Building a scalable, modularized, testable app from scratch

About this video

• Video Title: Building a scalable, modularized, testable app from scratch
• Channel: Android Developers
• Speakers: Don Turner
• Duration: 00:21:31

Overview

This video demonstrates how to build a scalable, modularized, and testable Android application from scratch, using the "Now in Android" app as a practical example. It covers architectural overviews, data and UI layer implementation, modularization strategies, and testing methodologies, with a focus on leveraging Jetpack Compose and Material Design for a modern user interface.

Key takeaways

• Architecture: The video introduces a two-layer architecture (UI and Data) with unidirectional data flow, promoting consistency and maintainability.
• Data Layer: Implemented using repositories and data sources, it utilizes Kotlin Flows for reactive data streams and Jetpack DataStore for local storage.
• UI Layer: Employs Jetpack Compose for building the user interface, with state holders (View Models) managing UI state derived from the data layer.
• Modularization: Advocates for breaking down the app into modules (app, feature, core) to enhance scalability, enable parallel development, and manage dependencies effectively using convention plugins and version catalogs.
• Testing: Stresses the importance of testing, covering both unit tests for logic (e.g., View Models) and instrumented UI tests for verifying screen behavior, emphasizing the benefits of stateless composables for testability.
• Material Design: Explains how to integrate Material 3 components and theming into Jetpack Compose to create beautiful and intuitive user interfaces, including customization of components.