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I would like to know if there is some other alternative or propper way for developing the UI of an android app. I know that XML is used, and also why - but are there any other methods even if they are not very efficient?
You are welcome to create your UI by creating Java objects directly and stitching them together into their parent-child relationships, including the layout managers needed to control things like sizing and positioning.
And, given that, you are welcome to invent your own means of defining an UI (parse some JSON, use a random number generator, etc.), as in the end it is all just Java objects.
If you are developing games, there are some game frameworks like Cocos2d-x or Unity that have their own ways to display content on the screen. They can also be useful for apps that require some kind of 3D visualization (Unity for example can embedded in a native app).
Other than that, the alternative to XML is to create views programatically in Java, and manage the view hierarchy by yourself. You can mix both, which is especially useful when you want to create content dynamically based on some data you fetch at runtime.
One framework that seems promising, is Flutter. You need to know Dart language, however, it's easy to catch.
BTW, Flutter is a cross platform framework and you can use it for both Android and iOS development.
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I am a Python programmer and I want to learn android app development. My million dollar question is, do I really need to learn xml? Can't I just use the design tab in android studio and drag n drop elements to make the design?
Well well it should be noted that whether any technology is used in certain IDE it would be good to have some background knowledge or at least know what is it for..
Overall is not hard to learn XML at a functional level.
What is it?
A Xtensinve Markup Language which basically work with tags, it was created for be self-descriptive.
<deliveryTag>
<to>Michelle Obama</to>
<from>Barack Obama</from>
<note>Happy Birthday!</note>
<type>First Class</type>
<package>Regular Size Box</package>
</deliveryTag>
What is it for?
Designed for carry data, and have it well-organized of course.
People really loved how it simplifies the data sharing, transport and availability eventually it became one of the standards cross-platform.
Finally..
XML was designed to carry data -> it focus on what data is.
HTML was designed to display data -> it focus on how data looks
Both of above are NOT programming languages but languages for structuration.
You will have more control over your project even if you drag and drop, at some point you will note that Android Studio demands to fluently use XML in many parts of the software development cycle.
Yes you can just use drag and drop editor, all attributes can change there, but when u face with an issue, you can't find your answers in Here because all of android developers work with xml.
It's too easy to learn, don't afraid of it.
You can use the design tab for constructing the application UI, But for complex design, it's not advisable.
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Is it possible to add an animation flash to my android studio project?
Long answer short:
As far as I know no.
Why?
Because there are more performant ways you can do this on Android.
You have different other options you can investigate further if you want some nice animations in your app.
One is to make a Custom View extending either View or ViewGroup where you have all the liberty you want to draw on a Canvas.
Another popular approach nowadays is to use AnimatedVectorDrawable.
You can use a relatively 'simple' vector animation and have it up and running in no time.
You can use this AndroidIconAnimator which is an online tool which will help you a lot if you use this approach.
You can check out this post for a 'tutorial' on how to use this tool.
And last but certainly not least I would recommend taking a look at Facebook's tool for animations KeyFrames I personally haven't used this one, but it looks very promising.
It comes as close to your question as possible.
This tool allows you to export an Adobe After Effects project into a running animation on your phone.
They used it internally for their reactions/emoticons.
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I'm working on a multiplatform application for windowsphone, iphone and android. I do this using visualstudio(phone sdk) with monoplugin (monotouch and mono for android for the other two platforms). The c# you write the code in is compiled to native code for al three platform.
my Question(S):
I'm looking for a graph drawing library that is based on the .net (silverlight) framework. Because if I get the library working on windowsphone, it should be able to work on the other two platforms (with the help of mono). So, does anyone know (or recommend) a graph library?
Has anyone here ever done something similar and if so? what library did you use.
You probably won't find such library - unless you resort to using a HTML View with a Javascript Drawing Library on all platforms. I for one would stick to exposing the relevant data from your View Model and use some code-behind in your platform specific view to adapt your graph library of choice for each of the platforms to deal with the data exposed by your View Model.
There is one library i found, that atleast implements the basic draw functions across the three mono sdk's.
It can be found here:
https://github.com/praeclarum/CrossGraphics
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I am new with Android UI and I am looking for some resources about best practices to design a UI (examples of UI elements, tutorials, etc.)
I've been looking in Google or http://developer.android.com/resources/tutorials but there is nothing helpful at all.
Can anyone provide me some resources/links ?
There is actually a nice web which explains the most usable UI Design patters used by many apps already: http://www.androidpatterns.com/
If you have no experience with Android UI but you know a little Java already, maybe this is something for you:
SimpleUi ( https://github.com/bitstars/SimpleUi )
The generated UI (code below):
The complete code to create this Android UI:
I use it in real applications, not only for fast prototyping or dialogs and its well tested over the years. The concept is based on the model view control principle and for most common scenarios there are ready to use components which automatically look correct on any device. I don't say it should be used for any UI (e.g. listviews should be done by hand) but for most usecases this should be quite handy ;) Oh and feel free to fork it and improve it further if you want
UI Patterns, shown on the Twitter app, but they're common on Android in general:
http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2010/05/twitter-for-android-closer-look-at.html
http://www.androiduipatterns.com/
Depending which pattern you want to implement, there are open source projects/samples out there, i.e. for the Quick Contact Bar, etc.
Check anddev.. normally there are nice examples of UI elements. Also some nice tutorials at mobiforge 1 and 2.
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I would like to build an Android app showing a dashboard with many different graphical indicators. Have you already used a library containing these items?
Can anyone help me in this?
Thanks in advance and greetings
c.
One approach you could take is to create your gauges and dashboard using CSS, HTML, and JavaScript which would be stored locally in your application's assets folder. You can then use a WebView to display them.
WebView.addJavaScriptInterface [(link)][1] will allow you to pass data between your Android Java code and the JavaScript dashboard.
The reason I suggest this is that I think you will find more options for the graphical indicators if you look for JavaScript/HTML/CSS based ones. Here are a couple examples:
http://techoctave.com/c7/posts/17-jquery-dashboard-gauges-using-raphael-xhtml-and-css
http://www.netzgesta.de/gauge/
If this is done well, the user would not be able to tell that your UI is not made with native widgets. If you decide to go down this path, you may also want to consider using a framework like PhoneGap to help with the Java <-> JavaScript communications.
[1]: http://developer.android.com/reference/android/webkit/WebView.html#addJavascriptInterface(java.lang.Object, java.lang.String)
Android has a Widget API allowing developers to create widgets that sit on the home screen and present the user with information. Are you looking for information on how to code a widget or are you looking to just download them?