What this book covers

Chapter 1, Fragments and UI Modularization, introduces fragments, UI modularization, and the role that fragments play in developing a modularized UI. This chapter demonstrates creating simple fragments and using fragments statically within activities.

Chapter 2, Fragments and UI Flexibility, builds on the concepts introduced in the previous chapter to provide solutions to specific differences in device layouts. This chapter explains how to use adaptive activity layout definitions to provide support for a wide variety of device form factors with a small set of fragments that are automatically rearranged based on the current device's UI requirements.

Chapter 3, Fragment Life Cycle and Specialization, discusses the relationship of the life cycle of fragments with that of activities and demonstrates the appropriate programming actions at the various points in the life cycle. Leveraging this knowledge, the special purpose fragment classes, ListFragment and DialogFragment, are introduced to demonstrate their behavior and provide a deeper understanding of how their behavior in the activity life cycle differs from that of standard fragments.

Chapter 4, Working with Fragment Transactions, explains how to create multiple app screens within a single activity by dynamically adding and removing fragments using fragment transactions. Topics covered include thread handling, implementing back button behavior, and dynamically adapting multifragment UIs to differences in device characteristics.

Chapter 5, Creating Rich Navigation, brings everything together by building on the previous chapters to show how to use fragments to enhance the user's experience through rich navigation features. This chapter demonstrates how to implement a number of navigation features, including screen browsing with swipe-based paging, direct screen access with drop-down list navigation, and random screen viewing with tabs.

Chapter 6, Fragments and Material Design, introduces the next generation of application development using material design. This chapter demonstrates how to implement fragments that incorporate a rich visual appearance and animated transitions using the latest features of Android's material design capabilities.