Next Arsenal Match Challenges

NextArsenalMatch was an Android app project that I had done a year back. Dedicated to all Arsenal fans to get the basic information on what and when the next Arsenal match is?

NextArsenalMatch

This project was a test attempt into making a live app for Arsenal fans to keep track of the next match. The idea was to use an offline database to store the match details. So for each schedule change, cup exit or cup progress, I had to manually update the database and upload the new build almost every other week as the season progressed.

It seems that an easier alternative to this app can be found on Google Now itself. One can easily track the upcoming match details by adding your favorite sports team. There is as well the official Arsenal Android app which gives more information on Arsenal.

The benefit of developing this app was the contribution of a CopiedDataBaseHelper file for android projects that can use a db file from assets. This file is part of the AeAppsLib.

CopiedDataBaseHelper.java

The canon artwork used for the icon was also created for this project. This is free to use under the Creative Commons Licence.

Message Counter 3 - Material Design Updates

More design updates come to Message Counter 3. We have implemented the navigation drawer with the sweet animation on the hamburger menu. On popular demand, the Chart is back. The latest update is on a staged rollout.


You can find the current Message Counter app here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ae.apps.messagecounter

Andorid Error : java.lang.NoSuchMethodError: android.View.getMinimumHeight

So I got reports of the error from my Play Store for my app Message Counter.

java.lang.NoSuchMethodError: android.View.getMinimumHeight

In the new build, I had implemented a custom view that reads the min width and height from the xml declaration. The app was working on all the devices that I test. However I did notice that the reports were made from Android devices Version 4.0 or below. Further digging and I found the below solution.

getMinimumHeight() is available in API 16+. 
Use android.View.getSuggestedMinimumHeight() instead

It appears that ImageView.getMaxHeight() is also API 16+. Sadly I could not find any alternatives for this one.

Message Counter on Google Play

Message Counter 3.0 Beta

Material Love gets extended to Message Counter, after Random Contact. A fresh coat of paint, a new icon and use of some Material Design Principles is a start for the Beta version. This version is code named "Talisman" which follows "Silversun" and "Silvermoon". The updated code is available in GitHub as well.

As per Google Play regulations, only members of a test community are able to test these apps. So the community link is https://plus.google.com/communities/110966372903178356479.

From a technical standpoint, support has been added for AppCompat libraries, replaced ActionBar with a Toolbar. Using Toolbar should extend the experience to users with API less than 11 (Honeycomb). Use of padding, vibrant colors and card view are highlights of this build.

The first thing you will notice from the screenshot below is the use of Cards and a redesigned Counter screen. This will be the "hero screen" for the app.

Note that this is a work in progress and there may be some bugs or issues and do send them in. You can post them in the community or raise issues in the GitHub page for the project.

https://github.com/midhunhk/message-counter

Random Contact with Material Design Love

It's been a while since my last blog post, I was obviously busy with my job, life and other important things. In between Android released the latest SDK and support libraries for taking material design to lower versions.

I have been slowly looking at the latest APIs and how to use them in my spare time. Once I was able to get hold of the latest SDK as well as Android Studio, I started to see how I could redesign some apps based on material design principles.

Random Contact 2.2

After doing a sample project that made use of all the new features, I started working on redesigning Random Contact app. Firstly this is a simple app, not too complicated in terms of features as well as low volume of users. Second of all, this app has not been updated in a long while. So a little love was on the cards.

Take a look at the new design below.

It will be interesting to note that the action bar and some text color change dynamically based on your contact's profile image. This is made possible due to a library called Palette which is part of Android. On a technical side, this app uses the following new features from Android.

• Recycler View
• Toolbar
• Card View
• Palette

This app represents a fresh UI design with material design principles in mind. You can find the app at the link below. Try it and let me know your feedback.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ae.apps.randomcontact

The source code for the app is available at github - https://github.com/midhunhk/random-contact