Office Hours Transcript: 2021-07-17
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hello, @sudokai!
how can I help you today?
Hi Mark
How do you lazy load custom views?
that is difficult to answer in the abstract
I have this screen that has tons of views and when navigating to it, you can feel the choppiness
So I thought of lazing loading the views below the fold
having tons of views may be the problem, more so than some of those views being custom
I found this thing called ViewStub
But you need to pass a layout to it
You cannot pass your custom view to it
no, but it could point to a layout resource that references custom views
personally, I have not used ViewStub, so there may be limitations that it has that I am unaware of
frequently, in places where I might have tons of views, there is enough duplication of those views that RecyclerView becomes a reasonable host
no, but it could point to a layout resource that references custom views
Nice, it didn’t occur to me before
and, more generally, choppiness may be being caused by other issues, such as doing I/O on the main application thread – I might use profiling to try to determine where the time is going
RecyclerView becomes a reasonable host
It’s not a list of stuff, it’s just a very long screen with lots of views
I might use profiling to try to determine where the time is going
I did and I saw a lot of time, like 40% of the time spent in ContraintLayout onMeasure
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hello mark && sudokai
bear in mind that RecyclerView supports a heterogeneous roster of views – so "a very long screen with lots of views" might still benefit, even if there is limited actual recycling
(hello, Ivano – I will be with you shortly!)
the challenge with ViewStub becomes: when do you tell it to inflate()?
it can’t be right away, as all you do is make your performance problem worse
and if it is after some amount of scrolling, figuring out when "some amount" has occurred may or may not be easy
some developers use libraries like Epoxy and have every screen be handled by a RecyclerView
personally, I hated my limited Epoxy experience and would not recommend it as a general tool, but that sort of approach may be appropriate for certain screens
going back to the source of your pain (onMeasure() of ConstraintLayout), how dynamic is your content? are you forcing a ConstraintLayout to go through layout a lot?
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@sudokai: how about I return to you in a bit and take a question from Ivano in the meantime
@IvanoNoSpaces_reload: hi! how can I help you today?
Okay
Hi Mark, I do not have really specific questions, I am checking my last finding in the new stack i am busy to kind of find some question I may ask you, is that ok with you?
sorry, but I am having difficulty understanding your question
I mean I am looking for a question to ask you
OK… ping me when you have something!
probably I have none, because I am becoming familiar with the code I am presently dealing with.
OK thanks
in the meantime… @sudokai: back to you!
how dynamic is your content?
it’s not dynamic at all
scrolling, figuring out when "some amount" has occurred may or may not be easy
You can use a scroll listener no?
yes, but how far is far enough? phones and tablets vary in height, density, font scale, etc.
you mentioned custom views – one test to run is to "dumb down" those custom views as much as possible, or swap in something really lightweight as a experiment
if the jank goes away, then you know that the problem lies somewhere in the implementation of the custom views
if the jank persists, then perhaps it truly is just the number of views
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(1VAN0 raises hand.looper)
@IvanoNoSpaces_reload: if that means you have a question, go ahead!
In the previous job i messed in production causing various bugs implementing a no internet connection check
now i should implement again a screen that in the case there is not internet connection, shows a static screen indicating "no internet connection" and a retry button
on the internet i found different solutions
@Mark_Murphy It must be the map, one of the views is a Google Maps view
@sudokai: a Google Map is going to be fairly heavyweight, so it causing jank is not surprising
- a work manager. 2) using a lifecycle and link to the Application and check in on create if there is internet connection 3) some callbacks that signal is there is not internet connection via a broadcaster
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I would like to know if you reckon that for a simple application what of the three approaches above indicated (or maybe a fourth one) would prevent problems/bugs. In other words in 2021 do you have an opinion about the safest/simplest approach to manage a no internet connection?
Ivano: personally, I find "no Internet connection" logic tends to be bad, as it is based on bad assumptions. There really is no such thing as an "Internet connection" that we can detect. IMHO, the only thing that matters is whether we can connect to a desired server at the desired time.
I see your point
For example, there is code floating around showing using ConnectivityManager to determine if we have an "Internet connection". That at best shows that we have a network connection. Whether the network is any good is another matter – if we have a network connection, but it cannot get to a server that we want to talk to, that connection is useless.
yes I agree, and i used in my previous job this connectivityManager linked to a workmanager and caused 200 crashes
in production
So i have the feeling that you would manage this issue, launching a screen on a specific 500 response?
that could mean, kind of no internet connection
yes, or a timeout or other error coming from the code that is attempting to get data from the Internet
after all, accessing the Internet may be fine, but we might not be able to reach the server (server crashed, DNS problems, server runs on AWS and AWS is having a bad day, etc.)
but different is the use case that the user does not have activated the wifi, if requested, or is coming back from a flight and forgot to set airplane mode off
if you want to detect airplane mode specifically, you’re welcome to do so – I think we can find out from Settings.System
yes I did in the past
though then you get cases where the person has airplane mode on but WiFi also turned on (e.g., in-flight WiFi)
is a peace of cake
yes
occasionally, it may be worthwhile to try tackling those cases – for example, in an IoT scenario, if the phone is on mobile data and not WiFi, perhaps you know that you will not be able to communicate with the desired IoT device
yes looks logical
thanks
if either of you have any other questions, go right ahead!
well you spoke with sudokai about recycler view and epoxy
is reasonable thinking that in one year will be a problem only of legacy code
and that compose is going to substitute recycler views?
Compose UI is definitely going to be popular
I guess so but better to ask you because you see the things from a different point of view
I would be hesitant to describe existing views as "legacy code" only one year from now
that would be like considering Java to be "legacy code" in, say, 2019
nice thank you to share your qualitative opinions, it really counts to me
Compose will have an adoption curve, like anything else
it is more difficult to migrate from views -> Compose than it is to migrate from Java -> Kotlin, just because there is no automated tool to help with that migration
by 2025, I expect Compose UI to be the default choice… but not by mid-2022
well i am glad that knowing constraint and relative/linear/frame/coordinator layouts is a valuable skill to have after all the effort i put to learn them
but mark
please as you are in prophecy mode
i really, really would love to know if you could say one year we will start to code ios and android as new normal
ROTFL
(i mean togheter with kotlin multiplatform)
Compose may help some with Kotlin/Multiplatform adoption, but that too will have a slow adoption rate
and there are library ALREADY that translate swift UI in compose
anyway time is off thanks
yeah, that’s a wrap for today’s chat
the next one is Tuesday, in the 7:30pm US Eastern slot
have a pleasant evening!
have a pleasant morning Mark and sudokai