Book Image

Mastering Android Application Development

By : Antonio Pachon
Book Image

Mastering Android Application Development

By: Antonio Pachon

Overview of this book

There are millions of Android apps out there for people to download – how do you make sure yours has the edge? It’s not always about innovation and ideas – the most successful apps are those that are able to satisfy customer demands – they’re the ones that look the best, the fastest, and the easiest and most intuitive to use. This book shows you how to create Android applications that do precisely that – it has been designed help you consider and answer those questions throughout the development process, so you can create applications that stand out against the crowd. Learn how to create exemplary UIs that contribute to a satisfying user experience through the lens of Material Design, and explore how to harness the range of features within the Android SDK to help you. Dive deeper into complex programming concepts and discover how to leverage concurrency and navigate memory management and image handling. You’ll also find further guidance on testing and debugging so you can guarantee that your application is reliable and robust for users. Beyond this you’ll find out how to extend your app and add greater functionality, including notifications, location services, adverts and app billing (essential if you want to properly monetize your creation!). To make sure you have confidence at every stage in the process, the book also shows you how to release your app to the Play store – to make sure your maximising your efforts to create a popular Android application!
Table of Contents (19 chapters)
Mastering Android Application Development
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

CardView and UI design tips


At the moment, our application displays the job offers in a row with two text views; it displays the information needed and we can say that the app is fine as it is and it serves its purpose. However, we can still make a useful app and have a professional, good-looking interface at the same time, allowing us to be original and different from the competition. For instance, to show job offers, we can simulate a job board with adverts pinned on it. For this, we can use the CardView widget, which will give it depth and the appearance of a paper card. We will change the font of our app. A simple change such as this makes a big difference; when we change the default font to a custom font, the app from the users' eyes is a customized one, where the developer has taken care of the smallest details.

Introducing CardView

CardView was released with Android 5.0. It is a view with rounded corners and an elevation with shadows, thus providing a depth feel and simulating a card...