touch, and share information (for better or worse) about
their lives. Many social networking sites have developed APIs for third-party developers, many of which are web services based on representational state transfer
(REST). There has been an explosion in the number of applications available for
social networks, such as Facebook.
Android applications can integrate with a social networking site through development programs and the API provided by the specific site or service. The level of integration may range from lightweight to complete. Here are some examples of social
networking integration you could consider in an Android application:
. Giving the user the option to automatically tweet on Twitter when he or she
wins a game.
. Writing an application that allows the user to view and update his or her personal blog, Twitter feed, and Facebook status.
. Developing a fully featured Twitter client application.
In each case, Twitter features are integrated into the Android application in different
ways. Now let’s look at adding support for some of the social networking services
that are popular today.
Adding Facebook Support
Facebook is a popular social web service where people can connect, share pictures
and video, and chat. Facebook provides a portal for developers who want to