Tackling Android Fragmentation

Dev:Mobile 2012 @Glennbech , Inmeta consulting

16 klocs – not rocket science

Source: Twitter / http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_operating_system#Market_share

Nairobi

HTC 3G SLIDE

On saleMay 2010

Got GingerbreadMay 2011

X

Situation report June 2012Android• ICS 7.3% (All versions)• Honeycomb 2.7%• Gingerbread (2.3) dominant @ 65%• Froyo (2.2) still at 19.1 %• As of February 2012 Phones with no

ICS upgrade plan still sold• This will continue

iOS• 61% on iOS 5 or above in 15. days!

Source: http://developer.android.com/resources/dashboard/platform-versions.html

WHO CARES?

Agenda

«Prove that it is feasable, and not overly difficult to, write single APK, native android apps that works well across android versions and form

factors»

ICS/Honeycomb

tabs

ActionBar& Home

Navigation

Action Items

ViewPager

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.glennbech.nutrinfo

ContextualActionbar

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.glennbech.nutrinfo

Tab Navigation

… with ListView

multiselect

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.glennbech.nutrinfo

Android versions

Situation report June 2012Android• ICS 7.3% (All versions)• Honeycomb 2.7%• Gingerbread (2.3) dominant @ 65%• Froyo (2.2) still at 19.1 %• As of February 2012 Phones with no

ICS upgrade plan still sold• This will continue

iOS• 61% on iOS 5 or above in 15. days!

Source: http://developer.android.com/resources/dashboard/platform-versions.html

Androidmanifest.xml

<uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion=”7"android:targetSdkVersion="14” />

Example. Hello worldpublic class TargetSDKVersionExample extends Activity { public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) { super.onCreate(savedInstanceState); }

@Override public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) { MenuInflater inflater = getMenuInflater(); inflater.inflate(R.menu.menu, menu); return true; }}

Example. Menu.xml

<menu ><item android:id="@+id/menu_save«

android:icon="@drawable/ic_menu_save"android:title="@string/menu_save"

android:showAsAction="ifRoom|withText" /></menu>

ICS Gingrerbread

Androidmanifest.xml

<uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion=”7"android:targetSdkVersion="10” />

ICS Gingrerbread

Android Support Libraries

• Official Android 3 & 4 features backported• Very simple to use; download using SDK manager and include

JAR file in project Includes • Fragment API & DialogFragment• Loader API• ViewPager, Pager Adapter & FragmentPagerAdapter• SearchView

• Simple Actionbar implementation provided in samples

source: http://developer.android.com/sdk/compatibility-library.html#SettingUp

Limitations of the support libraries• No action bar

• Code «infection»

• Cannot extend MapActivity since you have to extends custom Activity class

ActionbarSherlock• Written by Jake Whorton• Easy to use (git clone)• Includes & based on support libraries • Elaborate. Support for wide range of

Honeycomb and ICS features • Actionbar• Navigation Modes, Tabs and spinners in the

action bar.• Contextual Action Bar / ActionMode

The ICS feature "split action bar“

• Plugin for MapActvity (!)• www.actionbarsherlock.com• Apache License Version 2.0

ActionbarSherlock #1 IDE

Hello world

A quick summary

• We have used the support libraries, through ActionBarSherlock to get ICS looking apps on pre-ICS phones (back to 1.6 supported)

• The price• Must use a custom theme• Must extends SherlockActivity classes• Must use overloaded methods, and use getSuppportMenuInflater() etc.

Fragments

Fragments crash courseWHAT• Introduced in Android 3.0 • Reusable UI components• Have their own lifecycle• Can add their own items to actionbar etc. WHY• Code Reuse• Fragments are integrated into the ICS SDK

Why - Reuse

http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/fundamentals/fragments.html

Actionbar uses TabListeners for tab navigation

onTabSelected(ActionBar.Tab tab, FragmentTransaction ft)

Source: http://developer.android.com/reference/android/app/ActionBar.TabListener.html

Using fragments - example • Declared in layout• Added/removed from code using FragmentManager

Extreme client programming

Density and Size

HTC Sensation

Button (100dpx100dp)

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1

Huawei IDEOS

Definitions

• xlarge screens are at least 960dp x 720dp.• large screens are at least 640dp x 480dp.• normal screens are at least 470dp x 320dp.• small screens are at least 426dp x 320dp

Best Match layout picking

• Excellent support for providing resources based on device configuration

• Versions• mcc310-mnc004 (US/Verizon)• Car/desk (docking)• Night mode• ETC

Source: http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/resources/providing-resources.html

In practice

• Provide differnet layout for different screens and orientations - backed by the same activity

• Provide a different Activity class for a different device/layout. Example one for phone and one for tablet

Dispatch Activity idiom

DispatchActivity

(condition)

PhoneActivity

TabletActivity

Intent

New Intent

New Intent

Conclusion

• The Android OS and devices are both forward- and backwards compatible in regard to OS versions

• Android has excellent support for layout on devices with different screen sizes and densities

• By using the ActionbarSherlock/Fragment activities you can write code that use fragments and deploy on tablets and phones

• By using ActionbarSherlock you can get the «ICS look» on your Android 1.X + devices today. Including the kindle fire.

“I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened” – Mark Twain