Kotlin and Android Development featuring Jetpack: Build Better, Safer Android Apps
- Length: 446 pages
- Edition: 1
- Language: English
- Publisher: Pragmatic Bookshelf
- Publication Date: 2021-07-06
- ISBN-10: 1680508156
- ISBN-13: 9781680508154
- Sales Rank: #670572 (See Top 100 Books)
Start building native Android apps the modern way in Kotlin with Jetpack’s expansive set of tools, libraries, and best practices. Learn how to create efficient, resilient views with Fragments and share data between the views with ViewModels. Use Room to persist valuable data quickly, and avoid NullPointerExceptions and Java’s verbose expressions with Kotlin. You can even handle asynchronous web service calls elegantly with Kotlin coroutines. Achieve all of this and much more while building two full-featured apps, following detailed, step-by-step instructions.With Kotlin and Jetpack, Android development is now smoother and more enjoyable than ever before. Dive right in by developing two complete Android apps.
With the first app, Penny Drop, you create a full game complete with random die rolls, customizable rules, and AI opponents. Build lightweight Fragment views with data binding, quickly and safely update data with ViewModel classes, and handle all app navigation in a single location. Use Kotlin with Android-specific Kotlin extensions to efficiently write null-safe code without all the normal boilerplate required for pre-Jetpack + Kotlin apps. Persist and retrieve data as full objects with the Room library, then display that data with ViewModels and list records in a RecyclerView.
Next, you create the official app for the Android Baseball League. It’s a fake league but a real app, where you use what you learn in Penny Drop and build up from there. Navigate all over the app via a Navigation Drawer, including specific locations via Android App Links. Handle asynchronous and web service calls with Kotlin Coroutines, display that data smoothly with the Paging library, and send notifications to a user’s phone from your app.
Come build Android apps the modern way with Kotlin and Jetpack!
What You Need:
You’ll need the Android SDK, a text editor, and either a real Android device or emulator for testing. While not strictly required, it’s assumed you’re using Android Studio, which comes with the Android SDK and simplifies creating an emulator. Also, a few examples require JDK 1.8 or later, though all of these pieces can be completed in other ways when using JDK 1.6.
Acknowledgments
Preface
Introduction
Who Is This Book For
If You’re New to Android and/or Kotlin
How to Read This Book
Development Tips for the Book
Online Resources
Ready to Go?
Part I. Penny Drop
1. Initialize the Penny Drop App
How to Play Penny Drop
Create the App
What Else Do We Need?
Summary and Next Steps
2. Build Views with Fragments
Build a Fragment (Pick Players)
Add Data Binding to the App
Build Another Fragment (Game)
Summary and Next Steps
3. Bind Data with ViewModels
Create a ViewModel (Pick Players)
Bind ViewModel to a Fragment (Pick Players)
Add AI Spinner to Player List Items
Customize the Player List Items
Create Another ViewModel (Game)
Bind ViewModel to a Fragment (Game)
Summary and Next Steps
4. Update LiveData with Conditional Game Logic
Create GameHandler
Start a Game
More GameViewModel Functions: roll() and pass()
Update the UI
Create Turn Summary Text
Handle AI Turns with Coroutines and First-Class Functions
Summary and Next Steps
5. Persist Game Data with Room
Add Room to the App
Add a RoomDatabase Class
Create a DAO Class
Add Entity Classes
Add Data During Database Creation
Add Converters to the Database
Create a Repository Class
Access the Database from a ViewModel
Update the UI Data Binding
Summary and Next Steps
6. Build a List with RecyclerView
Add the RecyclerView
Build the List Item Layout
Create a Custom ListAdapter
Connect Adapter to RecyclerView
Load Data into RecyclerView from Database
Summary and Next Steps
7. Customize an App with Settings and Themes
Add a New SettingsFragment
Use Saved Preferences
Add Themes
Change Themes
Add Night Mode Support
Add an About the App Section
Summary and Next Steps
Part II. Android Baseball League
8. Initialize the Android Baseball League App
Welcome to the Official ABL App
Create the App
Configure the Activity
Add the First Fragment
Summary and Next Steps
9. Navigate via Navigation Drawer
Add the Navigation Drawer
Add Fragments (Standings and Single Team)
Pass Data with Safe Args
Navigate Directly via a Deep Link
Summary and Next Steps
10. Load and Save Data with Coroutines and Room
Create a Database
Work with Retrofit
Load Data from External APIs
Add a New Fragment (Scoreboard)
Summary and Next Steps
11. Display Data with Paging
Add Two New Fragments (Leaders and Single Player)
Add a New Fragment (Players)
Handle Paging Data in the App
Display Paging Data in a RecyclerView List
Summary and Next Steps
12. Personalize the Android Baseball League App
Build a Settings Screen via Code
Extract Colors with Palette
Add and Group Additional Preferences
Reliably Complete Background Work with WorkManager
Summary and Next Steps
13. Send Info to and from the Android Baseball League App
Alert Users with Notifications
Send Cloud-Based Alerts with Push Notifications
Share Links with Android Sharesheet
Summary and Next Steps
Part III. Test Your App
14. Unit Test Your App with JUnit
Add Unit Tests
Test a ViewModel Class
Test a Data Access Object (DAO)
Summary and Next Steps
15. Test Your App’s UI with Espresso
Add UI Tests
Add More UI Tests
Summary and Next Steps
Part IV. Appendixes
A1. Install Android Studio
Download Android Studio
Install Android Studio
Set Up an Android Virtual Device (AVD)
A2. Troubleshooting Your App
Debug Your App
Display Messages with the Toast Class
Log Messages to Logcat
Wrapping Up
A3. Gradle Dependencies
Classpath Dependencies
Implementation Dependencies
KAPT Dependencies
Test DependenciesDonate to keep this site alive
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