DroidKaigi 2019 codelabs
This is satsukies from the DroidKaigi Committee. DroidKaigi 2019 is just around the corner! This time, I will announce the details about our Codelabs.
At DroidKaigi 2019, we will have Codelabs in Room 5 on both Day 1 and Day 2.
This year, we will have codelabs from the official Google codelabs page, and an original codelab titled The Android App Improvement Challenge!
About the Android App Improvement Challenge
This original codelab simulates a real-world Android project.
Projects that have been through years of development, filled with quick fixes and new features stemming off of old ones, more often than not turn into a hideous monstrosity!
When one inherits such a codebase, how would they go about deciphering it? How would you even start to fiddle with the code in order to complete tasks needed for the team?
With problems hand-crafted by the DroidKaigi staff, this codelab offers a practical experience in maintaining a legacy codebase.
A sneak peak into the Android App Improvement Challenge
The sample app for this challenge displays a list of articles from HackerNews. It’s a simple app that displays articles when you tap on them.
The app, however, follows guidelines completely opposite of the Guide to app architecture featured in the Android Developers page.
- A fat Activity where everything is just crammed into the Activity class.
- No cached data
- No tests
etc etc..
The code below is from the Activity class of the sample project.
It looks like it uses a CountDownLatch to wait for all AsyncTasks to finish and… change the visibility of the progressView? And using a Util class to change the visibility doesn’t help either! Eww.
About the challenges
The Android App Improvement Challenge will be held on Day2 of DroidKaigi 2019.
It consists of two parts starting at different times.
- Android App Improvement Challenge Part1: Adding Features 10:30–11:50 (1 h 20 min)
- Android App Improvement Challenge Part2: Refactoring 12:50–15:00 (2 h 10 min)
Each part will have an explanatory talk (held in Japanese) at the beginning, but you can enter/exit at any time. Though the codelabs will be held in one of the smaller rooms, we look forward to seeing you all!
Preparing for the codelabs
Though there will be free Wi-Fi at the venue, we ask all participants to prepare the following for a smoother start:
1. Have Android Studio installed.
- We strongly recommend version 3.3 which has just been released on the stable channel.
- You can download from here(https://developer.android.com/studio/?hl=en).
2. Install Android SDK Platform 28 from the SDK Manager.
3. Have Git installed.
- The source code for the challenges will be hosted on GitHub.
A note to English speakers
Material for the Android App Improvement Challenge will also be provided in English, but not all support staff are proficient in the language. We will do our best, but thanks for understanding!
