jetc.dev Newsletter Issue #174

Published: 2023-07-25

This week, we look at Compose Compiler 1.5.0 and what it adds… and what it deprecates.

We also look at debouncing and droidcon San Francisco. We hear about Google’s take on composable APIs and performance. We peek more closely at a molecule, build ourselves a timeline, and consider swiping right on a fragment-friendly Compose navigation library.

Ooooo… What Did We Get?

Reviewing the release notes for the latest Jetpack Compose update!

Compose Compiler is up to 1.5.0, with support for Kotlin 1.9.0 and experimental support for the K2 compiler. However, support for named arguments to a lambda expression has been deprecated, apparently due to K2 limitations.

One Off the Stack, One Off the Slack

You’ve got questions. That’s understandable!

How Can We Properly Use PivotOffsets?

TvLazyRow() supports PivotOffsets, a way to fix the focus position on the screen and have the content scroll as the user navigates via their D-pad. However, by default, that fixed position is no longer fixed once we reach the end of the focusable content, such as reaching the end of a row of cards. See how to use a non-focusable trailing element to address this in this week’s highlighted Stack Overflow question.

Where Should You Debounce?

Should we put debounce logic in the composable or the viewmodel? See a few different approaches for placing it in the viewmodel, and arguments for not placing it in the composable, in this week’s highlighted Kotlinlang #compose Slack thread.

Droidcon San Francisco 2023

The droidcon team published conference videos from their 2023 San Francisco event. Compose-related presentations include:

Composable Commentary

Posts, videos, and other new information related to Jetpack Compose!

API Guidelines for @Composable components in Jetpack Compose

Google moved their naming and style rules for composables to GitHub and updated them. While these rules may not completely match your environment, it may be worthwhile to still review them and understand the rationale behind those choices.

Podcast: Compose Performance

The Android Developers Backstage podcast brought in Chuck Jazdzewski, George Mount, and Leland Richardson to talk about Compose performance and the performance of apps built atop of Compose.

A stable, multiplatform Molecule 1.0

Molecule is CashApp’s library for using composables for emitting states on a StateFlow. Jake Wharton announced the 1.0 stable release, including Kotlin/Multiplatform support and an Immediate recomposition mode.

Medium: Rich UI Models in Android using MVVM and Jetpack Compose

Mahmoud Afarideh examines merging a “view model” (the data to be rendered into a view) with the composable for doing that rendering, leveraging a interface that wraps all of that. The result is that you leverage a @Composable-annotated invoke(), which renders its content based on the data inside its data class properties.

Medium: A Step-by-Step Guide to Building a Timeline Component with Jetpack Compose

Vita Sokolova walks us through everything that is needed for a “timeline” component: a list of items that are visually connected via a vertical line. The implementation leveraged the drawBehind() modifier for the timeline itself (dots connected by lines), modifying the core elements that made up the list.

Medium: Threads Invitation Card with Jetpack Compose

Caner Kaşeler used Compose UI to reproduce the invitation card UI used in Meta’s Threads app. This UI is a ticket-shaped card that uses a flip animation to show content on each side. Caner’s post focuses on the animation part, showing how to rotate the card based on drag gestures.

Jetpack Compose for Maps

Darryl Bayliss takes a deep dive into Google Maps for Compose, from simply rendering a map to showing markers and customizing info windows, animating the map, and integrating Street View.

Resource Roundup

100% pure code!

GitHub: Aghajari / LazySwipeCards

GitHub user Aghajari implemented a Tinder-style stack of cards, where the top card can be swiped off to the left or right. There are many configuration options, from the content and count to the animation spec and swipe threshold.

GitHub: GRizzi91 / bouquet

GitHub user GRizzi91 brings us a PDF viewer, based on the platform PdfRenderer. You get separate composables and states for horizontal or vertical viewing, along with a range of sources for getting the PDF content.

GitHub: open-turo / nibel

The Turo Open Source team created another navigation system for Compose UI. This time, though, fragments are first-class participants, for seamless navigation between fragments and composables. It also support multi-module navigation. See this Medium post for more!

GitHub: nabla-run / Compose-gallery-picker

GitHub user nabla-run created a composable image cropper, connected to your choice of a platform gallery app or a supplied GalleryPicker().