This Week’s Links

Fragmented Podcast – Ep #103 – MVI Pattern with Hannes Mosby Dorfmann
​In this episode of Fragmented, Donn (@donnfelker) and Kaushik (@kaushikgopal) talk to Hannes Dorfmann about using the Model View Intent (MVI) pattern for Android. The MVI pattern was sparked through cycle.js (for javascript). Hannes took this pattern and tried to adapt it to Android. This pattern has gained a lot of traction and interest in the Android community. In this episode, he breaks down the pattern, telling how to implement it, how it helps with testing, the benefits of the pattern and some of the pitfalls. Recording this episode was riveting for us and we dive into some juicy technical details. Listen on!

ViroCore is a SceneKit Equivalent to Easily Develop AR/VR Apps in Java​
Lately, there has been a renewed interest in augmented reality with Google launching ARCore. A startup company called Viro Media has recently announced ViroCore: a SceneKit for Android equivalent to help accelerate both augmented reality (AR) as well as virtual reality (VR) application development for developers with experience in Java.

Kotlin Programmer Dictionary: Object Expression vs Object Declaration
Because Kotlin introduced an object as a keyword, there has been some confusion in the programming community. Are you using the object term to describe two other constructs. Find out more about object declaration and object expression in this blog post.

Google Certified Associate Android Developer: Exam Walkthrough
If you’re looking to become a Google Certified Associate Android Developer, check out this walkthrough of the exam by Rohan Taneja. Rohan shares details about the format of the exam through some screenshots so you’ll know what to expect during the test.

Getting Your Android App Ready for Autofill
Starting in Oreo, Autofill makes it easy for users to provide credit cards, logins, addresses, and other information to apps. With Autofill, forms in your apps can now be filled automatically, and your users no longer have to remember complicated passwords or type the same bits of information more than once. In this article, learn how to make your app ready for this feature.

Launchpad Comes to Africa to Support Tech Startups! Apply To Join the First Accelerator Class
Google for Nigeria has made a commitment to support African entrepreneurs, helping them build successful technology companies and products. Following up on that commitment, this week the Google Developers Launchpad Africa was announced, their new hands-on comprehensive mentorship program tailored exclusively to startups based in Africa.

Currency Curiosities
Formatting currency values can be tricky, because of the vast knowledge it requires to format them correctly. While there are some tricks and shortcuts, there are some subtleties that you need to understand to do it correctly. Take a look at this article by Mark Allison to explains the specifics of formatting currency.

Jobs (these are pulled from Androiddevdigest.com/jobs) Mobile Developer, Android (Mid-range) at UrbanThings Limited (London, UK) UrbanThings have a unique opportunity for an Android developer with 2 years or more professional experience to shape our transport apps. Working on bleeding edge new features such as beacons and NFC, Kotlin, RxJava and joining a fun, brilliant team. [Apply Today] Mobile Software Engineer at Participate (Chapel Hill, NC (Allows Remote)) Three to six years of native mobile application development experience (Android/Kotlin preferred, Swift a plus), strong background with UI technologies and front-end development, consumption of JSON and/or GraphQL APIs, HTML/CSS, and experience with React & Redux. [Apply Today] Lead Android Engineer at Sched This is your chance to start fresh with no legacy code base and create something that you are PROUD of — that will be used by millions of attendees. And do it all while traveling around the world to places like Bali, Mykonos, Tokyo and Morocco. [Apply Today] Need to hire an Android professional? Post a job here

What’s New in Version 2.5.0 of Our Client SDKs
In this article, find out about the latest version of our SDKs, which include’s Square’s big release of multi-party transactions. The newest version inclues improved SDK generation insturctions, removes the Travis CI SDK build instructions and minor spelling fixes.

Custom Views In Android
Writing code for custom views can be tricky business. But making the decision to write custom views or go with default ones is a bigger dilemma. Read this article before navigating that decision for a list of pros and cons of each option to help you make a more informed and logical decision on which path to take.

Google’s New SDK Adds Spatial Audio to Your VR Apps
Google is making it easier for developers to create immersive VR experiences with the launch of a new SDK featuring support for spatial audio, called Resonance Audio. Resonance Audio aims to simulate the perception of sound in the real world. Read more in this article.

Video

Caster.IO Kotlin: Delegation Using Lazy Functions
Delegation allows deferring the initialization of a variable at a later stage instead of initializing the variable as null. It helps to initialize the variable only once. Fortunately, Kotlin comes with native support for Delegation with 2 standard delegates (part of the Kotlin standard library) vialazy and lateinit. This is extremely handy and useful feature, as we don’t need to initialize something until it is required; or just because we can’t initialize something until we have all we need.

Open Source

AndroidSDKPoster
Need a new reference poster? The AndroidSDKPoster includes a wall poster with a detailed changelog of Android SDK versions 14-27, broken down into 30 categories.

VanGogh
VanGogh is a lightweight library that takes Android view animation logic and binds it with RxJava2, providing a simple and powerful API for manipulating animations workflow.