Posts

Python Translations Tool

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I made a python tool (which uses selenium and chromedriver) that takes in a phrase to translate and an array of language codes of the languages you want to translate the phrase into. It creates google translate URLs, copies the translations into an array, and then prints the array (which I then use to copy into Android Studio's translation tool). Here's a link to the python code for anyone interested:  https://github.com/amandafarrell/PythonTranslationsTool/blob/master/Translations.py Most of my app downloads are not in English (for example, my Scorekeeper app has been downloaded over 20,000 times and less than half of those downloads are in English), so it was worth it to me to manually create translated versions of my apps, but going forward I wanted to do less copying/pasting. Hopefully, this tool is helpful to others as well!

Scorekeeper App Stats

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My Scorekeeper download stats show a consistent spike every Saturday, and big spikes around Christmas and New Year's. I wouldn't have predicted it, but it totally makes sense that people would play more games on weekends and holidays. 

New Video - Android: Uploading an App to the Google Play Store

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A quick overview of uploading to the Google Play Store. This is as of December 2018. Some things have changed since I uploaded my first app in July 2017, but overall the process is still very similar.  Even though things will probably change a bit if you are watching this months in the future, I thought it would be worth it to make a quick video. App code on GitHub .

App Release: Tip Calculator

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Code on GitHub.

Making Basic App Icons

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I was so excited when I found the Asset Studio in Android Studio (right click in the file menu -> New -> Vector Asset). I was dreading the process of making an app icon for my first app, Scorekeeper. I thought I would have to deal with the pain of creating an icon for each of the Android pixel density buckets (mdpi, hdpi, xhdpi, xxhdpi, and xxxhdpi) and since I haven't done a lot of work with images, I probably would have been trying to do it all in Microsoft Paint. I'd like to think maybe there is a chance I would've found a better solution, but I also know myself well enough to know I like things that are familiar, and Microsoft Paint and I are old friends. Luckily, I was exploring Android Studio one day while working on Scorekeeper and stumbled into the Asset Studio, clicked the Clip Art button, and found myself facing a treasure chest of icons.  It was like a whole new world had opened up to me! Well, that's hyperbole, but the vector assets have

App Release: Temperature Converter

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See the app code on GitHub.

Your First Andriod App: Getting Started with Android Studio

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1. The first part is setting up your Android phone to get developer options. You can use the Android Studio emulator, but it's much faster to use a physical device. Go to Settings > About phone > tap Build number 7 times. Once you have developer options make sure that USB Debugging is turned on: 2. Next, download Android Studio:  https://developer.android.com/studio/ 3. Start a new project. There are template projects available or you can start with an empty project: 4. Switch to Project view: 5. Java files go in "java" folder, XML files (layout, styles, strings, etc.) go in the "res" file, and sometimes you edit the manifest and the Gradle files: After this, be prepared for downloading time as you might need to update Android Studio. If you want more help with a starter app, check out my counter app tutorial video: