android

Read more about the article Auto Updating SUSI Android APK and App Preview on appetize.io

Auto Updating SUSI Android APK and App Preview on appetize.io

This blog will cover the way in which the SUSI Android APK is build automatically after each commit and pushed to “apk” branch in the github repo. Other thing which will be covered is that how the app preview on appetize.io can be updated after each commit. This is basically for the testers who wish to test the SUSI Android App. There are four ways to test the SUSI Android App. One is to simply download the alpha version of the app from the Google PlayStore. Here is the link to the app. Join the alpha testing and report bugs on the github issue tracker of the repo. Other way is to build the app from Android Studio but you may need to set the complete project. If you are looking to contribute in the project, this is the advised way to test the app. The other two ways are explained below.

Auto Building of APK and pushing to “apk” branch

We have written a script which does following steps whenever a PR is merged:

  1. Checks if the commit is of a PR or a commit to repo
  2. If not of PR, configures a user whose github account will be used to push the APKs.
  3. Clones the repo, generates the debug and release APK.
  4. Deletes everything in the apk branch.
  5. Commits and Pushes new changes to apk branch.

This script is written for people or testers who do not have android studio installed in their computer and want to test the app. So, they can directly download the apk from the apk branch and install it in their phone. The APK is always updated after each commit. So, whenever a tester downloads the APK from apk branch, he will always get the latest app.

if [[ $CIRCLE_BRANCH != pull* ]]
then
    git config --global user.name "USERNAME"
    git config --global user.email "EMAIL"

    git clone --quiet --branch=apk https://USERNAME:$GITHUB_API_KEY@github.com/fossasia/susi_android apk > /dev/null
    ls
    cp -r ${HOME}/${CIRCLE_PROJECT_REPONAME}/app/build/outputs/apk/app-debug.apk apk/susi-debug.apk
    cp -r ${HOME}/${CIRCLE_PROJECT_REPONAME}/app/build/outputs/apk/app-release-unsigned.apk apk/susi-release.apk
    cd apk

    git checkout --orphan workaround
    git add -A

    git commit -am "[Circle CI] Update Susi Apk"

    git branch -D apk
    git branch -m apk

    git push origin apk --force --quiet > /dev/null
fi

Auto Updating of App Preview on appetize.io

The APKs generated in the above step can now be used to set up the preview of the app on the appetize.io. Appetize.io is an online simulator to run mobile apps ( IOS and Android). Appetize.io provides a nice virtual mobile frame to run native apps with various options like screen size, mobile, OS version, etc. Appetize.io provides some API to update/publish the app. In SUSI, we once uploaded the app on appetize.io and now we are using the API provided by them to update the APK everytime a commit is pushed in the repository.

API information (Derived from official docs of appetize.io):

You may upload a new version of an existing app, or update app settings.

Send an HTTP POST request to

https://APITOKEN@api.appetize.io/v1/apps/PUBLICKEY

Replace APITOKEN with your API token and PUBLICKEY with the public key of the app you’re updating. Your API token must be permissioned to the same account as was used to upload the app. The POST body must be a JSON object. To delete a previously set field, use a value of null.

Optional Fields

  1. url: (string) a publicly accessible link to your .zip, .tar.gz, or .apk file, used to upload a new version of your app.
  2. note: (string) a note for your own purposes, will appear on your management dashboard.

For the url parameter, we have used https://github.com/fossasia/susi_android/raw/apk/susi-debug.apk and note can be anything. We have used Update SUSI Preview.

curl https://$APPETIZE_API_TOKEN@api.appetize.io/v1/apps/mbpprq4xj92c119j7nxdhttjm0 -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d '{"url":"https://github.com/fossasia/susi_android/raw/apk/susi-debug.apk", "note": "Update SUSI Preview"}'

Summary

This blog covered about how to implement an automatic structure to generate APKs for testing and using that APK to build a preview on websites like appetize.io and then using the APIs provided by them to update the APK after each PR merge in the repo. Check out the resources below to learn more about the topic. So, if you are thinking of contributing to SUSI Android App, this may help you a little in testing the app. But if not, then you can also use the similar technique for your android app as well and ease the life of testers.

Resources

  1. Docs of appetize.io to learn more about the API https://appetize.io/docs
  2. Tutorial on using curl to make API requests https://curl.haxx.se/docs/httpscripting.html
  3. Tutorial on writing basic shell scripts https://ryanstutorials.net/bash-scripting-tutorial/
Continue ReadingAuto Updating SUSI Android APK and App Preview on appetize.io
Read more about the article Using Multiple Languages in Giggity app

Using Multiple Languages in Giggity app

Giggity app is used for conferences around the world. It becomes essential that it provides support for native languages as the users may not understand the terminologies written primarily in English from different countries. In this blog, I describe how to add a resource for another language in your app with the example of Giggity.  I recently worked on the addition of French translation in the app. We look at the addition of German in the app.

You can specify resources tailored to the culture of the people who use your app. You can provide any resource type that is appropriate for the language and culture of your users. For example, the following screenshot shows an app displaying string and drawable resources in the device’s default (en_US) locale and the German (de_DE) locale.

It is good practice to use the Android resource framework to separate the localized aspects of your application as much as possible from the core Java functionality:

  • You can put most or all of the contents of your application’s user interface into resource files, as described in this document and in Providing Resources.
  • The behaviour of the user interface, on the other hand, is driven by your Java code. For example, if users input data that needs to be formatted or sorted differently depending on locale, then you would use Java to handle the data programmatically. This document does not cover how to localize your Java code.

Whenever the application runs in a locale for which you have not provided locale-specific text, Android will load the default strings from res/values/strings.xml. If this default file is absent, or if it is missing a string that your application needs, then your application will not run and will show an error. Here is an example of default strings in the app.

<!-- Menu -->
<string name="settings">Settings</string>
<string name="change_day">Change day</string>
<string name="show_hidden">Show hidden items</string>
<string name="timetable">Timetable</string>
<string name="tracks">Tracks</string>
<string name="now_next">Now and next</string>
<string name="my_events">My events</string>
<string name="search">Search</string>

An application can specify many res/<qualifiers>/ directories, each with different qualifiers. To create an alternative resource for a different locale, you use a qualifier that specifies a language or a language-region combination. (The name of a resource directory must conform to the naming scheme described in Providing Alternative Resources, or else it will not compile.) You can specify resources tailored to the culture of the people who use your app. You can provide any resource type that is appropriate for the language and culture of your users. For example, the following screenshot shows an app displaying string and drawable resources in the device’s default (en_US) locale and the German (de_DE) locale.

<!-- Menu -->
<string name="settings">Einstellungen</string>
<string name="change_day">Tag ändern</string>
<string name="timetable">Zeitplan</string>
<string name="tracks">Tracks</string>
<string name="now_next">Jetzt und gleich</string>
<string name="my_events">Meine Veranstaltungen</string>
<string name="search">Suche</string>

Then you can use it in the app like this anywhere you need to use the string. This is an example of putting the options menu in the toolbar in Giggity app.

@Override
public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
   super.onCreateOptionsMenu(menu);

   menu.add(Menu.NONE, 1, 5, R.string.settings)
           .setShortcut('0', 's')
           .setIcon(R.drawable.ic_settings_white_24dp)
           .setShowAsAction(MenuItem.SHOW_AS_ACTION_ALWAYS);
   menu.add(Menu.NONE, 2, 7, R.string.add_dialog)
           .setShortcut('0', 'a')
           .setIcon(R.drawable.ic_add_white_24dp)
           .setShowAsAction(MenuItem.SHOW_AS_ACTION_ALWAYS);

   return true;
}

References:

Continue ReadingUsing Multiple Languages in Giggity app
Read more about the article Timer Option in Phimpme Android’s Camera

Timer Option in Phimpme Android’s Camera

The Phimpme Android application comes in with all the options like clicking a picture, editing them and sharing it with the world using many many connected social media accounts. Not only this, it features a fully functional camera with lots of different functionality which a user wants in their day to day life. One such feature is the Timer option in Phimpme. In Phimpme, the user can go to the camera settings to enable or disable the Timer options and click their photos after setting the timer for a particular duration. After setting the timer and pressing the capture photo button, it also displays a ticker at the UI of the camera to notify the user the amount of time after which the photo will be clicked.

In this tutorial, I will be explaining how we have achieved this feature in the Phimpme application.

Step 1

The first thing we need to do is to display the options to the user in camera settings to enable/disable the timer and to select the specific amount of time for the delay in the capture. To do this we have made use of the pop-up view in which we have programmatically added all the timer values to be displayed to the user using the code snippet below:

final String[] timer_values = getResources().getStringArray(R.array.preference_timer_values);
  String[] timer_entries = getResources().getStringArray(R.array.preference_timer_entries);
String timer_value = sharedPreferences.getString(PreferenceKeys.getTimerPreferenceKey(), "0");
addArrayOptionsToPopup(Arrays.asList(timer_entries), getResources().getString(R.string.preference_timer), true, timer_index, false)

What the function addArrayOptionsToPopup does is that it adds the following arrays to the linear layout of the pop-up view programmatically.

Step 2

After displaying the timer values to the user, we need to think about the functionality of the camera if the timer is enabled. When the user presses the click picture button we check the condition whether the timer is enabled or not. If it is enabled, we make the application to wait for a specific amount of time before clicking the photo. This can be done using the CountDownTimer class which is provided by Android.

new CountDownTimer(timerDelay, 1000) {
   public void onTick(long millisUntilFinished) {
          //Called after each second
       }
       public void onFinish() {
         //Called after timer delay
       }
   }.start();

What the above piece of code does is to wait for the specific amount of time as specified by the timer delay. Suppose the user selects the option to wait for 5 seconds then we set the timerDelay to be 5000, then the above code calls the onTick method after each second where we update the user that how much time is remaining and on the onFinish method we call the takePicture method to capture the image using the following line of code below.

mCamera.takePicture(null, null, mPicture);

This is how we have implemented the option of Timer in the Phimpme Android application. To get the full source code of the Camera, please check out the Phimpme Android GitHub repository listed in the resources section below.

Resources

  1. Android Developer Guide : CountDown Timer – https://developer.android.com/reference/android/os/CountDownTimer.html
  2. StackOverflow – Implementing Timer in Camera – https://stackoverflow.com/questions/35355320/camera-application-timer-implementaion-issue
  3. GitHub – Phimpme Android Repository – https://github.com/fossasia/phimpme-android/
  4. GitHub – Open Camera Source Code – https://github.com/almalence/OpenCamera

 

Continue ReadingTimer Option in Phimpme Android’s Camera
Read more about the article Marker Click Management in Android Google Map API Version 2

Marker Click Management in Android Google Map API Version 2

We could display a marker on Google map to point to a particular location. Although it is a simple task sometimes we need to customise it a bit more. Recently I customised marker displayed in Connfa app displaying the location of the sessions on the map loaded from Open Event format. In this blog manipulation related to map marker is explored.

Markers indicate single locations on the map. You can customize your markers by changing the default colour, or replace the marker icon with a custom image. Info windows can provide additional context to a marker. You can place a marker on the map by using following code.

MarkerOptions marker = new MarkerOptions().position(new LatLng(latitude, longitude)).title("Dalton Hall");
googleMap.addMarker(marker);

But as you can see this may not be enough, we need to do operations on clicking the marker too, so we define them in the Marker Click Listener. We declare marker null initially so we check if the marker colour is changed previously or not.

private Marker previousMarker = null;

We check if the marker is initialized to change its colour again to initial colour, we can do other related manipulation like changing the map title here,

Note: the first thing that happens when a marker is clicked or tapped is that any currently showing info window is closed, and the GoogleMap.OnInfoWindowCloseListener is triggered. Then the OnMarkerClickListener is triggered. Therefore, calling isInfoWindowShown() on any marker from the OnMarkerClickListener will return false.

mGoogleMap.setOnMarkerClickListener(new GoogleMap.OnMarkerClickListener() {
   @Override
   public boolean onMarkerClick(Marker marker) {
       String locAddress = marker.getTitle();
       fillTextViews(locAddress);
       if (previousMarker != null) {
           previousMarker.setIcon(BitmapDescriptorFactory.defaultMarker(BitmapDescriptorFactory.HUE_RED));
       }
       marker.setIcon(BitmapDescriptorFactory.defaultMarker(BitmapDescriptorFactory.HUE_BLUE));
       previousMarker = marker;

       return true;
   }
});

It’s possible to customize the colour of the default marker image by passing a BitmapDescriptor object to the icon() method. You can use a set of predefined colours in the BitmapDescriptorFactory object, or set a custom marker colour with the BitmapDescriptorFactory.defaultMarker(float hue) method. The hue is a value between 0 and 360, representing points on a colour wheel. We use red colour when the marker is not clicked and blue when it is clicked so a user knows which one is clicked.

To conclude you can use an OnMarkerClickListener to listen for click events on the marker. To set this listener on the map, call GoogleMap.setOnMarkerClickListener(OnMarkerClickListener). When a user clicks on a marker, onMarkerClick(Marker) will be called and the marker will be passed through as an argument. This method returns a boolean that indicates whether you have consumed the event (i.e., you want to suppress the default behaviour). If it returns false, then the default behaviour will occur in addition to your custom behaviour. The default behaviour for a marker click event is to show its info window (if available) and move the camera such that the marker is centered on the map.

The final result looks like this, so you the user can see which marker is clicked as its colour is changed,

   

 

References:

  • Google Map APIs Documentation – https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/android-api/marker
Continue ReadingMarker Click Management in Android Google Map API Version 2
Read more about the article Setting up Travis Continuous Integration in Giggity

Setting up Travis Continuous Integration in Giggity

Travis is a continuous integration service that enables you to run tests against your latest Android builds. You can setup your projects to run both unit and integration tests, which can also include launching an emulator. I recently added Travis Continuous Integration Connfa, Giggity and Giraffe app. In this blog, I describe how to set up Travis Continuous Integration in an Android Project with reference to Giggity app.

  • Use your GitHub account, sign in to either to Travis CI .org for public repositories or Travis CI .com for private repositories
  • Accept the GitHub access permissions confirmation.
  • Once you’re signed in to Travis CI, and synchronized your GitHub repositories, go to your profile page and enable the repository you want to build:

  • Now you need to add a .travis.yml file into the root of your project. This file will tell how Travis handles the builds. You should check your .travis file on Travis Web Lint before committing any changes to it.
  • You can find the very basic instructions for building an Android project from the Travis documentation. But here we specify the .travis.yml build accordingly for Giggity’s continuous integration. Here, language shows that it is an Android project. We write “language: ruby” if it is a ruby project.  If you need a more customizable environment running in a virtual machine, use the Sudo Enabled infrastructure. Similarly, we define the API, play services and libraries defined as shown.
language: android
sudo: required
jdk: 
 - oraclejdk8
# Use the Travis Container-Based Infrastructure
android:
  components:
    - platform-tools
    - tools
    - build-tools-25.0.3
    - android-25
    
    # For Google APIs
    - addon-google_apis-google-$ANDROID_API_LEVEL
    # Google Play Services
    - extra-google-google_play_services
    # Support library
    - extra-android-support
    # Latest artifacts in local repository
    - extra-google-m2repository
    - extra-android-m2repository
    - android-sdk-license-.+
    - '.+'

before_script:
  - chmod +x gradlew    

script:
  - ./gradlew build

Now when you make a commit or pull request Travis check if all the defines checks pass and it is able to be merged. To be more advanced you can also define if you want to build APKs too with every build.

References:

  • Travis Continuous Integration Documentation – https://docs.travis-ci.com/user/getting-started/
Continue ReadingSetting up Travis Continuous Integration in Giggity
Read more about the article Implementing Skill Detail Section in SUSI Android App

Implementing Skill Detail Section in SUSI Android App

SUSI Skills are rules that are defined in SUSI Skill Data repo which are basically the responses SUSI gives to the user queries. When a user queries something from the SUSI Android app, a query to SUSI Server is made which further fetches response from SUSI Skill Data and gives the response to the app. Similarly, when we need to list all skills, an API call is made to server to list all skills. The server then checks the SUSI Skill Data repo for the skills and then return all the required information to the app. Then the app displays all the information about the skill to user. User then can view details of each skill and then interact on the chat interface to use that skill. This process is similar to what SUSI Skill CMS does. The CMS is a skill wiki like interface to view all skills and then edit them. Though the app can not be currently used to edit the skills but it can be used to view them and try them on the chat interface.

API Information

For listing SUSI Skill groups, we have to call on /cms/getGroups.json

This will give you all groups in SUSI model in which skills are present. Current response:

{
  "session": {"identity": {
    "type": "host",
    "name": "14.139.194.24",
    "anonymous": true
  }},
  "accepted": true,
  "groups": [
    "Small Talk",
    "Entertainment",
    "Problem Solving",
    "Knowledge",
    "Assistants",
    "Shopping"
  ],
  "message": "Success: Fetched group list"
}

So, the groups object gives all the groups in which SUSI Skills are located.

Next comes, fetching of skills. For that the endpoint is /cms/getGroups.json?group=GROUP_NAME

Since we want all skills to be fetched, we call this api for every group. So, for example we will be calling http://api.susi.ai/cms/getSkillList.json?group=Entertainment for getting all skills in group “Entertainment”. Similarly for other groups as well.

Sample response of skill:

{
  "accepted": true,
  "model": "general",
  "group": "Shopping",
  "language": "en",
  "skills": {"amazon_shopping": {
    "image": "images/amazon_shopping.png",
    "author_url": "https://github.com/meriki",
    "examples": ["Buy a dress"],
    "developer_privacy_policy": null,
    "author": "Y S Ramya",
    "skill_name": "Shop At Amazon",
    "dynamic_content": true,
    "terms_of_use": null,
    "descriptions": "Searches items on Amazon.com for shopping",
    "skill_rating": null
  }},
  "message": "Success: Fetched skill list",
  "session": {"identity": {
    "type": "host",
    "name": "14.139.194.24",
    "anonymous": true
  }}
}

It gives all details about skills:

  1. image
  2. author_url
  3. examples
  4. developer_privacy_policy
  5. author
  6. skill_name
  7. dynamic_content
  8. terms_of_use
  9. descriptions
  10. skill_rating

Implementation in SUSI Android App

Skill Detail Section UI of Google Assistant

Skill Detail Section UI of SUSI SKill CMS

Skill Detail Section UI of SUSI Android App

The UI of skill detail section in SUSI Android App is the mixture of UI of Skill detail section in Google Assistant ap and SUSI Skill CMS. It displays details of skills in a beautiful manner with horizontal recyclerview used to display the examples.

So, we have to display following details about the skill in Skill Detail Section:

  1. Skill Name
  2. Author Name
  3. Skill Image
  4. Try it Button
  5. Description
  6. Examples
  7. Rating
  8. Content type (Dynamic/Static)
  9. Terms of Use
  10. Developer’s Privacy policy

Let’s see the implementation.

1. Whenever a skill Card View is clicked, showSkillDetailFragment() is called and it opens a new instance of a fragment named SkillDetailsFragment which shows details of the skill. We have to provide necessary information while starting the fragment. This information is passed as a Serializable.

fun showSkillDetailFragment(skillData: SkillData, skillGroup: String) {
   val skillDetailsFragment = SkillDetailsFragment.newInstance(skillData,skillGroup)
   (context as SkillsActivity).fragmentManager.beginTransaction()
           .replace(R.id.fragment_container, skillDetailsFragment)
           .commit()
}

2.  The data which was passed as a Serializeable object is now casted back to the required form and a method to set up the UI is called.

companion object {
   val SKILL_KEY = "skill_key"
   val SKILL_GROUP = "skill_group"
   fun newInstance(skillData: SkillData, skillGroup: String): SkillDetailsFragment {
       val fragment = SkillDetailsFragment()
       val bundle = Bundle()
       bundle.putSerializable(SKILL_KEY, skillData as Serializable)
       bundle.putString(SKILL_GROUP, skillGroup)
       fragment.arguments = bundle

       return fragment
   }
}

override fun onCreateView(inflater: LayoutInflater, container: ViewGroup?, savedInstanceState: Bundle?): View {
   skillData = arguments.getSerializable(
           SKILL_KEY) as SkillData
   skillGroup = arguments.getString(SKILL_GROUP)
   return inflater.inflate(R.layout.fragment_skill_details, container, false)
}

override fun onViewCreated(view: View?, savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
   setupUI()
   super.onViewCreated(view, savedInstanceState)
}

3. The setupUI() method then calls separate method for setting every part of the UI like image, name etc.

fun setupUI() {
   setImage()
   setName()
   setAuthor()
   setTryButton()
   setDescription()
   setExamples()
   setRating()
   setDynamicContent()
   setPolicy()
   setTerms()
}

4. One example of setting a part of the UI is setting Author name. It checks if AuthorName is null or not. After that it anchors author’s github account link with his/her name.

fun setAuthor() {
   skill_detail_author.text = "Author : ${activity.getString(R.string.no_skill_author)}"
   if(skillData.author != null && !skillData.author.isEmpty()){
       if(skillData.authorUrl == null || skillData.authorUrl.isEmpty())
           skill_detail_author.text = "Author : ${skillData.skillName}"
       else {
           skill_detail_author.linksClickable = true
           skill_detail_author.movementMethod = LinkMovementMethod.getInstance()
           if (android.os.Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.N) {
               skill_detail_author.text = Html.fromHtml("Author : <a href=\"${skillData.authorUrl}\">${skillData.author}</a>", Html.FROM_HTML_MODE_COMPACT)
           } else {
               skill_detail_author.text = Html.fromHtml("Author : <a href=\"${skillData.authorUrl}\">${skillData.author}</a>")
           }
       }
   }
}

Summary

So, this blog talked about how the Skill detail section in SUSI Android App is implemented. This included how a network call is made, logic for making different network calls, making a horizontal recyclerview for displaying examples. So, If you are looking forward to contribute to SUSI Android App, this can help you a little. But if not so, this may also help you in understanding and how you can implement horizontal recyclerview similar to Google Play Store.

References

  1. To know about servlets https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Java_servlet
  2. To see how to implement one https://www.javatpoint.com/servlet-tutorial
  3. To see how to make network calls in android using Retrofit https://guides.codepath.com/android/Consuming-APIs-with-Retrofit
  4. To see how to implement custom RecyclerView Adapter https://www.survivingwithandroid.com/2016/09/android-recyclerview-tutorial.html
Continue ReadingImplementing Skill Detail Section in SUSI Android App
Read more about the article Using Android Palette with Glide in Open Event Organizer Android App

Using Android Palette with Glide in Open Event Organizer Android App

Open Event Organizer is an Android Application for the Event Organizers and Entry Managers. The core feature of the App is to scan a QR code from the ticket to validate an attendee’s check in. Other features of the App are to display an overview of sales, ticket management and basic editing in the Event Details. Open Event API Server acts as a backend for this App. The App uses Navigation Drawer for navigation in the App. The side drawer contains menus, event name, event start date and event image in the header. Event name and date is shown just below the event image in a palette. For a better visibility Android Palette is used which extracts prominent colors from images. The App uses Glide to handle image loading hence GlidePalette library is used for palette generation which integrates Android Palette with Glide. I will be talking about the implementation of GlidePalette in the App in this blog.

The App uses Data Binding so the image URLs are directly passed to the XML views in the layouts and the image loading logic is implemented in the BindingAdapter class. The image loading code looks like:

GlideApp
   .with(imageView.getContext())
   .load(Uri.parse(url))
   ...
   .into(imageView);

 

So as to implement palette generation for event detail label, it has to be implemented with the event image loading. GlideApp takes request listener which implements methods on success and failure where palette can be generated using the bitmap loaded. With GlidePalette most of this part is covered in the library itself. It provides GlidePalette class which is a sub class of GlideApp request listener which is passed to the GlideApp using the method listener. In the App, BindingAdapter has a method named bindImageWithPalette which takes a view container, image url, a placeholder drawable and the ids of imageview and palette. The relevant code is:

@BindingAdapter(value = {"paletteImageUrl", "placeholder", "imageId", "paletteId"}, requireAll = false)
public static void bindImageWithPalette(View container, String url, Drawable drawable, int imageId, int paletteId) {
   ImageView imageView = (ImageView) container.findViewById(imageId);
   ViewGroup palette = (ViewGroup) container.findViewById(paletteId);

   if (TextUtils.isEmpty(url)) {
       if (drawable != null)
           imageView.setImageDrawable(drawable);
       palette.setBackgroundColor(container.getResources().getColor(R.color.grey_600));
       for (int i = 0; i < palette.getChildCount(); i++) {
           View child = palette.getChildAt(i);
           if (child instanceof TextView)
               ((TextView) child).setTextColor(Color.WHITE);
       }
       return;
   }
   GlidePalette<Drawable> glidePalette = GlidePalette.with(url)
       .use(GlidePalette.Profile.MUTED)
       .intoBackground(palette)
       .crossfade(true);

   for (int i = 0; i < palette.getChildCount(); i++) {
       View child = palette.getChildAt(i);
       if (child instanceof TextView)
           glidePalette
               .intoTextColor((TextView) child, GlidePalette.Swatch.TITLE_TEXT_COLOR);
   }
   setGlideImage(imageView, url, drawable, null, glidePalette);
}

 

The code is pretty obvious. The method checks passed URL for nullability. If null, it sets the placeholder drawable to the image view and default colors to the text views and the palette. The GlidePalette object is generated using the initializer method with which takes the image URL. The request is passed to the method setGlideImage which loads the image and passes the GlidePalette to the GlideApp as a listener. Accordingly, the palette is generated and the colors are set to the label and text views accordingly. The container view in the XML layout looks like:

<LinearLayout
   android:layout_width="match_parent"
   android:layout_height="wrap_content"
   android:orientation="vertical"
   app:paletteImageUrl="@{ event.largeImageUrl }"
   app:placeholder="@{ @drawable/header }"
   app:imageId="@{ R.id.image }"
   app:paletteId="@{ R.id.eventDetailPalette }">

 

Links:
1. Documentation for Glide Image Loading Library
2. GlidePalette Github Repository
3. Android Palette Official Documentation

Continue ReadingUsing Android Palette with Glide in Open Event Organizer Android App
Read more about the article Making App Name Configurable for Open Event Organizer App

Making App Name Configurable for Open Event Organizer App

Open Event Organizer is a client side android application of Open Event API server created for event organizers and entry managers. The application provides a way to configure the app name via environment variable app_name. This allows the user to change the app name just by setting the environment variable app_name to the new name. I will be talking about its implementation in the application in this blog.

Generally, in an android application, the app name is stored as a static string resource and set in the manifest file by referencing to it. In the Organizer application, the app name variable is defined in the app’s gradle file. It is assigned to the value of environment variable app_name and the default value is assigned if the variable is null. The relevant code in the manifest file is:

def app_name = System.getenv('app_name') ?: "eventyay organizer"

app/build.gradle

The default value of app_name is kept, eventyay organizer. This is the app name when the user doesn’t set environment variable app_name. To reference the variable from the gradle file into the manifest, manifestPlaceholders are defined in the gradle’s defaultConfig. It is a map of key value pairs. The relevant code is:

defaultConfig {
   ...
   ...
   manifestPlaceholders = [appName: app_name]
}

app/build.gradle

This makes appName available for use in the app manifest. In the manifest file, app name is assigned to the appName set in the gradle.

<application
   ...
   ...
   android:label="${appName}"

app/src/main/AndroidManifest.xml

By this, the application name is made configurable from the environment variable.

Links:
1. ManifestPlaceholders documentation
2. Stackoverflow answer about getting environment variable in gradle

Continue ReadingMaking App Name Configurable for Open Event Organizer App
Read more about the article Adding Number of Sessions Label in Open Event Android App

Adding Number of Sessions Label in Open Event Android App

The Open Event Android project has a fragment for showing tracks of the event. The Tracks Fragment shows the list of all the Tracks with title and TextDrawable. But currently it is not showing how many sessions particular track has. Adding TextView with rounded corner and colored background showing number of sessions for track gives great UI. In this post I explain how to add TextView with rounded corner and how to use Plurals in Android.

1. Create Drawable for background

Firstly create track_rounded_corner.xml Shape Drawable which will be used as a background of the TextView. The <shape> element must be the root element of Shape drawable. The android:shape attribute defines the type of the shape. It can be rectangle, ring, oval, line. In our case we will use rectangle.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<shape xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:shape="rectangle">

    <corners android:radius="360dp" />

    <padding
        android:bottom="2dp"
        android:left="8dp"
        android:right="8dp"
        android:top="2dp" />
</shape>

 

Here the <corners> element creates rounded corners for the shape with the specified value of radius attribute. This tag is only applied when the shape is a rectangle. The <padding> element adds padding to the containing view. You can modify the value of the padding as per your need. You can feel shape with appropriate color using <solid> as we are setting color dynamically we will not set color here.

2. Add TextView and set Drawable

Now add TextView in the track list item which will contain number of sessions text. Set  track_rounded_corner.xml drawable we created before as background of this TextView using background attribute.

<TextView
        android:id="@+id/no_of_sessions"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:background="@drawable/track_rounded_corner"
        android:textColor="@color/white"
        android:textSize="@dimen/text_size_small"/>

 

Set color and text size according to your need. Here don’t add padding in the TextView because we have already added padding in the Drawable. Adding padding in the TextView will override the value specified in the drawable.

3.  Create TextView object in ViewHolder

Now create TextView object noOfSessions and bind it with R.id.no_of_sessions using ButterKnife.bind() method.

public class TrackViewHolder extends RecyclerView.ViewHolder {
    ...

    @BindView(R.id.no_of_sessions)
    TextView noOfSessions;

    private Track track;

    public TrackViewHolder(View itemView, Context context) {
        super(itemView);
        ButterKnife.bind(this, itemView);

    public void bindTrack(Track track) {
        this.track = track;
        ...
    }   
}

 

Here TrackViewHolder is a RecycleriewHolder for the TracksListAdapter. The bindTrack() method of this view holder is used to bind Track with ViewHolder.

4.  Add Quantity Strings (Plurals) for Sessions

Now we want to set the value of TextView. Here if the number of sessions of the track is zero or more than one then we need to set text  “0 sessions” or “2 sessions”. If the track has only one session than we need to set text “1 session” to make text meaningful. In android we have Quantity Strings which can be used to make this task easy.

<resources>
    <!--Quantity Strings(Plurals) for sessions-->
    <plurals name="sessions">
        <item quantity="zero">No sessions</item>
        <item quantity="one">1 session</item>
        <item quantity="other">%d sessions</item>
    </plurals>
</resources>

 

Using this plurals resource we can get appropriate string for specified quantity like “zero”, “one” and  “other” will return “No sessions”, “1 session”, and “2 sessions”. accordingly. 2 can be any value other than 0 and 1.

Now let’s set background color and test for the text view.

int trackColor = Color.parseColor(track.getColor());
int sessions = track.getSessions().size();

noOfSessions.getBackground().setColorFilter(trackColor, PorterDuff.Mode.SRC_ATOP);
noOfSessions.setText(context.getResources().getQuantityString(R.plurals.sessions,
                sessions, sessions));

 

Here we are setting background color of textview using getbackground().setColorFilter() method. To set appropriate text we are using getQuantityString() method which takes plural resource and quantity(in our case no of sessions) as parameters.

Now we are all set. Run the app it will look like this.

Conclusion

Adding TextView with rounded corner and colored background in the App gives great UI and UX. To know more about Rounded corner TextView and Quantity Strings follow the links given below.

Continue ReadingAdding Number of Sessions Label in Open Event Android App
Read more about the article Using ThreeTenABP for Time Zone Handling in Open Event Android

Using ThreeTenABP for Time Zone Handling in Open Event Android

The Open Event Android project helps event organizers to organize the event and generate Apps (apk format) for their events/conferences by providing API endpoint or zip generated using Open Event server. For any Event App it is very important that it handles time zone properly. In Open Event Android App there is an option to change time zone setting. The user can view date and time of the event and sessions in Event Timezone and Local time zone in the App. ThreeTenABP provides a backport of the Java SE 8 date-time classes to Java SE 6 and 7. In this blog post I explain how to use ThreeTenABP for time zone handling in Android.

Add dependency

To use ThreeTenABP in your application you have to add the dependency in your app module’s build.gradle file.

dependencies {
      compile    'com.jakewharton.threetenabp:threetenabp:1.0.5'
      testCompile   'org.threeten:threetenbp:1.3.6'
}

Initialize ThreeTenABP

Now in the onCreate() method of the Application class initialize ThreeTenABP.

AndroidThreeTen.init(this);

Create getZoneId() method

Firstly create getZoneId() method which will return ZoneId according to user preference. This method will be used for formatting and parsing dates Here showLocal is user preference. If showLocal is true then this function will return Default local ZoneId otherwise ZoneId of the Event.

private static ZoneId geZoneId() {
        if (showLocal || Utils.isEmpty(getEventTimeZone()))
            return ZoneId.systemDefault();
        else
            return ZoneId.of(getEventTimeZone());
}

Here  getEventTimeZone() method returns time zone string of the Event.

ThreeTenABP has mainly two classes representing date and time both.

  • ZonedDateTime : ‘2011-12-03T10:15:30+01:00[Europe/Paris]’
  • LocalDateTime : ‘2011-12-03T10:15:30’

ZonedDateTime contains timezone information at the end. LocalDateTime doesn’t contain timezone.

Create method for parsing and formating

Now create getDate() method which will take isoDateString and will return ZonedDateTime object.

public static ZonedDateTime getDate(@NonNull String isoDateString) {
        return ZonedDateTime.parse(isoDateString).withZoneSameInstant(getZoneId());;
}

 

Create formatDate() method which takes two arguments first is format string and second is isoDateString. This method will return a formatted string.

public static String formatDate(@NonNull String format, @NonNull String isoDateString) {
        return DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern(format).format(getDate(isoDateString));
}

Use methods

Now we are ready to format and parse isoDateString. Let’s take an example. Let “2017-11-09T23:08:56+08:00” is isoDateString. We can parse this isoDateString using getDate() method which will return ZonedDateTime object.

Parsing:

String isoDateString = "2017-11-09T23:08:56+08:00";

DateConverter.setEventTimeZone("Asia/Singapore");
DateConverter.setShowLocalTime(false);
ZonedDateTime dateInEventTimeZone = DateConverter.getDate(isoDateString);

dateInEventTimeZone.toString();  //2017-11-09T23:08:56+08:00[Asia/Singapore]


TimeZone.setDefault(TimeZone.getDefault());
DateConverter.setShowLocalTime(true);
ZonedDateTime dateInLocalTimeZone = DateConverter.getDate(dateInLocalTimeZone);

dateInLocalTimeZone.toString();  //2017-11-09T20:38:56+05:30[Asia/Kolkata]

 

Formatting:

String date = "2017-03-17T14:00:00+08:00";
String formattedString = formatDate("dd MM YYYY hh:mm:ss a", date));

formattedString // "17 03 2017 02:00:00 PM"

Conclusion

As you can see, ThreeTenABP makes Time Zone handling so easy. It has also support for default formatters and methods. To learn more about ThreeTenABP follow the links given below.

Continue ReadingUsing ThreeTenABP for Time Zone Handling in Open Event Android