This Weeks Links

Fragmented Podcast Episode 047: Custom Views & ViewGroups with Huyen Tue Dao
In this episode we talk to Trello engineer, GDE, YouTuber, Caster IO instructor and View magician Huyen about all things custom View/ViewGroups.

TheContext-Podcast
Episode 1: Architecture of modern Android apps with Hannes Dorfmann
Episode 2: Testing with Mike Evans
Episode 3, Part 1: RxJava with its core developer David Karnok
Episode 3, Part 2: RxJava tech details with its core developer David Karnok
Episode 4: Indie Development with Chris Lacy
Episode 5: Android TV with Joe Birch

Exploring Save to Android Pay
This article takes a deep dive into the ‘Save to Android Pay’ area of the Android Pay API which focuses on the ability to provide a central location for customer loyalty within the Android Pay app. In this post you will learn about Card Structure and setting up Loyalty Cards, Gift Cards and  Offers.

ConstraintLayout – Part 5
In this series of articles you will take a look at the new Android layout named ConstraintLayout and you will be provided with some insights into how best to use it. Part 5 explores Guidelines. You will learn how to work with Guidelines and some of their limitations.

No more findViewById
Did you know data binding can be used to eliminate findViewById? Of course, there are tools available whose main job is to eliminate this small bit of code, but now there is an official way with Android Studio 1.5 and higher. Take a look!

Realm integration in Android & best practices
If you are planning to bring Realm to your code base, then make sure you check out this post. Why Realm is used and the best practices in combination with MVP, Dagger, Rx-Java, Retrofit & Annotations will all be covered, before concluding with a look at Unit Testing.

Art of Subscribe & Unsubscribe in RxJava
A major advantage of having RxJava is the ability to unsubscribe a subscription when the view is no longer needed. This post will teach you when subscriptions should be subscribed and unsubscribed and looks at the different approaches.

Why don’t we have a unit test recorder?
If we can record functional UI tests using the espresso test recorder, why don’t we have a unit test recorder? This post looks into potential ways to create a unit test recorder and focuses on implementing this functionality for Android development.

Navigation in the context of MVP
Usage of a Navigator makes code more decoupled and allows combining of same screen components in different ways, while using dependency injection with Presenters that can survive configuration change is not that straightforward. This post explores the different approaches of navigation in the context of MVP.

7 Android Menu Libraries
Navigating your app may not be as easy as you find it for unfamiliar users and could potentially lead to their frustration. These Android menu libraries can help you make everything easier to find so your users keep coming back for more.

Create Intelligent, Context-Aware Apps with the Google Awareness APIs
The Google Awareness API unifies 7 location and context signals in a single API which helps you to create powerful context-based features with minimal impact on system resources. The API is now available to all developers through Google Play services, so you can bring context awareness into your apps!

React Native: Is it the end of native development?
This article follows a month long investigation in which React Native was put to the test to see if it is currently a stable enough platform to spell the end of native development. The article shares how React Native actually works, the costs involved, the limitations and the reasons to choose React Native.

Jobs Mobile Software Engineer – Android at Zoosk – Location: San Francisco (mid market) Want to work on an Android app that’s exposed to over 40 million people worldwide? Want to work on a small team where you can have a huge impact? We’re looking for a Software Engineer with Android engineering experience. [Apply Today] Senior Android Engineer – Mobile at Zoosk – Location: San Francisco (mid market) Zoosk is an online dating service that uses innovative technology to help match singles. As a mobile engineer, you’ll work with not just your own team, but also Product, Design, and even the CEO!  [Apply Today] Senior Android Engineer at WillowTree Software – Location: Durham, NC WillowTree is a mobile design + development studio that specializes in crafting native apps for a variety of clients such as HBO, Zappos, the NBA, and more. We are looking for friendly, passionate, and smart engineers for our growing team! [Apply Today] Android Engineer / Architect at Samsung – Location: Bridgewater, NJ OR Seattle, WA This role conducts basic technical analysis of customer requirements and creates, evaluates, and develops implementation concepts / approaches to meet customer requirements. This role will require a strong developer with solid programming skills. [Apply Today] Looking to hire an Android Dev? Look no further, post your job in the Android Dev Digest for one to four weeks. Reach over 15,000 Android professionals. Learn More

Thoughts on Android’s new ConstraintLayout and Android Studio’s new Design Editor
Wolfram Rittmeyer shares what he likes about the revamped layout editor in Android Studio and the new layout everybody is talking about, ConstraintLayout. The post looks at the new features of the editor in detail and also provides a basic performance test summary of ConstraintLayout.

Five reasons why Android developers should start developing for the internet of things
The internet of things (IoT) is a vision, a vision of a network of physical objects like cars, phones, buildings etc. that are all connected by their gathering, transmitting and receiving of information. This post looks at why and how, as an Android developer, you should start developing for this vision now.

Building for Billions
Limited connectivity, high data costs and low capacity batteries are just a few of the challenges faced by developers that are trying to provide great experiences for billions of users around the world. This post looks at these issues and the key considerations.

Android easy and fast Networking Library
Android Networking Library is a powerful and highly customizable library for doing any type of networking in Android applications which are made on top of a OkHttp Networking Layer. This article looks at the advantages of using Android Networking Library.

Android Development Tutorials (Collection)
A collection of Tutorials covering many things from an Introduction to Android development to Advanced User Interface Development.

Learn to create a Countdown Timer on Android
S.Saurel shares how to use a dedicated class named CountDownTimer, which provides Android Developers a powerful yet easy way to create a countdown timer.

Videos

Caster.IO Lesson 85: AutoValue – Part 4: Parcel Extension
Parcelable is Android’s built in serialization mechanism, but requires a lot of boilerplate. AutoValue’s Parcel Extension can make Parcelable easy and reduce the code you need to write.

In this lesson you will learn:

• How to easily create Parcelable value types
• How to create Parcelable value types with non-Parcelable properties
• How to create custom TypeAdapters to Parcel any type

Open Source

NoNewPermissionForAndroid
This script can help warn developers of any permission change by setting up a CI job.

Packagehunter
An Android library to hunt down package information. The library is built for simplicity and approachability. It not only eliminates most boilerplate code for dealing with package information, but also provides an easy and simple API to retrieve them and associated data.

StackedHorizontalProgressBar
An Android library with the ability to show two progress indicators in one horizontal progress bar.

UploadToJitpack
Awesome library built to demonstrate the process of publishing android libraries via JitPack

libphone
A cross-platform library supports iOS/Android development in C language.