howdy, tunneling

how can I help you today?

good day!

that's highly debateable

I'm on Day 5 of the everlasting cold

starting to *really* get on my nerves

this true, i'm actually under the weather and in bed.

:-)

haha

tis the season

hey, is there a trick to making the spacing between views the same? I have a set of textviews that I put in a grid like format and I'd like to put a border around them that's 1px.

or 1dp

minimum spacing between widgets is dictated by the widgets themselves, particularly their backgrounds

above that, you android:layout_margin* to add more space

yea.. my problem is that for views in the center, the right side of one view and the left side of the next view combine to make a 2sp border

then don't draw the border on both adjoining widgets

i had made a style that has the margin on the appropriate side to make it look right, i was just hoping there was a more elegant way

(e.g., left one draws, right one does not)

I am not aware of anything more elegant, sorry

ok. im just thinking ahead to trying to make this layout more dynamic, and was hoping I wouldn't have to figure out the position of the view in order to add the right styling

well, arguably, the thingy that draws the grid should be a ViewGroup

and it knows the positions of all of its children

within its own space, at any rate

ok

if you have other questions, chime in

ok, that was really the main thing for today. I implemented the state list drawables yesterday using shape drawables.. worked out well.

except that eclipse was having a fit with the xml

welcome to Eclipse

yea? I all the time have to delete the R file and get it to regen so it sees resources

rather than delete R, use Project > Clean from the Eclipse menu

ok

this should not be needed all the time, but will be needed sometimes

ok

I'm thinking about trying to implement a mechanism for alerting users that a new version is on the Market. I have a couple of Users that are using a version like 10 revs back and keep reporting FC that are corrected.

I guess that would be easy enough with an xml or JSON file on the mother ship?

yes

I should be creating a component for handling this scenario in the next few weeks

oh cool.

i was essentially thinking of a "developer message" mechanism so I could have the user opt in to receive messages, and then have a notification that there is a new message.

that might be as simple as a blob of HTML

use an HTTP HEAD request to check the date

if the date is newer than the last one you sent, display the HTML in a WebView or user's default browser

i haven't tried the google cloud service, so i was thinking about just using a Service to periodically query the server.

AlarmManager and IntentService would be a reasonable choice

ok

though you may need my WakefulIntentService, so the device doesn't fall asleep while you do the work

ok

I've never used that, I'll read up on it.

there is coverage in the Advanced Services chapter in _The Busy Coder's Guide to Advanced Android Development_

you know, if I would actually just read the books. I may not have to bug you so much!

well, there *is* a reason why I wrote them... :-)

haha

I just can't stand the thought of you being in these office hours sessions all alone.

ok, well.. thanks again for your time. I need to run. get well!

you too

Hi Mark

howdy, Darryl

I have a quick question on best practice

OK

go ahead

I have a complex data object that I use that spans multiple fragments in my UI

I am using the fragmentpager to manage the display

And I was wondering should I instantiate the data object in the pager or extend application and use it from there

is this "data object" part of your app's data model?

I am sort of new to android and jave so I am just getting the hange of thins

yes

the app has a SQLite db with about 60 tables

60 tables sounds too complicated for a mobile device, but, be that as it may...

I know, not my first choice for my first project

the activity hosting the FragmentPager should be the one to query the database, using a Loader

the fragments can get at the resulting Cursor by asking the activity for it

ok cool that is where I was thinking it would go. I was not using cursors because of the _id restriction, so I have been using classes generated from the OData model

there is no _id restriction on *cursors*

there is an _id restriction on *CursorAdapter* (and its subclasses)

ah now I see I read that wrong

that will make things a little easier

I have been using the IO sched app as a guide

thanks for taking the time to answer my questions

sure, no problem

that's why these office hours exist

Are you going to be the instructor on any of the Android Bootcamp classes?

I teach Marakana's Android Bootcamp in NYC and Washington DC

Great I am going to sign up soon, I will check the schedule

next DC one is first week of April; next NYC one is mid-May

Thanks again have a great day, see you in class

thanks!