howdy, crazykid!

how can I help you today?

first, thanks for the book - its just what the dr. ordered :)

and, it's available without a prescription! :-)

do you have a question?

so i am putting together my outline for an upcoming application. the overall layout is going to have a tabbed navigation (as seen in the instagram app and twitter app). I am just looking for the best way to approach the overall design. the reason I am having difficulty is because I need support for 2.x devices - and all online posts reference a depreciated class to acomplish this..so I want to make sure my foundation is correct before putting up any walls.

well, I haven't used either app

that being said, ViewPager and some form of tabbed indicator bar is the most popular solution for this for new development nowadays

whether those tabs are from the action bar, PagerTabStrip, or the tab class from ViewPagerIndicator.com is up to you

if you do not want to use ViewPager, then the action bar with tabs is the next-most-popular solution, using ActionBarSherlock for the action bar backport

ok, but is there a way to prevent the action bar from sucking up my tabs...because thats what I understand it can do when tabs are implemented into the action bar?

I don't know what "sucking up my tabs" means

page 723 of your book

the tabs on the smaller screen is the desired effect, but on a tablet it may convert automagically

um, which version of the book are you referring to?

the latest (4.1) talks about dialogs on page 723

4.0

guess its time to update already :)

ah, OK

yes, there is nothing that you can do about that

your reference to needing a deprecated class presumably was in reference to TabActivity

you do not need TabActivity to use an old-style TabHost and TabWidget

yes sir, sorry thought i said that

ok

if you check out the Tab sample in the Widget Catalog, towards the end of the book, you will see a non-TabActivity way of using those classes

ok excellent, thanks

ViewPager is still more popular today for new development, as it gives the user the option of horizontal swiping

in addition to tabs for navigation

but, TabHost/TabWidget still work

I ill definitely use the viewpager

(or try)

Version 4.1 of the book shows using that with PagerTabStrip for tabs

perfect - thats where i will start, thanks Mark

have a good night, bye

bye!

howdy, Mark!

how can I help you today?

Howdy. Wow! You'd think there'd be a crowd here.

actually, these chats tend to be relatively quiet

I do have a simple question, with a lengthy setup.

I should warn that I'm making use of ActionBarSherlock, so there may be features or quirks that fall outside the bounds of standard Android APIs. Here goes..

I'm building an app that reasonably resembles the boiler plat Master-Client template that comes with the latest ADT. The goal is to have the app work in a two-pane mode for landscape tables, and single pane mode for portrait format and for smaller devices. So far, pretty standard.

For the two-pane landscape, I have a MasterActivity, which is a descendant of FragmentActivity (actually, SherlockFragmentActivity), and in my layout I'm declaring a fragment for a MasterFragment and a FrameLayout to hold a detail fragment.

In two-pane, I have no difficulty loading the detailFragment in the FrameLayout. But in single-pane mode, I'm encountering some difficulties...

In single-pane mode, the idea is to start an activity on the click of an item in the master fragment's list. No problems there, but my goal is to start the activity, and pass the index of the selected item within a Bundle that's passed to the activity via Intent.

What I'm finding is that my DetailActivity, which is a descendant of FragmentActivity (so it can load the same detail fragment that I use in the two-pane layout, of course), does not receive the information that's passed in the Bundle. So, I think I'm misunderstanding how FragmentActivity workds.

(btw, howdy, boris!)

Hi

Mark: have you looked at how I implemented the EU4You sample app, in the Large Screen chapter of the book?

it has a structure very similar to what you are describing

I will pull it up and work through it. That's probably all I need.

basically, you stuff the position (or ID or whatever) an an Intent extra, for the Intent used with startActivity() for the detail

I am looking for information on the new media APIs in Jelly Bean. MediaExtractor, MediaCodec, and AudioTrack. There's the Google IO talk, but otherwise there isn't even a good sample program.

boris: I haven't touched any of that yet, sorry

though AudioTrack is not new -- that's been around since 1.5 or 1.6

Thanks.

On a similar vein as Boris's question - has the Nexus 7 inspired any upswing in Android tablet app requests?

what do you mean by "app requests"?

tablets are now sitting at around 10% of the Android ecosystem: http://developer.android.com/about/dashboa…

Well, I really like the tablet. Much more readable than a smart phone, yet it actually fits in my pocket. Master-Detail issues notwithstanding, I really like the features of the tablet. So I was wondering if other developers are building apps that can make use of Nexus 7s features, or if there are companies adopting the tablet for future projects.

if a Nexus 7 fits in your pocket, you have mighty big pockets :-)

I have loose pants.

I am unaware that many people are doing things *specifically* for the Nexus 7 individually

Understood. Thanks.

the Nexus 7 increases the demand for certain types of apps: tablets, NFC, WiFi Direct, etc.

but only incrementally, as there are only so many Nexus 7's being sold

any given Android device is largely just a basket of device capabilities

only a handful deserve device-specific attention, and those will tend to be ones with different distribution (e.g., Kindle Fire) or seriously different characteristics (e.g., OUYA)

(and the OUYA doesn't even exist yet)

Ain

Ain't heard of it.

OUYA is an Android-powered game console

did well on Kickstarter

should be shipping early next year IIRC

Android devices sans touchscreens (OUYA, Google TV, etc.) are distinctly different and, if you plan on supporting them, need extra love and attention

Interesting. More things to look forward to.

it's never dull

running out of time: any final questions?

I got none. Thanks for responding.

well, that's a wrap for the chat

next one is Thursday, 10am Eastern

have a pleasant day!