Android

Read more about the article Introduction To Kotlin in SUSI Android App

Introduction To Kotlin in SUSI Android App

Lately, we wrote some of the code of SUSI Android App in Kotlin. Kotlin is a very similar language to Java but with much more advantages than Java. It is easy to adapt and learn. There is no doubt that Kotlin is better than Java but with the announcement of Kotlin Support in Google IO’17 for Android development, Kotlin seems a decent way to write code for an Android App.

Advantages of Kotlin over Java

    1. Reduce Boilerplate Code: It helps making development of app faster as it reduces more than 20 percent of boilerplate code. Writing long statements again and again is a headache for developers. Kotlin comes to rescue in that situation.
    2. Removes Null Pointer Exception: Once a large company faced millions of dollars of loss due to null pointer exception. It causes crashes of apps more often than anything else. Thus Kotlin helps in Null checks and makes app free from Null pointer Exceptions.
    3. Interoperable with Java: Kotlin code and Java code are interoperable. Which means you can write half your code in kotlin and half in Java and it will work like a charm. You can call java methods from Kotlin code and vice versa. So, you can simply move your existing Java based app to Kotlin slowly making your app always running.
    4. Lambda and Inline functions: Yes, Kotlin also has functionalities from functional programming languages. Mainly and most widely used feature of those languages is Lambda functions.
    5. Direct Reference of Views by Id: You do not need to write findViewById(R.id.view_name) or use any other library like Butterknife for view binding. You can simply use the view by its id.
    6. No semicolon:  Last but not the least, you do not need to add a semicolon after each statement. In fact, you do not need to add semicolon at all.

Setting up Android Studio to work with Kotlin

If you have latest Android Studio Canary Version, there is already a build support for Kotlin in it. You need not do anything in that case. But if you don’t have the Canary version, you can add Kotlin Plugin in your Android Studio. Follow the below steps to do that.

  1. Install the Kotlin Plugin:

Android Studio → Preferences… →Plugins → Browse Repository → type “Kotlin” in search box → install

  1. Restart your Android Studio and Rebuild the project. Everything else is already set up in SUSI Android App but if you want to do it for your other apps, follow this link.

Implementation in SUSI Android App

So, I am not going to give unnecessary code but will point out specific things where Kotlin helped a lot to reduce unnecessary code and made the code compact.

1. Listeners:

Earlier with Java

Button signup = (Button) findViewById(R.id.sign_up);

signup.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
            @Override
            public void onClick(View v) {
               startActivity(new Intent(LoginActivity.this, SignUpActivity.class));
            }
        });

Now, with Kotlin

fun signUp() {
   sign_up.setOnClickListener { startActivity(Intent(this@LoginActivity, SignUpActivity::class.java)) }
}

2. Models

With Java

public class MapData {

    private double latitude;
    private double longitude;
    private double zoom;

    public MapData(double latitude, double longitude, double zoom) {
        this.latitude = latitude;
        this.longitude = longitude;
        this.zoom = zoom;
    }

    public double getLatitude() {
        return latitude;
    }

    public void setLatitude(double latitude) {
        this.latitude = latitude;
    }

    public double getLongitude() {
        return longitude;
    }

    public void setLongitude(double longitude) {
        this.longitude = longitude;
    }

    public double getZoom() {
        return zoom;
    }

    public void setZoom(double zoom) {
        this.zoom = zoom;
    }
}

With Kotlin

class MapData (var latitude: Double, var longitude: Double, var zoom: Double)

3. Constructor

With Java

public class LoginPresenter {
    private LoginActivity loginActivity;
    public LoginPresenter(loginActivity: LoginActivity){
        this.loginActivity = loginActivity;
    }
}

With Kotlin

class LoginPresenter(loginActivity: LoginActivity) {
}

Summary

So, this blog was to give you an idea about Kotlin programming language, it’s advantages over java and information how you can set it up on your Android Studio so as to help you a little in understanding the codebase of SUSI Android App a little more.

Resources

  1. Official Kotlin Guide for Syntax Reference and further learning  https://kotlinlang.org/docs/reference/
  2. Blog by Elye on Setting up Kotlin on Android Studio https://android.jlelse.eu/setup-kotlin-for-android-studio-1bffdf1362e8
  3. Youtube Video tutorial by Derek Banas on Kotlin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_oGi8uuDpA
Continue ReadingIntroduction To Kotlin in SUSI Android App
Read more about the article API Error Handling in the Open Event Organizer Android App

API Error Handling in the Open Event Organizer Android App

Open Event Organizer is an Android App for Organizers and Entry Managers. Open Event API server acts as a backend for this App. So basically the App makes data requests to the API and in return, the API performs required actions on the data and sends back the response to the App which is used to display relevant info to the user and to update the App’s local database. The error responses returned by the API need to parse and show the understandable error message to the user.

The App uses Retrofit+OkHttp for making network requests to the API. Hence the request method returns a Throwable in the case of an error in the action. The Throwable contains a string message which can be get using the method named getMessage. But the message is not understandable by the normal user. Open Event Organizer App uses ErrorUtils class for this work. The class has a method which takes a Throwable as a parameter and returns a good error message which is easier to understand to the user.

Relevant code:

public final class ErrorUtils {

   public static final int BAD_REQUEST = 400;
   public static final int UNAUTHORIZED = 401;
   public static final int FORBIDDEN = 403;
   public static final int NOT_FOUND = 404;
   public static final int METHOD_NOT_ALLOWED = 405;
   public static final int REQUEST_TIMEOUT = 408;

   private ErrorUtils() {
       // Never Called
   }

   public static String getMessage(Throwable throwable) {
       if (throwable instanceof HttpException) {
           switch (((HttpException) throwable).code()) {
               case BAD_REQUEST:
                   return "Something went wrong! Please check any empty field if a form.";
               case UNAUTHORIZED:
                   return "Invalid Credentials! Please check your credentials.";
               case FORBIDDEN:
                   return "Sorry, you are not authorized to make this request.";
               case NOT_FOUND:
                   return "Sorry, we couldn't find what you were looking for.";
               case METHOD_NOT_ALLOWED:
                   return "Sorry, this request is not allowed.";
               case REQUEST_TIMEOUT:
                   return "Sorry, request timeout. Please retry after some time.";
               default:
                   return throwable.getMessage();
           }
       }
       return throwable.getMessage();
   }
}

ErrorUtils.java
app/src/main/java/org/fossasia/openevent/app/common/utils/core/ErrorUtils.java

All the error codes are stored as static final fields. It is always a good practice to follow a making the constructor private for a utility class to make sure the class is never initialized anywhere in the app. The method getMessage takes a Throwable and checks if it is an instance of the HttpException to get an HTTP error code. Actually, there are two exceptions – HttpException and IOException. The prior one is returned from the server. In the method by using the error codes, relevant good error messages are returned which are shown to the user in a snackbar layout.

It is always a good practice to show a more understandable user-friendly error messages than simply the default ones which are not clear to the normal user.

Links:
1. List of the HTTP Client Error Codes – Wikipedia Link
2. Class Throwable javadoc

Continue ReadingAPI Error Handling in the Open Event Organizer Android App
Read more about the article Email and Password Validation in Open Event Android

Email and Password Validation in Open Event Android

The Open Event API Server exposes a well documented JSONAPI compliant REST API that can be used in The Open Even Android and Frontend. The Open Event API Server enables the Android and web clients to add the user authentication (sign up/login) in the project. In the process of signing up or logging in user it is needed to validate email and password entered by the user and show the error to give better user experience. In this post I explain how to validate email and password entered by the user using TextInputLayout.

1. Add TextInputLayout

TextInputLayout wraps an EditText (or descendant) to show a floating label when the hint is hidden due to the user inputting text. Add TextInputLayout for email field in the layout as given below.

<android.support.design.widget.TextInputLayout
            android:id="@+id/text_input_layout_email"
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content">

            <android.support.v7.widget.AppCompatEditText
                android:layout_width="match_parent"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:hint="@string/email"
                android:inputType="textEmailAddress" />
</android.support.design.widget.TextInputLayout>

Here the hint attribute is used to display hint in the floating label. Specify the input type so the system displays the appropriate soft input method (such as an on-screen keyboard) for the field. For email EditText we are using textEmailAddress input type. Similarly add TextInputLayout for the password field. The input type for the password is textPassword.

2.  Create and initialize object

Now in the activity create and initialize TextInputLayout and EditText objects for email and password.

@BindView(R.id.text_input_layout_email)
TextInputLayout mTextInputLayoutEmail;
@BindView(R.id.text_input_layout_password)
TextInputLayout mTextInputLayoutPassword;

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    ButterKnife.bind(this);

    private AppCompatEditText mEditTextEmail = (AppCompatEditText) mTextInputLayoutEmail.getEditText();
    private AppCompatEditText mEditTextPassword = (AppCompatEditText) mTextInputLayoutPassword.getEditText();
}

Here we are using ButterKnife for binding views with fields. The getEditText() method returns the EditText view used for text input inside the TextInputLayout.

3.  Create validate() method

Create validate() method which takes two arguments. The first is email and the second password. It will return true if the email and password are valid else false.

private boolean validate(String email, String password) {

        // Reset errors.
        mTextInputLayoutEmail.setError(null);
        mTextInputLayoutPassword.setError(null);

        if (Utils.isEmpty(email)) {
            mTextInputLayoutEmail.setError("Email is required");
            return false;
        } else if (!Utils.isEmailValid(email)) {
            mTextInputLayoutEmail.setError("Enter a valid email");
            return false;
        }

        if (Utils.isEmpty(password)) {
            mTextInputLayoutPassword.setError("Password is required");
            return false;
        } else if (!Utils.isPasswordValid(password)) {
            mTextInputLayoutPassword.setError("Password must contain at least 6 characters");
            return false;
        }

        return true;
}

Here it first resets the error for the TextInputLayout by setting it to null. Then it checks email string if it is empty then it will show “Email is required” error using setError() method.

4.  Create isEmailValid() and isPasswordValid() method

Now create isEmailValid() and isPasswordvalid() method which is used by validate() method. The isEmailValid() method should take email string as an argument and return boolean indicating whether the email is valid or not. The isEmailValid() method uses Pattern and Matcher class to determine if the pattern of input is email or not. The isPasswordValid() method should take password string as an argument and return true if the password is satisfying minimum condition. Here in our case length of the password should be minimum 6.

public static boolean isEmailValid(String email){
        Pattern pattern = Patterns.EMAIL_ADDRESS;
        Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(email);
        return matcher.matches();
}

//Check password with minimum requirement here(it should be minimum 6 characters)
public static boolean isPasswordValid(String password){
        return password.length() >= 6;
}

5.  Use validate() method

Now we are ready to use validate() method when signing up or logging in the user. The getText() method of EditText will return text input.

String email = mEditTextEmail.getText().toString();
String password = mEditTextPassword.getText().toString();

if (validate(email, password)) {
    //Sign up or login User
}

Conclusion

Using TextInputLayout with floating hint label and error handling gives awesome UI and UX.

Continue ReadingEmail and Password Validation in Open Event Android
Read more about the article Using Lombok to Reduce Boilerplate Code in Open Event Android App

Using Lombok to Reduce Boilerplate Code in Open Event Android App

The Open Even App Android project contains data/model classes like Event, Track, Session, Speaker etc which are used to fetch data from the server and store data in the database. Each model contains private fields, getters, setters and toString() method which are used to change data of the object, access data of the object, logging and debugging. Adding all these methods manually makes the code boilerplate.

In this blog post I explain how to use Lombok to reduce boilerplate code in the model class.

Add dependency

To set up Lombok for your application you have to add the dependency in your app module’s build.gradle file.

dependencies {
	provided   "org.projectlombok:lombok:1.16.18"
}

Install Lombok plugin

In addition to setting up your gradle project correctly, you need to add the Lombok IntelliJ plugin to add Lombok support to Android Studio

  1. Go to File > Settings > Plugins
  2. Click on Browse repositories
  3. Search for Lombok Plugin
  4. Click on Install plugin
  5. Restart Android Studio

Write model class

Lombok has annotations to generate Getters, Setters, Constructors, toString(), Equal() and hashCode() methods.

@Getter,  @Setter, @ToString, @EqualsAndHashCode

@Data is a shortcut annotation that bundles the features of @Getter, @Setter, @ToString and @EqualsAndHashCode

Here I am only defining track model because of its simplicity and less complexity.

@Data
public class Track {

    private int id;
    private String name;
    private String description;
    private String color;
    private String fontColor;
    private RealmList<Session> sessions;
}

Create and use object

After defining models you can create an instance of the object and you will notice that you can access all the getters and setters.

Track track = new Track();
track.setName("Android");

String name = track.getName(); // here value of name will be "Android"

You can also specify which fields to include and exclude in the toString(), equals() and hashCode() methods using @ToString, @EqualsAndHashCode annotation. 

@ToString(of={"id", "name"})

@ToString(exclude="color")

@EqualsAndHashCode(of={"id", "name"})

@EqualsAndHashCode(exclude={"color", "fontColor"})

Constructors

Lombok has three methods to generator constructors

  • @NoArgsConstructor: It generates constructor with no parameters
  • @RequiredArgsConstructor: It generates a constructor with 1 parameter for each field that requires special handling.
  • @AllArgsConstructor: It generates a constructor with 1 parameter for each field in your class.

Conclusion

As you can see, Lombok uses succinct annotations to generate methods such as getters, setters, and constructors. It can easily help you get rid of hundreds of lines of boilerplate code. Lombok also allows you to make your code more expressive, concise and can help you avoid some bugs. To learn more about Lombok project follow the links given below.

Continue ReadingUsing Lombok to Reduce Boilerplate Code in Open Event Android App
Read more about the article Creating SharedPreferences Util in Open Event Android

Creating SharedPreferences Util in Open Event Android

In the Open Event Android we have the fragment for schedule, speakers which has the option to sort the list. Schedule Fragment have the option to sort by Title, Tracks and  Start Time. Speakers Fragment has the option to sort by Name, Organization and Country. If the user preferred to sort by name then it should always sort the list by name whenever the user uses the app. For this we need to store user preference for sorting list. Another part of the app like Live feed, About fragment also needs to store event id, facebook page id/name etc.

In Android there is a SharedPreferences class to store key value pair in the App specific storage. To store data in SharedPreferences we need to create SharedPreferences Object in different activities and fragment. In this post I explain how to create SharedPreferences Util which can be used to store key value pairs from all over the App.

1. Create SharedPreferencesUtil Class

The first step is to create SharedPreferncesUtil.java file which will contain static SharedPreferences object.

public class SharedPreferencesUtil {
    ...
}

2. Create static objects

Create static SharedPreferences and SharedPreferences.Editor object in the SharedPreferncesUtil.java file.

private static SharedPreferences sharedPreferences;
private static SharedPreferences.Editor editor;

3. Initialize objects

Now after creating objects initialize them in the static block. The code inside static block is executed only once: The first time you make an object of that class or the first time you access a static member of that class.

static {
        sharedPreferences = OpenEventApp.getAppContext().getSharedPreferences(ConstantStrings.FOSS_PREFS, Context.MODE_PRIVATE);
        editor = sharedPreferences.edit();
}

 

Here make sure to use the Application context to avoid a memory leak. The getSharedPreferences() method takes two arguments name of the shared preference and mode. Here we are using Context.MODE_PRIVATE File creation mode where the created file can only be accessed by the calling application.

4. Add methods

Now create static methods to store data so that we can use these methods directly from the other activities or classes. Here I am only adding methods for integer you can add more methods for String, long, boolean etc.

public static void putInt(String key, int value) {
        editor.putInt(key, value).apply();
}

public static int getInt(String key, int defaultValue) {
        return sharedPreferences.getInt(key, defaultValue);
}

5. Use SharedPreferencesUtil class

Now we are ready to use this Util class to store key value pair in SharedPreferences.

SharedPreferencesUtil.putInt(ConstantStrings.PREF_SORT, sortType);

Here the putInt() methods take two arguments one the key and second the value. To get the stored value use getInt() method.

SharedPreferencesUtil.getInt(ConstantStrings.PREF_SORT, 0);

To know more how I solved this issue in Open Event Project visit this link.

Continue ReadingCreating SharedPreferences Util in Open Event Android
Read more about the article Implementing Experiment Functionality in PSLab Android

Implementing Experiment Functionality in PSLab Android

Using the PSLab Hardware Device, users can perform experiments in various domains like Electronics, Electrical, Physics, School Level experiments, etc. These experiments can be performed using functionalities exposed by hardware device like Programmable Voltage Sources, Programmable Current Source, etc. In this post we will try implementing the functionality to perform an experiment using the PSLab Hardware Device and the PSLab Android App.

Let us take the Ohm’s law experiment as an example and see how it’s implement using the  PSLab Android App.

Ohm’s law states that the current through a conductor between two points is directly proportional to the voltage across the two points, effectively using a constant of proportionality called Resistance (R) where,

R = V / I

Schematic

Layout to perform Ohm’s law experiment

The Ohm’s law experiment requires a variable current, so a seekbar is provided to change the current coming from PCS channel, values of which are continuously reflected in the TextView next to it.

Implementation

The Read button has a listener attached to it. Once it is clicked, the currentValue is updated with the value parsed from the seekbar progress and the selectedChannel variable is assigned from the spinner. These variables are used by the background thread to change the current supplied by current source (PCS pin) of the device and to read the updated voltage from the selected channel of the device.

btnReadVoltage.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
   @Override
   public void onClick(View v) {
       selectedChannel = channelSelectSpinner.getSelectedItem().toString();
       currentValue = Double.parseDouble(tvCurrentValue.getText().toString());
       if (scienceLab.isConnected()) {
           CalcDataPoint calcDataPoint = new CalcDataPoint();
           calcDataPoint.execute();
       } else {
           Toast.makeText(getContext(), "Device not connected", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
       }
   }
});

CalcDataPoint is an AsyncTask which does all the underlying work like setting the current at the PCS channel, reading the voltage from the CH1 channel and triggering the update of the data points on the graph.

private class CalcDataPoint extends AsyncTask<Void, Void, Void> {

   @Override
   protected Void doInBackground(Void... params) {
       scienceLab.setPCS((float) currentValue);
       switch (selectedChannel) {
           case "CH1":
               voltageValue = scienceLab.getVoltage("CH1", 5);
               break;
           case "CH2":
               voltageValue = scienceLab.getVoltage("CH2", 5);
               break;
           case "CH3":
               voltageValue = scienceLab.getVoltage("CH3", 5);
               break;
           default:
               voltageValue = scienceLab.getVoltage("CH1", 5);
       }
       x.add((float) currentValue);
       y.add((float) voltageValue);
       return null;
   }

   @Override
   protected void onPostExecute(Void aVoid) {
       super.onPostExecute(aVoid);
       updateGraph();
   }
}

updateGraph() method is used to update the graph on UI thread. It creates a new dataset from the points which were added by the background thread and refreshes the graph with it using the invalidate() method.

private void updateGraph() {
   tvVoltageValue.setText(df.format(voltageValue));
   List<ILineDataSet> dataSets = new ArrayList<>();
   List<Entry> temp = new ArrayList<>();
   for (int i = 0; i < x.size(); i++) {
       temp.add(new Entry(x.get(i), y.get(i)));
   }
   LineDataSet dataSet = new LineDataSet(temp, "I-V Characteristic");
   dataSet.setColor(Color.RED);
   dataSet.setDrawValues(false);
   dataSets.add(dataSet);
   outputChart.setData(new LineData(dataSets));
   outputChart.invalidate();
}

Roadmap

We are planning to add an option to support multiple trials of the same experiment and save each trails for further reference. App flow to perform experiment is based on Science Journal app by Google.

Resources

  • Article on Ohm’s law and Power on electronics-tutorial
  • To know more about Voltage, Current, Resistance and Ohm’s law, head on to detailed tutorial on sparkfun
  • Implementation of perform experiment functionality in PSLab Desktop App
Continue ReadingImplementing Experiment Functionality in PSLab Android
Read more about the article Performing the Experiments Using the PSLab Android App

Performing the Experiments Using the PSLab Android App

General laboratory experiments can be performed using core functionalities offered by the PSLab hardware device like Programmable Voltage Sources, Programmable Current Source, Analog to Digital Converter, Frequency Counter, Function Generators, etc. In this post we will  have a brief look on a general laboratory experiment and how we can perform it using the  PSLab Android App and the PSLab hardware device.

We are going to take Zener I-V Characteristics Curve experiment as an example to understand how we can perform a general experiment using the PSLab device. First, we will  look at the general laboratory experiment and it’s format. Then we will see how that experiment can be performed using the PSLab Android App and the PSLab Hardware Device.

Experiment Format of General Experiment in Laboratory

AIM: In this experiment, our aim is to observe the relation between the voltage and the corresponding current that was generated. We will then plot it to get the dependence.

Apparatus:

  • A Zener Diode
  • A DC Voltage Supplier
  • Bread Board
  • 100 ohm resistor
  • 2 multimeter for measuring current and voltages
  • Connecting wires

Theory: A Zener Diode is constructed for operation in the reverse breakdown region.The relation between I-V is almost linear in this case, Vz = Vz0 + Iz * Rz , where Rz is the dynamic resistance of the zener at the operating point and Vz0 is the voltage at which the straight-line approximation of the I-V characteristic intersects the horizontal axis. After reaching a certain voltage, called the breakdown voltage, the current increases drastically even for a small change in voltage. However, there is no appreciable change in voltage accompanying this current change. So, when we plot the graph, we get a curve which is very near to the x-axis and nearly parallel to it until a particular potential value, called the Zener potential, is reached. After the Zener potential Vz value, there will be a sudden change and the graph becomes exponential.

Source: learning about electronics

Procedure: Construct the circuit as shown in figure below

Now, start increasing the voltage until a reading in the multimeter for current can be obtained. Note that reading. Now, start increasing the input voltage and take the corresponding current readings. Using the set of readings observed,  construct a V vs I graph. This graph gives us the I-V characteristics. The slope of the curve at any point gives the dynamic resistance at that voltage.

Result: The Characteristic curve has been verified after plotting V-I data points on the graph.

Experiment format in PSLab Android App

We have a ViewPager that renders two fragments:

  1. Experiment Doc– It consists of information like the Aim of experiment, Schematic, Output screenshot that we will get after the experiment has been performed.
  2. Experiment Setup– It consists of the setup to configure the PSLab device. This fragment is analogous to the experiment apparatus of the laboratory.  

Below is a gif showing the experiment doc of the Zener I-V experiment which is to be performed using the PSLab device. It consists of a schematic and a screenshot of the output that we get after performing the experiment.

Source: PSLab Android

Make the circuit connections on a breadboard as shown in the schematic. After the circuit is complete we need to configure experiment.

Source: PSLab Android

To configure the experiment, we give the initial voltage, the final voltage and the step size. After clicking on START EXPERIMENT, the voltage is varied on the PV1 channel from the initial voltage to final voltage by increasing the voltage in step size. At each variation of voltage, the current is calculated by dividing the voltage difference between resistor by its resistance value i.e

I = ( VPV1 - VCH1 ) / R

As soon as the initial voltage reaches the final voltage, the experiment stops and data points are plotted on the graph. From the graph we can see the change in the current through a zener diode when the voltage varies across it’s terminals.

The output that was obtained after the experiment is I-V characteristic curve for Zener Diode as shown in the image below.

It can be clearly seen that after the breakdown voltage (~0.7V) the  current increases drastically with respect to the  increase in the voltage. After this point, the voltage can be considered  nearly constant unlike the current which varies exponentially.

In the PSLab Android App, there are read-back errors while reading bytes serially from the PSLab Hardware Device. As a result, the data points are not read accurately and an inaccurate plot is generated on the graph as shown in the image below.

Source: PSLab Android

Resources

Continue ReadingPerforming the Experiments Using the PSLab Android App
Read more about the article How to Make Phimpme Android App Crash Free

How to Make Phimpme Android App Crash Free

Now Phimpme Android app is almost ready with lots of social sharing options. A user can upload images on multiple platforms like Tumblr, Flickr, Imgur, OwnCloud (open source), Nextcloud, dropbox, pinterest, etc. Apart from Sharing, Phimpme app also allow user to click image from own custom camera with different filters and various editing options. As everything is now almost ready so It also important to make app stable and crash free. To make app stable to compatible with all types of device, we can write instrumentation test cases. So in this post I will be explaining how I made Phimpme android app crash free. To do so I have integrated crash reporting service in Phimpme using Firebase Crash report service and Crashlytics.

Using Firebase Crash Reporting service:

Firebase is free of cost and provide various features along with crash reporting. To integrate firebase crash service there is step by step guide.

Step 1:

First, step is to register your app on firebase developer console. To register your Android app on firebase click here.  Add your app name and select your country.

 

Step 2:

Next, click on the Add Firebase to your Android app button and fill in the your Android application’s package name and the SHA-1 key. You can generate this key very easily with the help of Android studio. Type this command in your terminal to generate SHA-1

keytool -list -v -keystore ~/.android/debug.keystore -alias androiddebugkey -storepass android -keypass android

On successful completion of the command, the SHA-1 key will be displayed on the terminal.

Step 3:

Now add the SHA-1 and package name in firebase console. After that download googleservice.json file and place in app folder of your project.

Step 4:

Add following dependency in your android project and plugin in build.gradle 

dependencies {
    classpath 'com.google.gms:google-services:3.1.0'
  }
 apply plugin: 'com.google.gms.google-services'


Step 5:

Once you have done the above four steps your app will be visible in firebase console and now you can add crash service. Now you can see crash in your firebase console

After this add the following dependency in build.gradle. This is very important.

compile 'com.google.firebase:firebase-crash:9.4.0'

Resources:

Continue ReadingHow to Make Phimpme Android App Crash Free
Read more about the article SPI Communication in PSLab

SPI Communication in PSLab

PSLab supports communication using the Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) protocol. The Desktop App as well as the Android App have the framework set-up to use this feature. SPI protocol is mainly used by a few sensors which can be connected to PSLab. For supporting SPI communication, the PSLab Communication library has a dedicated class defined for SPI. A brief overview of how SPI communication works and its advantages & limitations can be found here.

The class dedicated for SPI communication with numerous methods defined in them. The methods required for a particular SPI sensor may differ slightly, however, in general most sensors utilise a certain common set of methods. The set of methods that are commonly used are listed below with their functions.

In the setParameters method, the SPI parameters like Clock Polarity (CKP/CPOL), Clock Edge (CKE/CPHA), SPI modes (SMP) and other parameters like primary and secondary prescalar which are specific to the device used.

Primary Prescaler (0,1,2,3) for 64MHz clock->(64:1,16:1,4:1,1:1)

Secondary prescaler (0,1,..7)->(8:1,7:1,..1:1)

The values of CKP/CPOL and CKE/CPHA needs to set using the following convention and according to our requirements.

  • At CPOL=0 the base value of the clock is zero, i.e. the idle state is 0 and active state is 1.
    • For CPHA=0, data is captured on the clock’s rising edge (low→high transition) and data is changed at the falling edge (high→low transition).
    • For CPHA=1, data is captured on the clock’s falling edge (high→low transition) and data is changed at the rising edge (low→high transition).
  • At CPOL=1 the base value of the clock is one (inversion of CPOL=0), i.e. the idle state is 1 and active state is 0.
    • For CPHA=0, data is captured on the clock’s falling edge (high→low transition) and data is changed at the rising edge (low→high transition).
    • For CPHA=1, data is captured on the clock’s rising edge (low→high transition) and data is changed at the falling edge (high→low transition).

public void setParameters(int primaryPreScalar, int secondaryPreScalar, Integer CKE, Integer CKP, Integer SMP) throws IOException {
        if (CKE != null) this.CKE = CKE;
        if (CKP != null) this.CKP = CKP;
        if (SMP != null) this.SMP = SMP;

        packetHandler.sendByte(commandsProto.SPI_HEADER);
        packetHandler.sendByte(commandsProto.SET_SPI_PARAMETERS);
        packetHandler.sendByte(secondaryPreScalar | (primaryPreScalar << 3) | (this.CKE << 5) | (this.CKP << 6) | (this.SMP << 7));
        packetHandler.getAcknowledgement();
    }

 

The start method is responsible for sending the instruction to initiate the SPI communication and it takes the channel which will be used for communication as input. 

public void start(int channel) throws IOException {
        packetHandler.sendByte(commandsProto.SPI_HEADER);
        packetHandler.sendByte(commandsProto.START_SPI);
        packetHandler.sendByte(channel);
    }

 

The setCS method is responsible for selecting the slave with which the SPI communication has to be done. This feature of SPI communication is known as Chip Select (CS) or Slave Select (SS). A master can use multiple Chip/Slave Select pins for communication whereas a slave utilises just one pin as SPI is based on single master multiple slaves principle. The capacity of PSLab is limited to two slave devices at a time.

public void setCS(String channel, int state) throws IOException {
        String[] chipSelect = new String[]{"CS1", "CS2"};
        channel = channel.toUpperCase();
        if (Arrays.asList(chipSelect).contains(channel)) {
            int csNum = Arrays.asList(chipSelect).indexOf(channel) + 9;
            packetHandler.sendByte(commandsProto.SPI_HEADER);
            if (state == 1)
                packetHandler.sendByte(commandsProto.STOP_SPI);
            else
                packetHandler.sendByte(commandsProto.START_SPI);
            packetHandler.sendByte(csNum);
        } else {
            Log.d(TAG, "Channel does not exist");
        }
    }

 

The stop method is responsible for sending the instruction to the stop the communication with the slave.

public void stop(int channel) throws IOException {
        packetHandler.sendByte(commandsProto.SPI_HEADER);
        packetHandler.sendByte(commandsProto.STOP_SPI);
        packetHandler.sendByte(channel);
    }

 

PSLab SPI class has methods defined for sending either 8-bit or 16-bit data over SPI which are further classified on whether they request the acknowledgement byte (it helps to know whether the communication was successful or unsuccessful) or not.

The methods are so named send8, send16, send8_burst and send16_burst . The burst methods do not request any acknowledgement value and as a result work faster than the normal methods.

public int send16(int value) throws IOException {
        packetHandler.sendByte(commandsProto.SPI_HEADER);
        packetHandler.sendByte(commandsProto.SEND_SPI16);
        packetHandler.sendInt(value);
        int retValue = packetHandler.getInt();
        packetHandler.getAcknowledgement();
        return retValue;
    }

 

Resources:

Continue ReadingSPI Communication in PSLab
Read more about the article Binding Images Dynamically in Open Event Orga App

Binding Images Dynamically in Open Event Orga App

In Open Event Orga App (Github Repo), we used Picasso to load images from URLs and display in ImageViews. Picasso is easy to use, lightweight, and extremely configurable but there has been no new release of the library since 2015. We were using Picasso in binding adapters in order to dynamically load images using POJO properties in the layout XML itself using Android Data Binding. But this configuration was a little buggy.

The first time the app was opened, Picasso fetched the image but it was not applied to the ImageView. When the device was rotated or the activity was resumed, it loaded just fine. This was a critical issue and we tried many things to fix it but none of it quite fit our needs. We considered moving on to other Image Loading libraries like Glide, etc but it was too heavy on the size and functionality for our needs. The last resort was to update the library to develop version using Sonatype’s snapshots Repository. Now, the Picasso v2.6.0-SNAPSHOT is very stable but not released to the maven central repository, and a newer develop version v3.0.0-SNAPSHOT was launched too. So we figured we should use that. This blog will outline the steps to include the develop version of Picasso, configuring it for our needs and making it work with Android Data Binding.

Setting up Dependencies

Firstly, we need to include the sonatype repository in the repositories block of our app/build.gradle

repositories {
   ...
   maven { url 'https://oss.sonatype.org/content/repositories/snapshots/' }
}

 

Then we need to replace the Picasso dependency entry to this:

compile 'com.squareup.picasso:picasso:3.0.0-SNAPSHOT'

 

Note that if you used Jake Wharton’s OkHttp3 Downloader for Picasso, you won’t need it now, so you need to remove it from the dependency block

And you need to use this to import the downloader

import com.squareup.picasso.OkHttp3Downloader;

 

Next, we set up our Picasso DI this way

Picasso providesPicasso(Context context, OkHttpClient client) {
   Picasso picasso = new Picasso.Builder(context)
       .downloader(new OkHttp3Downloader(client))
       .build();
   picasso.setLoggingEnabled(true);
   return picasso;
}

 

Set the singleton instance in our application:

Picasso.setSingletonInstance(picasso);

 

And we are ready to use it.

Creating Adapters

Circular Image Adapter

We show event logos as circular images, so we needed to create a binding adapter for that:

@BindingAdapter("circleImageUrl")
public static void bindCircularImage(ImageView imageView, String url) {
   if(TextUtils.isEmpty(url)) {
       imageView.setImageResource(R.drawable.ic_photo_shutter);
       return;
   }

   Picasso.with()
       .load(Uri.parse(url))
       .error(R.drawable.ic_photo_shutter)
       .placeholder(R.drawable.ic_photo_shutter)
       .transform(new CircleTransform())
       .tag(MainActivity.class)
       .into(imageView);
}

 

If the URL is empty, we just show the default photo, and otherwise we load the image into the view using standard CircleTransform

Note that there is no context argument in the with method. This was implemented in Picasso recently where they removed the need for context for loading images. Now, they use a Dummy ContentProvider to get application context, which is inspired by how Firebase does it.

Now, we can just normally use this binding in layout to load the event thumbnail like this

<ImageView
   android:layout_width="@dimen/image_small"
   android:layout_height="@dimen/image_small"
   android:contentDescription="@string/event_thumbnail"
   app:circleImageUrl="@{event.thumbnailImageUrl}" />

 

This gives us a layout like this:

Next we need to load the header image with a deafult image.

Default Image Adapter

For this, we write a very simple adapter without CircleTransform

@BindingAdapter(value = { "imageUrl", "placeholder" }, requireAll = false)
public static void bindDefaultImage(ImageView imageView, String url, Drawable drawable) {
   if(TextUtils.isEmpty(url)) {
       if (drawable != null)
           imageView.setImageDrawable(drawable);
       return;
   }

   RequestCreator requestCreator = Picasso.with().load(Uri.parse(url));

   if (drawable != null) {
       requestCreator
           .placeholder(drawable)
           .error(drawable);
   }

   requestCreator
       .tag(MainActivity.class)
       .into(imageView);
}

 

As imageUrl or placeholder can be null, we check for both, and setting correct images if they are not. We use this in our header layout with both the url and default image we need to show:

<ImageView
   android:scaleType="centerCrop"
   app:imageUrl="@{ event.largeImageUrl }"
   app:placeholder="@{ @drawable/header }"
   android:contentDescription="@string/event_background" />

 

And this gives us a nice dynamic header like this:

This wraps up the blog on Picasso’s latest develop version and Binding Adapters. If you want to know more about Picasso and Android Data Binding, check these links:

Continue ReadingBinding Images Dynamically in Open Event Orga App