CC107 - Networking & Background Services in Android

Networking

Manage connections and HTTP requests efficiently.

JSON Parsing

Extract data from API responses.

Background Services

Execute operations without blocking the UI.

Internet Permission

Before your app can access the internet, you must declare this capability in your AndroidManifest.xml file.

Normal Permission

Network access is considered a normal permission, meaning it's automatically granted at install time.

HTTPS

Secure network traffic for Android 9 (API level 28) and higher.

Cleartext HTTP Traffic

Unencrypted HTTP traffic blocked by default starting with Android 9.

Global Cleartext

The simplest way to allow HTTP connections across your entire app is by setting android:usesCleartextTraffic="true".

Network Security Configuration

A more secure approach that limits cleartext traffic to defined domains.

Network Availability

Verify that an active internet connection exists before attempting any network operation.

ConnectivityManager

Accessed from Android's system services to check network state.

NetworkInfo

The older approach providing basic connectivity checks.

NetworkCapabilities

Provides detailed connection information including transport type and bandwidth.

Network Utility Method

Handles both modern and legacy Android versions, checking for WiFi or cellular connectivity.

HttpURLConnection

Built into core Java, provides low-level control over HTTP requests and responses.

OkHttp

Efficient HTTP client with connection pooling.

Retrofit

Type-safe REST client that converts APIs into Java interfaces.

GET Request

Fetch data from a server using HttpURLConnection.

API Endpoint

https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts

JSON

JavaScript Object Notation, the standard format for data exchange between web services and mobile apps.

Objects

Key-value pairs enclosed in {}.

Arrays

Ordered lists enclosed in [].

Values

Strings, numbers, booleans, null.

Main Thread

Android's UI thread that handles all user interactions and screen updates.

Application Not Responding (ANR)

System dialog displayed when the main thread is blocked for more than 5 seconds.