New feature: better support for modern Android themes

Sweet!!

Super cool :sign0098:

Does any of this carry over to designs created by code? It would be great to be able to set a default text color for labels and not have to set it for every label created, and other attributes/views. Unless by Default Color you mean things like Dark and Light themes...which would be nice to be able to select in code too, or maybe a menu item instead of manually tweaking the XML.

These changes are not related to views created by code. When you create a view by code then it uses the default colors and drawables unless you explicitly set those. Up until now it wasn't possible to get the same effect with the visual designer.

Now I'm confused. So, there has always been default colors and other properties...this part I agree with since if nothing is set in code there is still a base view created. This never really applied to the Designer since it has property pages and such that setup the values. So, now the designer reads the default values instead of just populating defaults from static property sheet values that were "hard coded"?

And, the designer was now given an additional capability to set the default values which the by code methods don't have? Seems unfair to those that design by code. I could see how it would clutter up the properties/methods lists for the views to add all of the values though assuming there are multiple defaults for Text Colors, Background Colors, etc. Setting the defaults within the Designer would be cleaner. So, what about the ability to save/load a layout that sets defaults only and contains no views? Sort of like a Theme or CSS file in HTML.

Download new version

Hi Erel,

i have a regular B4A 2.02 developer license (with 2 year maintenance support) but i don't find any 'check for new updates' option on IDE menu.

How i will download new B4A 2.20 version ?

Thanks

Marco

marcocim said:

Hi Erel,

i have a regular B4A 2.02 developer license (with 2 year maintenance support) but i don't find any 'check for new updates' option on IDE menu.

How i will download new B4A 2.20 version ?

Thanks

Marco

Click to expand...

You will receive an email with the download link once it is available

Sounds good Erel.



**Starting off-topic although it is somehow related**

Since you are already working on the Designer, are you planning any other enhancements related to the Designer or the Designer-script? I can think about two:

1) to select one or more views in the Abstract-designer and add their names automatically into the script, perhaps by a popup-menu or double-clicking if the view selected is only one. This would save quite some time avoiding typing the name(s) of the view(s) in the script-editor, especially if the views are many

2) some kind of Placeholder-mechanism. It is possible to use a panel today but I would love to see a specific way of using placeholders. This has been discussed in other threads.

**end of off-topic**

So, now the designer reads the default values instead of just populating defaults from static property sheet values that were "hard coded"?

Click to expand...

The designer color picker has a new "DEFAULT" value. Practically it means that the color is not set by the designer (and the default color is used).

There are some changes planned to the designer scripts. I will soon post more information.

Erel said:

The designer color picker has a new "DEFAULT" value. Practically it means that the color is not set by the designer (and the default color is used).

There are some changes planned to the designer scripts. I will soon post more information.

Click to expand...

Do you plan to improve the speed of LoadLayout ? Currently, its slowness keeps me away from the designer.

Update v2.20

marcocim said:

Hi Erel,

i have a regular B4A 2.02 developer license (with 2 year maintenance support) but i don't find any 'check for new updates' option on IDE menu.

How i will download new B4A 2.20 version ?

Thanks

Marco

Click to expand...

Hi Erel,
I need too.
Best Regards
Theera

@Informatix, can you send me by mail a layout file which was significantly slower than building the same layout by code?

@Theera, Version 2.20 was not yet released. Once it will be released you will receive an email.

Erel said:

@Informatix, can you send me by mail a layout file which was significantly slower than building the same layout by code?

Click to expand...

Every layout file. It's not specific. As I said in a recent tutorial, I timed the two ways of adding views in different projects and LoadLayout is 5 to 7 times slower. Another user reported the same problem in another thread.
Here's a very simple project to illustrate it. In this example, LoadLayout is 15 times slower on my device. That's why I don't use it.

Thank you. However this is not a realistic performance test as you are loading the layout file 100 times, which has different characteristics compared to loading a small number of large layout files.

I will try to reproduce the performance issue with a large layout file.

Erel said:

Thank you. However this is not a realistic performance test as you are loading the layout file 100 times, which has different characteristics compared to loading a small number of large layout files.

I will try to reproduce the performance issue with a large layout file.

Click to expand...

With my real "big" layouts, it is 5 to 7 times slower.

EDIT: and sometimes you need to call it more than 100 times. When you create items in a ScrollView for example.

The layout files loading time in the next version will be about 3 to 4 times faster. The layout files will also be about half the size.

This is relevant for large layout files.

EDIT: and sometimes you need to call it more than 100 times. When you create items in a ScrollView for example.

Click to expand...

There is some overhead when you access the file. If you need to access it 100 times then it might be better to create the layout by code.

Erel said:

The layout files loading time in the next version will be about 3 to 4 times faster. The layout files will also be about half the size.

This is relevant for large layout files.

Click to expand...

You're the king !

Erel said:

- The targetSdkVersion default value for new projects is now 14 (this can also be easily done with the manifest editor).

Click to expand...

Any chance this could be a Radio/Option Button, Combobox, or SubMenu of the Project menu with options for 10, 11, and 14? I really don't want to override this with the Manifest file every time.

I had posted an issue sometime back about a Tablet not drawing Tabs correctly. I had decided to try this out to see if perhaps adding [AddManifestText(<uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="4" android:targetSdkVersion="14"/>)] to my Manifest would fix the tabs drawing wrong. It in fact made things worse. Current Tab at load still isn't drawn and it draws them with the ugly Blue underline only which looks horrible with Images in the tab and the blue line covers the images. My Edit Texts also draw wrong and text appears as a really faint grey instead of Black. I also cannot exit any activity with the Back button...not sure how to use any of my apps now since only home works and without force closing I go right back to the same screen. I do get an enhanced titlebar that contains the icon of the app now although it cuts off the bottom.

I then decided to Test it on my Galaxy Note with ICS. It also gets the enhanced titlebar which draws ok, but takes up a lot of screen. Scrollviews no longer fade at top and bottom which I think is better along with appearing to scroll better. Tabs draw ok although the background is now a Dark Blue gradient and makes the images and text harder to read. It also cannot exit the activities with the Back Arrow though which is a big one.

I think I'll be sticking with API 10 as even 11 displays most of the issues. Other than Battery life being slightly better for AMOLED I actually dislike the Dark ICS theme. Speaking of themes, thank you for clearing up the DEFAULT thing above. I now see that you meant Default was a color option and not setting the Defaults which would have been a cool addition.

It will be extremely simple to change the value. You do not need to edit the manifest file. You just need to open the manifest editor and change 14 to whichever value you need.