v2.0 of Udacity Project 7 - Book Search App

The goal of building this application was to design and create the structure of a Book Listing app which would allow a user to get a list of published books on a given topic. I had to use Google Books API in order to fetch results and display them to the user.

This project was about combining various ideas and skills that I have been practicing throughout the course. They include:

• Fetching data from an API.
• Using an AsyncTask.
• Parsing a JSON response.
• Creating a list based on that data and displaying it to the user.
• When taped on, each list element forwards the user to the corresponding book at Google Books website.
• Notify the user if no internet connection was detected.

The design must include:

• Layout:
  • The app contains a ListView which becomes populated with list items.
  • List Items display at least author and title information.
  • The code adheres to all of the following best practices:
    • Text sizes are defined in sp.
    • Lengths are defined in dp.
    • Padding and margin are used appropriately, such that the views are not crammed up against each other.
  • Information displayed on list items is not crowded.
  • Upon device rotation:
    • The layout remains scrollable.
    • The app should save state and restore the list back to the previously scrolled position.
    • The UI should adjust properly so that all contents of each list item is still visible and not truncated.
    • The Search button should still remain visible on the screen after the device is rotated.
• Functionality:
  • The code runs without errors.
  • The user can enter a word or phrase to serve as a search query. The app fetches book data related to the query via an HTTP request from the Google Books API, using a class such as HttpUriRequest or HttpURLConnection.
  • The app checks whether the device is connected to the internet and responds appropriately. The result of the request is validated to account for a bad server response or lack of server response.
  • The network call occurs off the UI thread using an AsyncTask or similar threading object.
  • The JSON response is parsed correctly, and relevant information is stored in the app.
  • The ListView is properly populated with the information parsed from the JSON response.
  • When there is no data to display, the app shows a default TextView that informs the user how to populate the list.
  • The intent of this project is to give you practice writing raw Java code using the necessary classes provided by the Android framework; therefore, the use of external libraries for core functionality will not be permitted to complete this project.
• Code Readability:
  • All variables, methods, and resource IDs are descriptively named such that another developer reading the code can easily understand their function.
  • The code is properly formatted i.e. there are no unnecessary blank lines; there are no unused variables or methods; there is no commented out code. The code also has proper indentation when defining variables and methods.

Screenshot 1 | Screenshot 2 | Screenshot 3 | Screenshot 4 | Screenshot 5

• Video presentation of v2.0 of the application: