UI Resources

(A) Layout Resources

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(B) UI Elements

(a) Views & ViewGroup

Views

• Views are the fundamental building blocks used to create an app’s user interface (UI).
• Each view represents a visual component that the user can interact with or display information.
• Views are the fundamental building block/object of the user interface created from the View class.
• Views are small/large rectangular areas on the screen and are responsible for drawing and event handling in the Android app.
• View is the base class for widgets, which are used to create interactive UI components, such as buttons and text fields.
• Views in Android can be arranged and customized using XML layout files or programmatically through Java or Kotlin code.
• Some common View elements used in Android applications are:-
  • Basic Views:
    • TextView:
      • TextView is a basic UI widget in Android used to display text to the user.
      • It is a read-only text element (users cannot edit its content).
      • We can customize its appearance and behaviour using various XML attributes like textSize, textColor, gravity, padding, etc.
      • It is one of the most fundamental building blocks for displaying static or dynamic text in Android apps.
      • It is a simple text display element.
      • This view displays text on the screen and can be used to show static or dynamically changing text content.
      • It acts as a label.
      • For example –

• • • • It’s essentially a pre-configured EditText for single-line input.
      • This view is almost similar to EditText.
    • EditText:

• • • • It is a user-input text box/field.
      • It’s used for accepting user input such as text, numbers, etc.

• • • • Password:
        • The Password UI element in Android is an EditText view.
        • It is used to securely accept passwords by masking the input characters.
        • In Android, the Password input field is created using the EditText widget with a specific inputType that masks the characters as they are typed.
        • The EditText widget allows for secure entry of passwords by displaying dots or asterisks instead of the actual characters. This is done by setting the android:inputType attribute to “textPassword” or “numberPassword”.
        • Android provides a convenient way to toggle the visibility of the password. This can be done using the android:passwordToggleEnabled=”True” feature in conjunction with TextInputLayout. It allows users to see the password when they click an eye icon next to the field.
        • To limit the number of characters a user can enter for the password using android:maxLength=”30″.
        • If we want to show error messages when the password is incorrect, we can do so using textInputLayout.setError(“Password must be at least 6 characters long.”);.
        • For example –
      • <EditText

            android:id=“@+id/program4”

            android:layout_width=“match_parent”

            android:layout_height=“wrap_content”

            android:hint=“Enter your password”

            android:inputType=“textPassword” /> 
    • Button:
      • A Button is a basic interactive UI widget in Android that users can tap or click to act (such as submitting a form, opening a new screen, etc.).
      • A Button is an essential interactive element in Android apps, used to perform actions when the user clicks or taps it.
      • It is one of the most commonly used elements in Android apps.
      • This view is used to represent a clickable button that triggers an action/event when pressed by the user.
      • For example –
    • <Button

          android:id=“@+id/btnSubmit”

          android:layout_width=“wrap_content”

          android:layout_height=“wrap_content”

          android:text=“Submit” /> 
    • ImageView:

• • Container Views:
    • ScrollView:
      • It allows scrolling of the contents if they exceed the screen size.
    • ListView:
      • It displays a scrollable list of items.
    • RecyclerView:
      • It is a more advanced and efficient list view that efficiently displays large sets of data by recycling views.
    • ViewPager:
      • It enables the user to swipe left or right to view different content screens.
    • TabLayout:
      • It represents tabs for switching between different views or sections within an app.
    • Navigation Drawer:
      • It is a sliding panel that displays app navigation options.
  • Interactive Views:
    • CheckBox:
      • It is used to represent a box that can be checked or unchecked by the user.
      • This view is used as multi-select or zero-select options at a time.
    • RadioButton:
      • This view is used to present a set of options where only one can be selected at a time.
    • SeekBar:
      • It is used to display a draggable bar allowing the user to select a value from a range.
  • Specialized Views:
    • DatePicker and TimePicker:
      • It allows users to select dates and times.
    • WebView:
      • It displays web content within the app, allowing for the integration of web-based features.
    • Spinner:
      • It represents a dropdown list allowing users to select one item from multiple options.
    • SeekBar:
      • It provides a draggable thumb to select a value from a range, often used for adjusting settings like volume or brightness.
    • ProgressBar:
      • It indicates the progress of an operation or task that is going on or completed.

ViewGroup

• • The ViewGroup is a subclass of View and provides an invisible container that holds other Views or other ViewGroups and defines their layout properties.

(b) Intent

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(c) Toast

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