I really love the new menus in the Android apps Spotify, YouTube, Google+ etc. And I would like to implement it in my apps.
Is there a library or another solution to include it in an Android java project?
It's not official, but side navigation seems to be the prevailing term:
Side navigation is a UI pattern that provides users quick
shortcuts to the most important part of the application without having
to leave the screen they are on.
Related
I'd like an example of a step-by-step implementation of this type of menu on Android Wear.
I can not understand the concept of this implementation
It can be in Xamarin or Java.
Documentation:
https://developer.android.com/training/wearables/ui/ui-nav-actions#java
Expectancy:
ndroid
Glad you are enjoying Xamarin!
There's multiple ways of navigating between fragments, regardless if it's a Watch. One of them is using ViewPagers. If you look into the Android documentation, you will find details of how to make it look really cool and fancy with small changes to the ViewPager code.
As far as examples to the Google Wear app that uses ViewPagers, you can take a look at this and some of the other examples of Android wear applications. Let me know if that helps. Btw, you might have more success simply implementing that code (layout/activity_main.xml, SimpleGridPagerAdapter.cs and MainActivity.cs) in your project, than making those projects works since they're old.
Since you are looking for the usage of the android.support.wear.widget.drawer.WearableDrawerLayout, you can take a look at this, particularly at the activity_main.xml. For implementing the WearableDrawerLayout, you have the following
WearableNavigationDrawerView that acts as the top navigation drawer
FrameLayout that contains your fragment
WearableActionDrawerView that acts as your bottom action drawer
PS: I noticed you are looking for Java examples too, this one seems very simple example to follow. You just have to check the Planets.java, MainActivity.java, and activity_main.xml files in that repo
We have an App for both iOS and Android platforms. Currently our designers have designed similar User Interface for two of them, just have minor differences. Since those two shared lots of common features like buttons, text fields, etc, having similar interface works for both platforms. However, the most obviously differences between iOS and Android (from my point of view), are UINavigationBar in iOS and ActionBar in Android.
Now our interface for Action Bar and Navigation Bar looks like this:
This is followed UINavigation Design that have Title in centre. I'm just wondering should I keep the title centre in Android's Action Bar so two platforms will have similar interface or should I follow Android's design guide (Title next to left icon) for better Android User Experience?
Per Pure Android:
Most developers want to distribute their apps on multiple platforms. As you plan your app for Android, keep in mind that different platforms play by different rules and conventions. Design decisions that make perfect sense on one platform will look and feel misplaced in the context of a different platform. While a "design once, ship anywhere" approach might save you time up-front, you run the very real risk of creating inconsistent apps that alienate users.
This advice definitely applies to the app bar, which has very clear design guidelines as part of the Material Design guide, which is the driving force behind Android design at this time and is supported across all API 7+ devices via AppCompat.
See: https://developer.android.com/design/index.html.
This is somewhat opinion-based, but it is probably best to adhere to the Android styles where applicable, rather than shoot for consistency between you iOS and Android versions. If you want your users to have a comfortable, familiar experience, then keep in mind that they are probably most familiar with other apps on that specific device type.
An argument for consistency between Android and iOS would be (a) simpler to design for, (b) might be easier to test, (c) easier to support.
This all assumes you are building native apps. If you are making an HTML or hybrid app, a more device-neutral style might be acceptable.
I would like to implement a drop down menu from the ToolBar like in the Ios version of Google+:
But as as a beginner in android development, I don't know which component should I use, anybody can help me with that ?
Those SO question you've mentioned in the comments are true: You should not implement an exact copy of that iOS navigation in Android. If you choose to develop an app for Android then you better make it look like an Android app (because that is what your users will expect).
However, that does not imply Android lacks of similar navigation pattern. What you are looking for is ActionBar dropdown navigation and can be found on this official docs. That link should be enough to get you started. :)
I was wondering if there is any android wizard framework around which helps implementing a wizard like setup sequence. Surely it can be implemented from the ground with not too much pain (for example one discussion here) yes as this seems a quite standard need I hope there is already some support framework for this available.
Thanks buddies
martin
I can answer this - but not in the affirmative. There is nothing in the core API, neither is there anything in ActionBarSherlock, and I've failed to find anything remotely useful anywhere else.
I've ended up developing my own wizard framework on the back of ABS but at the moment its so heavily intertwined with my own app (and my other framework code) that it isn't in a state to put up as a public repo on github (which is my longer term plan).
If you decide to go your own way I recommend you start from ActionBarSherlock and use a tabbed view with fragments. Its easy to put together and the end user can use the tabs, or swiping, or buttons (if you provide them) to navigate from step to step. It may also be possible to hide the tabs if you don't want them visible (but they do give the user an idea of what is coming up which can be helpful). Have a look at the fragments sample app, specifically the "Tabs and Pager" sample. ViewPager and FragmentPagerAdaptor are your friends. You can download ABS and the samples from the Action Bar Sherlock site
Desktop apps have top level menus (File, Edit, Search, ..., Help).
Web apps have very similar thing, menu tabs (Logo, Questions, Tags, Users, Badges, ...).
However I cannot find equivalent of top level menu in Android framework. Assume that my app has 5 main activities. According to menu design guidelines options menu should contain actions related to current activity. So how an app should allow users to easily switch to one of five main activities.
It seems that different apps solve the problem in different ways. Some have a tab list at the top of the screen, some at the bottom. Even Google applications aren't consisted in that field. Google Listen has an options menu item called 'Listen Home', however Listen main activity has no that options menu item. Others have two icons in app luncher which start two different activities from one app.
I realize that due to small phone screens Android apps have to be designed in a slightly different way than web or desktop apps. But I have a feeling that the app top level menu topic was omitted in Android framework. And developers are on their own here. Or am I missing something?
Update: this is Google blueprint for a great app
Update2: this an example app of these patterns
Update3: GreenDroid library helps a lot implementing these patters in your apps. It seems that dashboard and action bar patterns are becoming quite popular.
You should take a look at this Google I/O session: http://www.google.com/events/io/2010/sessions/android-ui-design-patterns.html
They talk about the design patterns they used for the Twitter application and basically the type of concept you are asking about. Basically, your activity should have a top bar that gives the user specific tasks to do in the view or allows them to switch into another activity.
Google has not implemented anything like this into the actual SDK yet so you're sort of on your own in terms of implementing it but the main concept is given in the presentation. This is the direction that Google would like to see Android shift into though.
Hopefully this helps you out somewhat.
The file/edit menus of desktop apps have a very different purpose than the questions/tags etc. tabs at the top of this webpage.
The contents of the file/edit menu should be implemented as in the options menu that appears when you press the menu button. This is, as you noted, to save space on the smaller screens.
App navigation like the questions/tags etc could be implemented using a Tab Layout. You are right that apps vary in whether or not the tabs are on the top or bottom, but I don't think thats a huge deal. In my unscientific look through apps on my phone, the bottom seems to be more common. However, I think it might depend on your specific implementation which you decide.
A lot of apps don't require any sort of navigation like that, and can get away with just having a path forward or back via the back button. I think this is preferable for a lot of applications, but won't work in all cases.
I'm not sure what more you would want built into the framework.. It seems like you can accomplish any kind of navigation desired with the above options.
You can look at the source of the Google IO app
ioshed