Build Modern Android App with REST API and Ktor Server
Hello there and welcome to my course!
This course will be special. Why? Well because I’m going to teach you how to build not just another android application, but also a backend server, your own REST API!
The main purpose of that server will be to provide the data to our Android Application. You will learn how to successfully establish a quality communication between client, or in this case our Android App, and a backend server.
For the backend we will use ktor framework which is built primarily on Kotlin and Coroutines! You will learn everything about that framework, how to create your own endpoints, how to work with client requests, receive query parameters, process that same request on your backend, and finally send a fully prepared response to your clients, or in this case an Android App which we are going to develop as well.
Now, our Android Application will use the newest API’s and libraries. For designing our Application layout we will use a modern UI toolkit called jetpack compose. For communicating with our backend we will use a retrofit, and paging 3 library along with remote mediator, so we can automatically store and cache that data from the server into our Local ROOM database. That way we will be able to load the data into our Application, even if we don’t have an internet connection.
And that’s not all, I will also teach you how to test your Backend Server as well as your Android App. We are going to test all our server endpoints, the most important parts of our Android application and few custom UI components which we are going to build using Jetpack Compose! I’m going to teach you how to create a custom UI component called Rating Widget, using Jetpack Compose, it will look amazing!
Next you will learn how to implement a swipe to refresh functionality in your app, how to implement a palette API so you can display dynamic colors into your layout depending on the image we load into our Screen. And many other different things Bottom Line, there is a lot of work to do, so get ready, because this will be quite of a journey!
So what are you waiting for developers. Let’s get started!
Introducing with Ktor Framework
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IntroductionBackend Server - Source Code | https://github.com/stevdza-san/BorutoServer
Android App - Source Code | https://github.com/stevdza-san/BorutoApp -
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Project Repositories and Resources
Backend Server - Source Code | https://github.com/stevdza-san/BorutoServer
Android App - Source Code | https://github.com/stevdza-san/BorutoApp
Let's Build our Backend Server
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Introducing with the Ktor Framework
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Download & Install IntelliJ IDEA
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Create Ktor Project Manually
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Ktor Project Generator
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Servers & Configurations
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Modules
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Plugins
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Introducing with Postman
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Requests/Responses
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Static Contente
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Templating
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Auto-Reload
Auto-Reload feature does not work well. Sometimes it might work and sometimes might not. I've searched for an answer but it appears that this feature is still not stable. My suggestion would be not to use it for now. I'll make a new video however when something changes regarding that issue.
Let's Test our Backend Server
Let's Build our App!
Let's Test our App
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Setup the Project - App
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Setup Navigation
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Create Hero Entity
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Create HeroDao & BorutoDatabase
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Create HeroRemoteKey Entity & Dao
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Create DatabaseConverter class
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Setup Dagger-Hilt
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Design Splash Screen
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Animate Splash Screen & Apply StatusBar Color
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Design Welcome Screen - Part 1
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Design Welcome Screen - Part 2
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Design Welcome Screen - Part 3
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Setup DataStore Preferences
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Create Repository & First Use Cases
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Handle On Boarding Pages & Navigation
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Home Screen - Design Top Bar
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Create ApiResponse & BorutoApi
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Create NetworkModule object
Okay so here I've made a mistake, instead of using 'TimeUnit.SECONDS', I've used 'TimeUnit.MINUTES'. This mistake will be fixed in lecture under the name of 'Display Shimmer Effect' (#59)
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Introducing with Paging 3
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About Remote Mediator
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Implement RemoteMediator and load() function - Part 1
In this video I've made one mistake. In the provideDatabase() function in DatabaseModule, as a return type, instead of "BorutoDatabase" I've added RoomDatabase. That will be fixed in the 'Create GetAllHeroes Use Case' video. :)
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Implement RemoteMediator and load() function - Part 2
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Create RemoteDataSource & Implementation
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Create GetAllHeroes Use Case
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Design RatingWidget - Filled Star
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Design RatingWidget - Half Filled Star
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Design RatingWidget - Empty Star
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Design RatingWidget - Calculation
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Design HeroItem
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Load and Display Data from the Server
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Create Animated Shimmer Effect
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Display Shimmer Effect
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Implement initialize() function - RemoteMediator
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Modify Server Test Function
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Caching Header Explained
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Handle Paging Error
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Search Screen - SearchWidget
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Search Screen - SearchViewModel
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Search Screen - Implement SearchHeroesSource
Here we haven't actually implemented a paging when searching heroes on our backend server. When searching we will receive all hero results in a single page. Because if you recall when sending a response from the server (Search Heroes endpoint), we are not including prevPage/nextPage values. I have decided not to use paging with our endpoint for searching heroes, because in most cases when searching items like that, you just expect to receive a single result matching the query.
However at the end of this course this will be actually your homework. After you complete this whole course you will gather the knowledge necessary to complete this homework, and properly implement paging with our search heroes endpoint as well. The solution will include modifying both server and android app project. It's gonna be fun! I will not upload a solution for that, instead you will have to send that homework directly to me, so I can check it out and maybe give you some hints. :)
By doing this kind of homework you will prove to not just me, but more importantly to yourself that you are capable of resolving this kind of issues directly with the real working projects.And as I already said, I will make a new video at the end of this course explaining this homework. Best of luck!
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Search Screen - Implement SearchHeroesUseCase
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Search Screen - Display Searched Heroes
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Implement Swipe to Refresh
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Details Screen - Info Box
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Details Screen - Ordered List
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Details Screen - LocalDataSource & GetSelectedHeroUseCase
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Details Screen - DetailsViewModel
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Details Screen - Design BottomSheetContent
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Details Screen - Design BackgroundContent
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Details Screen - Animate BackgroundContent Image
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Details Screen - Animate Sheet Radius
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About Palette API
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Create PaletteGenerator Object
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Implement Palette Colors in Details Screen
Backend - Alternative Approach
Server Deployment & Heroku
Final Word
