{"id":10180,"date":"2020-11-10T07:14:12","date_gmt":"2020-11-10T07:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.arkasoftwares.com\/blog\/?p=10180"},"modified":"2022-11-03T11:34:24","modified_gmt":"2022-11-03T06:04:24","slug":"complete-guide-for-widget-development-for-mobile-apps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.arkasoftwares.com\/blog\/complete-guide-for-widget-development-for-mobile-apps\/","title":{"rendered":"A Complete Guide for Widget Development for Android Mobile Apps"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mobile phones have become a \u2018must have\u2019 gadget in our day-to-day life. It has become a necessary gadget, which can be used to perform countless functions and operations for us, rather than being a traditional communication device. Right from the moment, we wake up till the time we hit the sack, we keep flipping the mobile screen for numerous kinds of functions.<\/span><\/p>\n

Whenever we flip through the mobile screen, we usually see an application as a small icon, however, few applications let you swap a larger image or icon, that lets you access that application without even opening it. <\/span><\/p>\n

Every smart handheld device has many icons on screen which are called \u2018Widgets\u2019, that let a user execute and perform a desired operation and allows the user to see necessary details on screen. <\/span><\/p>\n

Now a day\u2019s companies create their own widgets and publish on app store or supplied along with Android and iOS operating systems through which users can access details faster from the mobile applications<\/strong><\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n

Renowned applications like Google, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Gmail provide us an easier way to access the details immediately and can perform basic functions from the home screen. Widget usually add aesthetic impact to our home screens, at the same time it also offers a plethora of information and features for the end-user. <\/span><\/p>\n\n

<\/span>What is a Widget?<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n

An application widget is a kind of a miniature of an application, which offers the basic functionality of an application, and it can be embedded in other applications and receive periodic updates. <\/span><\/p>\n

In technical terms, we can consider them as \u2018Views\u2019 in the user interface, and it can be published with an application widget provider. A component that holds other Application widgets is known as an Application Widget host.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Widget<\/span><\/p>\n\n

Normally widgets are placed at home screen, which allows users to view the essential information right there without accessing the application separately.<\/span><\/p>\n

Nowadays, Tech organizations develop their own widgets to ensure their users can access their apps quickly. Several tech companies like Google, LinkedIn, Accu-Weather, Spotify, and Gmail widgets offer end-users to access the basic functionalities from the home screen itself.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

<\/span>Different Types of Widgets for Android platform<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n

As this article will talk about the widget planning and development of Android widgets, we will start with the types of widgets. We must think that what sort of widget we are planning to build. Widgets are typically categorized into one of the below-listed categories.<\/span><\/p>\n

Information widgets: <\/span><\/h3>\n

This is the most common widget we use in Android. Such widgets basically deliver important information that is useful for a user to track trends or variation in the details of a specific thing over the period. <\/span><\/p>\n

For example, Sports widget displays live score of an ongoing cricket match or Weather widgets shows information about climatic changes or clock widget. <\/span><\/p>\n

An associated application opens a full-fledged view of the widget information by pressing or touching the widget from the home screen. <\/span><\/p>\n

Just like a weather widget, which shows the current temperature at your location, but when we click on that, associated application opens and we can get lot of other information like humidity, wind, and weather forecast for the next few days.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

\"Information<\/span><\/p>\n\n

Collection widgets:<\/span><\/h3>\n

A Collection widget is designed to display similar types of multitude elements in a single view. For example, a Photo app<\/strong><\/a> gallery displays a collection of stored images in the images folder through a photo gallery application. News widgets show a list of breaking news or articles those are trending. <\/span><\/p>\n

A mail widget shows the messages, emails, or notifications from an associated email client application. Collection widgets generally works on two basic use cases, to browse the collection from the data source and to open an item to get its detailed view for further use. Collection widgets is vertically scrollable as well, which gives a fair visibility to the end-user.<\/span><\/p>\n

List View widget:<\/span><\/h3>\n

List View is the most popular and commonly used widget. It displays its elements and items in liners fashion depending on the scroll direction. <\/span><\/p>\n

In this widget, the list items are inserted to the ongoing list automatically, it uses an adapter that fetches the content from a source, that could be a database management<\/a> <\/strong>or an array of items.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

\"Grid<\/span><\/p>\n\n

Grid View widget<\/span><\/h3>\n

It is used to display data in a grid. It provides features like sorting, paging, and filtering the data. This widget fetches the data from a database or an array and presents that data in tabular form.<\/span><\/p>\n

A single data item is presented by an individual row of the table, the attribute of the data is represented by the columns. A photo gallery or a File Explorer widget is a good example of Grid view widget.<\/span><\/p>\n

Control Widgets<\/span><\/h3>\n

The primary objective of control widget is to make frequently used functions visible for the end-user at a common place, so that use can execute these functions from the home screen and no need to open it from the settings of main applications. <\/span><\/p>\n

It works as a remote control for an application. For example, A music app (Spotify or Amazon Music) widget that allows to play music files, pause, skip or share the files or tracks without opening the main music application<\/strong><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hybrid Widget<\/span><\/h3>\n

Most of the widgets are constructed on basis of the above-mentioned types, many widgets are hybrid in nature that joins and combines various types of elements. <\/span><\/p>\n

We can design a widget, which could be based on the above-mentioned widget types, and we can incorporate other elements if required or as per the need of the project.<\/span><\/p>\n

For example, a music player which is basically a control widget, however, we can combine multiple resources and details then it can work as an information widget as well. <\/span><\/p>\n

We can say that the music widget is a combination of control and information widget. It also tracks the information of playing files and keep informed that user.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

\"contact<\/a><\/p>\n\n

<\/span>Widget Development Guide for Android Platform<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n

You can also create your own widget for applications to provide more ease and functionality to the users. If you are planning to convert this idea into a fruitful business there is no doubt that endless opportunities are eagerly waiting for you, but the big question that we don\u2019t know and don\u2019t have enough knowledge where to begin.<\/span><\/p>\n

In fact, the major obstacle is complex programming and coding also writing codes for an Android application<\/strong><\/a> is extremely complicated than any other thing. However, the good news is, it is not that much complicated process as it seems. <\/span><\/p>\n

One does need to learn Java<\/strong><\/a> and install Android development kit to start the widget development process. Apart from that a thorough knowledge and experience of development of android application is required.<\/span><\/p>\n

An android application development process is an easy stuff, which even beginners can be very well versed with in few days. Android SDK is an essential component for android application development process. We require either Eclipse or Android Studio Integrated Development Environment (IDE) to begin with. <\/span><\/p>\n

We also need virtual devices for creating an environment where we can test applications, so we can use JDK (Java Software Development Kit). The above-mentioned tools and components are essentials and should be in your system before you execute your application development or indulge yourself in API levels, screen sizes, and Google Play services etc.<\/span><\/p>\n

Well the main objective of this comprehensive article is to assist beginners and professionals to create an android based widget or application easily and ultimate goal is to by following the below mentioned information and details at the end of this guide you will be able to design and create your own widget and android application. I assume that you are ready to take first step towards achieving your goals.<\/span><\/p>\n

Before starting, we need to list the things that we should know before starting the app development process<\/strong><\/a>. We have already discussed about the basic things which are required for Android Application Development.<\/span><\/p>\n