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3rd party ui-ux libraries

A third-party UI/UX library refers to a pre-built set of user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) components that are created by external developers or organizations. These libraries provide ready-to-use UI elements, design patterns, and tools that can be easily integrated into your Android application to enhance its visual appeal and user interaction.

Using a third-party UI/UX library can save you development time, as you don't have to build UI components from scratch. Additionally, these libraries often come with a set of pre-defined styles, animations, and interactions, which can help maintain consistency throughout your app and provide a polished user experience.

Let's take an example of few popular third-party UI/UX library for Android.

  1. Material Components for Android

Material Components for Android is a UI library that provides a wide range of UI components following the Material Design guidelines. It is an open-source project that is maintained by Google and the community. The library provides a set of ready-to-use UI components, such as buttons, text fields, cards, and more, that you can easily integrate into your Android application.

To use Material Components for Android, you need to include the library in your project's dependencies. Here's an example using Gradle:

implementation 'com.google.android.material:material:1.4.0'

Once you have added the dependency, you can start using the components provided by the library. For instance, you might want to use a Material Button in your app. Here's an example of how you can create a Material Button using the library:

<com.google.android.material.button.MaterialButton
    android:id="@+id/myButton"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:text="Click me"
    app:icon="@drawable/ic_my_button_icon"
    app:backgroundTint="@color/my_button_background_color"
    />

Note: following are the themes that are available in material design

  • Theme.MaterialComponents
  • Theme.MaterialComponents.NoActionBar
  • Theme.MaterialComponents.Light
  • Theme.MaterialComponents.Light.NoActionBar
  • Theme.MaterialComponents.Light.DarkActionBar
  • Theme.MaterialComponents.DayNight
  • Theme.MaterialComponents.DayNight.NoActionBar
  • Theme.MaterialComponents.DayNight.DarkActionBar

In this example, we created a MaterialButton component, which is a button styled according to the Material Design guidelines. We set its text using the android:text attribute and assigned an icon using the app:icon attribute. We also customized the button's background color using the app:backgroundTint attribute.

  1. butterknife

Another popular third-party UI/UX library for Android is "Butter Knife" by Jake Wharton. Butter Knife is a lightweight library that simplifies the process of binding Android views to fields and method calls. It helps reduce boilerplate code and improves the readability of your codebase.

Here's an example of how you can use Butter Knife in your Android project:

  1. First, include the Butter Knife dependency in your app-level build.gradle file:
implementation 'com.jakewharton:butterknife:10.2.3'
annotationProcessor 'com.jakewharton:butterknife-compiler:10.2.3'
  1. Next, let's assume you have an activity layout file (activity_main.xml) with some views that you want to bind. For instance, let's say you have a TextView and a Button in your layout:
<TextView
    android:id="@+id/textView"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:text="Hello, Butter Knife!"
    />

<Button
    android:id="@+id/button"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:text="Click Me"
    />
  1. In your activity class (MainActivity.java), you can use Butter Knife to bind these views:
public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {
    @BindView(R.id.textView)
    TextView textView;

    @BindView(R.id.button)
    Button button;

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
        ButterKnife.bind(this);
        // we dont need fidviewbyid anymore
        // Now you can access the views directly
        textView.setText("Hello, Butter Knife!");
        button.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
            @Override
            public void onClick(View v) {
                // Handle button click
            }
        });
    }
}

In this example, we used the @BindView annotation from Butter Knife to bind the views in the layout file to the corresponding fields in the activity. The ButterKnife.bind(this) method is called in the onCreate() method to perform the view binding.

By using Butter Knife, you eliminate the need to use findViewById() for each view, making your code more concise and readable. Additionally, Butter Knife provides other annotations like @OnClick to simplify click event handling and @Nullable and @NonNull to handle nullability checks for views.

Remember to clean and rebuild your project after adding Butter Knife to ensure that the generated bindings are correctly processed.

Picasso Another popular third-party UI/UX library for Android is "Picasso" by Square. Picasso is an image loading and caching library that simplifies the process of displaying images in your Android app. It provides an easy-to-use API for downloading, resizing, caching, and displaying images efficiently.

Here's an example of how you can use Picasso in your Android project:

  1. First, include the Picasso dependency in your app-level build.gradle file:
implementation 'com.squareup.picasso:picasso:2.71828'
  1. In your activity or fragment, you can use Picasso to load and display images:
ImageView imageView = findViewById(R.id.imageView);

String imageUrl = "https://example.com/image.jpg";
Picasso.get().load(imageUrl).into(imageView);

In this example, we load an image from a URL (https://example.com/image.jpg) using the load() method of Picasso. The image is then displayed in an ImageView by calling the into() method and passing the ImageView as the target. Note: you need to add internet permission in manifest file if you are using internet

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET" />

Picasso handles image resizing, caching, and memory management automatically, making it easy to work with images in your app without worrying about the complexities involved. It also provides additional features like image transformations, error handling, and callbacks for image loading events.

Here's an example that demonstrates some additional features of Picasso:

Picasso picasso = Picasso.get();
picasso.setIndicatorsEnabled(true); // Enable visual indicators for image debugging
picasso.setLoggingEnabled(true); // Enable logging for debugging purposes

Transformation transformation = new CropCircleTransformation();
picasso.load(imageUrl)
       .placeholder(R.drawable.placeholder) // Display a placeholder image while loading
       .error(R.drawable.error) // Display an error image if the loading fails
       .transform(transformation) // Apply image transformation (e.g., crop to a circle)
       .resize(200, 200) // Resize the image
       .centerCrop()
       .into(imageView);

In this example, we enabled visual indicators and logging for debugging purposes. We also defined a transformation using the CropCircleTransformation class to crop the image into a circle shape. Additionally, we set a placeholder image and an error image to be displayed while loading and in case of loading failure, respectively. The image is resized to 200x200 pixels and centered within the ImageView.

Picasso simplifies the process of working with images in Android apps, providing a smooth and efficient way to load and display images from various sources, such as URLs, local files, and resources.

Glide

Another popular third-party UI/UX library for Android is "Glide" by Google. Glide is an image loading and caching library similar to Picasso but with additional features and capabilities. It provides a powerful and flexible API for loading and displaying images efficiently in your Android app.

Here's an example of how you can use Glide in your Android project:

  1. First, include the Glide dependency in your app-level build.gradle file:
implementation 'com.github.bumptech.glide:glide:4.12.0'
annotationProcessor 'com.github.bumptech.glide:compiler:4.12.0'
  1. In your activity or fragment, you can use Glide to load and display images:
ImageView imageView = findViewById(R.id.imageView);

String imageUrl = "https://example.com/image.jpg";
Glide.with(this)
     .load(imageUrl)
     .placeholder(R.drawable.placeholder)
     .error(R.drawable.error)
     .centerCrop()
     .into(imageView);

In this example, we use the with() method of Glide to obtain a RequestManager instance associated with the current activity or fragment. Then, we use the load() method to specify the image URL. We set a placeholder image and an error image using the placeholder() and error() methods, respectively. The image is centered and cropped to fit within the ImageView using the centerCrop() method. Finally, we call into() to load and display the image in the ImageView.

Glide offers a wide range of additional features and options, including image transformations, resizing, caching strategies, animated GIF support, thumbnail generation, and more. Here's an example that demonstrates some of these features:

Glide.with(this)
     .load(imageUrl)
     .placeholder(R.drawable.placeholder)
     .error(R.drawable.error)
     .fitCenter()
     .transform(new CircleCrop())
     .override(300, 300)
     .thumbnail(0.5f)
     .diskCacheStrategy(DiskCacheStrategy.ALL)
     .into(imageView);

In this example, we use fitCenter() to scale and center the image within the ImageView. We apply a transformation using CircleCrop() to display the image as a circular shape. The image is also resized to have a maximum width and height of 300 pixels using override(). We generate a thumbnail of the image by specifying a scaling factor of 0.5f using thumbnail(). We set the disk cache strategy to store the original image and all resized versions using diskCacheStrategy(). Finally, we load and display the image in the ImageView.

Glide provides a flexible and powerful image loading solution with excellent performance and a wide range of customization options. It simplifies the process of working with images in Android apps and helps deliver a smooth and optimized user experience.

Retrofit Another popular third-party UI/UX library for Android is "Retrofit" by Square. Retrofit is a type-safe HTTP client library that simplifies the process of making network requests and handling API communication in your Android app. It provides a high-level API for interacting with RESTful APIs and supports various data formats like JSON, XML, and more.

Here's an example of how you can use Retrofit in your Android project:

  1. First, include the Retrofit dependency in your app-level build.gradle file:
implementation 'com.squareup.retrofit2:retrofit:2.9.0'
  1. Define a Retrofit service interface that represents your API endpoints. For example, let's assume you have an API that provides a list of users:
public interface UserService {
    @GET("users")
    Call<List<User>> getUsers();
}

In this example, we define a method getUsers() that returns a Call object wrapping a list of User objects. The @GET annotation specifies the API endpoint.

  1. Create a Retrofit instance and configure it with your API base URL. You can do this in your application class or any suitable location:
Retrofit retrofit = new Retrofit.Builder()
    .baseUrl("https://api.example.com/")
    .addConverterFactory(GsonConverterFactory.create())
    .build();

UserService userService = retrofit.create(UserService.class);

In this example, we create a Retrofit instance using the Retrofit.Builder and set the base URL of the API. We add a converter factory, in this case, GsonConverterFactory, which converts the response to JSON using Gson. Finally, we create an instance of the UserService interface using the Retrofit instance.

  1. Make a network request using Retrofit:
Call<List<User>> call = userService.getUsers();
call.enqueue(new Callback<List<User>>() {
    @Override
    public void onResponse(Call<List<User>> call, Response<List<User>> response) {
        if (response.isSuccessful()) {
            List<User> users = response.body();
            // Process the list of users
        } else {
            // Handle error
        }
    }

    @Override
    public void onFailure(Call<List<User>> call, Throwable t) {
        // Handle network failure
    }
});

In this example, we call the getUsers() method of the UserService interface. The request is executed asynchronously using enqueue(). In the response callback, we check if the response was successful and process the list of users if it is. If there is an error, we handle it in the error callback. In case of a network failure, the failure callback is triggered.

Retrofit simplifies the process of making network requests, handling responses, and deserializing JSON or other data formats. It provides a clean and intuitive way to communicate with APIs in your Android app, helping you build robust and efficient networking capabilities.

By leveraging third-party UI/UX libraries like Material Components for Android, you can quickly implement professional-looking UIs and provide a seamless user experience in your Android applications.

git remote remove origin-new