I am very new to Android development and, while I get the general premise (and have even built a small application), I have been looking at other developer’s source code to get an idea of how to better approach my development for larger projects.
One developer’s code is read is basically using both XML layouts and Views for the various parts to the UI (similar to what is being asked in this question). I understand what he is doing, but it seems overly complicated to me. The XML layouts provide functionality already to create responses to actions. (For example, “onClick” is provided for most components in the XML.) Layouts can be generated very easily with the XML.
So, my question is – can I get away with building my entire application using just Activities and XML layouts? Can I choose not to use any Views? (Of course, this is assuming a relatively simple app – think task list or something similar.) Or, am I trying to simplify too much?
The general strategy I use is to push as much as possible into XML. It’s a very different way of thinking from some other UI development systems, but it’s very cool once you get past the learning curve.
I don’t know what you mean by choosing “not to use any Views”. Every UI component is a View of some sort. If you mean not using any custom View subclasses, then yes, it is definitely possible. The only reason to create your own custom View classes (and then use them in XML!) is when the stock widgets and views don’t do what you want. Since they are quite flexible, this tends to be fairly uncommon (until you start getting into fancy behavior or need custom graphics behavior).