Working as an Android developer is not simple. Working understanding of languages, libraries and other resources is required to do this job. With the Android library layers, we’re making it simpler for developers to work on Android apps.
In computer languages, a framework or library (or both) is a collection of behaviour implementations having a well specified interface. If you wish to build an Android app development firm, the libraries will serve as the foundation. The Android Frameworks and Libraries, despite their inherent nature as well-defined interfaces, represent a collection of implementations of behaviours that are primarily specified by programming languages. Almost all libraries contain documentation, configuration data, message templates, help data, and pre-written scripts in order to work effectively.
What are Android libraries, and what are they used for?
Similar to the structure of an Android app library, an Android libraries follows the same conventions. Source code, resources, and an Android manifest are just a few examples of what might be included. An Android library may be compiled into an Android Archive (AAR) file that can be used as a dependency for an Android app library instead of an APK file that runs on a device. In contrast to JAR files, AAR files provide the following advantages for Android applications:
Java classes and methods may also be included in AAR files together with Android resources and a manifest file, enabling for the inclusion of common resources like as layouts and drawables.
AAR files include C/C++ libraries that may be used by the app module’s C/C++ code.
[Also read: Best 13 Android Frameworks for App Development in 2022]
Useful for the following scenarios are the library modules:
Make use of common components like activities, services, and user interface layouts while designing many applications.
In the case of an app that has many APK versions, such as a free and a premium version, and the core components remain the same in each, this is very important to keep in mind.
By putting the files you want to reuse in a library module, you may utilise them as a dependency for any app module you create.
What are the most significant considerations while developing an Android library?
As an Android developer, you’ve definitely created your own libraries for the platform. In order to create a collection of features that can be utilised by many different applications, a library is an excellent choice (or even different libraries).
A library is a collection of all the code and resources necessary to do a certain task. An.AAR file extension stands for Android archive and is equivalent to the file extension of a.JAR in a traditional Java software (however, Android apps can also import libraries with a .JAR extension). For building Android libraries, there are a number of extensive tutorials on the Internet. Rather of attempting to describe every aspect of a product, we’ll start with the fundamentals and work our way up to more individualised qualities.
Today, we’ll talk about the following:
- Keeping the features that are visible in mind
- Kotlin and Java work together.
- Putting things out there
- Strategies for dealing with relationships that change over time
It takes a lot more than a few lessons to design and write a library, though. Ideally, you should go through a design phase during which you think about the structure and organisation of the classes. Your organisation’s structure will have a big impact on this (do you have separate teams working on different parts of the project?). Do you have a rule about open repositories? You may not use external libraries if you don’t want to.
Libraries play a big part in how mobile apps and software work, and they say that these solutions are cutting-edge and have a bright future.
We need Android libraries because we use Android phones and tablets all the time.
One of the main reasons to use these libraries is that they can speed up the development process and make it easier to make a safe app with little work. We wrote this post for app developers who want to make Android apps with the most up-to-date frameworks and help out their company.
Library modules come in handy in the following ways.
When you’re making a lot of apps that use the same things, like activities, services, or UI layouts.
When you’re making an app that has different APK versions, like a free and paid version, the important parts are the same in both.
What are the most common Android Libraries?
Libraries are huge game changers in software development, no matter what platform or stack they are built on. With libraries, we can use other people’s work to do things faster, more effectively, and with less code that doesn’t work. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a novice or a seasoned Android developer; basic tasks are always a challenge. Many people have done this before you and made Android libraries and frameworks that make it easier to make apps.
A list of the best Android libraries you’ll be able to use in 2022.
1. Zxing
It’s a library that helps you work with barcode images. Zxing is written in Java and can work with a lot of other computer languages, like C, C++, and Python. If you want to read one-dot barcodes, you can use this. It can also read two-dot codes.
Google used ZXing to find a lot of barcodes on the web. The library is also in charge of making the Android Barcode Scanner App, which is used in both Google Product and Book Search.
2. ThreeTen
If you need to deal with dates and times, the ThreeTen library for Android is a great help. It’s an old version of JSR-310, which was part of the “java.time.*” package that came with Java 8.
Android’s built-in calendar API can be hard to work with. The ThreeTen library comes in handy because it helps. This is a lot smaller than JodaTime in terms of numbers and size, but its API is a lot more simple.
3. Smart Lock for Passwords
A developer can use Android’s Smart Lock for Passwords to automatically sign users into their app with the passwords they’ve already stored in the app. Besides usernames and passwords, they can also save federated identities and usernames and passwords.
Apps can quickly use the Credentials API when users sign in, so they can quickly add Smart Lock for Passwords into their apps. Use the Credentials API to quickly onboard new users. You can either use the credentials that have been successfully retrieved to sign the user in, or you can start filling out your app’s sign-in or sign-up form.
4. API for Detecting Activity
A person can use the Activity Recognition API to figure out what they are doing right now, like walking, driving, or not moving at all. Android developers can use the “Seek Updates” button to ask for activity updates, and the “Remove Updates” button lets them stop getting them.
[Also read about: Android Architecture]
5. ObjectBox
Developers can focus on what makes their apps unique rather than how to store and retrieve data. ObjectBox is a popular Android libraries that lets them do that instead.
This library also has an object-oriented embedded database that is a great alternative to SQLite. By chance, this is well-defined and well-suited to the IoT.
It also saves people time by not having to do a lot of things that aren’t very fun, and it has a simple and easy-to-use data interface. ObjectBox also doesn’t want app developers to have to deal with SQL.
6. MyLittleCanvas
The Android library MyLittleCanvas is one of the most used by programmers to make apps. The library was made to make it easier to work with canvas on Android. You can now use objects instead of methods.
This Android support package gives TextViews more features, like the ability to change how underlined they are. RectShape, RoundRectShape, TextShape, LineShape, DrawableShape, PathShape, CircleShape, and other shapes can all be made with Canvas methods.
7. ButterKnife
As a tool for Android programmers, ButterKnife uses a library of annotations that describe how to connect Android views to each other. Jake Wharton made this high-end Android library, which makes your code easier to read than before.
Developers can spend less time writing the same lines of code if they use this well-known view binding library. ButterKnife is a great way for developers to bind strings, dimensions, drawables, click events, and more without having to write the same code over and over again.
You can now use the @OnClick annotation instead of the setOnClickListener function for each view to get click events. Use the ButterKnife library and your Android project will go a lot faster.
8. ExpansionPanel
ExpansionPanel by Florent Champigny is another powerful library that lets developers make Expansion Panels (that contain creation flows and enable lightweight editing of an element). There is a library that can be used to make many different expansion layouts so that only one can be opened at a time.
This library is easy to understand, and the project comes with a sample app that developers can use to see how the library works. The whole code of this library is also available on Google Play, and an example app can be found there.
9. Kotlin-math
Another great library for Android is Kotlin-math, which is a set of Kotlin APIs that make it easier to make visual math. These APIs are based on the OpenGL Shading Language, GLSL. This makes it easy to move code from and to shaders as quickly as possible.
The many types in this library are only meant to be used as value types. There are a lot of APIs that can be used as top-level functions instead of methods.
10. Lottie
Lottie is an Android development tool that can read animations made with Adobe After Effects and Bodymovin and show them on a mobile device. One of our senior Android developers came up with the idea.
As a result, animations that look great can now be made and shipped by designers, rather than by engineers who have to spend a lot of time making each one by hand. Until now, we can use solids, form layers and masks as well as alpha mattes, trim paths, dash patterns, and trim paths to make things look like they are.
Developers can also move forward and backward in time, as well as respond to any input, with the help of the library.
[Also read about: The Best Android 11 Features you need to know]
11. Android Retrofit
Android Retrofit is a well-known library for Android that makes it easier for people to interact and be authenticated.
For Android and Java, Square has made an HTTP client that is safe to type in. Retrofit is a great library for connecting Android apps to HTTP-based APIs. It adds a lot of new features to the OkHttp library while cutting down on the amount of code that needs to be written.
12. Dagger 2
There was no way we could put this list together without including Dagger, which is the best Android libraries out there. Dagger stands out from the rest of the frameworks that help you add dependencies. The dependency injector library makes it easier to give smaller parts to another model while still keeping them connected to each other.
It would be hard to deal with dependency injection when you were making bigger apps. This time, Dagger will come to the rescue. It uses annotation processors to build a dependency injection graph at compile time, so it can help.
MPAndroidChart
One of the best Android graph Library It has line-bar-pie-radar-bubble-and candlestick charts. It can also be scaled and zoomed and animations can be added to it.
Using the Android Studio.
Google has now made Android Studio Library the official IDE for making apps for Android. A lot of people have used IntelliJ, PyCharm, or RubyMine before, so if you’ve used this programme, you’ll find it very easy to use. There’s good news for Android developers: This IDE looks a lot like the IntelliJ Community Edition, but it’s free for them.
Migrating from Eclipse
Gradle is a new build system that the best Android Studio app uses to make apps. The best thing to do is to import your Eclipse projects directly. In the new version of Android Studio Library, there is a button that says “Import Non-Android Studio Project.” Note that you will need to refer to the Eclipse project root directory, which should have subdirectories src/ and res/ right next to it, so you’ll need to look there. If Android Studio doesn’t find these directories in the project directory that you’ve chosen, it won’t try to move your project to Gradle.
The Final Thoughts
If you work with Android, these are some of the best library app for android that may be very useful to you. With these libraries, developers can make responsive mobile apps that save time and are very useful or if you want to get it done by experts of an android app development company, then mobcoder can be your affordable companion in the journey.
