Book Image

Android Studio 4.1 Development Essentials – Java Edition

By : Neil Smyth
Book Image

Android Studio 4.1 Development Essentials – Java Edition

By: Neil Smyth

Overview of this book

For developers, Android 11 has a ton of new capabilities. The goal of this book is to teach the skills necessary to develop Android-based applications using the Java programming language. This book begins with the steps necessary to set up an Android development and testing environment. An overview of Android Studio along with the architecture of Android is covered next, followed by an in-depth look at the design of Android applications and user interfaces using the Android Studio environment. You will also learn about the Android architecture components along with some advanced topics such as touch screen handling, gesture recognition, the recording and playback of audio, app links, dynamic delivery, the AndroidStudio profiler, Gradle build configuration, and submitting apps to the Google Play Developer Console. The concepts of material design, including the use of floating action buttons, Snackbars, tabbed interfaces, card views, navigation drawers, and collapsing toolbars are a highlight of this book. This edition of the book also covers printing, transitions, and cloud-based file storage; the foldable device support is the cherry on the cake. By the end of this course, you will be able to develop Android 11 Apps using Android Studio 4.1, Java, and Android Jetpack. The code files for the book can be found here: https://www.ebookfrenzy.com/retail/androidstudio41/index.php
Table of Contents (88 chapters)
88
Index

18.1 How ConstraintLayout Works

In common with all other layouts, ConstraintLayout is responsible for managing the positioning and sizing behavior of the visual components (also referred to as widgets) it contains. It does this based on the constraint connections that are set on each child widget.

In order to fully understand and use ConstraintLayout, it is important to gain an appreciation of the following key concepts:

Constraints

Margins

Opposing Constraints

Constraint Bias

Chains

Chain Styles

Guidelines

Groups

Barriers

Flow

18.1.1 Constraints

Constraints are essentially sets of rules that dictate the way in which a widget is aligned and distanced in relation to other widgets, the sides of the containing ConstraintLayout and special elements called guidelines. Constraints also dictate how the user interface layout of an activity will respond to changes in device...