jetc.dev Newsletter Issue #202
Published: 2024-02-13
We got a new Compiler, a new BOM, and new Glance artifacts — so we take a peek at them!
We also examine the latest Compose Material3, blend Circuit with Compose Multiplatform, and play with robots. We also render some Markdown, almost like how this newsletter gets published.
Ooooo… What Did We Get?
Reviewing the release notes for the latest Jetpack Compose update!
The Compose BOM is up to 2024.02.00, corresponding to the 1.6.1 patch
release of most artifacts. 1.6.1 consists mostly of bug fixes, befitting a patch
release.
We also got a 1.7.0-alpha02 release of the most artifacts. This too seems to be
mostly bug fixes and promotion of experimental APIs to stable status.
It also adds a new LocalLinkTextStyle composition local for styles associated with links
in text.
Compose Compiler is up to 1.5.9 with a few bug fixes.
Glance has a new 1.1.0-alpha01 release, with quite a few changes.
Of particular note are new artifacts focused on unit testing and previews, to build
up the infrastructure around Glance-powered app widgets.
Wear Compose has a 1.4.0-alpha02 release, with bug fixes.
In addition, the following Compose-adjacent updates are available:
androidx.activity:activity-compose:1.9.0-alpha03androidx.fragment:fragment-compose:1.7.0-alpha10androidx.hilt:hilt-navigation-compose:1.2.0-rc01androidx.navigation:navigation-compose:2.7.7androidx.navigation:navigation-compose:2.8.0-alpha02androidx.paging:paging-compose:3.3.0-alpha03androidx.paging:paging-compose-android:3.3.0-alpha03
One Off the Stack, One Off the Slack
You’ve got questions. That’s understandable!
How Can I Control Multiple Animations?
Sometimes, we want to animate several disparate elements. To keep them in sync,
it would be good to have a “single source of truth” for how far in the animation
we are. To that end, Compose offers a family of lerp() functions for various types,
as we see in this week’s highlighted Stack Overflow question.
How Can We Auto-Size Text?
A significant missing piece of Compose UI is an official way to auto-size text.
This is not a simple problem to solve, especially if you are trying to not skip frames.
See a few possible approaches for this in this week’s highlighted Kotlinlang #compose
Slack thread.
Composable Commentary
Posts, videos, and other new information related to Jetpack Compose!
Material Design 3 for Compose 1.2
James Williams looks at what changed in Compose Material3 version 1.2.0: new composables,
newly-stable APIs, and more!
Compose Multiplatform Made easy with Circuit
Eric Ampire reviews Circuit, a Slack library that provides an MVI-esque framework for Kotlin apps, powered by the Compose engine. Eric looks at how Circuit can help implement a Compose Multiplatform app, including navigation between screens.
Medium: Making Your Android App Accessible: Semantic Properties and Screen Orientation
Karol Wrótniak explores the world of semantic properties in Compose UI, to help guide
TalkBack and other accessibility services. This includes liveRegion (changes get announced
even if the composable is not focused), heading() (to denote a composable that
represents a heading), and error() (to denote a composable that contains error information).
Medium: End-To-End Testing With Robot Pattern And Jetpack Compose
Tomáš Repčík reviews the robot testing pattern, where each screen gets a “robot” class that exposes functions that mimic user behavior: filling in fields, clicking buttons, etc. The robot can also package up common assertions that might be used by multiple tests. Tests then employ an instance of the robot, leading to more readable test code.
Medium: Transforming Android XML Vector drawables into Compose Multiplatform ImageVectors
Sergio Belda reviews the Compose Vectorize library that allows Compose Multiplatform projects to better utilize Android’s vector drawables, courtesy of a compiler plugin.
Medium: Custom Theming in Android Jetpack Compose
Diego Ramírez examines how you can add custom categories of values, such as dimensions,
to a MaterialTheme, by means of a custom composition local.
Introducing ComposeRecyclerView
The Canopas team walks us through their ComposeRecylerView library,
which simplifies using composables for items in a RecyclerView. In addition for possible
uses during migration from views to composables, RecyclerView has better-understood
performance characteristics and may help with lazy containers under-perform.
Medium: Crafting Typewrite Text Animation & Custom Quote Card with Jetpack Compose
Medium user Kappdev explains how to create a “typed text” animation, where text appears
one character at a time, as if somebody was typing it in. The resulting TypewriteText()
composable can then be used like Text(), including being wrapped in stylized containers,
such as a QuoteCard().
Jetpack Compose: Divider
Alex Zhukovich explores the humble divider, including the differences between the
Material Divider() and the Material3 HorizontalDivider() and VerticalDivider()
and how to implement a totally custom divider.
Other Interesting Links
- Medium: 3 Big Mistakes to avoid while State Management
- Medium: Android/Kotlin/Jetpack Compose: Expandable List
- Medium: Custom Alert in Jetpack Compose
- Medium: Disposable Effect API in Jetpack Compose: LifecycleEventEffects
- Medium: Fundamentals of testing Android apps
- Medium: I made the same app 15 times, here are the results Part 1 — Introduction & Methodology
- Medium: Interactive text using jetpack compose
- Medium: Jetpack Compose Hacks:Top 3 Secret Jetpack Compose Modifiers
- Medium: Lottie Animation using Jetpack Compose
- Medium: Master class on Android Testing
- Medium: Taking screenshot of a composable — Composable to Bitmap
- Medium: Tracking Lifecycle changes in Compose Multiplatform: IOS and Android
- Opening Emoji Keyboard in Jetpack Compose in Kotlin Programming
Resource Roundup
100% pure code!
GitHub: baec23 / ludwig
Changmin Bae published a set of libraries with a variety of composables, from an AnimatedVector()
that morphs between vectors, time and date pickers, fades for scrollable containers,
and more.
GitHub: ilyasipek / easy-mvi
ilyas ipek brings us an MVI implementation for Compose UI, powered by an mvi()
delegate for your viewmodel that handles reducing your custom state based upon
your custom actions.
GitHub: mikepenz / multiplatform-markdown-renderer
Mike Penz created a Markdown renderer for Compose Multiplatform, including support for custom styles, custom list bullets and order labels, and more.
GitHub: Varsha-Kulkarni / scrollablebarchart-compose
Varsha Kulkarni offers us LTRScrollableBarChart() and RTLScrollableBarChart()
composables that render a classic bar chart in a horizontally-scrolling container.
Notable Releases
JetBrains published 1.6.0-beta02 of Compose Multiplatform.
iOS targets now have basic accessibility support plus double- and triple-tap
support for Text() composables.
Saket Narayan updated the swipe library to 1.3.0.
This adds Compose Multiplatform support to the swipe composable framework.
Or, you can subscribe to the Atom feed or follow Mark Murphy in the Fediverse.
Recent Issues:
- 2024-12-10: A Compose Multiplatform alpha! Hot reload! Presentation! Sprites! Calendars!
- 2024-12-03: Rebecca Franks on clipping and masking! Stefano Natali on graphicsLayer()! FunkyMuse on type-safe nav results! And... if we have enough maps, do we need to store our maps in a Map?!?
- 2024-11-26: Math! Shared element transitions! Custom modifiers! Macrobenchmark! Adapting to platform-specific design systems! And... why does wrapContentSize() not wrap my content size?!?