Question

I’m currently working on my first android project, which is to modify an existing sample program (“Tic Tac Toe” game). I’m going through the tutorials on the official website, but looking at the sample code I don’t think I’ll be able to figure everything out on my own in the time I have.

The modifications include being able to select a custom background, setting up a scoring system, and implementing a timed “blitz” mode. My basic questions are:

1. In which subfolder would the code that sets the background color/image for the game be?

2. Is there a way to create an Intent function that opens up a file search window to allow a user to select this custom background image?

I’d like to start here, I’m sure I’ll have more questions as I go along. As always, any help is appreciated. (By the way, the code from the game is from the standard sample problems that come installed with the Android SDK for Eclipse).

Update 1:

So far I found this in a class called GameView:

mDrawableBg = getResources().getDrawable(R.drawable.lib_bg);
 setBackgroundDrawable(mDrawableBg);

mDrawableBg is a Drawable object, I’m not sure what this part is refrencing:

R.drawable.lib_bg

What would be the proper way to modify the background in this piece of the code?

Update 2:

Here’s where I’m at:

I have the getDrawable function taking another function as an argument:

mDrawableBg = getResources().getDrawable(getImage());   

getImage() is suppose to return a integer referencing the selected image, here is the code (so far) for that function:

public int getImage(){

    Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_GET_CONTENT);  
    intent.setType("image/*");
    startActivityForResult(intent, 10);

}

This is suppose to open the gallery and let the user select an image, I’m not sure how to return a reference ID to that selected image though. Also, the startActivityForResult function is not working properly, I don’t think I’m using the Activity class properly.

Answer 1

1. The background is probably defined as either a drawable (in /res/drawable-*) or a color value (in /res/values/colors.xml or something like that). It will be referenced in one of the layout files in /res/layout. The layout file will be referenced by one of the activity classes in the Java source folders.

2. You can declare in code an array of drawable resource IDs and use that to dynamically generate a dialog and/or activity. The HorizontalScrollView widget might be useful for this. If you start a selection activity with an intent, use startActivityForResult instead of startActivity. You can then set the background of your top view using setBackgroundResource().