rxjava Grokking RxJava, Part 3: Reactive with Benefits In part 1 [https://blog.danlew.net/2014/09/15/grokking-rxjava-part-1/], I went over the basic structure of RxJava. In part 2 [https://blog.danlew.net/2014/09/22/grokking-rxjava-part-2/], I showed you how powerful operators could be. But maybe you're still not sold; there isn't
rxjava Grokking RxJava, Part 2: Operator, Operator In part 1 [https://blog.danlew.net/2014/09/15/grokking-rxjava-part-1/] I went over the basic structure of RxJava, as well as introducing you to the map() operator. However, I can understand if you're still not compelled to use RxJava - you don't have much to
rxjava Grokking RxJava, Part 1: The Basics RxJava [https://github.com/ReactiveX/RxJava] is the new hotness amongst Android developers these days. The only problem is that it can be difficult to approach initially. Functional Reactive Programming is hard when you come from an imperative world, but once you understand it, it's so awesome! I&
android What Should You Localize? Localization is an important topic to me; there's no faster way to expand your audience than include the entire rest of the world! A few months ago I wrote about how to setup your strings [https://blog.danlew.net/2014/04/16/android-localization-tips/]. That's only half
android Upcoming Talk: Custom Views for Profit and Pleasure As is my wont, I'm going to be going to a few conferences in the upcoming months and giving some talks. My new talk this year will be all about my love of custom Views on Android. It's called "Custom Views for Profit and Pleasure&
android New App: Download Shortcut I've published another tiny tool app: Download Shortcut [https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.danlew.download]. It solves a problem which has vexed me on Android: what if an app lets me open a link to a file (say, an mp3) but doesn't
android Fast Android asset theming with ColorFilter One of the neat aspects of the material theme [https://developer.android.com/preview/material/theme.html] in the upcoming Android L release is being able to theme all of your app (icons and all) with just a handful of attributes: <style name="AppTheme" parent="android:
android Gfycat for Android I think Gfycat [http://www.gfycat.com/] is doing some amazing work with their service - I don't mind gifs as a visual medium but it has always bothered me how large/slow they are to load. Gfycat takes those gigantic gifs and compresses them to a more
android The Hidden Pitfalls of AsyncTask Logc.at [logc.at] is a defunct blog I wrote a couple posts for a few years ago. I'm using the Wayback Machine [https://archive.org/web/] to recover and repost my articles here. I originally wrote this article when I was (foolishly) still using AsyncTasks. Nowadays I
android Android Tips Round-Up, Part 5 Here's the final round-up of Android tips I've been posting. I've officially run out of things to post. If I ever come across something new I'll post it but it won't be daily anymore. It's been fun everyone!
android Why I avoid android.util.Patterns I wanted to leave a quick note about android.util.Patterns [http://developer.android.com/reference/android/util/Patterns.html]: I think it's a dangerously misleading class. It's so tempting - who wouldn't want ready-made, AOSP-approved regexes? But there's some serious problems
android Android Tips Round-Up, Part 4 Here's the fourth round-up of Android tips I've been posting. More: Part 1 [https://blog.danlew.net/2014/03/30/android-tips-round-up-part-1/] | Part 2 [https://blog.danlew.net/2014/04/14/android-tips-round-up-part-2/] | Part 3 [https://blog.danlew.net/2014/04/28/android-tips-round-up-part-3/] | Part 4 | Part 5 [https:
android Android Tips Round-Up, Part 3 Here's the third round-up of Android tips I've been posting. More: Part 1 [https://blog.danlew.net/2014/03/30/android-tips-round-up-part-1/] | Part 2 [https://blog.danlew.net/2014/04/14/android-tips-round-up-part-2/] | Part 3 | Part 4 [https://blog.danlew.net/2014/05/12/android-tips-round-up-part-4/] | Part 5 [https:
android Android Localization Tips I've been interested in localization on Android recently. There's a few neat things I've been experimenting with I thought I'd share. xliff:g One common problem when sending strings for translation is that some parts of a string should not be localized.
android Android Tips Round-Up, Part 2 Here's the second round-up of Android tips I've been posting. More: Part 1 [https://blog.danlew.net/2014/03/30/android-tips-round-up-part-1/] | Part 2 | Part 3 [https://blog.danlew.net/2014/04/28/android-tips-round-up-part-3/] | Part 4 [https://blog.danlew.net/2014/05/12/android-tips-round-up-part-4/] | Part 5 [https:
android Android Tips Round-Up, Part 1 With my recent project [https://blog.danlew.net/2014/03/17/android-tip-of-the-day/] I've been posting one Android class/method a day. People have been asking for an archive of these links, so every couple weeks I'm going to round them up here. I'll also
android An Android View Measurement Case Study A coworker ran into an interesting problem the other day. Here's a (much simplified) version of the layout which led us to some interesting discoveries about the Android measurement system: <FrameLayout android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content"> <
Android Tip of the Day Even though I've been doing Android development for over four years I still come across neat things I never knew about Android every month. For example, this month I discovered Activity.startActivities() [http://developer.android.com/reference/android/app/Activity.html#startActivities(android.content.Intent%5B%5D)] -
android Testing on Android (Part 4): Testing Services The final part of my Android testing series will be about services one can use for testing. By services, I typically mean companies you pay to help you do your testing. I'm currently operating on a budget of zero, so I haven't actually tested any of
android New Library: joda-time-android I've just published a new Android library: joda-time-android [https://github.com/dlew/joda-time-android]. The readme explains why you might want it and how to use it. I wanted to go into detail on two topics I learned about while making it. While the library itself was a simple
android Testing on Android (Part 3): Other Testing Tools Part three of my Android testing series will be about odds-and-ends tools for testing that don't really fit into strict unit/functional testing frameworks, but are worth checking out. Part 1: Unit Tests [http://goo.gl/sO4M06] Part 2: Functional Tests [http://goo.gl/NDBvkX] Part 3: Other
android Preserve Your Launchers: Use Activity Aliases When you deploy your Android app, the launcher Activity's manifest entry should be treated as a contract. While it is possible to change the launcher after install doing so will confuse apps that previously used the contract. The classic example is putting a launcher on your home screen
New Domain and Blog I've got a new domain name and I'm trying out some new blogging platforms, first of all Ghost, for hosting. I like the idea of using a markdown-based editor, primarily because it should make it easier to port to other blogging software if necessary. One current
android Testing on Android (Part 2): Functional Tests Here's part two of my series on Android testing. This time, I'm going to wade into the huge number of functional testing frameworks that exist. The differentiation I made between unit testing and functional testing is that the functional tests operate the actual device (as in,
android Who Goes First App Continuing with my series of boardgame-related side projects [https://blog.danlew.net/2013/02/26/resistance_avalon_app/], I've written a small holo-themed app for determining who goes first called (unsurprisingly) Who Goes First [https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.idunnolol.whogoesfirst] . As with most
