This document discusses how to optimize Android apps for Honeycomb and later versions by using fragments. It notes that fragments were introduced in Android 3.0 to help structure apps for both phones and tablets. While only available on newer versions initially, the support package backports fragments to older devices. The document outlines problems developers face with fragmentation and how to address it using fragments, event listener interfaces, and frame layouts to dynamically add fragments. It provides statistics on device platforms and screen sizes and recommends sample code and resources for learning more.

1. Fighting Fragmentation with Fragments
Optimizing Android apps for Honeycomb and beyond
Andreas Grunewald
Nov 2011
Barcamp Saskatoon

2. Andreas Grunewald
http://grunewaldsrobots.com
goo.gl/b3bu6

3. iOS Development is
so much more awesome than
Android Developmemt

4. Android is way too Fragmented

5. Android is a mess, say developers
- Fortune

6. Android Fragmentation: a
real problem, developers say
- Ubergizmo
Developers: Android Fragmentation
is a “Huge” Problem
-Slashgear

7. What problems do Developers see?
5. Ability to get paid. iOS leads here too, followed by BlackBerry.
-Forbes http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2011/04/04/android-is-a-mess-say-developers/

8. What problems do Developers see?
4. App visibility. "iOS continues to lead," Baird reports, "followed by
Blackberry, with Android still receiving poor marks in this category."
Developers are particularly concerned about the level of "junk" apps
in the Android ecosystem.
-Forbes http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2011/04/04/android-is-a-mess-say-developers/

9. What problems do Developers see?
3. Ease of development. iOS outscored Android, but both were
considered far easier to develop for than, say, Research in Motion's
(RIMM) BlackBerry OS or Nokia (NOK) Symbian.
-Forbes http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2011/04/04/android-is-a-mess-say-developers/

10. What problems do Developers see?
2. Store fragmentation. Several developers expressed concern over
Android app store fragmentation. "Generally," Baird reports,
"developers seem to prefer a unified, single store experience like
Apple's App Store."
-Forbes http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2011/04/04/android-is-a-mess-say-developers/

11. What problems do Developers see?
1. Device fragmentation. 56% of Android developers said that
operating system fragmentation among the various Android
devices was a meaningful or "huge" problem, a percentage that
actually increased over the past three months.
-Forbes http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2011/04/04/android-is-a-mess-say-developers/

12. Android Orphans:
Visualizing a Sad History of Support
-theunderstatement
http://theunderstatement.com/post/11982112928/android-orphans-visualizing-a-sad-history-of-support

13. Current
iOS Devices

14. Current
Android Devices

15. Are we
ARE WE ED ?

16. © http://www.americanprogress.org/cartoons/2008/08/081408.html

17. © http://emilyandroid.deviantart.com/art/Yay-we-re-doomed-173226907

19. Let's have a look... shall we?

20. Platform Dashboard (Nov 3rd)
2.2 & 2.3 together 85.1% of the market
(With 2.1 included even 95.8%)
Honeycomb only 1.9%
Platform Codename API Level Distribution
Android 1.5 Cupcake 3 0.9%
Android 1.6 Donut 4 1.4%
Android 2.1 Eclair 7 10.7%
Android 2.2 Froyo 8 40.7%
Android 2.3 - Gingerbread 9 0.5%
Android 2.3.2
Android 2.3.3 - 10 43.9%
Android 2.3.7
Android 3.0 Honeycomb 11 0.1%
Android 3.1 12 0.9%
Android 3.2 13 0.9%

21. 4.0 | 19.10
2011
3.2 | 15.07
3.1 | 10.05
3.0 | 22.02
Android Versions
2.3 | 06.12
2010
2.2 | 20.05
2.1 | 12.01
2.0 | 26.10
1.6 | 15.09
2009
1.5 | 30.04
1.1 | 09.02
1.0 | 23.09
2008

22. Screen Sizes / Densities (Nov 3rd)
89.5% Normal Screen Size
73.8% hdpi + 23.7% mdpi = 97.5%

23. So how do you do it ?

24. Fragments
Introduced in Android 3.0 Honeycomb. What about pre 3.0 Devices ?

25. The Support Package
aka Compatibility Library

26. What's in it ?
● Fragment
● FragmentManager
●
●
FragmentTransaction
ListFragment
UI
● DialogFragment
● LoaderManager
Loader
Data
●
● AsyncTaskLoader
● CursorLoader

27. Action Bar
Android 3.0 and up only, not in Support Package for pre 3.0 devices

28. Fo
Help is on the way...
kmr
eo
nG
i tH
ub
http://actionbarsherlock.com

29. Let's look at Fragments again

30. How do you structure an App
(The pre Honeycomb way)

31. How do you structure an App
(Honeycomb and beyond)

32. That doesn't look much different!?
vs

33. Let's turn our phone sideways

34. How about Tablets ?

35. And of course Tablet landscape

36. So how many activites, fragments and layouts
are there ?

37. Put it all together

38. So much for the theory....

39. Download the Demo App from the Market
http://goo.gl/y9C6c

40. Patterns when using Fragments
Event Listener Interface
● communication between Fragment and Activity
● separation of concerns / the fragments don't know about the
activities -> easier to reuse across Activities
Using FrameLayouts as placeholders and adding fragments
dynamically
● allows hiding of the viewgroup
● Fragments can be given arguments when they are needed
● easier to refactor if no fragments are in layout.xml

41. Event Listener Interface
class MyActivity implements OnTitleListener
class TitlesFragment extends ListFragment {
public interface OnTitleListener {
public void onTitleSelected(int titleId);
}
public void addOnTitleListener(OnTitleListener onTitleListener) {
listener = onTitleListener;
}
public void onListItemClick(ListView l, View v, int position, long id) {
...
listener.onTitleSelected(position);
}
...

42. FrameLayout
Only use for static initialization and Fragments that are always present
<fragment android:layout_height="match_parent" android:layout_weight="1"
android:id="@+id/titles" class="demo.gwr.fightfrag.fragments.TitlesFragment"
android:layout_width="0px"></fragment>
Use the framelayout for dynamic fragments, by hiding the Layout you can make the fragments
appear when they are needed
<FrameLayout android:id="@+id/chapters" android:layout_weight="1"
android:layout_width="0px" android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:visibility="gone" />

43. FrameLayout
FragmentManager fragMgr = getSupportFragmentManager();
ChaptersFragment chapters = (ChaptersFragment)
fragMgr.findFragmentById(R.id.chapters);
if (chapters == null){
chapters = ChaptersFragment.newInstance(titleId);
chapters.addOnChapterListener(this);
}
FragmentTransaction ft = getSupportFragmentManager().beginTransaction();
ft.replace(R.id.chapters, chapters);
ft.setTransition(FragmentTransaction.TRANSIT_FRAGMENT_FADE);
ft.commit();
View chaptersFrame = findViewById(R.id.chapters);
chaptersFrame.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);

44. Resources
● Android Developer Portal – SDK, Sample Code, Reference Docs
http://developer.android.com
● Commonsware – Android Ebooks, Free Sample Code
http://commonsware.com/
● StackOverflow – Questions and Answers
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/android
● Android IRC Channel
#android-dev on freenode

45. People
Alexander Lucas Kirill Grouchnikov
DevAdv might answer you on Stackoverflow Android User Interface Engineer
Andy Rubin Matias Duarte
The father of Android The creative mind behind Androids UI, Designed WebOS
Chet Haase Reto Meier
Android Graphics Engineer Author Professional Android Development
Dan Morrill Romain Guy
Android Engineer Android Graphics Engineer, Androdi Wallpapers
Dianne Hackborn Roman Nurik
Android Framework Engineer Android Developer Advocate
Ed Burnette Tim Bray
Author Hello Android Android Developer Advocate from Vancouver
Jake Wharton Tor Norbye
Developer of Action Bar Sherlock Works on the ADT & Eclipse Plugin
Jean Baptiste Queru Xavier Ducrohet
Android Open Source Project Android Developer Tools Lead
Shared Google+ Circle: goo.gl/8XZbu

46. Thank You
Andreas Grunewald
http://grunewaldsrobots.com
Twitter: @agrunewald
Google+ http://goo.gl/IZzuS
http://www.linkedin.com/in/andreasgrunewald
http://about.me/agrunewald