Implementing Tree View in PSLab Android App

When a task expands over sub tasks, it can be easily represented by a stem and leaf diagram. In the context of android it can be implemented using an expandable list view. But in a scenario where the subtasks has mini tasks appended to it, it is hard to implement it using the general two level expandable list views. PSLab android application supports many experiments to perform using the PSLab device. These experiments are divided into major sections and each experiments are listed under them.

The best way to implement this functionality in the android application is using a multi layer treeview implementation. In this context three layers are enough as follows;


This was implemented with the help from a library called AndroidTreeView. This blog will outline how to modify and implement it in PSLab android application.

Basic Idea

Tree view implementation simply follows the data structure “Tree” used in algorithms. Every tree has a root where it starts and from the root there will be branches which are connected using edges. Every edge will have a parent and child. To reach a child, one has to traverse through only one route.

Setting Up Dependencies

Implementing tree view begins with setting up dependencies in the gradle file in the project.

compile 'com.github.bmelnychuk:atv:1.2.+'

Creating UI for tree view

The speciality about this implementation is that it can be loaded into any kind of a layout such as a linearlayout, relativelayout, framelayout etc.

final TreeNode Root = TreeNode.root();
Root.addChildren(
       // Add child nodes here
);
// Set up the tree view
AndroidTreeView experimentsListTree = new AndroidTreeView(getActivity(), Root);
experimentsListTree.setDefaultAnimation(true);
[LinearLayout/RelativeLayout].addView(experimentsListTree.getView());

Creating a node holder

Trees are made of a collection of tree nodes. A holder for a tree node can be created using an object which extends the BaseNodeViewHolder class provided by the library. BaseNodeViewHolder requires a holder class which is generally static so that it can be accessed without creating an instance which nests textviews, imageviews and buttons.

Once the holder extends the BaseNodeViewHolder, it should override two methods as follows;

@Override
public View createNodeView(final TreeNode node, ClassContainingNodeData header) {

}

@Override
public void toggle(boolean active) {

}

createNodeView() which inflate the view and toggle() method which can be used to toggle clicks on the tree node in the UI.

The following code snippet shows how to create an object which extends the above mentioned class with the overridden methods.

public class ExperimentHeaderHolder extends TreeNode.BaseNodeViewHolder<ExperimentHeaderHolder.ExperimentHeader> {

    private ImageView arrow;

    public ExperimentHeaderHolder(Context context) {
            super(context);
    }

    @Override
    public View createNodeView(final TreeNode node, ExperimentHeader header) {

            final LayoutInflater inflater = LayoutInflater.from(context);
            final View view = inflater.inflate(R.layout.header_holder, null, false);

            TextView title = (TextView) view.findViewById(R.id.title);
            title.setText(header.title);

            arrow = (ImageView) view.findViewById(R.id.experiment_arrow);
        
            return view;
    }

    @Override
    public void toggle(boolean active) {
            arrow.setImageResource(active ? arrow_drop_up : arrow_drop_down);
    }

    public static class ExperimentHeader {

            public String title;

            public ExperimentHeader(String title) {
               this.title = title;
            }
    }
}

Creating a TreeNode

Once the holder is complete, we can move on to creating an actual tree node. TreeNode class requires an object which extends the BaseNodeViewHolder class as mentioned earlier. Also it requires a viewholder which it can use to inflate the view in the tree layout. The viewholder can be a different class. The importance of this different implementation can be explained as follows;

TreeNode treeNode = new TreeNode(new ExperimentHeaderHolder.ExperimentHeader(“Title”))
       .setViewHolder(new ExperimentHeaderHolder(context));

In the Saved Experiments section of PSLab android application, all the three levels shouldn’t implement the toggle behavior as a user clicks on the experiment (last level item), he doesn’t expect the icon to change like the ones in headers where an arrow points up and down when he clicks on it. In this case we can reuse a holder which has the title attribute while creating only a holder which does not override the toggle function to ignore icon toggling at the last level of the tree view. This explanation can be illustrated using a code snippet as follows;

new TreeNode(new ExperimentHeaderHolder.ExperimentHeader(“Title”))
       .setViewHolder(new IndividualExperimentHolder(context));

Creating parent nodes and finally the Root node

The final part of the implementation is to create parent nodes to group up similar experiments together. The TreeNode object supports a method call addChild() and addChildren(). addChild() method allows adding one tree node to the specific tree node and addChildren() method allows adding many tree nodes at the same time. Following code snippet illustrates how to add many tree nodes to a node and make it a parent node.

treeDiodeExperiments.addChildren(treeZener, treeDiode, treeDiodeClamp, treeDiodeClip, treeHalfRectifier, treeFullWave);

Setting a click listener

Click listener is a very important implementation. Each tree node can be attached with a click listener using the interface provided by the library as follows;

treeNode.setClickListener(new TreeNode.TreeNodeClickListener() {
   @Override
   public void onClick(TreeNode node, Object value) {

   }
});

The value object is the class attached to the holder and its attributes can be retireved by casting it to the specific class using casting methods;

String title = ((ExperimentHeaderHolder.ExperimentHeader) value).title;

Resources:

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Developing Control Panel for Sensor Activity in PSLab Android

Once we are able to capture data from the sensor using the PSLab device and stimulate it on PSLab Android App, we now require to provide the user various control options. These control options help the user to customize the data captures from the sensors. These options are available for all the sensors.

  • Number of samples: This allows the user to enter the number of samples he/she wants to capture.
  • Indefinite mode: This allows the user to capture indefinite samples from the sensors.
  • Play/Pause: This allows the user to start or pause the capture anytime.
  • Time-gap: User can set the time-gap between each sample capture.

Let’s discuss how to implement these control options in PSLab Android.

Creating layout for Control Panel

Initially, a control panel is created. A separate layout is created for the same in the sensor activity. Inside the layout, we added

  • An Image-Button which works as a play and pause button
  • An Edit-Text in which the user can enter the number of samples to be captured.
  • A Check-Box which enables indefinite sample capture.
  • A Seek-Bar which sets the time-gap between each sample capture.

Adding functionality to widgets.

Image-Button on-click listener has two roles to play. One role is to change the play image to pause image or vice versa and another is to set boolean variable true or false. This variable is used to stop or start the thread which is involved in fetching data from the sensor.

playPauseButton.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
   @Override
   public void onClick(View v) {
       if (play) {
           playPauseButton.setImageResource(R.drawable.play);
           play = false;
       } else {
           playPauseButton.setImageResource(R.drawable.pause);
           play = true;
       }
   }
});

The play variable can be accessed by the different fragment to pause or resume the capture of the data from the sensors.

if (scienceLab.isConnected() && ((SensorActivity) getActivity()).play) {
//rest of the code
}

The number entered in the Edit-Box work as the maximum limit of samples to be captured. For this, a simple counter function is implemented. If the count value reaches the value in Edit-Box the thread is AsyncTask for fetching sensor data is not called any further. Enabling the Check-Box, disables the Edit-Box and hence eliminate the role of counter function resulting in AsyncTask (for fetching sensor data) being called indefinitely.

Time gap Seek-Bar sets the delay between each time AsyncTask for fetching sensor data is called. The thread sleeps for  the time selected in the Seek-Bar before AsyncTask is called again. Here is the code snippet for it.

try {
   Thread.sleep(((SensorActivity) getActivity()).timegap);
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
   e.printStackTrace();
}

This implements control panel for sensor activity in PSLab Android. To follow the entire code, click here.

Resources

Stack Overflow solution on how to change Imagebutton’s image onClick.

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Implementing Tweet Search feature in Loklak Wok Android

Loklak Wok Android is a peer harvester that posts collected tweets to the Loklak Server. Along with that tweets can be searched using the app. This post describes how search API endpoint and TabLayout is used to implement the tweet searching feature.

Adding Dependencies to the project

This feature uses Retrofit2, Reactive extensions(RxJava2, RxAndroid and Retrofit RxJava adapter) and RetroLambda (for Java lambda support in Android).

In app/build.gradle:

apply plugin: 'com.android.application'
apply plugin: 'me.tatarka.retrolambda'

android {
   ...
   packagingOptions {
       exclude 'META-INF/rxjava.properties'
   }
}

dependencies {
   ...
   compile 'com.google.code.gson:gson:2.8.1'

   compile 'com.squareup.retrofit2:retrofit:2.3.0'
   compile 'com.squareup.retrofit2:converter-gson:2.3.0'
   compile 'com.squareup.retrofit2:adapter-rxjava2:2.3.0'

   compile 'io.reactivex.rxjava2:rxjava:2.0.5'
   compile 'io.reactivex.rxjava2:rxandroid:2.0.1'
}

 

In build.gradle project level:

dependencies {
   classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:2.3.3'
   classpath 'me.tatarka:gradle-retrolambda:3.2.0'
}

 

Implementation

The search API endpoint is defined in LoklakApi interface which would provide the tweet search result.

public interface LoklakApi {

   @GET("api/search.json")
   Observable<Search> getSearchedTweets(
           @Query("q") String query,
           @Query("filter") String filter,
           @Query("count") int count);
}

 

The POJOs (Plain Old Java Objects) for the result of search API endpoint are obtained using jsonschema2pojo, Gson uses POJOs to convert JSON to Java objects and vice-versa.

The REST client is created by Retrofit2 and is implemented in RestClient class. The Gson converter and RxJava adapter for retrofit is added in the retrofit builder. create method is called to generate the API methods(retrofit implements LoklakApi Interface).

public class RestClient {

   private RestClient() {
   }

   private static void createRestClient() {
       sRetrofit = new Retrofit.Builder()
               .baseUrl(BASE_URL)
               // gson converter
               .addConverterFactory(GsonConverterFactory.create(gson))
               // retrofit adapter for rxjava
               .addCallAdapterFactory(RxJava2CallAdapterFactory.create())
               .build();
   }

   private static Retrofit getRetrofitInstance() {
       if (sRetrofit == null) {
           createRestClient();
       }
       return sRetrofit;
   }

   public static <T> T createApi(Class<T> apiInterface) {
       // create method to generate API methods
       return getRetrofitInstance().create(apiInterface);
   }

}

 

As search API endpoint provides filter parameter which can be used to filter out tweets containing images and videos. So, the tweets are displayed in three categories i.e. latest, images and videos.

The tweets of different category are displayed using a ViewPager. The fragments in ViewPager are inflated by a class that extends FragmentPagerAdapter. SearchFragmentPagerAdapter extends FragmentPagerAdapter, at least two methods getItem and getCount needs to be overridden. Going by the name of methods, getItem provides ith fragment to the  ViewPager and based on the value returned by getCount number of tabs are inflated in TabLayout, a ViewGroup to display fragments in ViewPager in an elegant way. For better UI, the names (here the category of tweets) are displayed, for which we override getPageTitle method.

public class SearchFragmentPagerAdapter extends FragmentPagerAdapter {

   private List<Fragment>  mFragmentList = new ArrayList<>();
   private List<String> mFragmentNameList = new ArrayList<>();

   public SearchFragmentPagerAdapter(FragmentManager fm) {
       super(fm);
   }

   @Override
   public Fragment getItem(int position) {
       return mFragmentList.get(position);
   }

   @Override
   public int getCount() {
       return mFragmentList.size();
   }

   @Override
   public CharSequence getPageTitle(int position) {
       return mFragmentNameList.get(position);
   }

   public void addFragment(Fragment fragment, String pageTitle) {
       mFragmentList.add(fragment);
       mFragmentNameList.add(pageTitle);
   }
}

 

For easy understanding an analogy with RecyclerView can be made. The TabLayout here functions as a RecyclerView, ViewPager does the work of LayoutManager and FragmentPagerAdapter is analogous to RecyclerView.Adapter.

Now, the fragments which contain the categorical tweets are inflated in the parent fragment. Firstly, the ViewPager of TabLayout is set. Then fragments and their names are added to the FragmentPagerAdapter using the addFragment method implemented in SearchFragmentAdapter class above and finally the created adapter is set as the adapter of ViewPager, which is implemented in setupWithViewPager method.

@Override
public View onCreateView(LayoutInflater inflater, ViewGroup container,
                        Bundle savedInstanceState) {
   // Inflate the layout for this fragment
   View rootView = inflater.inflate(R.layout.fragment_search, container, false);
   ButterKnife.bind(this, rootView);
   ...
   tabLayout.setupWithViewPager(viewPager);
   setupViewPager(viewPager);

   return rootView;
}

private void setupViewPager(ViewPager viewPager) {
   FragmentManager fragmentManager = getActivity().getSupportFragmentManager();
   SearchFragmentPagerAdapter pagerAdapter = new SearchFragmentPagerAdapter(fragmentManager);
   pagerAdapter.addFragment(SearchCategoryFragment.newInstance("", mQuery), "LATEST");
   pagerAdapter.addFragment(SearchCategoryFragment.newInstance("image", mQuery), "PHOTOS");
   pagerAdapter.addFragment(SearchCategoryFragment.newInstance("video", mQuery), "VIDEOS");
   viewPager.setAdapter(pagerAdapter);
}

 

SearchCategoryFragment are child fragments displayed as tabs in TabLayout. These child fragments are created using newInstance method which takes two parameters, category of tweets and the tweet search query respectively, the reason a constructor with these parameters are not used is that during a orientation change only the default constructor i.e. with no parameters is restored by Android system. So, these parameters are stored in a data structure called Bundle, once the fragment object is created using the default parameter the arguments present in the bundle are passed to fragment using setArguments method. These parameter are retrieved in onCreate lifecycle callback method of fragment which are used to fetch search results.

public static SearchCategoryFragment newInstance(String category, String query) {
   Bundle args = new Bundle();
   // query and category stored in bundle
   args.putString(Constants.TWEET_SEARCH_SUGGESTION_QUERY_KEY, query);
   args.putString(TWEET_SEARCH_CATEGORY_KEY, category);
   // fragment with default constructor created
   SearchCategoryFragment fragment = new SearchCategoryFragment();
   // arguments in bundle are passed to fragment
   fragment.setArguments(args);
   return fragment;
}

@Override
public void onCreate(@Nullable Bundle savedInstanceState) {
   super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
   Bundle bundle = getArguments();
   if (bundle != null) {
       // arguments retrieved
       mTweetSearchCategory = bundle.getString(TWEET_SEARCH_CATEGORY_KEY);
       mSearchQuery = bundle.getString(Constants.TWEET_SEARCH_SUGGESTION_QUERY_KEY);
   }
}

 

As we have search query and category we can now obtain the search result and pass the obtained result – a List of type Status – to the adapter of RecyclerView which shows the tweets beautifully inside a CardView. The adapter and LayoutManager of RecyclerView are instantiated and set in onCreateView lifecycle callback method. Finally, network request is sent by calling fetchSearchedTweets method to obtain the search results.

@Override
public View onCreateView(LayoutInflater inflater, ViewGroup container,
                        Bundle savedInstanceState) {
   // Inflate the layout for this fragment
   View view = inflater.inflate(R.layout.fragment_search_category, container, false);
   ButterKnife.bind(this, view);

   mSearchCategoryAdapter = new SearchCategoryAdapter(getActivity(), new ArrayList<>());
   recyclerView.setLayoutManager(new LinearLayoutManager(getActivity()));
   recyclerView.setAdapter(mSearchCategoryAdapter);

   // request sent to obtain search result.
   fetchSearchedTweets();

   return view;
}

 

The LoklakApi interface is implemented using the created Rest client and then getSearchedTweets method is invoked which takes in search query, category of tweets and maximum number of results in the mentioned order. If the network request is successful then setSearchResultView is invoked else setNetworkErrorView.

private void fetchSearchedTweets() {
   LoklakApi loklakApi = RestClient.createApi(LoklakApi.class);
   loklakApi.getSearchedTweets(mSearchQuery, mTweetSearchCategory, 30)
           .subscribeOn(Schedulers.io()) // network request sent in a background thread
           .observeOn(AndroidSchedulers.mainThread())
           .subscribe(this::setSearchResultView, this::setNetworkErrorView);
}

 

setSearchResultView displays the obtained result if any in RecyclerView else shows a message that there is no result for the search query.

private void setSearchResultView(Search search) {
   List<Status> statusList = search.getStatuses();
   networkErrorTextView.setVisibility(View.GONE);
   if (statusList.size() == 0) { // request successful but no results
       recyclerView.setVisibility(View.GONE);

       Resources res = getResources();
       String noSearchResultMessage = res.getString(R.string.no_search_match, mSearchQuery); // no result matched message
       // no result message displayed
       noSearchResultFoundTextView.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
       noSearchResultFoundTextView.setText(noSearchResultMessage);
   } else { // there are some results, so display them in RecyclerView
       recyclerView.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
       mSearchCategoryAdapter.setStatuses(statusList);
   }
}

 

In case of a failed network request, a TextView is displayed asking the user to check the network connections and click on it to retry.

private void setNetworkErrorView(Throwable throwable) {
   Log.e(LOG_TAG, throwable.toString());
   recyclerView.setVisibility(View.GONE);
   networkErrorTextView.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
}

 

When the TextView, networkErrorTextView, is clicked a network request is sent again and the visibility of networkErrorTextView is changed to GONE, as implemented in setOnClickNetworkErrorTextViewListner

@OnClick(R.id.network_error)
public void setOnClickNetworkErrorTextViewListener() {
   networkErrorTextView.setVisibility(View.GONE);
   fetchSearchedTweets();
}

 

References:

Resources

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Upload Images to OwnCloud and NextCloud in Phimpme Android

As increasing the stack of account manager in Phimpme Android. We have now two new items OwnCloud and NextCloud to add. Both are open source storage services. Provides complete source code of their official apps and libraries on Github. You can check below

OwnCloud: https://github.com/owncloud

NextCloud: https://github.com/nextcloud

This requires a hosting server, where you can deploy it and access it through their web app and Mobile apps. I added a feature in Phimpme to upload images directly to the server right from the app using their android-library.

Steps (How I did in Phimpme)

  • Add library in Application gradle file

Firstly, to work with, we need to add the android-library they provide.

compile "com.github.nextcloud:android-library:$rootProject.nextCloudVersion"

Check the new version from here and apply over it: https://github.com/nextcloud/android-library/releases

  • Login from Account Manager

As per our Phimpme app flow, User first connect itself from the account manager and then share image from app using these credentials. Added a new Login activity for OwnCloud and NextCloud both.

          

  • Saved credentials in Database

To use that further in android-library, I store the credentials in Realm database.

account.setServerUrl(data.getStringExtra(getString(R.string.server_url)));
account.setUsername(data.getStringExtra(getString(R.string.auth_username)));
account.setPassword(data.getStringExtra(getString(R.string.auth_password)));
  • Uploading image using library

As per the official guide of OwnCloud, used Created an object of OwnCloudClient. Set the username and password.

private OwnCloudClient mClient;
mClient = OwnCloudClientFactory.createOwnCloudClient(serverUri, this, true);
mClient.setCredentials(
       OwnCloudCredentialsFactory.newBasicCredentials(
               username,
               password
       )
);

Passed the image path which we are getting in the SharingActivity. Modified with adding the separator.

File fileToUpload = new File(saveFilePath);
String remotePath = FileUtils.PATH_SEPARATOR + fileToUpload.getName();

Used the UploadRemoteOperation Class and just need to pass the path, mimeType and timeStamp. The library have already defined functions to execute the upload operations.

UploadRemoteFileOperation uploadOperation =
       new UploadRemoteFileOperation(fileToUpload.getAbsolutePath(), remotePath, mimeType, timeStamp);
uploadOperation.execute(mClient, this, mHandler);

  • Setup Account using Docker and Digital Ocean

I have already a previous blog post on how to setup NextCloud or OwnCloud account on server using Digital Ocean and Docker.

Link: https://blog.fossasia.org/how-to-use-digital-ocean-and-docker-to-setup-test-cms-for-phimpme/

Resource:

  1. NextCloud Developer Mannual: https://docs.nextcloud.com/server/9/developer_manual/index.html
  2. OwnCloud Library installation: https://doc.owncloud.org/server/9.0/developer_manual/android_library/library_installation.html
  3. Examples: https://doc.owncloud.org/server/9.0/developer_manual/android_library/examples.html
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Common Utility classes Progress Bar and Snack Bar in Phimpme Android

As the Phimpme Android is scaling very fast on its features, code gets redundant sometimes. Some of the widely used design widgets in Android are Progress Bar and Snack Bar. Progress Bar is shown to user when some process is happening in the background. Snackbar is a feedback operation to user of its recent process. In other words we can say Snackbar is the new toast in Android with a cool feature of setting action on them. So that User can interact with the feedback received on the process.

As In Phimpme lots of account Login and Logout progress happens. Uploading success and failure required Snackbar to show to the Users. So to remove the redundancy of the boilerplate of these codes, I added two Utilities class one is Phimpme ProgressbarHandler and other is SnackbarHandler in the app. Below is one by one code and explanation of both.

Progress Bar Handler

In the constructor I passed Context as parameter. Created a ViewGroup object and set view of android. Setting the progress bar style and length using Android core attributes such as progressBarStyleLarge and duration to setIndeterminate true.

private ProgressBar mProgressBar;

public PhimpmeProgressBarHandler(Context context) {
   ViewGroup layout = (ViewGroup) ((Activity) context).findViewById(android.R.id.content)
           .getRootView();

   mProgressBar = new ProgressBar(context, null, android.R.attr.progressBarStyleLarge);
   mProgressBar.setIndeterminate(true);



   RelativeLayout.LayoutParams params = new
           RelativeLayout.LayoutParams(RelativeLayout.LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT,
           RelativeLayout.LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT);

   RelativeLayout rl = new RelativeLayout(context);

   rl.setGravity(Gravity.CENTER);
   rl.addView(mProgressBar);

   layout.addView(rl, params);

   hide();

}

Next is used dynamically created Relative Layout object and setup the parameters for width and height as MATCH_PARENT. Setting gravity of the layout to center and added the progress bar view on it using the addView method. So basically we have a progress bar ready and we dynamically created a relative layout and added the view over it.

The function used in setting up the views and progress bar are from AOSP only.

After that a Progressbar is set, we now need functions to show and hide the progress bar in the code. Created two functions show() and hide().

public void show() {
   mProgressBar.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
}

public void hide() {
   mProgressBar.setVisibility(View.INVISIBLE);
}

These functions set the visibility of the the progress bar.

Usage:

Now in any class we can create object of our Progressbar handler class pass the context on it and use the show() and hide() methods wherever we want to show this and hide. Below is the code snippet to show the illustration.

phimpmeProgressBarHandler = new PhimpmeProgressBarHandler(this);

phimpmeProgressBarHandler.show();

phimpmeProgressBarHandler.hide();

Snackbar Handler

To do this, I created a separate class as Snackbar Handler. What we can do is to create a static function show() and inside the declaration, we can create an object of Snackbar and apply the styles to that.

As you can see in the code snippet below, I Created a static function with parameters such as View (to take the view instance), String (to show the message) and duration  of the Snackbar. Set Up the text, textsize and action on the snackbar. An “OK” action is predefined in the function only.

public static void show(View view, String text, int duration) {
   final Snackbar snackbar = Snackbar.make(view, text, duration);
   View sbView = snackbar.getView();
   TextView textView = (TextView)sbView.findViewById(android

.support.design.R.id.snackbar_text);
   textView.setTextColor(Color.WHITE);
   textView.setTextSize(12);
   snackbar.setAction("OK", new View.OnClickListener() {
       @Override
       public void onClick(View view) {
           snackbar.dismiss();
       }
   });
   snackbar.show();
}

Usage:

To use this directly call the show method pass the view and String of the message which you want to show on Snackbar. There are overloaded methods as well in which you can pass the durations. See the below code as example.

SnackBarHandler.show(parentLayout, getString(R.string.no_account_signed_in));

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Adding Build Type option in the Apk Generator of the Open Event Android App

The apk-generator provided ability to the event organiser to build an apk from a single click by providing the necessary json/binary files. However it gave only one type of apk where on the other hand the Open Event Android was available with apk of different build versions.

Recently the functionality of the apk generator of the Open Event Android App was enhanced where the user is asked to select an option for build type either Google Play or FDroid which generates the apk according to that selected type.

The main difference in the googleplay apk and fdroid apk is the inclusion of googleplay libraries which aren’t included in the app/build.gradle file in case of fdroid build.

To include support for build type the following files for the apk-generator had to be changed:

  1. app/views/__init__.py
  2. app/tasks/__init__.py
  3. app/static/js/main.js
  4. app/generator/generator.py
  5. scripts/build.sh
  6. app/templates/index.html

Changes to the files

  • app/templates/index.html

This file was where the changes to the UI of the apk-generator showing build type option to the user were made. With this the user was presented with an option to choose build type among googleplay and fdroid apart from the rest of the essential information.

  • scripts/build.sh

The android app supported two different flavours one for google play and the other for fdroid. This required the build script to be modified according to the build type selected by the user during the filling of form.

If user selected “Google Play” or “Fdroid”, the script would look something like this:

#!/bin/bash
./gradlew assemblegoogleplayRelease --info
echo "signing"
jarsigner -keystore ${KEYSTORE_PATH} -storepass ${KEYSTORE_PASSWORD} app/build/outputs/apk/app-googleplay-release-unsigned.apk ${KEY_ALIAS}
echo "zipaligning"
${1}/zipalign -v 4 app/build/outputs/apk/app-$2-release-unsigned.apk release.apk
echo "done"

Where $2 is googleplay or fdroid depending on what build type the user has selected while building the apk from the apk generator.

  • app/views/__init__.py and app/tasks/__init__.py

These files were modified by adding another parameter for supporting the two build type options in the desired functions.

  • app/static/js/main.js

This is where the option selected by the user was taken and accordingly the apk corresponding to the build type option selected was made available to the user. The code for it was shown as follows:

$buildTypeRadio.change(
   function () {
       if (this.checked) {
           enableGenerateButton(true);
           buildType = $(this).val();
       }
  }
);

This was how the option to display build type option to the user was incorporated. This gave the user the ability to install different build versions of an apk, thus making it more useful from the user point of view.

Related Links:

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Encoding and Saving Images as Strings in Preferences in SUSI Android App

In this blog post, I’ll be telling about how to store images in preferences by encoding them into Strings and also how to retrieve them back. Many a times, you need to store an image in preferences for various purposes and then need to retrieve it back when required. In SUSI Android App, we need to store an image in preference to set the chat background. We just simply select image from gallery, convert image to a byte array, then do a Base 64 encoding to string, store it in preferences and later decode it and set the chat background.

Base64 Encoding-Decoding in Java

You may already know what Base 64 is but still here is a link to Wikipedia article explaining it. So, how to do a Base64 encoding-decoding in java? For that java has a class with all such methods already present. https://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/api/java/util/Base64.html

According to the docs:

This class consists exclusively of static methods for obtaining encoders and decoders for the Base64 encoding scheme. The implementation of this class supports the following types of Base64 as specified in RFC 4648 and RFC 2045.

  • Basic
  • URL and Filename safe
  • MIME

So, you may just use Base64.encode to encode a byte array and Base64.decode to decode a byte array.

Implementation

1. Selecting image from gallery

    

Start Image Picker Intent and pick an image from gallery. After selecting you may also start a Crop Intent to crop image also. After selecting and cropping image, you will get a URI of the image.

override fun openImagePickerActivity() {
   val i = Intent(Intent.ACTION_PICK, android.provider.MediaStore.Images.Media.EXTERNAL_CONTENT_URI)
   startActivityForResult(i, SELECT_PICTURE)
}
val thePic = data.extras.getParcelable<Bitmap>("data")
val encodedImage = ImageUtils.Companion.cropImage(thePic)
chatPresenter.cropPicture(encodedImage)

2. Getting image from the URI using inputstream

Next step is to get the image from file using URI from the previous step and InputStream class and store it in a BitMap variable.

val imageStream: InputStream = context.contentResolver.openInputStream(selectedImageUri)
   val selectedImage: Bitmap
   val filePathColumn = arrayOf(MediaStore.Images.Media.DATA)
   val cursor = context.contentResolver.query(getImageUrl(context.applicationContext, selectedImageUri), filePathColumn, null, null, null)
   cursor?.moveToFirst()
   selectedImage = BitmapFactory.decodeStream(imageStream)

3. Converting the bitmap to ByteArray

Now, just convert the Bitmap thus obtained to a ByteArray using below code.

val baos = ByteArrayOutputStream()
   selectedImage.compress(Bitmap.CompressFormat.JPEG, 100, baos)
   val b = baos.toByteArray()

4. Base64 encode the ByteArray and store in preference

Encode the the byte array obtained in last step to a String and store it in preferences.

 val encodedImage = Base64.encodeToString(b, Base64.DEFAULT)
//now you have a string. You can store it in preferences

5. Decoding the String to image

Now whenever you want, you can just decode the stored Base64 encoded string to a byte array and then from byte array to a bitmap and use wherever you want.

fun decodeImage(context: Context, previouslyChatImage: String): Drawable {
   val b = Base64.decode(previouslyChatImage, Base64.DEFAULT)
   val bitmap = BitmapFactory.decodeByteArray(b, 0, b.size)
   return BitmapDrawable(context.resources, bitmap)
}

Summary

So, the main aim of this blog was to give an idea about how can you store images in preferences. There is no way to store them directly. So, you have to convert them to String by encoding them in Base64 format and then decoding it to use it. You also have other ways to store images like storing it in database etc but this one is simpler and fast.

Resources

  1. Stackoverflow answer to “How to save image as String” https://stackoverflow.com/questions/31502566/save-image-as-string-with-sharedpreferences
  2. Other Stackoverflow answer about “Saving Images in preferences” https://stackoverflow.com/questions/18072448/how-to-save-image-in-shared-preference-in-android-shared-preference-issue-in-a
  3. Official docs of Base64 class https://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/api/java/util/Base64.html
  4. Wikipedia link for learning about Base64 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Base64
  5. Stackoverflow answer for “What is Base64 encoding used for?” https://stackoverflow.com/questions/201479/what-is-base-64-encoding-used-for
Continue ReadingEncoding and Saving Images as Strings in Preferences in SUSI Android App

Using the Audio Jack to make an Oscilloscope in the PSLab Android App

The PSLab Android App allows users to access functionality provided by the PSLab hardware device, but in the interest of appealing to a larger audience that may not have immediate access to the device, we’re working on implementing some additional functionalities to perform experiments using only the hardware and sensors that are available in most android phones. The mentors suggested that the audio jack (Microphone input) of phones can be hacked to make it function as an Oscilloscope. Similarly, the audio output can also be used as a 2-channel arbitrary waveform generator. So I did a little research and found some articles which described how it can be done. In this post, I will dive a bit into the following aspects –

  • AudioJack specifications for android devices
  • Android APIs that provide access to audio hardware of device
  • Integrating both to achieve scope functionality

Audio Jack specification for android devices

In a general audio jack interface, the configuration CTIA(LRGM – Left, Right, Ground, Mic) is present as shown in the image below. Some interfaces also have OMTP(LRMG – Left, Right, Mic, Ground) configuration in which the common and mic inputs are interchanged. In the image, Common refers to ground.

Source: howtogeek

If we simply cut open the wire of a cheap pair of earphones (stolen from an airplane? 😉 ) , we  will gain access to all terminals (Left, Right, Common, Mic Input) illustrated in the image below

Source: flickr

Android APIs that provide access to audio hardware of device

AudioRecord and AudioTrack are two classes in android that manage recording and playback respectively. We require only AudioRecord to implement scope functionality. We shall first create an object of the AudioRecord class, and use that object to read the audio buffer as and when required.

Creating an AudioRecord object: we need the following parameters to initialise an AudioRecord object.

SAMPLING_RATE: Almost all mobile devices support sampling rate of 44100 Hz. In this context, the definition is number of audio samples taken per second.

RECORDER_AUDIO_ENCODING: Audio encoding describes bit representation of audio data. Here we used PCM_16BIT encoding this means stream of bits generated from PCM are segregated in a set of 16 bits.

getMinimumBufferSize() returns minimum buffer size in byte units required to create an AudioRecord object successfully.

private static final int SAMPLING_RATE = 44100;
private static final int RECORDING_CHANNEL = AudioFormat.CHANNEL_IN_MONO;
private static final int RECORDER_AUDIO_ENCODING = AudioFormat.ENCODING_PCM_16BIT;
private AudioRecord audioRecord = null;
private int minRecorderBufferSize;
minRecorderBufferSize = AudioRecord.getMinBufferSize(SAMPLING_RATE, RECORDING_CHANNEL, RECORDER_AUDIO_ENCODING);
audioRecord = new AudioRecord(
       MediaRecorder.AudioSource.MIC,
       SAMPLING_RATE,
       RECORDING_CHANNEL,
       RECORDER_AUDIO_ENCODING,
       minRecorderBufferSize);

audioRecord object can be used to read audio buffer from audio hardware using read() method.

minRecorderBuffer size is in byte units and 2 bytes constitute a short in JAVA. Thus size of short buffer needed is half the total number of bytes.

short[] audioBuffer = new short[minRecorderBufferSize / 2];
audioRecord.read(audioBuffer, 0, audioBuffer.length);

Now audioBuffer has the audio data as a signed 16 bit values. We need to process the buffer data and plot the processed data points on chart to completely implement scope functionality. I am still looking for relation between the signed 16-bit value of audio buffer and actual mic bias voltage. According to android headset specs, Mic bias voltage is between 1.8-2.9V.

Using AudioRecord class to create a scope in PSLab Android

In PSLab Android App, there is already an Oscilloscope made to capture and plot the data received from PSLab device. To make a cheap oscilloscope, cut open the wire of a cheap headset and expose terminals as illustrated in the image above and provide input signal at microphone input terminal.

Note: Don’t provide a voltage more than 2V at mic input terminal, it can damage your android device. To be sure check peak voltage from external voltmeter of the signal that you want to apply on scope and if it’s greater than 2V, I suggest you to first make a voltage divider to lower the voltage and then you are good to go.

To integrate plotting of audio buffer, we simply need to create another thread that captures audio data and updates the UI with the processed buffer data.

public class captureAudioBuffer extends AsyncTask<Void, Void, Void> {

        private AudioJack audioJack;
        private short[] buffer; 
        public captureAudioBuffer(AudioJack audioJack) {
            this.audioJack = audioJack;
        }

        @Override
        protected Void doInBackground(Void... params) {
            buffer = audioJack.read();
            Log.v("AudioBuffer", Arrays.toString(buffer));
            audioJack.release();
            return null;
        }

        @Override
        protected void onPostExecute(Void aVoid) {
            super.onPostExecute(aVoid);
            // UPDATE UI ACCORDING TO READ BUFFER DATA 
            Log.v("Execution Done", "Completed");
        }
    }

For complete code of AudioJack class, please refer pslab-android-app.

Resources

Continue ReadingUsing the Audio Jack to make an Oscilloscope in the PSLab Android App

Posting Scraped Tweets to Loklak server from Loklak Wok Android

Loklak Wok Android is a peer harvester that posts collected  messages to the Loklak Server. The suggestions to search tweets are fetched using suggest API endpoint. Using the suggestion queries, tweets are scraped. The scraped tweets are shown in a RecyclerView and simultaneously they are posted to loklak server using push API endpoint. Let’s see how this is implemented.

Adding Dependencies to the project

This feature heavily uses Retrofit2, Reactive extensions(RxJava2, RxAndroid and Retrofit RxJava adapter) and RetroLambda (for Java lambda support in Android).

In app/build.gradle:

apply plugin: 'com.android.application'
apply plugin: 'me.tatarka.retrolambda'

android {
   ...
   packagingOptions {
       exclude 'META-INF/rxjava.properties'
   }
}

dependencies {
   ...
   compile 'com.google.code.gson:gson:2.8.1'

   compile 'com.squareup.retrofit2:retrofit:2.3.0'
   compile 'com.squareup.retrofit2:converter-gson:2.3.0'
   compile 'com.squareup.retrofit2:adapter-rxjava2:2.3.0'

   compile 'io.reactivex.rxjava2:rxjava:2.0.5'
   compile 'io.reactivex.rxjava2:rxandroid:2.0.1'
}

 

In build.gradle project level:

dependencies {
   classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:2.3.3'
   classpath 'me.tatarka:gradle-retrolambda:3.2.0'
}

 

Implementation

The suggest and push API endpoint is defined in LoklakApi interface

public interface LoklakApi {

   @GET("/api/suggest.json")
   Observable<SuggestData> getSuggestions(@Query("q") String query, @Query("count") int count);

   @POST("/api/push.json")
   @FormUrlEncoded
   Observable<Push> pushTweetsToLoklak(@Field("data") String data);
}

 

The POJOs (Plain Old Java Objects) for suggestions and posting tweets are obtained using jsonschema2pojo, Gson uses POJOs to convert JSON to Java objects.

The REST client is created by Retrofit2 and is implemented in RestClient class. The Gson converter and RxJava adapter for retrofit is added in the retrofit builder. create method is called to generate the API methods(retrofit implements LoklakApi Interface).

public class RestClient {

   private RestClient() {
   }

   private static void createRestClient() {
       sRetrofit = new Retrofit.Builder()
               .baseUrl(BASE_URL)
               // gson converter
               .addConverterFactory(GsonConverterFactory.create(gson))
               // retrofit adapter for rxjava
               .addCallAdapterFactory(RxJava2CallAdapterFactory.create())
               .build();
   }

   private static Retrofit getRetrofitInstance() {
       if (sRetrofit == null) {
           createRestClient();
       }
       return sRetrofit;
   }

   public static <T> T createApi(Class<T> apiInterface) {
       // create method to generate API methods
       return getRetrofitInstance().create(apiInterface);
   }

}

 

The suggestions are fetched by calling getSuggestions after LoklakApi interface is implemented. getSuggestions returns an Observable of type SuggestData, which contains the suggestions in a List. For scraping tweets only a single query needs to be passed to LiquidCore, so flatmap is used to transform the observabe and then fromIterable operator is used to emit single queries as string to LiquidCore which then scrapes tweets, as implemented in fetchSuggestions

private Observable<String> fetchSuggestions() {
   LoklakApi loklakApi = RestClient.createApi(LoklakApi.class);
   Observable<SuggestData> observable = loklakApi.getSuggestions("", 2);
   return observable.flatMap(suggestData -> {
       List<Query> queryList = suggestData.getQueries();
       List<String> queries = new ArrayList<>();
       for (Query query : queryList) {
           queries.add(query.getQuery());
       }
       return Observable.fromIterable(queries);
   });
}

 

As LiquidCore uses callbacks to create a connection between NodeJS instance and Android, to maintain a flow of observables a custom observable is created using create operator which encapsulates the callbacks inside it. For a detail understanding of how LiquidCore event handling works, please go through the example. The way it is implemented in getScrapedTweets:

private Observable<ScrapedData> getScrapedTweets(final String query) {
   final String LC_TWITTER_URI = "android.resource://org.loklak.android.wok/raw/twitter";
   URI uri = URI.create(LC_TWITTER_URI);

   return Observable.create(emitter -> { // custom observable creation
       EventListener startEventListener = (service, event, payload) -> {
               service.emit(LC_QUERY_EVENT, query);
           service.emit(LC_FETCH_TWEETS_EVENT);
       };

       EventListener getTweetsEventListener = (service, event, payload) -> {
           ScrapedData scrapedData = mGson.fromJson(payload.toString(), ScrapedData.class);
           emitter.onNext(scrapedData); // data emitted using ObservableEmitter
       };

       MicroService.ServiceStartListener serviceStartListener = (service -> {
           service.addEventListener(LC_START_EVENT, startEventListener);
           service.addEventListener(LC_GET_TWEETS_EVENT, getTweetsEventListener);
       });

       MicroService microService = new MicroService(getActivity(), uri, serviceStartListener);
       microService.start();
   });
}

 

Now that we are getting suggestions and using them to get scraped tweets, this needs to be done periodically, so that tweets are pushed continuously to the loklak server. For this interval operator is used. A List is maintained which contains the suggestion queries based on which tweets are to be scraped. Once the scraping is done, the suggestion query is removed from the list when they are displayed in RecyclerView. And if the list is empty, then only a new set of suggestions are fetched.

Observable.interval(4, TimeUnit.SECONDS)
       .flatMap(this::getSuggestionsPeriodically)
       .flatMap(query -> {
           mSuggestionQuerries.add(query); // query added to list
           return getScrapedTweets(query);
       });

 

Method reference is used to maintain the modularity, so the logic of periodically fetching suggestions is implemented in getSuggestionsPeriodically

private Observable<String> getSuggestionsPeriodically(Long time) {
   if (mSuggestionQuerries.isEmpty()) { // checks if list is empty
       mInnerCounter = 0;
       return fetchSuggestions(); // new suggestions
   } else { // wait for a previous request to complete
       mInnerCounter++;
       if (mInnerCounter > 3) { // if some strange error occurs
           mSuggestionQuerries.clear();
       }
       return Observable.never(); // no observable is passed to subsriber, subscriber waits
   }
}

 

Now, it’s time to display the fetched tweets and then push the tweets to loklak server. When periodic fetching of suggestions was implemented we used interval operator and then flatMap to transform observables i.e. chaining network requests.

Till this point the observable we were creating were Cold Observable.Cold observables only emit values when a subscription is made. As we need to display scraped tweets and then push it, i.e. one source of observables and two (multiple) subscribers. By intuition the observable should be subscribed two times, for example:

Observable observable = Observable.interval(4, TimeUnit.SECONDS)
       .flatMap(this::getSuggestionsPeriodically)
       .flatMap(query -> {
           mSuggestionQuerries.add(query);
           return getScrapedTweets(query);
       });

// first time subscription
observable
       .subscribeOn(Schedulers.io())
       .observeOn(AndroidSchedulers.mainThread())
       .subscribe(
	// display in RecyclerVIew
       );


// second time subscription
observable
       .flatMap(// trnasformations to push data to server)
       .subscribeOn(Schedulers.io())
       .observeOn(AndroidSchedulers.mainThread())
       .subscribe(
	// display in number of tweets pushed
       );

 

But the source observable is cold observable i.e. it emits objects when it is subscribed to, due to which there will be two different network calls, one for first subscription and one for second subscription. So, both the subscriptions will have different data, which is not what is desired. The expected result is that there should be a single network call, and the data obtained from that call should be displayed and pushed to loklak server.

For this, hot Observables are used. Hot observables start emitting objects the moment they are created, irrespective of whether they are subscribed or not.

A cold observable can be converted to a hot observable by using publish operator and it starts emitting objects when connect operator is used. This is implemented in displayAndPostScrapedData:

ConnectableObservable<ScrapedData> observable = Observable.interval(4, TimeUnit.SECONDS)
           .flatMap(this::getSuggestionsPeriodically)
           .flatMap(query -> {
               mSuggestionQuerries.add(query);
               return getScrapedTweets(query);
           })
           .retry(2)
           .publish();

   // first time subscription to display scraped data
   Disposable viewDisposable = observable
           .subscribeOn(Schedulers.io())
           .observeOn(AndroidSchedulers.mainThread())
           .subscribe(
                   this::displayScrapedData,
                   this::setNetworkErrorView
           );
   mCompositeDisposable.add(viewDisposable);
  
   // second time subscription for pushing data to loklak
   Disposable pushDisposable = observable
           .flatMap(this::pushScrapedData) // scraped data transformed for pushing
           .subscribeOn(Schedulers.io())
           .observeOn(AndroidSchedulers.mainThread())
           .subscribe(
                   push -> {
                       mHarvestedTweets += push.getRecords();
                       harvestedTweetsCountTextView.setText(String.valueOf(mHarvestedTweets));
                   },
                   throwable -> {}
           );
   mCompositeDisposable.add(pushDisposable);

   Disposable publishDisposable = observable.connect(); // hot observable starts emitting
   mCompositeDisposable.add(publishDisposable);
}

 

The two subscriptions are made before connect operator is invoked because the hot observable emits objects due to successful network calls and network calls can’t be done on MainThread (UI Thread). So, doing the subscription before, channels the network calls to a background thread.

The scraped data is converted to JSON from objects using Gson, the JSON is converted to string and then using push API endpoint it is posted to loklak server. This is implemented in pushScrapedData method, which is used in second subscription by using method referencing.

private Observalbe<Push> pushScrapedData(ScrapedData scrapedData) throws Exception{    
    LoklakApi loklakApi = RestClient.createApi(LoklakApi.class);
    List<Status> statuses = scrapedData.getStatuses();
    String data = mGson.toJson(statuses);
    JSONArray jsonArray = new JSONArray(data);
    JSONObject jsonObject = new JSONObject();
    jsonObject.put("statuses", jsonArray);
    return loklakApi.pushTweetsToLoklak(jsonObject.toString());
}

 

Method reference for displayScrapedData and setNetworkErrorView methods are used to display the scraped data and handle unsuccessful network requests.

Only 80 tweets are preserved in RecyclerView. If number of tweets exceeds 80, then old tweets are removed.

private void displayScrapedData(ScrapedData scrapedData) {
   String query = scrapedData.getQuery();
   List<Status> statuses = scrapedData.getStatuses();
   mSuggestionQuerries.remove(query);
   if (mHarvestedTweetAdapter.getItemCount() > 80) {
       mHarvestedTweetAdapter.clearAdapter(); // old tweets removed
   }
   mHarvestedTweetAdapter.addHarvestedTweets(statuses);
   int count = mHarvestedTweetAdapter.getItemCount() - 1;
   recyclerView.scrollToPosition(count);
}

 

In case of a network error, the visibility of RecyclerView and TextView (which shows number of tweets pushed) is changed to gone and a message is displayed that there is network error.

private void setNetworkErrorView(Throwable throwable) {
   Log.e(LOG_TAG, throwable.toString());
   // recyclerView and TextView showing count of harvested tweets are hidden
   ButterKnife.apply(networkViews, GONE);
   // network error message displayed
   networkErrorTextView.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
}

References

Resources

Continue ReadingPosting Scraped Tweets to Loklak server from Loklak Wok Android

Realm database in Loklak Wok Android for Persistent view

Loklak Wok Android provides suggestions for tweet searches. The suggestions are stored in local database to provide a persistent view, resulting in a better user experience. The local database used here is Realm database instead of sqlite3 which is supported by Android SDK. The proper way to use an sqlite3 database is to first create a contract where the schema of the database is defined, then a database helper class which extends from SQLiteOpenHelper class where the schema is created i.e. tables are created and finally write ContentProvider so that you don’t have to write long SQL queries every time a database operation needs to be performed. This is just a lot of hard work to do, as this includes a lot of steps, debugging is also difficult. A solution to this can be using an ORM that provides a simple API to use sqlite3, but the currently available ORMs lack in terms of performance, they are too slow. A reliable solution to this problem is realm database, which is faster than raw sqlite3 and has really simple API for database operations. This blog explains the use of realm database for storing tweet search suggestions.

Adding Realm database to Android project

In project level build.gradle

buildscript {
   repositories {
       jcenter()
   }
   dependencies {
       classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:2.3.3'
       classpath "io.realm:realm-gradle-plugin:3.3.1"

       // NOTE: Do not place your application dependencies here; they belong
       // in the individual module build.gradle files
   }
}

 

And at the top of app/build.gradle “apply plugin: ‘realm-android'”  is added.

Using Realm Database

Let’s start with a simple example. We have a Student class that has only two attributes name and age. To create the model for the database, the Student class is simply extended to RealmObject.

public class Student extends RealmObject {

   private String name;
   private int age;

   // A constructor needs to be explicitly defined, be it an empty constructor
   public Student(String name, int age) {
       this.name = name;
       this.age = age;
   }

   // getters and setters
}

 

To push data to the database, Java objects are created, a transaction is initialized, then copyToRealm method is used to push the data and finally the transaction is committed. But before all this, the database is initialized and a Realm instance is obtained.

Realm.init(context); // Database initialized
Realm realm = Realm.getDefaultInstance(); // realm instance obtained
      
Student student = new Student("Rahul Dravid", 22); // Simple java object created
realm.beginTransaction() // initialization of transaction
realm.copyToRealm(student); // pushed to database
realm.commitTransaction(); // transaction committed

 

copyToRealm takes only a single parameter, the parameter can be an object or an Iterable. Off course, the passed parameter should extend RealmObject. A List of Student can be passed as a parameter to copyToRealm to push multiple data into the database.

The above way of inserting data is synchronous. Realm also supports asynchronous transactions, you guessed it right, you don’t have to depend on AsyncTaskLoader. The same operation can be performed asynchronously as

realm.executeTransaction(new Realm.Transaction() { 
    @Override public void execute(Realm realm) {
        Student student = new Student("Rahul Dravid", 22);
        realm.copyToRealm(student);
    }
});

 

Now, querying the database is as easy as inserting.

RealmResults<Student> studentList = realm.where(Student.class).findAll();

 

No, transaction is required as we are not manipulating the database, as data is just read from the database. RealmResults extend Java List, so List methods which don’t manipulate the List can be used on studentList e.g. get(int index) to obtain object at the index.

The result can also be a filtered one, for example filtering students who are 22 years old.

RealmResults<Student> studentList = realm.where(Student.class).equalTo(age, 22).findAll();

 

Now, removing data from database. deleteAllFromRealm method can be executed on the obtained RealmResults or to completely remove data of a model class delete(Model.class) method on the realm instance is invoked. The operations should be enclosed between beginTransaction and commitTransaction if synchronous behaviour is required else for asynchronous behaviour the operation is done in execute method of an anonymous object of Realm.Transaction.

studentList.deleteAllFromRealm(); // removes the filtered result
realm.delete(Student.class); // removes all data of model class

 

Storing Tweet Search Suggestions in Loklak Wok Android for Persistent view

Loklak Wok Android uses Retrofit2 for sending network requests, for which POJO classes are already created so that it becomes easy for parsing the obtained JSON from network request. Due to this using Realm database becomes more easier, as the defined POJOs can be simply extended to RealmObject to create the model class of the data e.g. Query class extends RealmObject, one of the attribute is the suggestion query i.e. mQuery.

The database is initialized in LoklakWokApplication, the application class, this way the database is initialized only once which persists throughout the app lifecycle.

@Override
public void onCreate() {
   super.onCreate();
   Realm.init(this);
   RealmConfiguration realmConfiguration = new RealmConfiguration.Builder()
           .name(Realm.DEFAULT_REALM_NAME)
           .deleteRealmIfMigrationNeeded()
           .build();
   Realm.setDefaultConfiguration(realmConfiguration);
}

 

deleteRealmIfMigrationNeeded removes the old realm database and creates a new one if any of the Model class get changed i.e. an attribute is removed, added or simply the name of attribute is changed. This is done as we are not storing user generated data, we are just using database to provide persistent view. So, the previously kept data is not important.

The database is closed in onTerminate callback of the application

@Override
public void onTerminate() {
   Realm.getDefaultInstance().close();
   super.onTerminate();
}

 

Now that database is initialized. We fetch the previously stored data and display it in RecyclerView. If the network request is successful the queries from database are replaced by the queries fetched in network request, else the queries from database are displayed providing a persistent view. The way it is implemented in onCreateView of SuggestFragment

mRealm = Realm.getDefaultInstance();
...
// old queries obtained from database
RealmResults<Query> queryRealmResults = mRealm.where(Query.class).findAll();
List<Query> queries = mRealm.copyFromRealm(queryRealmResults);
// RecyclerView adapter created with old queries
mSuggestAdapter = new SuggestAdapter(queries, this);
tweetSearchSuggestions.setLayoutManager(new LinearLayoutManager(getActivity()));
tweetSearchSuggestions.setAdapter(mSuggestAdapter);

 

The old queries are replaced in onSuccessfulRequest

private void onSuccessfulRequest(SuggestData suggestData) {
   // suggestData contains suggestion queries
   if (suggestData != null) {
       // old queries replaced with new ones
       mSuggestAdapter.setQueries(suggestData.getQueries());
   }
   setAfterRefreshingState();
}

 

Now suggestion queries needs to be inserted into the database. Only the latest suggestions are inserted i.e. queries present when onStop lifecycle method of fragment is called, and as previous queries are not needed anymore, they are deleted. The operation is performed in a synchronous way.

@Override
public void onStop() {
   ...
   mRealm.beginTransaction();
   // old queries deleted
   mRealm.delete(Query.class);
   // new queries inserted
   mRealm.copyToRealm(mSuggestAdapter.getQueries());
   mRealm.commitTransaction();
   // fragment lifecycle called i.e. a new fragment/activity opens
   super.onStop();
}

 

Conclusion: Sqlite3 and Realm comparison

Operations Sqlite3 Realm
Table creation CREATE TABLE … extends RealmObject
Inserting data INSERT INTO … copyToRealm
Searching data SELECT … realm.where(Model.class)
Deleting data DELETE FROM … realmResults.deleteAllFromRealm() or realm.delete(Model.class)

Resources:

 

 

Continue ReadingRealm database in Loklak Wok Android for Persistent view