This Weeks Links

Fragmented Podcast 079: How do i get started with VR apps? Etienne Caron explains
Have you ever thought about building VR (Virtual Reality) apps? Where do you start? How difficult is it? How similar is to Android development? Do you still code in Java? In this episode, Etienne Caron AndroidDev extraordinaire and expert VR hobbyist gets us up to speed on what you need to know, to start creating VR apps.

Swift on Android: The Future of Cross-Platform Programming or White Whale?
This video and notes of a talk by Eric Wing covers Swift on Android. In the video, Eric looks at why we want to use Swift on Android, how old concepts are just being applied in new ways, how to use Swift on Android and some of the technical things you will not find other places.

JUnit 5: Kotlin
The JUnit platform enables different testing frameworks to be launched on the JVM. Previously Mark Allison explored some strategies for using lambda expressions in JUnit 5. In this sixth post of the series, you will learn about configuring your project to use Kotlin

Detecting List Items Observed by User
Sergii Zhuk shares a few approaches and a complete solution to tracking if a user has viewed an item in a list, using RecyclerView and RxJava APIs.

Object Oriented Tricks: #1 The Art of Command Query Separation
In this mini series, Arun Sasidharan will share tricks for writing maintainable Object Oriented code. When we use functions It can be difficult to get rid of all side-effects that come with an Object Oriented programming paradigm. This Object Oriented Trick (OOT) will provide you with some tips on managing those unforeseen side effects.

Object Oriented Tricks: #2 Law of Demeter
In this mini series, Arun Sasidharan will share tricks for writing maintainable Object Oriented code. The Law of Demeter(LoD) is more of a style guideline than a principle, which helps reduce coupling between components. This OOT will explain why we don’t want our functions to know about the entire object map of the system and how to limit their knowledge

Test Driving away Coupling in Activities
The writer of this series shares his opinion and raises questions regarding the coupling and cohesion of Android-centric architecture. In Part 3, you will be shown how to detect tight coupling in Activities and looser coupling can be achieved through test driving the functionality.

Serverless Apps With Firebase Cloud Functions
In this tutorial, Chike Mgbemena will introduce you to Cloud Functions for Firebase. You will learn what Cloud Function are, their uses and how to get started with implementing them in your app.

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Exploring New Android Layouts
This video and notes of a talk by Takeshi Hagikura looks at ConstraintLayout and FlexboxLayout. The talk focuses on Android views, what these layouts bring to the table, what they are trying to solve and the basics of using these layouts.

Android Makers FR recap
Jeroen Mols shares his personal highlights along with a collection of slides from Droidcon Paris 2017. Make sure you check out this post for a bit of a sneak preview of the talks and the key takeaways.

Android O and the Implicit Broadcast Ban
In Android O, apps are have new restrictions on what they can do in the background. The changes mostly affect background services, location updates and implicit broadcasts. This post looks at the why, the who, the what and the workaround of Implicit Broadcasts in Android O.

Start using lambdas in Android with Retrolambda
This post introduces, the Retrolamda library providing java lambda support in java 6, 7 and android. The post will show you how to include the library and step you through using lambdas.

Changes to Device Identifiers in Android O
Starting with Android O, an Android ID has a different value for each app, as well as each user on a given device. This post looks at the details of the charges to Device Identifiers and some related permissions.

How to choose the best Node.js framework: Express.js, Koa.js or Sails.js
Node.js is an asynchronous event driven JavaScript runtime and  it’s introduction means JavaScript is no longer limited to front-end development. In this post you will learn about MVC frameworks for Node.js and how to choose best Node framework for your project.

Videos

Caster.IO Lesson 193: Moshi – Creating a JSON Adapter

This lesson covers how to create a custom Moshi JSON Adapter. This video expects you to have a solid understanding of serliazation/deserialization and to have worked with Gson/LoganSquare/Jackson/etc at one point or another.

Caster.IO Lesson 194: Moshi – TypeAdapter Factories
This lesson covers how to create and work with Moshi TypeAdapter Factories. This video expects you to have a solid understanding of serliazation/deserialization and to have worked with Gson/LoganSquare/Jackson/etc at one point or another. Topics covered are:

• Polymorphic Deserialization
• TypeAdapter Factorys
• Delegate Adapters

Caster.IO Lesson 195: Moshi – Custom Logic Based Adapters
This lesson covers how to create a custom Moshi adapter that contains custom business logic to part values based upon a users locale. Topics covered are:

• Business logic in adapters (specifically relating to weight in this series)

Open Source

Emoji
A simple library to add Emoji support to your Android Application

Swiperoo
An extendable adapter which provides swipe-to-delete feature on your customized row item

FCM-toolbox
Firebase Cloud Messaging toolbox

LinearTimer
A custom view for circular progress animation on Android.

Tools

Color Tool
Create, share, and apply color palettes to your UI, as well as measure the accessibility level of any color combination