This tutorial aims to show the usage of some advanced java/android libraries to speed up Android development.
It was written to be used by GDG OSU Stillwater, OK but you are free to reuse for any purpose you want!
For any questions / concerns email: [email protected]
- Efficient network requests
- Efficient image loading
- Gracefully handle rotation changes
- Infinite Scrolling
- Using RecyclerView with GridLayout to handle different screen sizes
- Design Support library animations
This tutorial assumes that you already have a good understanding of Java and some knowledge of Android. At some points I will just give you some code to Copy/Paste (specially the XML layout ones). I will briefly explain most of the concepts and the code but for a deeper understanding I will redirect you to a WebPage of the library or a specific blog pos about it
If you have not updated yet. Update your Android studio to the latest version. At the time of writing 1.4. Also update your SDK to v23.0
Create a new Android project with the default settings (i.e. Min SDK 15, blank activity, etc..)
First of all we should update our top level build.gradle file. That is the build.gradle file that is in your project folder.
In the dependencies section we add
// This plugins allow Android studio to understad generated code by ButterKnife and other
// Libraries, such as Parcel, Dagger, etc...
classpath 'com.neenbedankt.gradle.plugins:android-apt:1.4'Now we gonna add the libraries that we need for our project:
Inside build.gradle in the app module do the following:
At the top level right below apply plugin: 'com.android.application' add this:
apply plugin: 'com.neenbedankt.android-apt'// Support Libraries
compile 'com.android.support:appcompat-v7:23.0.1' // you can skip this one if you already have.
compile 'com.android.support:cardview-v7:23.0.1'
compile 'com.android.support:support-annotations:23.0.1'
compile 'com.android.support:support-v13:23.0.1'
compile 'com.android.support:support-v4:23.0.1'
compile 'com.android.support:design:23.0.1'
compile 'com.android.support:recyclerview-v7:23.0.1'
// Data handling & Network
compile 'io.reactivex:rxandroid:1.0.1'
compile 'io.reactivex:rxjava:1.0.14'
compile 'com.squareup.picasso:picasso:2.5.2'
compile 'com.squareup.retrofit:retrofit:1.9.0'
compile 'com.squareup.okhttp:okhttp-urlconnection:2.0.0'
compile 'com.squareup.okhttp:okhttp:2.0.0'
// Debug
compile 'com.jakewharton.timber:timber:3.1.0'
debugCompile 'com.squareup.leakcanary:leakcanary-android:1.3.1'
releaseCompile 'com.squareup.leakcanary:leakcanary-android-no-op:1.3.1'
compile 'com.facebook.stetho:stetho:1.1.1'
compile 'com.facebook.stetho:stetho-okhttp:1.1.1'
// UI
compile 'org.sufficientlysecure:html-textview:1.2'
// Code Generators
compile 'com.jakewharton:butterknife:7.0.1'
compile "org.parceler:parceler-api:1.0.3"
apt "org.parceler:parceler:1.0.3"
If you see a yellow ribbon on your gradle file click on sync now otherwise find the button Sync Project with Gradle Files on the toolbar.
Now that we have the setup done let's go to Step 2 and actually start coding!!