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.
Table of Contents (21 chapters)
Title Page
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Customer Feedback
Preface
13
Activity Lifecycle

Enabling data binding


By default in an Android project, the data binding capabilities are turned off. You'll need to enable them in your project's build.gradle file by hand. Follow these quick steps to enable the data binding system:

  1. Start by locating the build.gradle file for your application module in the Android panel in Android Studio:
  1. Open this file and locate the android block:
android {
  compileSdkVersion 26
  // ...
}
  1. At the end of the android block, add the following snippet to enable data binding:
android {
 compileSdkVersion 26
   // ...
   dataBinding {
      enabled = true
   }
}
  1. Once you save this file, Android Studio will open a banner at the top of the file, telling you that it needs to sync the project. Click on the Sync Now link on the right-hand side of the banner and wait for the sync to complete.

Congratulations! You've just enabled the data binding framework on your project. Now you can get started, making use of the data binding system in your layout files, which will simplify...