Using Thaana on Android
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Presentation for kickstart tech talks 2014, on How to properly use Thaana on Android, including how to handle input.
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Using Thaana on Android
- 1. Thaana on Android - Introduction & Best Practices Naail Abdul Rahman @kudanai
- 2. Overview • Thaana Support across devices – API Versions • Using custom fonts – Android Views – Memory optimization • Layout Direction – Setting specific views or entire application for RTL • Handling Input • aThaanaUtils
- 3. Demo App • Download the demo app http://github.com/kudanai/aThaanaUtils/releases
- 4. Demo App
- 5. API Versions • Android 1.0 started off 2007 • Android 2.3 “Ginger Bread” – API 10 • Android 3.0 “Honeycomb” – API 11 • Android 4.0 “Ice Cream Sandwich” – API 14 • Android 4.2 “Jelly Bean MR1” – API 17
- 6. API Versions • Android 3+ – Proper Unicode support started – New UI paradigms – Not seen in the wild a lot • Android 4+ (API 14) – Action Bar pattern – Roboto Fonts • Android 4.2+ (API 17) – Proper RTL support
- 7. API Versions
- 8. API Versions
- 9. API Versions • Android is not like iOS, where we can safely expect a large % of the user-base to upgrade. • Stick to API 14+ – Lower versions limit potential – Not enough users to justify going there anyway. • If you Dare, stick to 17+
- 10. Using Custom Fonts • Android allows embedding your own application fonts. • Read UI guidelines on using custom fonts. • Any well formed TTF or OTF font is valid.
- 11. Using Custom Fonts • Throw them in the Assets folder
- 12. Android Views • Two main classes of views commonly used. – TextView subclasses – WebView
- 14. TextView Subclasses • Obtain a Typeface object from the Assets • Set typeface to the TextView using the TextView.setTypeFace() method.
- 15. WebView • Backed by WebKit rendering engine. • Can render Thaana on Android 2.3 as well. • There are some bugs in android 4.2 - 4.3
- 16. WebView • CSS3 @font-face • Reference Assets folder using file:///android_asset/ • Apply the font-face to html elements. Webkit does the rest.
- 17. Memory Optimization • Typeface objects consume memory. • Views will hold strong references to Typeface objects. • More Views with custom fonts = More memory… naturally. – Careful while using ListView’s • Despite view recycling mechanisms, improper handling can bloat memory use.
- 18. Memory Optimization • DON’T – Use a lot of different fonts or create a new Typeface object for ever view – Instantiate a typeface for every row of a ListView – use custom views that call Typeface.createFromAsset() in their constructor, in ListViews
- 19. Memory Optimization • DO – Share the Typeface as much as possible. Avoid instantiating too many. – If using a list view, let the Adapter own the Typeface objects. – If using custom views… (see next)
- 20. Memory Optimization • Use a Resource Manager pattern – Basically a Singleton which will cache Typeface objects – Cache can use weak referencing for further optimization, if required – Lazy instantiate Typefaces as required – Only one object per Typeface, throughout the entire application scope.
- 21. Layout Direction • Proper RTL since API 17+ – Add android:supportsRtl="true” to the manifest to enable RTL methods – Some RTL specific methods have no effect without this.
- 22. Layout Direction • Pre 17, – Align everything to the right and hope for the best.
- 23. Layout Direction • Usually you either flip specific views or flip everything. – onCreate() of activities
- 24. Layout Direction • View direction RTL will flip ActionBar and NavigationDrawer correctly to the right. As expected. • For Navigation Drawer, – Can either use “start” or “right” for layout_gravity
- 25. Layout Direction • Prefer “start” to “right”… • ActionBar title can be set using setTitle() method. However, won’t display correctly. – Must set a custom view, which uses a custom typeface.
- 26. Layout Direction
- 27. Handling Input • Input mainly done into EditText (or subclasses) • Can use two methods to handle Thaana Input – Use an InputFilter or a TextWatcher to modify user input (substitute latin->thaana) on the fly. – Use a custom KeyboardView
- 28. Handling Input • Must apply typefaces and direction hints to EditText as before. • InputFilter – Single method, filter() • Receives the user input. Can modify the input as necessary. • Clean. • Disable Autocorrect !important – Does not always work.
- 29. Handling Input • TextWatcher – Attached to an Editable, will get called when modified. – More flexible, but risky.
- 30. Handling Input • TextWatcher – Modifications will trigger itself. – Will race unless recursion is checked. • Less error prone to use a proper TextWatcher than an InputFilter. • Can use multiple TextWatchers on a single editable.
- 31. aThaanaUtils • http://github.com/kudanai/aThaanaUtils • API 14+ • Collection of the above concepts. Currently provides: – TypefaceManager to handle font loading – Some Custom Views (somewhat pointless but why not) – TextWatcher & InputFilter for Input Handling – Misc. Utility functions
- 32. aThaanaUtils • Planned additions – Custom KeyboardView for input • Already done, but too buggy right now. – More conversion mechanisms – Upload to repo for easier inclusion in projects
- 33. Thank you Questions? tweet-> @kudanai