Book Image

Hands-On Android UI Development

By : Jason Morris
Book Image

Hands-On Android UI Development

By: Jason Morris

Overview of this book

A great user interface (UI) can spell the difference between success and failure for any new application. This book will show you not just how to code great UIs, but how to design them as well. It will take novice Android developers on a journey, showing them how to leverage the Android platform to produce stunning Android applications. Begin with the basics of creating Android applications and then move on to topics such as screen and layout design. Next, learn about techniques that will help improve performance for your application. Also, explore how to create reactive applications that are fast, animated, and guide the user toward their goals with minimal distraction. Understand Android architecture components and learn how to build your application to automatically respond to changes made by the user. Great platforms are not always enough, so this book also focuses on creating custom components, layout managers, and 2D graphics. Also, explore many tips and best practices to ease your UI development process. By the end, you'll be able to design and build not only amazing UIs, but also systems that provide the best possible user experience.

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Table of Contents (21 chapters)
Title Page
Title Page
Credits
Credits
About the Author
About the Author
About the Reviewers
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
www.PacktPub.com
Customer Feedback
Customer Feedback
Preface
Preface
Free Chapter
1
Creating Android Layouts
Creating Android Layouts
Material Design
Android Studio
Android application structure
Creating SimpleLayout
Discovering the layout editor
Organizing project files
Summary
2
Designing Form Screens
Designing Form Screens
Exploring form screens
Designing a layout
Creating a form layout
Try it yourself
Test your knowledge
Summary
3
Taking Actions
Taking Actions
Understanding Android event requirements
Listening for some events
Wiring the CaptureClaimActivity events
Handling events from other activities
Making events quick
Multiple event listeners
Test your knowledge
Summary
4
Composing User Interfaces
Composing User Interfaces
Designing a modular layout
Creating the DatePickerLayout
Creating the data model
Wrapping up the category picker
Creating the Attachment Pager
Try it yourself
Test your knowledge
Summary
5
Binding Data to Widgets
Binding Data to Widgets
Exploring data models and widgets
The Observer pattern
Enabling data binding
Data binding a layout file
Data binding and fragments
Test your knowledge
Summary
6
Storing and Retrieving Data
Storing and Retrieving Data
Data storage in Android
Using the SQLite database
Introducing Room
Creating an Entity model
Creating the Data Access Layer
Creating a database
Accessing your Room database
Test your knowledge
Summary
7
Creating Overview Screens
Creating Overview Screens
Designing an Overview screen
Elements of an Overview screen
Creating layouts for ViewHolders
Creating a ViewHolder with data binding
Creating a RecyclerView adapter
Creating the Overview activity
Test your knowledge
Summary
8
Designing Material Layouts
Designing Material Layouts
Looking at material structure
Introducing CoordinatorLayout
Coordinating the Overview Screen
Swiping to delete
Elevating widgets
Building layouts using grids
Stack view
Test your knowledge
Summary
9
Navigating Effectively
Navigating Effectively
Planning navigation
Tabbed navigation
Navigation menus
Navigating using Fragments
Test your knowledge
Summary
10
Making Overviews Even Better
Making Overviews Even Better
Multiple view types
Introducing dividers
Updating by Delta Events
Test your knowledge
Summary
11
Polishing Your Design
Polishing Your Design
Choosing colors and theming
Adding animations
Creating custom styles
Test your knowledge
Summary
12
Customizing Widgets and Layouts
Customizing Widgets and Layouts
Creating custom view implementations
Creating a layout implementation
Creating animated views
Test your knowledge
Apply your knowledge
Summary
13
Activity Lifecycle
Activity Lifecycle
14
Test Your Knowledge Answers
Test Your Knowledge Answers
Chapter 2 - Designing Form Screens
Chapter 3 - Taking Actions
Chapter 4 - Composing User Interface
Chapter 5 - Binding Data to Widgets
Chapter 6 - Storing and Retrieving Data
Chapter 7 - Creating Overview Screens
Chapter 8 - Designing Material Layouts
Chapter 9 - Navigating Effectively
Chapter 10 - Making Overviews Even Better
Chapter 11 - Polishing Your Design
Chapter 12 - Customizing Widgets and Layouts

Creating custom view implementations

Sometimes, the existing widgets just aren't enough, no matter how much you customize them. Sometimes, you need to display something that simply isn't supported by the platform. In these cases, you might find yourself needing to implement your own custom widget. The View class can be easily extended to produce many different effects, but there are a few things that are worth knowing before you tackle it:

  • The rendering for a View is expected to happen in the onDraw method.
  • When rendering the graphics for the View, you'll use a Canvas to send the drawing instructions.
  • Each View is responsible for calculating the offsets for its padding, and by default, the graphics will be clipped to these dimensions.
  • You should avoid any object allocation (including arrays, if possible) in the onDraw method. The onDraw methods are probably the most time-sensitive method calls in any application, and need to produce as little garbage as possible. Any object allocations should...
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