Book Image

Creating Dynamic UIs with Android Fragments - Second Edition

By : Jim Wilson
Book Image

Creating Dynamic UIs with Android Fragments - Second Edition

By: Jim Wilson

Overview of this book

Today’s users expect mobile apps to be dynamic and highly interactive, with rich navigation features. These same apps must look fantastic whether running on a medium-resolution smartphone or high-resolution tablet. Fragments provide the toolset we need to meet these user expectations by enabling us to build our applications out of adaptable components that take advantage of the rich capabilities of each individual device and automatically adapt to their differences. This book looks at the impact fragments have on Android UI design and their role in both simplifying many common UI challenges and in providing best practices for incorporating rich UI behaviors. We look closely at the roll of fragment transactions and how to work with the Android back stack. Leveraging this understanding, we explore several specialized fragment-related classes such as ListFragment and DialogFragment. We then go on to discuss how to implement rich navigation features such as swipe-based screen browsing, and the role of fragments when developing applications that take advantage of the latest aspects of Material Design. You will learn everything you need to provide dynamic, multi-screen UIs within a single activity, and the rich UI features demanded by today’s mobile users.
Table of Contents (13 chapters)

Creating a rich user experience


As we discussed, fragments give us the ability to create application user interfaces that are flexible, highly adaptable, and can support a variety of navigation options. These behaviors are key functional aspects of building a successful app. However, in modern app development, an app must be more than just functional to be successful. To be successful, an app must also be visually appealing and engaging.

In this chapter, we will wrap up our discussion of fragments by creating an app that builds on the functional abilities of fragments that we've already discussed to also be visually appealing and incorporate rich animations when transitioning from one fragment to another. We will do this using material design.