[Q] Stock Graphics and how to implement them - Android Software Development

I'm building a few apps but wanted to see if there might be a way to grab existing graphics already in the OS. Like the plus sign in the Calendar or the microphone... I'd rather not have to include the same image in the system if it's already there, and the fact that a simple theme change would make the apps I'm working on change dynamically with the new look.
Thoughts?

if the files you want to use are defined in the resource directory and can be accessed via R.java from both xml and java then there is no way to get to the files.
if the files are defined as Assets then there is a possibility for you to access them.
you will need to know the exact file path to the file you want to access.
see
http://developer.android.com/reference/android/content/res/AssetManager.html
and
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5493396/how-to-reference-android-assets-across-packages

Exactly what I was looking for, but not what I was wanting to hear. Know of any stock graphics I can use for my res/drawables? I'm not exactly the best artist in the world and would like my apps to look somewhat like they belong.

removed

android.R.drawable is helpful but if you can't get it, just download the source. are you guys forgetting the android is completely open source? it might take you a while to find them, but they're all there.

I was sure there were some stock graphics available somewhere. Thanks SimonVT. Helped quite a bit with the ugly crayon jobs I created.

removed

SimonVT said:
That is also an option, but using native resources will ensure that it fits in with the overall OS theme.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
oh yeah, I guess you've got a point there. I wasn't thinking about people with sense, motoblur, etc. I've only ever had stock android phones. Well, I did have a nook color for a month or two, but I installed cyanogenmod the day I got it.

this might interest you aswell. its the android icon template pack.
http://developer.android.com/shareables/icon_templates-v2.3.zip
you can read more about icon and user interface guidlines here
http://developer.android.com/guide/practices/ui_guidelines/index.html

Yeah, that's some good information as well. Following the OS standard is what I would prefer over trying to make my own or grabbing from other installed apps. It makes for the apps/widgets to flow much better in overall design theory.

Related

[Q] Modify stock mail app?

First off, I'm brand new to Android development so please bear with me.
My only goal at this point is to add the ability to choose the notification LED color to the Android 2.2 stock mail app (on the Droid). I've searched all over the place and haven't found an existing solution for this yet.
It seems to me like it should be super easy to add this functionality to the stock mail app. I can already choose my sound and vibrate settings, why not the LED color? Toss in some notification.ledARGB = something (plus the few other lines of code to make it work), a list to choose the color and we're good to go.
My problem, though, is I have no idea where to begin to have access to the code of the stock mail app. I would guess it goes something like:
1. Download the apk
2. Somehow open the source
3. Make the changes I need
4. Turn it back into a useable apk
5. Swap out the existing apk with my new modified one on the phone
I really only care about making this work on my own phone, so I'm not worried about signing the apk with a public cert or anything. I'm rooted as well, so no worries there.
Anyone have any insight? If I basically have the right plan of attack, and advice on the specifics? If I'm totally wrong in my approach, any advice on what I should be doing would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance for any help!
I think this app is a part of AOSP, so you don't have to decompile an apk - grab sources and build them.
Well, that certainly makes sense. Just did some digging, and I found a pile of info about getting the source, git, repo, etc.
Naturally I'm a windows user, so it looks like I'll need to get some linux up and running to actually do anything with the source code. Ubuntu is installing as we speak....
Any tips on what to do next for a newbie like me?
Should I follow all the directions to get Eclipse ready to develop on the linux box?
Do I just need to download the Email.git to do what I want?
What do I do with the Email.git once I've gotten it?
Just gonna give this a little bump. I've got my linux box all set up and i've got the entire android source downloaded. I'm not really sure where to go from here, though.
How do I just modify and compile the email app into an apk? Thanks for any forthcoming handholding, guys.

[Q] Making a new app - need some advice!

So, here is the situation:
I'm a Magic: the Gathering player and I love to design cards for fun. There is a bit of software called Magic Set Edtior that lets you make and store collections of custom made cards on the PC. My goal is to make a similar program for android. However, I'm relatively unfamiliar with how android apps are developed, and I have one major problem starting out:
Basically, the program needs to be able to open, create, edit, and save sets of cards that each have a few features. How do I store data for these sets? How would I accomplish that sort of file system? Should I just have the app create a internal database for each set the user makes? Are there limits to how many databases can be created by a single app? I'm probably not being as clear as I could be, and I realize that this project is probably (far) beyond my abilities - but I'd appreciate any help and would be happy to clarify anything that doesn't make sense. I'll post progress once I get this off the ground!
Check out the notepad demo at developer.android.com, it should be a good starting point for what you are trying to do
Sweet! I'll take a look. Thanks for your help ^_^
One more thing about databases, then: If the app has an internal database and I release an update for the app that modifies fields in the database, does the information get wiped? (for example, say that the tables in the db have three fields: name, cost, rules, and i issue an update that adds a "stats" field. Would that clear out the current cards in the database?)
Basically, I just want to be sure that using databases to store the sets of cards is the best, most efficient way to do this (So I won't end up having to re-code that entire bit of app).
So, databases are confusing... At least, how android works with them sure as hell is @[email protected]
So, what ive got now is that I need to make a database to store the individual card data... however, I also need to store general information about the set as well. So, do I make one new writeable database per set created, or is there a way to just use one database, and one table per set? (though I dont think you can store general info about a table that applies to each row, can you?)
Or apply for appinventor from googlelabs. Its fast and easy, should suite your purpose. Also has ability to communicate via web.
goodluck
I did apply. I'm hoping they get it too me soon.
Roid1 said:
Or apply for appinventor from googlelabs. Its fast and easy, should suite your purpose. Also has ability to communicate via web.
goodluck
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've got accepted like a week ago. Sad part is. You can't upload apps made to the market
sent from my pimp hero running Froyo CM6 and the XDA app

[IDEA] Another Hand To Android From The XDA Team

Hello to all XDA developers and chefs
Before giving this idea i would like to introduce myself I'm a new programing student interested in the Java programing language, also interested in mobile programing. I've already tried searching for this idea and as far as my research went there has been none like this.
Here it goes
-Everyone know how much of a pain it is for several people to use the skinned versions of android on their phone (blur, sense, other), we all would like to get more stock android from our companies but it seems to become a unreachable dream. now many have said that they must find an workaround for this, yet no idea seems to become a reality....
now my idea consist in having to android packages on every phone from stock one package that will be installed for default and another package that the user may choose to install, the default package will come with a skin while the optional package will contain stock android, now the way to manage this two is via an application from witch the user by running it will decide to have stock rom or skinned.
Now this is the way I think this should work
-User opens the app
-App pops a warning to the user telling him its phone will be fully reseted
-The user accepts the consequences
-The app turns the phone into a recovery mode with a selection for witch package to recover from (for example return a #1 indicating that the user wants skins on his phone will install the package with the skin or a #2 to run a package with no skins at all)
why am I asking help from XDA? because of two things
-I currently don't know that much about programing
-I think XDA would be the best site for the idea to grow and become something significant
what are my plans with this idea? I'm currently writing an open letter to Google and the manufacturers to bring many options to the OS. I thought i would be a great idea not only to deliver this letter but to give the materials they could work on...
do I get anything if I help with developing such an idea?
I currently have no plans on taking credit or any remuneration of any kind from this "project" but I would clearly name those who made this idea possible, now if "bounties" where to come from this then you may earn them...
what are you asking me to do?
-Brainstorming, I would like to see how this idea gets refined.
-Development, when the idea is complete having many attempts to get the idea to work would be great.
-Testing and feedback, help the idea to work on as many devices as possible
-Support, when the protect gets completed i would like everyone to spread the voice. if its a great idea then it should be heard.
Thanks for your Time.
reserved.....
Cyanogen mod is basically stock android with a few mods and tweaks. If doesn't have all of the bloatware that skinned manufacturer roms have so its alot faster and I think stock android looks better than sense, etc.... Its been compiled for a wide range of phones.
K Dotty said:
Cyanogen mod is basically stock android with a few mods and tweaks. If doesn't have all of the bloatware that skinned manufacturer roms have so its alot faster and I think stock android looks better than sense, etc.... Its been compiled for a wide range of phones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know about the cynamogen mod have it on my pone,where I'm trying to go with this idea is that there might be other methods for the companies to deliver stuff to the end user and the dev. many know that for example with blur the phone does not work the same when it as blur removed, thats because the 'blur' its being integrated a lot with the OS and in some cases seems to be a pain to remove...
So basically, you have no programming experience and I would hope that English isn't your native language.
Your best bet for now would be to sit back and watch those ahead of you and ask questions as needed.
I think he's suggesting that any code that came about from this would get pushed into stock and hopefully integrated by Google. Manufacturers wouldn't tamper with it; rather, they would make their custom skinned Android (so HTC Sense, or Samsung Touchwiz, or MotoBlur/NinjaBlur) be separate. Phones would require more system space to accommodate for the backups, but it wouldn't have to be astronomical, as only the parts of the system that the skin makers actually modified would be in those recovery partitions. So then the recovery utility launched by the included app would pull all of the packages from whichever partition (recovery_SENSE, for example, or recovery_VANILLA for stock) and push them into /system. So the phone's system would have three total partitions: /system, which would be mounted by the phone during normal boots, /recovery_[whatever_skin], which would hold the manufacturers version of anything they skinned, including apps, frameworks, anything they added, etc, and /recovery_VANILLA, which would only hold the stock versions of anything in the /recovery_[whatever_skin] partition, plus anything the manufacturers took out.
Furthermore, if the partitions are all made big enough, they could future-proof phones. recovery partitions would hold the entire system, skin (or lack of skin) and all, then Google would be made responsible for pushing out the updates to the /recovery_VANILLA partition, keeping all phones up to date. People who ACTUALLY want to sacrifice features for the skin and possible other features could do so. And because everything is backed up to your Google account, there'd be no problems. Everything would get synced at first, but after that you'd be smooth as butter.
I think if this was implemented, and Google told manufacturers they had to do this, it would do a whole lot in the way of moving us away from skins. I think as Google updates are pushed out and manufacturers are updating far less frequently, more and more people will switch to their stock partitions, and, through ad information, manufacturers would realize the skins are wack.
momentarylapseofreason said:
So basically, you have no programming experience and I would hope that English isn't your native language.
Your best bet for now would be to sit back and watch those ahead of you and ask questions as needed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I actually don't mind if someone takes this and makes something out of it... I don't even want the credit, but I as well will be working and reading as much as I can to get something working, I know this may be hard or complicated but if I see this being implemented and people enjoying it I'll be happy
guitargler said:
I think he's suggesting that any code that came about from this would get pushed into stock and hopefully integrated by Google. Manufacturers wouldn't tamper with it; rather, they would make their custom skinned Android (so HTC Sense, or Samsung Touchwiz, or MotoBlur/NinjaBlur) be separate. Phones would require more system space to accommodate for the backups, but it wouldn't have to be astronomical, as only the parts of the system that the skin makers actually modified would be in those recovery partitions. So then the recovery utility launched by the included app would pull all of the packages from whichever partition (recovery_SENSE, for example, or recovery_VANILLA for stock) and push them into /system. So the phone's system would have three total partitions: /system, which would be mounted by the phone during normal boots, /recovery_[whatever_skin], which would hold the manufacturers version of anything they skinned, including apps, frameworks, anything they added, etc, and /recovery_VANILLA, which would only hold the stock versions of anything in the /recovery_[whatever_skin] partition, plus anything the manufacturers took out.
Furthermore, if the partitions are all made big enough, they could future-proof phones. recovery partitions would hold the entire system, skin (or lack of skin) and all, then Google would be made responsible for pushing out the updates to the /recovery_VANILLA partition, keeping all phones up to date. People who ACTUALLY want to sacrifice features for the skin and possible other features could do so. And because everything is backed up to your Google account, there'd be no problems. Everything would get synced at first, but after that you'd be smooth as butter.
I think if this was implemented, and Google told manufacturers they had to do this, it would do a whole lot in the way of moving us away from skins. I think as Google updates are pushed out and manufacturers are updating far less frequently, more and more people will switch to their stock partitions, and, through ad information, manufacturers would realize the skins are wack.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Indeed thats what I'm thinking... I don't think space should be much of a problem, especially on hight end phones.
When I posted this my fist idea was to give someone an idea I don't mind how you implemented or who you decide to work with (I'll probably just slow you down anyways)
K Dotty said:
Cyanogen mod is basically stock android with a few mods and tweaks. If doesn't have all of the bloatware that skinned manufacturer roms have so its alot faster and I think stock android looks better than sense, etc.... Its been compiled for a wide range of phones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Basically stock? AHAHAH
It's all but stock... so many changes, have you ever run a stock Gingerbread or even FroYo recently? Way faster than CM. The truth is that ATM CM is just a candy ROM ATM with large phone models support.
I'd really like to see a stock rom for older devices - here is where CM is proud of. But it's not stock.
As of the application support, you may use my ROM Updater ( http://www.elegosproject.org/android-rom-updater ) to setup repositories of stock ROMs (and in a near future extra downloads like kernels, themes and so on).

Developer with a Marketing question!

I'm a programmer; I don't do Sales, I don't do Marketing LOL
I'm working on an app that has my partner and I debating on pretty much a daily basis. I'll try to explain best as possible without too much detail.
The app takes a pre-loaded database (a "template") from assets folder and loads into the app. Works fine. Thing is, there will be more templates, probably up to 20 for which we want to charge (we're talking small amounts here).
So, here is the debate we're having:
1. Create 20 apps with each having the one template. Easy as hell for me but goes against my programming standards as to why have 20 apps when ONE does the work? NOTE: Does not need any permissions
2. Create one app, ask user for template on startup, download from cloud. A little tougher, but not much. Problem here is that what if they want 2 templates? Or 5? We want to charge for each template. I could do "AppName +2" or "AppName +5"
versions and charge accordingly. NOTE: Max templates a user would have is probably 5.
3. In-app purchasing...I've read about this. Not so easy. You either hide content (and over bloat your app or code a mechanism that allows Joe to have in-app purchase app, but not Julie). Google makes clear note of this in their docs. NOTE: my bloat would be about a 7,000 row database on user's phone.
So, just looking for some other opinions...all comments welcome!
TIA,
Roots
From what I can understand, I think # 1 is the most tried and true method, as most launchers with themes work this way. The upside for you as far as making money is concerned is that there are people who want all their options, whether or not they will ever use them... I have been guilty of it myself with lp+ themes. I've paid for ones I'll never use, because it's there and most apps tend to be in the "impulse buy" price range.
I agree, #1 is your best option, it may require a lot more work as far as deploying goes, but it is the most reliable method.
Interesting! Thank you for your replies.
A little more information...the templates (e.g. database) will probably never change from initial download, so that update is a moot point.
One thing I didn't think about is creating and SAVING 20 keys!!! Yikes. I've lost those before...very bad situation when that happens. Not to mention 20 distinct package names.
One thing I didn't think about is creating and SAVING 20 keys!!! Yikes. I've lost those before...very bad situation when that happens. Not to mention 20 distinct package names.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can sign all packages with the same key.
As of package names, all you need is to change the application package not the code packages. The ADT has a tool for renaming application packages.
1. Create 20 apps with each having the one template. Easy as hell for me but goes against my programming standards as to why have 20 apps when ONE does the work? NOTE: Does not need any permissions
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here is my suggestion, although I never tried it:
Create 20 apps for templates with no logic at all.
For each one of these apps:
(1) Put a single template file in the res/raw folder
(2) Create an Activity that doesn't do anything at all (call finish on onCreate).
(3) Set intent-filter for your null activity with android.intent.action.MAIN and your own custom category.
Create 1 main application with all application logic and code but with no templates at all (or just one default template).
(1) Search for installed templates using PackageManager.queryIntentActivities with an Intent that match Intent.ACTION_MAIN and your custom category.
(2) Read templates using Context.createPackageContext, getResources of the created context, getIdentifier to find the id of the template file and openRawResource to actually open it as an InputStream.
There are other methods to share resources, take look at android:sharedUserId.
Interesting concept, but if I read it right, I sill need 20 "dummy" apps to go with the main "driver".
I've got some time to mess with this because I have to implement drag and drop on some ListViews. I might just end-up coding the in-app purchase stuff.
EDIT: LOL, I can't wait till I can afford an iPad and port all my stuff to iOS

[REPO] The library thread

Hello everyone,
Based on the release of the new forums here, and the seemingly enthusiastic response, I have decided to create a repository of libraries that are useful to Android developers.
Libraries:
AChartEngine : This is a library that lets you make and display all kinds of charts, from line to bar to scatter charts. A very good solution, should you need charts.
Uses: Well... Charts!
Made by 4ViewSoft.
ActionBarSherlock: This library will help you in maintaining an easy-to-use and consistent UI across all version of Android above 2.1.
On Android 3.0+, it will use the native ActionBar, and below that, a backport of the 4.x native ActionBar has been used. Note that this is not needed if you want to target APIs that support the AB natively.
Made by Jake Wharton.
aFileChooser: The basic version of Android File Chooser, it features somewhat less graphical hints about, for example, your current folder, but does provide a somewhat cleaner UI.
Uses include a simple file chooser for opening a file from a specific folder.
Made by Paul Burke.
android-hybridchoice: A ListView that lets users open a single list item, while also letting you select one or more other items. This way, you can (for example) view a mail while selecting others to throw away, instead of having to do that separately.
Uses: Making any app with items that have detailed info in a ListView that can be changed.
Made by Kiran Rao.
android-lockpattern: A library for you to include a lock pattern in your app. It was adapted straight from Android source code, and is very useful for keeping data secure.
Uses: Root apps, apps with sensitive data or other apps that could hurt one's phone.
Made by Hai Bison.
Android FileChooser: Helps you in letting the user select a file. A visual GUI is made available to you and the user, through which the user can navigate to select a folder.
Use cases: A file explorer, a downloading action, moving/copying files, etc.
Made by Hai Bison.
Android Maps Extensions: A library that extends a number of Google Maps API v2 features. It features things like marker grouping, where it won't display individual markers when there's a lot of them together.
Can be used in an application with a Maps View, to make it clearer and easier to understand.
Made by Maciek G
Android Proxy Library: This lets you provide an easy and better (than Google's) solution to the Android Issue 1273 (OF DOOOOOOOM!). It allows you to easily get the proxy settings of an Android device.
Uses: You know, getting the proxy settings.
Made by Marco Pagliari.
BetterPickers: A cool library that implements the Android 4.2 Clock time picker for you to use in your own apps as you please. It is a very nice way to keep your app Holo-themed, and it continues the push for a consistent UI in Android.
Among others, uses include clock and calendar apps.
Made by Derek Brameyer.
Build.prop Tools: A library to get access to the properties in a device's build.prop, which include its codename, Android version, CPU name and others.
Uses: Having to edit or otherwise get access to certain build.prop entries in your app, for example to display system info.
Made by Jonathan Haylett.
Cieo: A library that lets you animate text. It is currently in very early Alpha stages of development, but does work.
Uses: Word games, for example Hangman, where you can add a little extra to make it more dynamic.
Made by Igor <LastNameUnknownException>.
DroidParts: This library helps you add the most used parts of Android apps without problems. It can help you add a number of more complicated parts that have been modded to be simpler, like an ImageFetcher and an improved ASyncTask.
Uses: Just about every app can do this. Easier everything!
Made by Alex Yanchenko.
droidText: A PDF creator library. Should you need to create a PDF easily, this is the library you want!
Uses include parsing user input and saving it to a PDF file for later use, or to send (i.e. via email).
Made by Markus Neubrand.
EventBus: This helps you tie together Activities, Fragments and background threads. It eliminates the need for overly complex listeners and interfaces, to make your life a lot easier.
Uses: Apps with background threads, Activities and/or Fragments working together.
Made by Markus Junginger.
FlipView: A FlipBoard-like animation to use for scrolling. Give your app a little extra eye candy, when you have multiple pages to scroll through.
Uses: News readers and other apps that separate content into clear "pages".
Made by Emil Sjölander.
GAST (Great Android Sensing Toolkit): A library to help you use an Android phone's internal sensors. It will help you control many sensor, including NFC, the camera and the accelerometer.
Uses: A diagnosing app, or one that uses certain sensors for controlling an app feature.
Made by Greg Milette and Adam Stroud.
GoogleDateTimePickers: TimePickers done right. A beautiful replacement for Google's standard DatePickers and TimePickers, It is designed with the Holo style in mind, and makes it much, much easier to select the date and time of your liking.
Uses: Letting the user pick a date or time, e.g. when setting an alarm.
Made by Mirko Dimartino.
Hansel And Gretel: This allows you to visually display the Fragment Stack. When you open a new Fragment, it is added to a 'tower' of Fragments, from which you can also pop (remove) the top one. This library allows you to visually represent that Stack in your app.
Uses: If, for example, you travel through multiple Fragments within one Activity, you can show which Fragments the user has gone through.
Made by Jake Wharton.
HoloEverywhere: A library that backports the Holo UI design to earlier Android versions (like ActionBarSherlock does for the ActionBar). It uses the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean assets and makes them usable on Android versions 2.1 Eclair and up.
Uses: An application that needs Holo on all platforms it runs on. Be aware that it might disrupt the UI consistency for the user, so think about that before including this in your app.
Made by Sergey Shatunov and Waza_Be.
Inscription: For displaying information about your app to the user. It contains a ChangeLogDialog and a WhatsNewDialog, where the former displays more detailed information (version numbers, etc.) than the latter.
Useful for showing a dialog after the user updated your app, without having to write too much code.
Made by Martin van Zuilekom.
JacksonInFiveMinutes: A library to help in parsing and processing JSON, offering different ways to do so: A streaming API, a tree model and data binding.
Of course, you can use this anywhere to parse JSON data (Twitter apps, for example).
Made by Tatu Saloranta (?).
JazzyViewPager: Makes it easy to add a nice effect when changing pages with a ViewPager. Easily done: just add it, change some references and pick an animation!
Uses: Spicing up your app's animation portfolio, when using a ViewPager.
Made by Jeremy Feinstein.
ListViewAnimations: An easy way of animating your ListView items easily and nicely, to give your app that little bit extra.
Uses: To spice up any ListView that needs more fancies.
Made by Niek Haarman.
NumericPageIndicator: A ViewPagerIndicator 'plug-in' that lets you easily display which page you're looking at. For example, show "page 2 of 20" at the bottom of the page.
Uses: Letting the user know which page they are on.
Made by Manuel Peinado.
OrmLite: A library that simplifies database interaction in Android apps. It is designed to work with multiple database systems, including SQLite and MySQL.
Uses: Database creation, management in Android. Various DB systems supported.
Made by Gray Watson.
osmdroid: An almost full, free replacement of Google's MapView. It includes numerous functionalities, like a number of on- and offline tile sources.
Uses: To add a map to your app, and easily use functionalities surrounding it.
Made by a number of non-disclosed awesome people!
PDFViewer SDK: A free PDF viewer library that works well. However, it does have a watermark on the screen, and you'll have to pay to remove it.
Uses are obvious: Building all kinds of PDF viewers!
Made by GEAR.it.
PlayView: This helps you in creating a Google Play-like style in your UI, by extending the CardsUI library (which can be found in the PlayView thread).
Good to use in an application where you want a nice smooth UI, with a modular and changeable look and feel.
Made by Androguide.fr and GadgetCheck, among others.
ProgressButton: A nice library that shows you the progress of a download in the same button that you press to start the download. See Google Music for a working example.
Comes in handy when there's a list of items to download, and you want to facilitate easy downloading and keeping tracks of those downloads.
Made by Prateek Srivastava, based off of Roman Nurik's examples.
PullToRefresh: Expand a Listview (multiple versions are supported) with the ability to refresh its content upon pulling down at the top.
Uses include social media clients, lists of other network-based updated items (orders, for example).
Made by Chris Banes.
Remote Metadata Provider: Get system information about, for example, which music is playing on your phone. This could help you implement lockscreen music controls for your app.
Uses: Lockscreen music controls, for example.
Made by XDA member Dr.Alexander_Breen.
RoboSpice: A library that makes long-running asynchronous tasks easy. For example, it offers caching (very useful for orientation changes).
Uses: Any app that implements an ASyncTask, especially when it is a bigger and longer-running one.
Made by Octo Technology.
RootTools: This library will make it very easy for you to gain superuser access and execute commands based on that. This way, you can, for example, move and replace files anywhere on the system.
This is especially handy when you are making a sort of backup app, or when you need the ability to do things that aren't possible without root access.
Made by Stericson.
ShowcaseView: This is a library that lets you highlight certain areas of the screen. Just like the Android launcher on first launch (or YouTube), it will allow you to tell the user how to interact with what, and what it does.
Uses: Clarifying certain UI elements and their purpose to the user.
Made by Alex Curran.
SlidingMenu: This lets you include a menu that slides into your app from the side, like the YouTube app has it. There, you can add a whole hosts of options and actions that don't fit or belong in the ActionBar. SlidingMenu also lets you customise the menu. The new Android supportv4 library version, revision 13, also has a basic version of this.
Uses: Menus with additional items, like channels in the YouTube app, shortcuts to your app's settings, etc.
Made by Jeremy Feinstein.
Spring For Android: A library that helps you integrate some features easily. For example, it can simplify using REST in your app.
Uses: Whenever your app needs REST of auth support.
Made by GoPivotal.
StandOut: A library that enables you to make your apps float! Basically, you can make any app you want float. Look in the thread for numerous examples!
Useful when you are making an app that is also used parallel to other apps, like a calculator or note taking app.
Made by Mark Wei.
StickyListHeaders: This is a great way to help you order alphabetised lists in a clear and very recognisable way. The current letter which you are scrolling through will be shown at the top of the screen, for as long as the first letter of the top item on the screen starts with that letter.
Use cases are, for example, scrolling through songs, email addresses, names and articles.
Made by Emil Sjölander.
Sugar ORM: An easy way to use SQLite libraries in your app. It takes away some of the more complex and annoying tasks of database management.
Uses: Managing and querying SQLite databases in your app.
Made by Satya Narayan.
UpdateChecker: This library is a quick and easy way of making sure that users know about updates to your app. It will show a Dialog every 5 times (by default) the app is launched, informing of an app update being available in the Play Store.
Uses: Making sure people update your app. It is handy in just about every app.
Made by Pietro Rampini.
ViewPagerIndicator: This library emulates the multiple ways of showing tab locations without using the ActionBar. This can be used to replicate the Play Store, older Google+ versions, launcher-like indicators and more!
This library is always handy when using tabs, but without wanting to, for example, sacrifice too much screen real estate to use the ActionBar.
Made by Jake Wharton.
Sites, etc. collecting libraries:
Android Libraries provides a big list of libraries for all sorts of tasks, including graphics engines.
Android Snippets is a collection of little snippets of code to help you in navigating some commonly (and less commonly) seen challenges in Android development.
Android UI Patterns for all kinds of UI libraries, with a nice app to go with it.
AndroidKickstartR is a web-based tool for quickly starting an Android app, including a number of (library) options to help ease some of the pain of adding extras. Fair warning: this seems to include older versions of some things, double check the generated project.
AndroidViews for multiple nice UI-based libraries that help make your app look and work awesome!
DevAppsDirect is an app with examples of libraries. Test without setting up a whole new project!
ramdroid77's Google+ community for GitHub-based libraries.
Libraries for developers: A nice little app that has a collection of libraries available to developers.
Also make sure to spread the word about and contribute to this repo!
Have fun,
bassie1995
very helpful thread! thanks mate
roottools is also a very helpful library: http://code.google.com/p/roottools/
nikwen said:
roottools is also a very helpful library: http://code.google.com/p/roottools/
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Click to collapse
Forgot that one as a big one. Shame, since I used it . Will add in a sec.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD
I used this library to include a file-chooser in my App:
https://code.google.com/p/android-filechooser/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
and forked this, that acts basically the same:
https://github.com/dentex/aFileChooser
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
xda_dentex said:
I used this library to include a file-chooser in my App:
and forked this, that acts basically the same:
Click to expand...
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I shall be including this later today. Thanks for contributing!
bassie1995 said:
I shall be including this later today. Thanks for contributing!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're welcome!
Also the other project seems valid. If you want, point to the original repository.
The main difference is that it stays on the standard sdcard only, by default.
I also found a really good site with cool libraries: http://www.androidviews.net/
I'm sure I will want to include some of them.
xda_dentex said:
You're welcome!
Also the other project seems valid. If you want, point to the original repository.
The main difference is that it stays on the standard sdcard only, by default.
I also found a really good site with cool libraries: http://www.androidviews.net/
I'm sure I will want to include some of them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep, I'm including both. Also, AndroidViews is already mentioned at the bottom of the OP .
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bassie1995 said:
...AndroidViews is already mentioned at the bottom of the OP
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Click to collapse
Oops... Sorry.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda app-developers app
I'm running a community on G+ about Android libraries hosted on github. Tons of stuff in there:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/100609058582053363304
ramdroid77 said:
I'm running a community on G+ about Android libraries hosted on github. Tons of stuff in there:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/100609058582053363304
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nice, will include the link in OP.
I was going to mention androidviews too; a very handy site. There's also a handy little app out on the Play store called Android UI Patterns (free), which is basically an app with quite a few libraries built in, so you can see what they look like in action on an actual device.
And I'm not sure if I should post this, or if it should have it's own thread (paid libraries or something), but I would argue that as there are quite a few professional developers here, a compilation of good, paid, non viral licensed libraries would be a good resource. On the other hand, XDA is all about the homebrew, open, sharing community.
Anyway, whatever the mod-gods decide, I was looking for a good, cheap, non-gpl3 licenced PDF framework for the company I work for. Many frameworks were RIDICULOUSLY expensive and many open source ones were SLOW or not functional enough. In the end I found a good alternative at androidpdf.mobi . It's fully functional, affordable and they have good support. I know this may sound like an add, but I spent some time researching this, we now use it in production and figure I might save someone some time.
MacDegger said:
I was going to mention androidviews too; a very handy site. There's also a handy little app out on the Play store called Android UI Patterns (free), which is basically an app with quite a few libraries built in, so you can see what they look like in action on an actual device.
And I'm not sure if I should post this, or if it should have it's own thread (paid libraries or something), but I would argue that as there are quite a few professional developers here, a compilation of good, paid, non viral licensed libraries would be a good resource. On the other hand, XDA is all about the homebrew, open, sharing community.
Anyway, whatever the mod-gods decide, I was looking for a good, cheap, non-gpl3 licenced PDF framework for the company I work for. Many frameworks were RIDICULOUSLY expensive and many open source ones were SLOW or not functional enough. In the end I found a good alternative at androidpdf.mobi . It's fully functional, affordable and they have good support. I know this may sound like an add, but I spent some time researching this, we now use it in production and figure I might save someone some time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have seen and used Android UI Patterns, forgot to include it.
About the licensed libraries/technologies, maybe that's a good divide for this thread. Not between UI and functional libraries, but between paid and free? Don't think there are many paid libraries for daily use, though?
If you can link me to the PDF parsing library you used, I will be including that.
Also, everyone, updates are a little slow due to school work. Hardest exam that's yet to come is on Monday, will update it probably that afternoon (my time zone ).
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD
The pdf library is found at androidpdf.mobi.
You can d/l the sdk and use it for free; you pay to get rid of the watermark on each page (the fee is per application, though).
I have come across some paid UI widget libraries (coverflow type things etc). It took me a while to adapt existing OS code to achieve the same kind of effect, so sometimes, if it's the right price, it's more effective to buy these kinds of things...
AChartEngine is a good one for charts and graphs http://www.achartengine.org/
MacDegger said:
The pdf library is found at androidpdf.mobi.
You can d/l the sdk and use it for free; you pay to get rid of the watermark on each page (the fee is per application, though).
I have come across some paid UI widget libraries (coverflow type things etc). It took me a while to adapt existing OS code to achieve the same kind of effect, so sometimes, if it's the right price, it's more effective to buy these kinds of things...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
tmka said:
AChartEngine is a good one for charts and graphs http://www.achartengine.org/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you both. I hope to be updating the OP tomorrow.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD
StandOut is a great library to create floating app :good:
Hello everyone,
I'd suggest also DroidText, for creating PDF files
Tiwiz
ciao99 said:
StandOut is a great library to create floating app :good:
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Click to collapse
That looks awesome, I think I'll try it myself
tiwiz said:
Hello everyone,
I'd suggest also DroidText, for creating PDF files
Tiwiz
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nice, a PDF creator! I'll take a look and add it.
To everyone: Sorry for not updating, exams are busting my nuts right now . I'll try and get some more in there today or tomorrow .
Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2
With the exams over and spare time at 1:44 AM, I'll update this again with all the suggestions from this thread. I'll add more "external" ones later.
EDIT: Done!

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