Creating Dynamic UIs with Android Fragments - Second Edition

Jim Wilson

• Publisher: Packt Publishing
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN: 9781785882760
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Ciencia de la computación
• Subtopic: Ingeniería computacional

Create engaging apps with fragments to provide a rich user interface that dynamically adapts to the individual characteristics of your customers' tablets and smartphonesAbout This Book• From an eminent author comes a book that will help you create engaging apps that dynamically adapt to individual device characteristics• The only book that includes the latest fragment-oriented features and their role in Material design• This book provides code-intensive discussions and detailed examples that help you understand better and learn faster.Who This Book Is ForThis book is for developers with a basic understanding of Android programming who would like to improve the appearance and usability of their applications by creating a more interactive user experience and dynamically adaptive UIs; providing better support for tablets and smartphones in a single app; and reducing the complexity of managing app UIs.What You Will Learn• Learn the role and capabilities of fragments• Use Android Studio's fragment-oriented features• Create an app UI that works effectively on smartphones and tablets• Manage the creation and life cycle of fragments• Dynamically manage fragments using the FragmentTransaction class• Learn the application design for communicating between fragments• Leverage fragments when implementing applications that take advantage of the latest features of Material DesignIn DetailToday'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.Style and approachA fast-paced learning guide that gives a hands-on, code-intensive approach with a focus on real-world applications.

Creating Dynamic UIs with Android Fragments Second Edition

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Table of Contents

Creating Dynamic UIs with Android Fragments Second Edition

Credits

About the Author

About the Reviewers

www.PacktPub.com

eBooks, discount offers, and more

Why subscribe?

Preface

What this book covers

What you need for this book

Who this book is for

Conventions

Reader feedback

Customer support

Downloading the example code

Downloading the color images of this book

Errata

Piracy

Questions

1. Fragments and UI Modularization

The need for a new approach to UI creation

The broad platform support of fragments

How fragments simplify common Android tasks

The relationship between fragments and activities

Making the shift to fragments

The old thinking – activity-oriented

Defining the activity appearance

Displaying the activity UI

The new thinking: fragment-oriented

Creating the fragment layout resources

Defining the layout as a reusable list

Minimizing assumptions

Encapsulating the display layout

Creating the Fragment class

Wrapping the list in a fragment

Providing the description fragment

Converting an activity to use fragments

Summary

2. Fragments and UI Flexibility

Creating UI flexibility

Dynamic fragment layout selection

Adding an alternate layout resource

Managing fragment layout by screen size

Eliminating redundant layout descriptions

Layout aliasing

Designing fragments for flexibility

Avoiding tight coupling

Abstracting fragment relationships

Defining the callback interface

Making the fragment self-contained

Fragment notification

Encapsulating fragment operations

Creating a loosely connected relationship between fragments

Fragments protect against the unexpected

Creating the book description activity

Adding functionality to the book description activity

Making the MainActivity class adaptive

Summary

3. Fragment Life Cycle and Specialization

Understanding the fragment life cycle

Understanding fragment setup and display

Avoiding method name confusion

Understanding fragment hide and teardown

Maximizing the available resources

Managing a fragment state

Special-purpose fragment classes

ListFragment

Associating data with the list

Separating data from the display

Creating the ListFragment derived class with Android Studio

Handling the ListFragment item selection

Updating the layout resources

DialogFragment

Styles

Layout

Displaying DialogFragment

Event handling in DialogFragment

The Dialog identity

Accessing behavior related to Dialog

Wrapping an existing dialog in a fragment

Summary

4. Working with Fragment Transactions

Intentional screen management

Dynamically managing fragments

Deferred execution of transaction changes

Adding and removing fragments

Supporting the back button

Creating an adaptive application layout

Updating the layout to support dynamic fragments

Adapting to device differences

Dynamically loading a fragment at startup

Transitioning between fragments

Eliminating redundant handling

Creating the fragment on the fly

Managing asynchronous creation

Putting it all together

Summary

5. Creating Rich Navigation

A brave new world

Making navigation fun with swipe

Implementing swipe navigation

Adding swipe navigation with Android Studio

Managing the swipe UI behavior

Putting the swipe UI into place

Providing direct navigation to screens

Don't get trapped in the past

Direct navigation for a small number of screens

Direct navigation for four or more screens

Creating a navigation drawer activity with Android Studio

The activity and application screen fragment

The navigation drawer fragment

Navigation drawer fragment standard responsibilities

The additional responsibilities of the NavigationDrawerFragment class

The navigation drawer fragment responsibilities big picture

Summary

6. Fragments and Material Design

Creating a rich user experience

Material design

Principles of material design

The role of motion

Converting our application to use material design

Dealing with different Android versions

Setting up the theme

Updating the fragments appearance

Incorporating motion in fragment transitions

Transitioning fragments on and off the screen

Transitioning the book card off and on the screen

Transitioning the book details on and off the screen

Creating continuity with shared element transitions

Maintaining continuity across multiple cards

Summary

Index

Creating Dynamic UIs with Android Fragments Second Edition

Copyright © 2016 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.

Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

First published: September 2013

Second edition: March 2016

Production reference: 1170316

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

Livery Place

35 Livery Street

Birmingham B3 2PB, UK.

ISBN 978-1-78588-959-2

www.packtpub.com

Credits

Author

Jim Wilson

Reviewers

Nayanesh Ramchandra Gupte

Robert Dale Johnson III

Commissioning Editor

Edward Gordon

Acquisition Editor

Kirk D'costa

Content Development Editor

Mehvash Fatima

Technical Editor

Dhiraj Chandanshive

Copy Editor

Shruti Iyer

Project Coordinator

Kinjal Bari

Proofreader

Safis Editing

Indexer

Rekha Nair

Production Coordinator

Aparna Bhagat

Cover Work

Aparna Bhagat

About the Author

Jim Wilson is the President of JW Hedgehog, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in solutions for the Android, iOS, and Microsoft platforms. He has over 30 years of software engineering experience, with the past 15 years heavily focused on creating mobile device and location-based solutions. Jim cofounded multiple software-related startups and has served in a consulting role at several more. After nearly a decade as a Microsoft Device Application Development MVP, he now focuses on developing Android and iOS device applications.

Jim's passion is mentoring software developers. He is a regular contributor of Android, iOS, and Xamarin training material at Pluralsight (http://training.jwhh.com), a leading provider of online developer training. Jim has authored more than 30 articles on device application development and has served as a contributing expert on mobile software development issues for a variety of media outlets.

Jim and his wife, along with several cats, split their time between Celebration, Florida (just three miles from Walt Disney World) and Weirs Beach, New Hampshire. You can take a look at his blog (http://blog.jwhh.com) where he talks about a variety of mobile software development issues as well as the adventures of a life split between the busy region of the "House of Mouse" and the quietness of...

Table of contents

• Creating Dynamic UIs with Android Fragments Second Edition