11 Implementing Android-specific components and APIs
This chapter covers
- Using
DrawerLayoutAndroidto create a side menu - Creating a native toolbar with
ToolbarAndroid - Create paging views using
ViewPagerAndroid - Create date/time pickers using
DatePickerAndroid and TimePickerAndroid - Creating toasts using
ToastAndroid
In this chapter, we’ll implement the most used Android-specific APIs and components, discuss their props and methods, and create examples that will mimic functionality and logic that will get you up to speed quickly. To see how these work, you’ll create a demo app with a menu, a toolbar, scrollable paging, a date picker, and a time picker. The app will also implement Android toasts. As you implement each of these features, you’ll learn the capabilities of the most commonly used Android-specific APIs and components.
Note
Section 10.1 covered how to target platform-specific code. If you skipped that chapter on iOS-specific components and APIs and don’t already know how to target platform-specific code, you should read that section before continuing.
11.1 Creating a menu using DrawerLayoutAndroid
To get started, you’ll first create a slide-out menu (see figure 11.1). This menu will link to each of the app’s pieces of functionality. It will basically serve as a way to navigate between components. You’ll create this menu using the DrawerLayoutAndroid component.