android-l-preview-playground

Testing new widgets, material theme and tools available in Android-L preview. I've been given assignment to make a simple app while applying for a role. It's the best opportunity to try out new toys provided in L-preview version.

I'm playing with

• RecyclerView
• LinearLayoutManager provided with RecyclerView
• RecyclerView Adapter
• CardView
• Material theme
• Theme branding colors
• Palette
• Activities transitions

Useful links

• http://developer.android.com/preview/setup-sdk.html
• http://www.teamandroid.com/2014/06/29/install-android-l-sdk-try-android-l-preview-windows-mac/

Android Programming Task

Overview:

Your task is to complete an implementation of a Library page for a typical Android eReader application. The library should present to the user books grouped by categories.

Specification (refer to design overleaf):

• A descriptive header should be present – “Library”
• The books are to be visually grouped into the following categories: ‘Crime’, ‘Comedy’, ‘History’ and ‘Thriller’
• The page should show a list of books for each category (with books being a consistent, readable size)
• Each book should show its title, the author name and a thumbnail image as a background
• By default, thecategory lists should be collapsed, showing one row of books for each category
• There should be an option to expand each category list (individually) to reveal all the books from that category
• A clickable element should allow the expansion and collapse of this view
• Each category should be titled and include a counter that reflects the number of books in that category – ie. Crime(3)

Extra: You should populate your library with sample books.

The URLs given below reveal JSON objects that you shouldquery in your application. The categories should contain the following number of books respectively (3, 10, 20, 5) Categories: Crime, Comedy, History, Thriller

• https://www.googleapis.com/books/v1/volumes?q=crime
• https://www.googleapis.com/books/v1/volumes?q=comedy
• https://www.googleapis.com/books/v1/volumes?q=history
• https://www.googleapis.com/books/v1/volumes?q=thriller

Final query will look like this:

• https://www.googleapis.com/books/v1/volumes?q=crime&fields=items(volumeInfo(title,authors,imageLinks(thumbnail)))&maxResults=1

Design mockup attached to assignment is pretty weird and I won't attach that because it's not essential here. More or less my layouts resemble what was designed.

It looks ok on Nexus7 AVD screen.