I decided to make an Android app for my Bible memory verse site (created using Django). The main motivation for the app is to get rid of the unnecessary and annoying address bars and status bars when using the site on an Android phone. The site is already designed to adapt to mobiles, so I'm not creating a native app – I just want a better way to access the web app from an Android phone.
I tried appsgeyser, but discovered they put adverts on your site, which I definitely don't want – this is an entirely free app, for a free (and ad-free) site.
My requirements are:
-
Full screen
without any controls ever popping up, because you don't need them.
Progress bar for page loading.
Javascript works.
Links work as expected.
Back button works like builtin browser, until you get back to the home page, where it will cause the app to exit.
There are lots of pages and wizards with solutions for bits of these, but putting them together turned out to be harder – for example, it seems that the normal way of showing a progress bar for the whole window doesn't work if you've gone full screen.
Anyway, I've completed the learn scripture app (ha, my first Java app!), and thought I'd share the complete source code.
If you wanting a similar app, you are probably best creating your basic app structure using a wizard, but it is helpful to see a complete solution. The important bits are:
permissions for Internet access: AndroidManifest.xml