New Course: Beginning Android Layouts

It’s day 4 of the Android Avalanche: an event where we’ll be releasing new Android and Kotlin books, courses, and screencasts every day!

Today, we are releasing a brand new course: Beginning Android Layouts.

In this 29-video course by Joe Howard, you’ll learn how to use Android’s layout system to lay out the views in your app, regardless of devices size. Through a series of hands-on exercises and challenges, you’ll learn about the view hierarchy, basic layout types, the powerful ConstraintLayout, and using the design and XML editors in Android Studio.

Take a look at what’s inside:

Part 1: Introduction to Android Layouts

In part one, learn how view layout and the view hierarchy works in Android.

Introduction: Find out what’s covered in our Beginning Android Layouts video tutorial series.

Building the Starter App: Download the starter app and build it in Android Studio, and take a peek at the included starter layout files.

ViewGroups and Layout Editors: Learn about the foundation of all Android layouts, the ViewGroup class, and explore the layout editors in Android Studio.

The View Hierarchy: Be introduced to the concept of the view hierarchy, and begin your study of layouts by seeing how to define view widths and heights.

Sizes, Margins, and Padding: Learn how to specify size units in Android, and use those size units to space views via margins and padding.

Challenge: Padding: Practice adding padding to a view, through a hands-on challenge.

Conclusion: Let’s review what you’ve covered in this first section, and discuss what’s next.

1. Introduction: Find out what’s covered in our Beginning Android Layouts video tutorial series.

2. Building the Starter App: Download the starter app and build it in Android Studio, and take a peek at the included starter layout files.

3. ViewGroups and Layout Editors: Learn about the foundation of all Android layouts, the ViewGroup class, and explore the layout editors in Android Studio.

4. The View Hierarchy: Be introduced to the concept of the view hierarchy, and begin your study of layouts by seeing how to define view widths and heights.

5. Sizes, Margins, and Padding: Learn how to specify size units in Android, and use those size units to space views via margins and padding.

6. Challenge: Padding: Practice adding padding to a view, through a hands-on challenge.

7. Conclusion: Let’s review what you’ve covered in this first section, and discuss what’s next.

Part 2: Basic Layout Types

In the second part, learn how to use the basic layout types: RelativeLayout and LinearLayout.

Introduction: Let’s review the basic layout types that you’ll learn about in this section.

RelativeLayout: Learn about how to use the RelativeLayout ViewGroup to position sibling views with specific relationships to one another.

Gravity and Cleanup: Learn how to align elements using the layout_gravity and gravity tags, and do some code and design cleanup.

Challenge: Relative Layout: Practice creating a RelativeLayout, through a hands-on challenge.

LinearLayout: Learn about how to use the LinearLayout ViewGroup to position views along a horizontal or vertical dimension.

Layout Weights: Discover how to use layout_weight with LinearLayout, in order to divide the shared size between sibling views in a specific ratio.

Challenge: LinearLayout: Practice creating a LinearLayout, through a hands-on challenge.

FrameLayout: Learn about how to use the FrameLayout ViewGroup to create a layering of views, and how to switch between the layers.

Challenge: FrameLayout: Practice creating an empty state using FrameLayout, through a hands-on challenge.

Conclusion: Let’s review what you learned about the basic layout types, and discuss what’s next.

1. Introduction: Let’s review the basic layout types that you’ll learn about in this section.

2. RelativeLayout: Learn about how to use the RelativeLayout ViewGroup to position sibling views with specific relationships to one another.

3. Gravity and Cleanup: Learn how to align elements using the layout_gravity and gravity tags, and do some code and design cleanup.

4. Challenge: Relative Layout: Practice creating a RelativeLayout, through a hands-on challenge.

5. LinearLayout: Learn about how to use the LinearLayout ViewGroup to position views along a horizontal or vertical dimension.

6. Layout Weights: Discover how to use layout_weight with LinearLayout, in order to divide the shared size between sibling views in a specific ratio.

7. Challenge: LinearLayout: Practice creating a LinearLayout, through a hands-on challenge.

8. FrameLayout: Learn about how to use the FrameLayout ViewGroup to create a layering of views, and how to switch between the layers.

9. Challenge: FrameLayout: Practice creating an empty state using FrameLayout, through a hands-on challenge.

10. Conclusion: Let’s review what you learned about the basic layout types, and discuss what’s next.

Part 3: ConstraintLayout

In part 3, learn how to use the complex but powerful ConstraintLayout.

Introduction: Let’s review what you’ll be learning in this section by introducing ConstraintLayout and constraints.

Converting to ConstraintLayout: Use the converter built-in to Android Studio to convert an existing layout to ConstraintLayout.

Editing Controls: Create a new ConstrainLayout from scratch, utilizing the layout editor editing controls

Challenge: Converting a Layout: Practice converting an existing layout to ConstraintLayout, through a hands-on challenge.

Challenge: Hiding Empty Views: Practice programmatically hiding empty views in a ConstraintLayout, through a hands-on challenge.

Conclusion: Let’s review what you’ve learned about ConstraintLayout, and discuss what’s next.

1. Introduction: Let’s review what you’ll be learning in this section by introducing ConstraintLayout and constraints.

2. Converting to ConstraintLayout: Use the converter built-in to Android Studio to convert an existing layout to ConstraintLayout.

3. Editing Controls: Create a new ConstrainLayout from scratch, utilizing the layout editor editing controls

4. Challenge: Converting a Layout: Practice converting an existing layout to ConstraintLayout, through a hands-on challenge.

5. Challenge: Hiding Empty Views: Practice programmatically hiding empty views in a ConstraintLayout, through a hands-on challenge.

6. Conclusion: Let’s review what you’ve learned about ConstraintLayout, and discuss what’s next.

Part 4: Configuration Changes

In part 4, learn to use both the design editor and XML editor in Android Studio.

Introduction: Let’s discuss why it’s important to handle both portrait mode and landscape mode device configurations.

Resource Qualifiers: Learn about how resource qualifiers are used to handle different device densities and also for localization.

Landscape Mode: See how to create a layout file tailored specifically for when the device is in the landscape orientation.

Challenge: Landscape Mode: Practice creating a landscape mode layout, through a hands-on challenge.

The Great Flattening: Remove all of the nested layouts in an existing layout to create a completely flat ConstraintLayout.

Conclusion: In this final episode, you’ll get a summary of the course as well as see an overview of Android layout topics that were not covered.

1. Introduction: Let’s discuss why it’s important to handle both portrait mode and landscape mode device configurations.

2. Resource Qualifiers: Learn about how resource qualifiers are used to handle different device densities and also for localization.

3. Landscape Mode: See how to create a layout file tailored specifically for when the device is in the landscape orientation.

4. Challenge: Landscape Mode: Practice creating a landscape mode layout, through a hands-on challenge.

5. The Great Flattening: Remove all of the nested layouts in an existing layout to create a completely flat ConstraintLayout.

6. Conclusion: In this final episode, you’ll get a summary of the course as well as see an overview of Android layout topics that were not covered.