Reader Feedback: Missing Code! Creating Android Widgets

Not all of the feedback we get is from our books. We write articles for numerous sites around the net and in print form. On most of these systems, we don't have a good way of updating or changing the article once it's posted. Recently, we came across an issue where a series of articles lost their download links for the source code. This series was written back in October of 2009 and discussed creating widgets for Android on the then-new Android 1.5.

We have moved all of the widget tutorial code to Google Code hosting so it should stick around for longer.  The tutorials are still available from developer.com:

• Creating a Home Screen App Widget on Android
• Handling User Interaction with Android App Widgets
• Handling Lengthy Operations with Android App Widgets

Quick Tip: Eclipse, Source Control, and default.properties

Here's a quick tip for you:

When using Eclipse project properties to change the Project Build Target, make sure the default.properties file is writeable. This may mean checking it out from source control before editing the properties. In our configuration, the Perforce file is not writable and changing the Project Build Target settings with Eclipse does not check out the default.properties file from source control. So, I have to first check it out, then modify the Eclipse settings.

Although default.properties is automatically generated by the Android Tools, the catch is it must also be checked in source control. Usually, this does not trigger an error, either. Instead, the default.properties file will just be out of sync with the settings and possible create strange behavior.