Beating Android Fragmentation Juan Gomez 

Agenda • Intro • Types of fragmentation • Tools • Best practices • Review • Q&A !2 

Intro Who am I? • Mobile Engineer at Eventbrite • Previously at OneLouder Apps • Android & Python Developer !3 

Over 2 million events
 150 million tickets sold 
 $2 billion in gross ticket sales
 Events in 179 countries Eventbrite by the Numbers 

Intro Slides: • http://lanyrd.com/profile/juandg/ !5 

ANDROID FRAGMENTATION 

Is it really that bad? ! ! ! ! ! ! Android Fragmentation Visualized (http://bit.ly/1fvOXF0) !7 

Types of fragmentation • OS Fragmentation • OEM Fragmentation • Hardware Fragmentation !8 

OS Fragmentation Mainly refers to the different versions of Android being used at the same time !9 

OS Fragmentation • Android Forks • Other OSes with Android app support !10 

OEM fragmentation • Skins • TouchWiz (Samsung) • Sense (HTC) • MotoBlur (Motorola) • OEM OS modifications. • Changes to AOSP even on certain API calls. !11 

HW Fragmentation • All the different types of Hardware features (keyboard, camera, screen, HW buttons, etc). !12 

HW Fragmentation • Android is designed to manage HW fragmentation • The pain points in this area are on low level things like different chipsets, GPUs, CPU cores, etc. • Android x86 is the extreme example of this. !13 

TOOLS 

The Basics • Set minSdkVersion to the lowest API Level you want to support. • Set targetSdkVersion to the current highest API Level. • Use Android Lint to find code that is not supported by your minimum API Level (and other possible problems). • Use fragments when possible. !15 

The Basics • Encapsulate your version checking logic • Don’t fill your code with this: if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT < Build.VERSION_CODES.#####) • Use the Support Libraries • Follow the Android Design Guidelines • http://bit.ly/1hMUNmX • Beware of Google Play Services! !16 

Support Libraries • Support Library v4 • Fragments • Rich Notifications, View Pager, Navigation Drawer, Accessibility, Loaders. • Support Library v7 • ActionBarCompat • Grid Layout, Media Router • Support Library v8 • Renderscript for API Level < 14 !17 

3rd-party libraries • ActionBarSherlock • NineOldAndroids • Android Asset Studio • http://bit.ly/Lo6Xb5 • Square libraries: • OkHttp, Picasso, Wire, Retrofit • CommonsWare libraries • http://bit.ly/1d7NQs0 !18 

HTTP Stack • Avoid using Apache HTTPClient • Only use if you’re still supporting API Level < 10 • You should be using URLConnection and its descendants. • Better yet use OkHttp from Square (fork of HttpURLConnection). • You could also use Volley from Google !19 

Migrate to Gradle • Gradle is a powerful tool that can help manage complicated compatibility scenarios. • Use “flavors” and “buildTypes” to create different APKs for different OSes, chipsets, etc (Kindle, Nook, Tegra, x86, Blackberry, even 2.x and 4.x versions). !20 

BEST PRACTICES 

API Levels Recommendations • Older projects should be supporting API Level ≥ 8 • Recommended would be API Level ≥ 10 • If you’re already using ActionBarSherlock, no need to migrate to ActionBarCompat. • New projects should start with minSdkVersion=”14” • If you absolutely have to support API Level ≥ 8 then use ActionBarCompat. !22 

minSdkVersion=”14” • This is a new “movement” within the Android community that advocates dropping support for older versions of Android (mainly 2.x) ! • Started by Jeff Gilfelt at Google I/O last year • Advocated by Reto Meier from Google during I/O and other events. !23 

Lots of Testing • Hopefully automated! • Test on actual devices • Use tools like JUnit, Espresso, Monkey, Roboelectric, Robotium, etc. • Leverage something like Spoon (from Square) to run your tests on multiple devices. !24 

Leverage analytics • Measure everything • Make decisions based on your data • Analytics suites: • Flurry • MixPanel !25 

Crash reporting • Get a tool to monitor crashes • Lots of options, including: • Crashlytics (Free) • Crittercism • HockeyApp • Some analytics suites provide this as well (like Flurry) • Worst case, use Google Play Dev Console !26 

Tools from Google • Multiple APK support. • Alpha and Beta groups • Combined with Analytics + Crash reporting • Beta users can’t post reviews • Staged rollouts. !27 

Summary • Android fragmentation is massively over hyped! • Be aware of the different types of fragmentation • Use libraries to homogenize feature support. • Start planning on dropping 2.x support (Old projects) • minSdkVersion=”14” on all new projects • Leverage Gradle to create multiple versions if needed. • Do lots of tests (Hopefully automated and on devices) • Use Analytics + Crash reporting • Create a Beta community and use staged rollouts. • Rinse and repeat !28 

Eventbrite Tech Talk: Android Development + Design February 18, 2014 @ 6:30 PM http://bit.ly/1e7oIrl 

We’re hiring! If you’re interested, let’s talk after the session eventbrite.com/jobs 

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Thank You! @_juandg [email protected]