Android UI Development with Jetpack Compose

Get started with creating intuitive native user interfaces on Android platforms

Key Features

• Understand the difference between the imperative (Android View) and declarative (Jetpack Compose) approach
• Learn about the structure of a Compose app, built-in Compose UI elements, and core concepts such as state hoisting and composition over inheritance
• Write, test, and debug composable functions

Book Description

Jetpack Compose is Android’s new framework for building fast, beautiful, and reliable native user interfaces. It simplifies and significantly accelerates UI development on Android using the declarative approach. This book will help developers to get hands-on with Jetpack Compose and adopt a modern way of building Android applications. The book is not an introduction to Android development, but it will build on your knowledge of how Android apps are developed.

Complete with hands-on examples, this easy-to-follow guide will get you up to speed with the fundamentals of Jetpack Compose such as state hoisting, unidirectional data flow, and composition over inheritance and help you build your own Android apps using Compose. You'll also cover concepts such as testing, animation, and interoperability with the existing Android UI toolkit.

By the end of the book, you'll be able to write your own Android apps using Jetpack Compose.

What you will learn

• Gain a solid understanding of the core concepts of Jetpack Compose
• Develop beautiful, neat, and immersive UI elements that are user friendly, reliable, and performant
• Build a complete app using Jetpack Compose
• Add Jetpack Compose to your existing Android applications
• Test and debug apps that use Jetpack Compose
• Find out how Jetpack Compose can be used on other platforms

Who this book is for

This book is for any mobile app developer looking to understand the fundamentals of the new Jetpack Compose framework and the benefits of native development. A solid understanding of Android app development, along with some knowledge of the Kotlin programming language, will be beneficial. Basic programming knowledge is necessary to grasp the concepts covered in this book effectively.

Table of Contents

1. Building Your First Compose App
2. Understanding the Declarative Paradigm
3. Exploring the Key Principles of Compose
4. Laying Out UI Elements
5. Managing the State of Your Composable Functions
6. Putting Pieces Together
7. Tips, Tricks, and Best Practices
8. Working with Animations
9. Exploring Interoperability APIs
10. Testing and Debugging Compose Apps
11. Conclusion and Next Steps

Thomas Künneth is a Google Developer Expert for Android and has been a speaker and panelist at multiple international conferences about Android. His first Android app, published in 2010, has more than 100,000 downloads. Currently, Thomas works as a principal consultant and head of mobile at MATHEMA GmbH and has experience as a software architect and Android developer. He has authored countless articles as well as one of the top-selling German Android books (currently in its sixth edition). He has also frequently contributed to various open source projects.