jetc.dev Newsletter Issue #216

Published: 2024-05-28

KotlinConf 2024 is in the books, and Compose for iOS is now in beta!

We also look at Compose previews, on their own and for screenshot testing. We guard against regressions and take a look at some kelp. We explore animations and Compose Compiler reports. And we look at some tables and charts implementations.

Ooooo… What Did We Get?

Reviewing the release notes for the latest Jetpack Compose update!

Compose Multiplatform 1.6.10 is now stable! 🎉 JetBrains announced this as part of KotlinConf 2024, pointing out that Compose for iOS is now officially in beta, as Jacob Ras also noted.

One Off the Stack, One Off the Slack

You’ve got questions. That’s understandable!

Why Does `Font()` Work on iOS But Not Android?

The Font() function is part of Compose Multiplatform, but its Android actual implementation has a bug. If you try switching to a new FontResource conditionally, the change will not take effect. Fortunately, a fix has already been committed. See more in this week’s highlighted Stack Overflow question.

Why Is My Vector Blurry?

Using the scale() modifier on an Image() that has an ImageVector will result in a blurry image. That is because scale() scales the bitmap generated from the vector, not the vector itself. See a workaround using LocalDensity in this week’s highlighted Kotlinlang #compose Slack thread.

Composable Commentary

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

Effortless Compose Compiler report analysis

Shreyas Patil walks us through using a Gradle plugin to convert Compose Compiler reports into more-usable outputs, generating color-coded Web pages for composables, classes, and more.

Medium: Let’s Complicate Compose Previews

Kerry Bisset points out that a lot of simplified @Preview examples leave a lot to the imagination when it comes to implementing @Preview for real-world apps. Kerry explores more complex scenarios, including dealing with viewmodels and dependency inversion frameworks.

Medium: Migrating UI-oriented Android library to Compose Multiplatform (Android/iOS)

Andrei Riik reports on what it takes to convert a Compose for Android library’s code base to Compose Multiplatform, including both UI elements and other aspects (networking, disk caching, image loading).

Medium: Enhance Your Design System Workflow with Kelp Plugin for Android Studio

Anton Popov reviews Kelp, an Android Studio plugin that I mentioned last week. Kelp offers IDE affordances to help steer developers towards using your design system composables, such as custom icons for auto-completion and gutters.

Video: The complete guide to Compose animations

Eliza Camber delivered a half-hour Android Makers presentation on the wide range of animation options in Compose, from AnimatedVisibility() and animateContentSize() to animate*AsState() and rememberInfiniteTransition().

Medium: Adaptive Compose Layouts

Stefano Natali reports on the updates to Compose Material3 Adaptive announced at Google I|O, including improvements to WindowSizeClass and the introduction of NavigationSuiteScaffold() and ListDetailPaneScaffold().

Compose Guard: Detecting Regressions In Jetpack Compose

Joe Roskopf writes about his Compose Guard library, which I also mentioned last week. Compose Guard helps you detect regressions where formerly stable types became unstable or formerly skippable composables become non-skippable.

Exploring the Compose Preview Screenshot Testing tool

Joe Birch is back, this time reporting on the new Compose Preview Screenshot Testing tool announced at Google I|O 2024. This allows us to set up a dedicated screenshotTest sourceset containing @Preview composables whose screenshots can be captured and compared to detect regressions.

Medium: How to Use Vibration Effects in Android Apps (Using Jetpack Compose)

Michihiro Iwasaki examines how to employ VibrationEffect to implement one-shot and repeating vibrations to serve as haptics for user interactions, such as clicks on buttons.

Resource Roundup

100% pure code!

GitHub: Breens-Mbaka / Jetpack-Compose-Tables

Breens Robert brings us a BeeTablesCompose() implementation with support for column headers, alternating row colors, and a lot of control over table and cell rendering.

GitHub: ehsannarmani / ComposeCharts

Ehsan Narmani created an elaborate charting and graphing library, with animated effects to go along with a rich set of chart types (pie, ring, column, line, etc.).

GitHub: ChainTechNetwork / ComposeMultiplatformMediaPlayer

Chetansinh Rajput released a library with support for video playback on Android and iOS in Compose Multiplatform. See this Medium post for more.

GitHub: ChainTechNetwork / ComposeMultiplatformScreenCapture

Medium user ssvaghasiya published a library to capture composable screens to a bitmap for both Android and iOS in Compose Multiplatform. See this Medium post for more.

Notable Releases

Horologist — the Wear Compose equivalent of Accompanist — now has a 0.6.12 release. This adds experimental support for type-safe Navigation for Compose, while it deprecates the Google Sign-In implementation.

Voyager — a popular Compose Multiplatform-capable navigation library — is up to 1.1.0-beta01, with multiplatform Lifecycle support.

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