Kotlin extensions for Android — Part 1

These Kotlin functions do the same job as existing methods but provide simpler syntax.

android/android-ktx

Adding library

First of all, we add Google repository which is a publicly-available repository.

To add Google repository, add the following lines to your app module’s build.gradle:

repositories {
    google()
}

In the same file, give instructions to the Gradle that we are going to use the library of Kotlin extensions:

dependencies {
    // Check the latest version of this library here:
    // https://github.com/android/android-ktx#getting-started
    implementation 'androidx.core:core-ktx:0.3'
}

Some of the cool extension functions are listed below:

1# Get System service

You can use this extension function to get System service (like AlarmManager, DownloadManager). For example:

val alarmManager = context.systemService<AlarmManager>()

2# Editing Shared Preferences

This gives you a simpler syntax if you want to perform operations on the Shared Preferences. For example:

val preferences = getSharedPreferences("MY_PREFERENCES", Context.MODE_PRIVATE)
preferences.edit {
    putBoolean("shouldAutoUpdate", false)
    putString("nickname","John")
    commit()
}

It should be noted that if you don’t specify commit(), the apply() will be used.

3# Creating a Bundle

This provides a simpler way to define a Bundle. For example:

val bundle = bundleOf( 
    "KEY_PRICE" to 50.0, 
    "KEY_IS_FROZEN" to false
)

In the above example, a Bundle object was created with two extras.

I have written about more extensions in this post:

Kotlin-Android extensions - Part 2

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