If you are looking to get into development with anything Google-related, including the applications within the Google Development community, then you need to visit the Google Developers Academy. It is your single source for inspiration; and in addition, Google provides online training that you can visit before you delve into the extensive developer tools that the Academy provides, including a set of online courses and classes for many platforms such as Ads, Android, Commerce, Cloud, Drive, Maps, TV, and YouTube. Most of the coursework topics provide learning objectives, prerequisites, and related information to help guide you through the subject matter. In this piece, I will provide short descriptions of several courses and classes offered through the Google Developers Academy.

Ads

If you are working with Google AdWords, Mobile Ads, or DoubleClick for Publishers and need to brush up or learn more about these technologies, the courses for Ads include AdWords API, Mobile Ads SDK, and DoubleClick for Publishers API. The Google AdWords API allows you to create and build applications, which are used to manage large and complex AdWords campaigns and accounts. The classes for AdWords API include Development Techniques and Campaign Management, which shows you how to resolve error handling, troubleshoot your application during development, and manage your campaigns. The Google Mobile Ads SDK offers courses for getting started with AdMob Fundamentals and AdMob Mediation for creating custom events.

Google Developers Android training includes subjects such as getting started with Building Your First App, Adding the Action Bar, Managing the Activity Lifecycle, and many more lessons. The Android training also includes API guides, Reference material, Tools, and Google Services. Other course topics available from Android Training Index include:

  • Building Apps with Multimedia
  • Graphics & Animation
  • Connectivity & the Cloud
  • User Info & Location
  • Best Practices for User Experience and UI
  • User Input, Performance
  • Security & Privacy
  • Using Google Play to Distribute & Monetize

Commerce

Commerce includes courses for using the Google Wallet for digital goods API to allow acceptance of payments for virtual and digital goods within your website or application. Classes include Selling digital goods and Subscriptions, which covers the basics of digital goods subscriptions using Google Wallet, including selling content, services, or features with automated and recurring billing options. Search API for Shopping is another course that shows you how to use the Search API for querying product data for shopping. Classes include Getting Started, Querying the API Directly, and Querying the API using a Client Library.

Cloud

The Google Cloud training course offers seven classes for the Google App Engine, enabling you to build scalable systems that run Google web applications. Classes include Introduction to Google App Engine, which shows you how the tool fits in with Cloud Computing; Using Python App Engine with Google Cloud SQL reviews how to develop and App Engine application that uses Cloud SQL; App Engine 101 in Python teaches you how to build and deploy an App Engine app including a simple guestbook; Getting Started with the Python Search API will give you the basics of using the App Engine Search API, A Deeper Look at the Python Search API is a continuation of the previous class, and Getting Started with Go, App Engine and Google+ API shows you the basics of writing web applications that call Google APIs using the Go programming language.

The Google Drive course, Building a Drive App, includes four classes including an orientation, registering your app, and taking care of other start up tasks. Classes also show you how to authenticate users and authorize requests, integrate with Drive UI, and distribute and market an app using Drive integration.

Maps

The Google Maps courses include the Google Places API, which includes lessons on Implementing a Basic Place Search Request to learn the basics of Place Searches; Using Additional Place Search Features, which shows you how to use parameters to direct a more accurate search; Using Autocomplete to Make Search Easier, which uses the Places Autocomplete feature to speed up user searches; and Adding Autocomplete to your Android App. JavaScript API v3 tutorials shows you how to add a Google Map to your website, how to customize your Google Map, how to import data into your map and more. And the last course for Displaying KML files in your Maps application reviews KML files, creating and displaying the KLM Layer, displaying feature data in a custom div and a review of the entire code.

Designing for TV

This is a part of the Android Developers section that brings you lessons on how you can get your Android apps optimized for TV. Lessons include Optimizing Layouts for TV, which provides techniques for app layouts on TV screens, including permanent landscape mode, high-resolution displays, and “10 foot UI” environment. Optimizing Navigation for TV, which shows you how to design navigation for TV’s including D-pad navigation, feedback, and screen controls. Another lesson is Handling features not supported on TV, which lists hardware features that are not typically available on TVs and provides alternate methods for responding to missing features. The dependencies and prerequisites for using the Android apps for TV includes having Android 2.0 (API Level 5) or higher.

YouTube

With the purchase of YouTube the Google integration has continued; however, only the one course YouTube Players API is provided and with the one class Building a YouTube Player with Chapter Markers, which shows you how to embed a YouTube video with a list of chapters and titles on the web page. The class does include four lessons covering Defining an interface to the library, showing you how to use a JavaScript library; Embedding a YouTube video using the iframe Player; Generating a list of chapter markers allows you to build a clickable chapter marker list; and Customizing the user interface with CSS applies styles to enhance the visual appeal of the chapter marker player.

The Google Developers Academy is a great resource that provides a set of online courses and classes that provide developers of all skill levels with curriculum-based learning options for many of the popular Google technologies and it allows you to venture beyond the traditional documentation resources.