Archive for November, 2010

Android Architecture: Message-based MVC

Wednesday, November 17th, 2010

How do you separate application state, user interaction logic and data presentation in your Android apps?

Platform designers did not enforce any high-level application architecture framework upon us but left us enough options to implement our own solutions based on application requirements and scale. Most simple applications will get away with just storing data in their widgets (such as in text fields, spinners etc.) and their state manipulation right in event handlers such as OnClickListener‘s. However, if you are going to write a complex application or plan to sophisticate your simple app further, you should really think how to layer it well so that the architecture supports adding new features and satisfies the expected performance, flexibility, responsiveness and other requirements, and your code does not become a mess.

In this article, I will show you one practical approach to dividing application code into three layers according the MVC paradigm and connecting the view to the controller using the Android messaging framework. I used it in my own code and although it might not be 100% academically correct or applicable for every possible app, I love the benefits it gives to me as my app grows more and more complex.

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The Robot Is Back

Friday, November 12th, 2010

WE GET SIGNAL

After few months of busy work in the underground laboratories, MTR is back again. As you can see, I have even installed a new theme which looks to me kinda less annoying and more effective in terms of content.

What I plan to do is, of course, to continue the series of articles on Android development so we can go on sharing our knowledge and experience. Many things have been changing in the Android world. Tablets are here today, and new versions of the platform are soon to come. Android is becoming a more and more widespread and seriously taken platform and at this point, there is no way back.

As for this blog, it is still going to be about useful content (at least content that I consider useful), not about promo articles or high traffic volumes. I am still very interested in general architecture topics, plus multimedia (especially audio) and, sure enough, your questions, issues and achievements.

Some of the topics that are coming up are:

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