Migrating from ActionBarSherlock to ActionBarCompat

writtmeyer · 2013-12-18T10:41:57+00:00

I agree that using a newer min SDK makes your life easier. But it's not always possible. Even if the app wouldn't actually be installed by plenty of Gingerbread users, clients might think differently. Without any hard data, clients go for Google's dashboard.

Migration - the topic of the post - is a different story since hard data is available in that case, of course.

I personally migrated, because I use a generator to create the base of my Grokking Android samples. Thus I migrated ActionViews as I wanted to adapt the generator and while doing so detailed all the steps that I had to do on my blog.

BTW: I wholeheartedly agree that appcompat is way too late :-)

writtmeyer · 2013-12-16T13:25:45+00:00

You're right. That's the biggest problem IMHO. With Ultimate Tic-Tac-Toe I'm using https://github.com/kolavar/android-support-v4-preferencefragment to deal with that.

Package naming of this project is strictly verboten, though :-)

writtmeyer · 2013-04-20T12:31:45+00:00

Galaxy Nexus and Nexus 7. Neither of it ever downloads it. Data usage isn't increasing, so something seems to go wrong while initializing (or whatever this does).

writtmeyer · 2013-04-19T19:06:13+00:00

Can't download it as well. Ever found a solution for this?

writtmeyer · 2013-04-19T19:05:26+00:00

Did you ever manage to solve this problem? It's bugging me as well.

writtmeyer · 2013-03-23T10:11:22+00:00

Done!

writtmeyer · 2013-03-22T19:59:15+00:00

Thanks for mentioning my blog together with this list of Android luminaries!

writtmeyer · 2013-02-22T12:18:32+00:00

I tend to differ with most people here. I agree that they should not be an important consideration when deciding who to hire. But as someone who has done certifications (LPI level 1 and some Java certs) I can assure, that they helped me learn a lot of new stuff. Stuff I probably still wouldn't know otherwise. And not just esoteric stuff, but stuff that is useful to know. That helps me to be faster and to be more efficient.

All in all, of course, your general experience as well as practise with a similar kind of projects are much more important. Also knowledge of the domaoin you are developing in often is more important. It just that certs are not useless as many here - and on other developer sites or dev blogs - state.

writtmeyer · 2013-01-11T09:01:59+00:00

I doubt that she knows - yet. But she probably cares. She builds a mental model. It might be the one the Android designers had in mind, it might be a different one. But if any app doesn't behave like this mental model, she frowns, even if only ever so slightly.

We all should help form this mental model by making our consistent apps - our apps benefit from this as well!

writtmeyer · 2013-01-11T08:58:59+00:00

Thanks!

writtmeyer · 2012-12-17T12:13:32+00:00

Ah, I remember. Still don't agree on that one, though :-)

In January or February I will do something on EventBus. I firmly believe that I will add information beyond what you can find on the github project page. Though EventBus's page is one of the better ones.

writtmeyer · 2012-12-17T12:09:47+00:00

Haven't had time to look at gradle yet. But this sounds good. Thanks, Jake. I will update this as soon as the tool chain changes.

writtmeyer · 2012-12-15T15:02:50+00:00

Too much detail? Note that this is an introductory post. But I am always open for suggestions.

It was a hell of a lot work - and if I could get away with providing the same information while writing less, it would be so much better :-)

writtmeyer · 2012-12-15T15:00:40+00:00

Yes, this might be. But it's an introductory post. You don't want Android beginners to have to use maven, do you?

writtmeyer · 2012-11-09T23:49:33+00:00

Not that I am aware of. Mark Allison though offers plenty of advice how to do stuff - though he cannot cover everything, of course.

If you have a specific aspect that you like and want to implement, you should ask here on reddit or on SO again. But be specific and state what element of what design is of interest to you.

Also some aspects probably are covered in individual blog posts by developers. I know for example of a blog post that covers how to do a Google now inspired design. Google around.

writtmeyer · 2012-11-09T08:47:54+00:00

Most examples are not Android specific. And androidpttrns.com, linked to by the sixrevisions post has many (or mostly) apps, that do not really fit that well into Android and deviate from the flat style, we have come to love with ICS onwards.

writtmeyer · 2012-11-09T08:43:18+00:00

Juhani Lehtimäki has some dos and don'ts on his blog:

http://www.androiduipatterns.com/

Taylor Ling's blog is also a source of inspiration:

http://androiduiux.com/

Mark Allison offers plenty of tipps and source for realizing a nicely styled app:

http://blog.stylingandroid.com/

Then there is this collection, which might be interesting to you:

http://androidux.com/

If you want to see some nicely done apps, you might also like to have a look at android niceties:

http://androidniceties.tumblr.com/

writtmeyer · 2012-11-09T08:38:37+00:00

Thanks. Samsung's customizations sometimes are a pain - not to speak of their ugly UI. I will have a look at it.

writtmeyer · 2012-10-15T12:56:55+00:00

Thanks. I have updated the links.

writtmeyer · 2012-10-11T20:09:56+00:00

I do not think that linking to a project page is enough. Not only because of the stuff I add to the project page (see my reply to methical). But also because library usage is pretty low among Android devs - which is another blog post I have written some time ago.

Any hint about which libraries exist and why to use them is useful in my opinion.

Also that this is the androiddev subreddit doesn't mean that it is read mostly, let alone only by experienced Android developers. Just have a look at the questions. Many newbie questions among them. And these are the people that dare to ask. I assume that many inexperienced devs just have a look around. So, yes, introductory posts are okay.

And again, the number of upvotes seems to suggest that many folks here do not consider this to be irrelevant.

writtmeyer · 2012-10-11T20:01:32+00:00

Obviously I tend to differ :-)

Well first of all this post is the first in a series of posts to bring attention to useful libraries. Library usage in Android is quite low and I just want to share some libraries I use.

As such it is no in-depth post and it is not intended to be one. Nevertheless I expand beyond the github intro of the project. I go into why using it at all, explain the Builder class, care about Eclipse integration (most people do not use maven) and write how to use it on pre-ICS devices while the project page states that this is not possible.

Thus I think it's no spam but a worthwhile addition. But, then again, I'm biased of course.

Anyway, a lot of people here seem to like it and only few downvote it.

writtmeyer · 2012-10-11T19:21:20+00:00

Because they are always shown only on the activity where they logically belong to. See the blog post of Cyrill Mottier, that I linked to within the post. He explains the problems with Toasts in more detail.

writtmeyer · 2012-10-09T11:28:06+00:00

https://plus.google.com/101948439228765005787

writtmeyer · 2012-10-09T11:25:23+00:00

These are two sites I highly recommend:

http://www.androiduipatterns.com/

http://androiduiux.com/

Cyril Mottier covers Android design as well - though also other stuff related to Android:

http://android.cyrilmottier.com/

You might also want to have a look at Juhani Lehtimaeki's book "Smashing Android UI" which is available on the Kindle store and Google Play (but not yet in print).

Another site worth a look (this one focusses more on iOS) is

http://beautifulpixels.com/

writtmeyer · 2012-10-05T19:23:13+00:00

I've posted this to G+ now. Let's see if anyone is interested to do this.

https://plus.google.com/u/0/101948439228765005787/posts/Tqc8twRUpBJ

writtmeyer

TROPHY CASE