Android application developers know the pain of using XML for creating the UI for a modern android application. Every technology has its own limitations, and so has XML, and to overcome these limitations and to make android application development faster and better, Google came up with its Jetpack Compose UI toolkit.
Why do we need a Jetpack Compose?
Before digging deep into Jetpack Compose, let’s see why android developers need a Jetpack Compose or what were the limitations of creating UI with XML.
XML codes used to be simplers earlier. But as android applications are getting more extensive, the codes are becoming complex to handle. View.java class is the primary inherited class of every view. The class becomes too lengthy to manage by developers. Another problem with the complexity of the codes is the design approach. First, an XML layout is created, than common behaviors are collected in the style.xml class and the attributes are defined in the attrs.xml class and then UI logic is set. This approach needs more lines of code to be written.
What is Jetpack Compose?
Jetpack Compose is intended to make Android UI development easier. It comprises a reactive programming model with the clarity and simplicity of Kotlin. It is entirely declarative, allowing you to describe your user interface by executing a set of functions that will convert your input into a hierarchy of user interface elements. The framework automatically recalls these routines and adjusts the view for you when the data is changed or updated. We’ll look at a few fundamental subjects in this article that are useful before using Jetpack Compose.
It is launched by google to build UI for native android applications, and has a declarative approach,
What does Jetpack Compose offer?
Jetpack compose has many more benefits over other approaches for android native UI.
Following are the benefits of Jetpack Compose
- It is declarative, so you can call pre-defined functions by defining UI components.
- It is compatible with modern android application needs.
- It reduces the time of coding as with jetpack compose, developers wonky have to work with Kotlin file.
- It is easy to maintain as the entire codebase is available in a single file.
Jetpack vs XML
Jetpack compose has the following advantages over XML
- Jetpack compose is declarative, which means the UI elements will reload when listening to any change.
- With Jetpack, developers can provide complex animations which were not possible with XML.
- Jetpack also provides great navigation with the Jetpack navigation component.
- With Jetpack, there is no need for boilerplate code. A replacement or RecyclerView is given named Lazycolumn.
Jetpack Compose 1.2
Google has recently made Jetpack Compose 1.2 stable. This release has many new features like-
- LazyHorizontalGrid and LazyVerticalGrid to place list items in a grid.
- WindowInsets class will provide lets you deal with insets of the device through modifiers like windowInsetsPadding, systemBarsPadding, and windowInsetsTopHeight.
- Modifier.nestedScroll provides nested scroll interoperability with views.
- To write better and more attractive animations, Easing curves is added.
- Modifier.pointerHoverIcon, PointerEventType.Scroll, and PointerEvent.scrollDelta are added to improve Mouse support.
Conclusion
Jetpack compose has made android native application development easier. It offers the features for better UI to enhance the user experience. Using Jetpack Compose reduces the complexity of managing long codes and makes application creation faster and simpler.
FAQs
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How does Jetpack compose work?
Jetpack Compose is a modern declarative UI Toolkit for Android. Compose makes it easier to write and maintain your app UI by providing a declarative API that allows you to render your app UI without imperatively mutating frontend views.
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Is Jetpack compose a programming language?
Jetpack Compose is a modern toolkit designed to simplify UI development. It combines a reactive programming model with the conciseness and ease of use of the Kotlin programming language.
