Office Hours — Today, June 8
| Jun 8 | 7:55 PM |
| Mark M. | has entered the room |
| Mark M. | turned on guest access |
| Jun 8 | 8:00 PM |
| Julius | has entered the room |
| Julius |
Hello
|
| Mark M. |
howdy, Julius!
|
| Julius |
I do have a question, ut first while no one is looing I have to say I am in awe of the posts and quality of your documents
|
| Julius |
looking
|
| Julius |
but
|
| Mark M. |
Thanks!
|
| Julius |
oh this keyboard
|
| Julius |
anywho....
|
| Julius |
I've read about 3 books other than your ones and yours are really good
|
| Julius |
so the question I have (today)
|
| Julius |
I have a bunch o things in a sqlite db
|
| Julius |
one of the attributes of these things is a url pointing towards a piture
|
| Julius |
\picture
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| Julius |
you can see where this is heading
|
| Julius |
so I have some listviews in tabs at the moment
|
| Julius |
and I saw your cwac
|
| Julius |
but there's a gap briging how it all works
|
| Julius |
I'll explain what I know and maybe you can point me in the right direction
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| Julius |
it seems like the LayoutInflater only inflates as you scroll
|
| Mark M. |
OK
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| Jun 8 | 8:05 PM |
| Mark M. |
No
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| Jun 8 | 8:05 PM |
| Mark M. |
just the opposite
|
| Julius |
oh dear
|
| Mark M. |
once you start scrolling, it starts recycling the rows you inflated earlier
|
| Julius |
right so I don't want to load all those images in a big list I guess
|
| Mark M. |
probably not, though it is difficult to say in the abstract
|
| Julius |
I guess I'm not sure how I should go about getting those images into the rows
|
| Mark M. |
you would attach the picture to the row's ImageView in bindView() of your CursorAdapter
|
| Julius |
(it looks nice in my contacts the way those images populate)
|
| Julius |
cool
|
| Mark M. |
the question then is: when do you download the pictures from the URL?
|
| Julius |
right
|
| Julius |
(good question :))
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| Mark M. |
how many pictures?
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| Mark M. |
and how big?
|
| Julius |
could be hundreds
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| Julius |
oh and um... one sec
|
| Julius |
say up to 10kB
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| Julius |
the example I have here is 8kB
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| Mark M. |
OK, so pretty small
|
| Julius |
(each image)
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| Mark M. |
next question: how frequently will they change?
|
| Julius |
I wouldn't think they ever change (album cobers)
|
| Julius |
covers
|
| Mark M. |
even better
|
| Julius |
I was thinking of caching to the SDCard
|
| Mark M. |
even better than better
|
| Mark M. |
I would download them when the record gets inserted into the database
|
| Julius |
right
|
| Mark M. |
then, you can just point the ImageView to the file on the SD card in bindView)
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| Mark M. |
er, bindView()
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| Jun 8 | 8:10 PM |
| Khye k. | has entered the room |
| Mark M. |
howdy, Khye!
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| Mark M. |
Julius: that way, you don't have to worry about trying to download them on the fly
|
| Julius |
hi Khye
|
| Mark M. |
If you get to the point where you're talking tens of thousands of 10K images, then this plan might have problems
|
| Mark M. |
but for hundreds of 10K images, you should be OK
|
| Julius |
that can be version 2 :)
|
| Khye k. |
Hi Mark. Hi Julius.
|
| Julius |
sounds much more sensible than all that traffic
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| Mark M. |
right, a 10K download on occasion should not be a problem
|
| Mark M. |
only
potential issue is if they are offline at the time, and I don't know if
that's even possible depending on what your app does
|
| Khye k. |
I have a few questions when you're available
|
| Venu | has entered the room |
| Julius |
yes if they're offline life can go on
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| Mark M. |
Julius: are you set in terms of this question?
|
| Julius |
I will leave you to the questions
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| Venu |
Hi Mark
|
| Julius |
yes thank you
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| Mark M. |
Khye: you're up -- ask away! (and, hi, Venu!)
|
| Julius |
btw if you're ever wanting to play with OpenGL over the camera I posted some code although it may be bad (http://www.juliusspencer.co.nz/technology/…)
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| Venu |
Thank you for such a awsome books and service
|
| Julius |
bfn thank you again.
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| Mark M. |
Venu: you're welcome
|
| Venu |
I have few questions today
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| Julius | has left the room |
| Mark M. |
Venu: hold on
|
| Venu |
ok
|
| Mark M. |
Khye: did you have a question?
|
| Khye k. |
I
have roughly three questions. One is that I come from a Flex
actionscript background and so am learning Java through Android, which
hasn't been that difficult. But Flex is big on data binding from
objects. Is there something like this in Java/Android or is it all done
through functions and getters/setters
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| Jun 8 | 8:15 PM |
| Mark M. |
There is no data binding framework like Flex's in Android, sorry
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| Khye k. |
ie: I update an object and that is reflected to my UI autmoatically
|
| Khye k. |
OK, More specifically, I have an options menu. Suppose that I am choosing a shape such as Square, trapazoid, rhombus, rectangle
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| Mark M. |
Again, sorry, there is nothing like that
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| NetApex | has entered the room |
| Khye k. |
So if someone selects square I need to also check rhombus and rectangle, etc
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| Mark M. |
What do you mean by "check rhombus and rectangle"?
|
| Mark M. |
(btw, howdy, NetApex!)
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| NetApex |
Heya Mark
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| Khye k. |
Say the menu was a check menu
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| Mark M. |
OK
|
| Khye k. |
Suppose you had a check menu
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| Khye k. |
and some of the menu options cascaded to other items
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| Khye k. |
so if you checked the menu item Square, it would set the checked property of other items.
|
| Mark M. |
you are welcome to set something up like that by hand
|
| Mark M. |
frankly, off the cuff, I am not a fan of that UI design
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| Khye k. |
Would it be better to do this by reading variable onPrepareMenu or better to handle it on the itemSelected event
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| Mark M. |
well, take that back -- I can see some scenarios where that would make sense
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| Jun 8 | 8:20 PM |
| Mark M. |
I would probably use onPrepareOptionMenu(), just so I do not need to hang onto the Menu object
|
| Mark M. |
but, either way should work
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| Khye k. |
Alright, thanks for the book and service - I'll let others have their turn.
|
| Mark M. |
you're welcome!
|
| Mark M. |
Venu: you're up!
|
| Venu |
I
have few questions 1. Is there any way to share data between two apps
in a secure way, specifically is there a way to make a content provider
secure 2. How to bring down a half screen activity like the one we get
when we click on directions in maps app
|
| Mark M. |
taking #2 first, I'm not sure, but that might be a PopupWindow
|
| Mark M. |
it shows up as a separate entry in hierarchyviewer
|
| Venu |
ok
|
| Mark M. |
I
haven't had a chance to use PopupWindow myself yet, so I don't know if
that's what it's supposed to look like in hierarchyviewer or not
|
| Venu |
ok
|
| Mark M. |
there are ways to achieve a similar effect just within an activity's own layout, though
|
| CalvinS | has entered the room |
| Mark M. |
take a look at the Maps applications in the Advanced Android book
|
| Venu |
sure
|
| Mark M. |
you'll see where I have some popup panels in use, just as a widget floating above the rest in a RelativeLayout
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| Venu |
ok
|
| Mark M. |
you could use that, plus a TranslateAnimation, to have something descend from the top of the screen
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| Jun 8 | 8:25 PM |
| Venu |
yup will try that out
|
| Mark M. |
the only thing it won't give you is the modal effect -- you can't click on the map when the navigation panel is showing
|
| Mark M. |
that's another reason why I suspect that's a PopupWindow
|
| Mark M. |
(btw, howdy, CalvinS!)
|
| Mark M. |
in terms of your first question, there is no great way to secure that
|
| Mark M. |
first, anyone can root their phone, at which point all bets are off
|
| CalvinS |
Hi there
|
| Venu |
ok
|
| Mark M. |
if you are willing to live with that limitation, you might be able to rig up some sort of key exchange or something
|
| Mark M. |
pick a design like you might use between a REST Web service and its client
|
| Mark M. |
but, there's nothing really built into Android for it
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| Venu |
ok got it
|
| Mark M. |
content providers are designed to be intrinsically public
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| Venu |
ok
|
| Venu |
I have one last question
|
| Mark M. |
Venu: can we give some of the others a shot first?
|
| Venu |
sure
|
| Venu |
I will wait
|
| Mark M. |
we'll get back to you
|
| Mark M. |
NetApex: do you have a question?
|
| Venu |
thanks for the answers Mark
|
| Mark M. |
you're welcome!
|
| NetApex |
Nothing major right now, I think I figured out what I needed for the time being
|
| Mark M. |
OK
|
| Mark M. |
CalvinS: do you have a question?
|
| Mark M. |
OK, we'll come back to CalvinS later
|
| Mark M. |
Khye: did you have another question?
|
| Jun 8 | 8:30 PM |
| Khye k. |
Yeah
|
| Khye k. |
just some verification, really
|
| Khye k. |
I
need to pass a custom object between activities. Currently I'm doing
this by implementing Parceable in the object and passing that.
|
| Khye k. |
Is that the correct usage? There's no built in way to pass an Object
|
| CalvinS |
Sorry, I was AFK...is DroidDraw the fastest way to build GUI's out there now?
|
| Mark M. |
Khye:
that's certainly one approach you can use, if the objects are small.
Otherwise, consider having them be stored centrally, in a Service,
custom Application, or static singleton
|
| Mark M. |
CalvinS: DroidDraw is massively out of date and probably no longer generates valid code
|
| Mark M. |
there are no GUI builders for Android that I am aware of
|
| Mark M. |
Venu: I believe you had another question?
|
| Venu |
yes
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| Jun 8 | 8:35 PM |
| CalvinS |
Thanks...guess I'll stick with the text editor.
|
| Venu |
View paste
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| Venu |
Please let me know if you came across a way to get the player out of the preparing state
|
| Mark M. |
No, but I didn't look, either
|
| Venu |
ok
|
| Mark M. |
I helped Marc by testing some files
|
| Mark M. |
that's the total of my involvement with this issue
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| Venu |
oh ok
|
| Venu |
thanks for the info
|
| NetApex |
I
saw that the next Google I/O will be May 10-11, 2011. I am looking
forward to getting to meet you in person if you are going Mark.
|
| Mark M. |
heh, I already blocked it off on my calendar
|
| NetApex |
lol, likewise
|
| Venu |
me too
|
| Mark M. |
I'm
going to need to figure out some way to hold some separate event there
-- it's too tough to meet people in and amongst 5,000 others
|
| Mark M. |
but, that's a year away
|
| NetApex |
I suppose there needs to be an app for that
|
| Jun 8 | 8:40 PM |
| Mark M. |
only if the app unlocks Hogwart's Room of Requirement
|
| Venu |
:)
|
| Mark M. |
anyway, any other questions?
|
| NetApex |
LOL
|
| Venu |
yup
|
| NetApex |
(After Venu) Have any quick places you can point me to set mediaplayer as a service?
|
| Venu |
in the maps tutorial you got a popup on the map
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| Venu |
please suggest how to make it similar to the popup in google maps or like one in trapster
|
| Mark M. |
similar in terms of...what?
|
| Mark M. |
and what's a trapster?
|
| Venu |
it is an app
|
| Mark M. |
sounds like the part of my sink that gets clogged
|
| Venu |
similar in terms like with a small point out at the bottom attaching to the clicked area
|
| Mark M. |
oh,
well, that's just a push-pin, like you'll see in the Maps applications
in the Android book, or in NooYawkRedux in the Advanced Android book
|
| Mark M. |
their pin is fancier than mine, that's all
|
| Venu |
I want the width of it change dynamically with the content shown in that
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| Jun 8 | 8:45 PM |
| Venu |
how could we achieve that
|
| Mark M. |
not sure
|
| Mark M. |
that's actually one of the things I wanted to see how the Twitter app handles
|
| Mark M. |
once they release that as open source
|
| Venu |
ok
|
| Venu |
thanks for the info
|
| Mark M. |
NetApex: I haven't played with MediaPlayer in a service, though it should work just like MediaPlayer in an activity
|
| Venu |
Yes, it is same as that
|
| NetApex |
ok maybe I should ask more of a, can you point me to a "this is how to make things a service"
|
| Mark M. |
ummmm...the services chapters in The Busy Coder's Guide to Android Development?
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| NetApex |
ok coolio (just a matter of figuring out which book I needed to start in)
|
| NetApex |
I
tend to get side tracked pretty easily doing this lol. Started doing
dynamic text views and then added some dynamic buttons and all that fun
stuff... not needed at all, but like I said, I get side tracked
|
| Jun 8 | 8:50 PM |
| CalvinS |
Does the Android SDK come with icons or wallpapers I can reuse in my app?
|
| Mark M. |
not so much in the way of wallpapers
|
| Mark M. |
but lots of icons
|
| Mark M. |
$ANDROID_SDK/platforms/$VERSION/data/res
|
| Mark M. |
(where $ANDROID_SDK is where you have the SDK installed and $VERSION is one of the installed SDK versions)
|
| CalvinS |
How can I create Live Wallpapers?
|
| Mark M. |
that has tons of resources
|
| Mark M. |
I haven't created a Live Wallpaper
|
| Mark M. |
I think there's a sample app for that in $ANDROID_SDK/samples
|
| CalvinS |
k, thanks
|
| Mark M. |
yeah, CubeLiveWallpaper is available as a sample app
|
| CalvinS |
cool
|
| Mark M. |
any other questions?
|
| Venu |
no
|
| NetApex |
not right now, gonna read over those chapters and I may have some tomorrow
|
| Jun 8 | 8:55 PM |
| Mark M. |
actually, it's back to the regular Tuesday/Thursday split this week
|
| Mark M. |
last week, I had a consulting gig on Thursday, which is why I moved it to Wednesday
|
| Mark M. |
next week, they'll be Tuesday and Thursday, but both in the evening
|
| NetApex |
Ahh ok sounds good
|
| Mark M. |
my schedule is starting to get icky again
|
| Khye k. |
I have a quick question before you go
|
| NetApex |
More business = more money though right?
|
| Mark M. |
Khye: go ahead
|
| Khye k. |
What
behavior does the back button have on an activity? Does it call it to
be paused or destroyed? So I know where to save a persistent state when
I return to the activity
|
| Mark M. |
pressing BACK causes the activity to be called with onPause(), onStop(), and onDestroy()
|
| Mark M. |
in that order
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| Khye k. |
Ok, thanks for your help
|
| Jun 8 | 9:00 PM |
| Mark M. |
well, that's all the time we have for this evening
|
| Venu |
Thanks Mark
|
| Venu |
have a good night
|
| Mark M. |
Good night, all!
|
| Khye k. | has left the room |
| Venu | has left the room |
| NetApex | has left the room |
| CalvinS | has left the room |
| Mark M. | turned off guest access |
Office Hours
People in this transcript
- CalvinS
- Julius
- Khye kading
- Mark Murphy
- NetApex
- Venu