Nice Dutch meetup organized by my employer. The Android version of my current project will also receive some attention during this meetup..

Thursday, November 29, 2012
6:00 PM To 9:00 PM

Xebia
Utrechtseweg 49, Hilversum

More info here.

Ben jij een ervaren Java ontwikkelaar? En ben je geïnteresseerd in mobile development? Kom dan naar de Android for Java Refugees Meetup op 29 november aanstaande. Onze mobile developers zullen tijdens deze Meetup hun praktijkervaringen met Android delen. We behandelen de basis en laten ook zien wat we hebben geleerd bij het ontwikkelen van high profile Enterprise Android apps. Het programma bestaat uit ontvangst met eten, twee presentaties en een uitgebreide Q&A.

Android for Java Refugees: Getting Started

De titel van deze presentatie spreekt voor zich!
Andrew Snare, Senior Consultant Mobile Development bij Xebia, bespreekt onder andere:

• Project layout & source control
• Maven integration
• Comparison with Java
• Tools: Emulator & Testing
• Designing your application flow: understanding platform conventions.
• Activities, Intents & Services

ING Mobiel Bankieren: van telefoon naar tablet

Ronald Warners, Senior Consultant Android Development bij Xebia, laat tijdens deze presentatie aan de hand van voorbeelden uit de ING Mobiel Bankieren App zien wat de ervaringen zijn bij het optimaliseren van de Android App voor tablets. Hoe houden we de code schoon? Hoe hergebruiken we zoveel mogelijk? En hoe hebben we toch andere lay- outs en flows op verschillende devices? Is fragmentatie van Android devices daarbij een probleem? De volgende onderwerpen worden onder andere besproken:

• Compatibility
• Fragments & Loaders
• Selectors
• Examples from ING mobiel bankieren
• Lessons learned

Jouw vraag?

Tweet jouw specifieke vraag voor deze Meetup naar @Xebia Onze Experts zullen de vragen verwerken in hun verhalen en beantwoorden tijdens de Q&A.

This post is a reposting of a blog post I did for my employer.

Sometimes you would want a shadow on a view.

Easiest and quickest way is to just add it on the view’s layer:

-(void)loadView {
    CGRect frame = [[UIScreen mainScreen] applicationFrame];
     
    self.view = [[UIView alloc] initWithFrame:frame];
    self.view.autoresizingMask = UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleHeight | UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleWidth;
    self.view.backgroundColor = [UIColor blackColor];
     
    UIView *glowView = [[UIView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(frame.size.width /2 -10, frame.size.height /2 -30, 20, 60)];
    glowView.autoresizingMask = UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleBottomMargin | 
                                    UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleTopMargin |
                                    UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleLeftMargin |
                                    UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleRightMargin;
     
    glowView.backgroundColor = [UIColor whiteColor];
     
    [self.view addSubview:glowView];
     
    //Setup the shadow on the view's CALayer.
    CALayer *viewLayer = glowView.layer;
    viewLayer.shadowOffset = CGSizeMake(0, 0);
    viewLayer.shadowColor = [[UIColor yellowColor] CGColor];
    viewLayer.shadowPath = [UIBezierPath bezierPathWithRect:glowView.bounds].CGPath;
    viewLayer.shadowRadius = 10.0f;
    viewLayer.shadowOpacity = 1.0f;
  
    //Let's animate it while we're at it.
    CABasicAnimation *animation = [CABasicAnimation animationWithKeyPath:@"shadowOpacity"];
    animation.duration = 0.5f;
    animation.timingFunction = [CAMediaTimingFunction functionWithName:kCAMediaTimingFunctionLinear];
    animation.fromValue = [NSNumber numberWithFloat:1.0];
    animation.toValue = [NSNumber numberWithFloat:0.0];
    animation.autoreverses = YES;
    animation.repeatCount = HUGE_VALF;
    [viewLayer addAnimation:animation forKey:@"shadowOpacity"];
}

I must admit, this is kind of basic stuff. But it seems a lot of people actually forget about the fact that all UIView subclasses are based on Core Animation CALayers.

See the source code https://github.com/xebia/ios-DemoForBlog and try the example, the interesting bits about this example are all contained within the fourth tab of the application, it’s the XSDFourthViewController in the code.

This is a reposting of a blog post I did on my employers blog.

Something that might interest the developers out there working with accessibility on iOS.

If you have strange behavior, as in, being unable to (partially) pick an accessibility frame by just dragging your finger over the screen, I might be able to answer just why.

As it turns out. VoiceOver and sub views being out of bounds of their parent’s view bounds don’t really mix.

Continue reading →

This is a reposting of a blog post I did on my employers blog.

A short while ago we were running into an interesting animation glitch. The actual solution is quite simple.

Here’s what the glitch was about. A table view could be toggled into an edit mode. On performing this toggle a label would be animated out of the view and hidden. The strange thing was, that this label was resizing it’s font size right the second before the actual animation started.

Fortunately we were able to fix this problem.

Continue reading →

6 months ago i started at Xebia. It’s been a fun ride so far. Started working on a super cool mobile project with a user base soon to pass a million users.

Right now I’m enjoying a few weeks off. And I’m looking at where I’m at now and where I would like to go. Things have been very interesting the last 6 months.

And the most important news is, I’ll working on my Open University education again. For my work I get to stay in hotels a lot and to keep my mind occupied on those evenings I think a few self study courses will do nicely.

Beware though… This is the most important news for now…

Two weeks ago I started at my new employer. Xebia. I’ve been busy, but soon, I will be super busy. If all goes well I’ll be doing some very cool work in the near future. For now, I’m helping out colleagues where I can. Trying to make a name for myself and stake my claim within the Mobile group of Xebia.

Suffice to say, let’s make things ripple this year. I took the plunge and sofar, the water has been very comfy.

Also, Happy valentine’s day to everyone and one person in particular.

A while ago I created this picture:

For some reason I was watching my older pictures and this one struck a chord with me today. Since my last blog post a lot of things have happened. One of those things is that after nine years I will be leaving my current employer Info Support.

Also I’ve been doing a lot of soul searching and I have come to some conclusions.

There is a person I care about fighting as I write this to get well again. I sure hope that person will find the strength and will to press on and fight for all the good things this person still wants to do.

Suffice to say there are many other things as well… All coming down to the line clearly readable on this picture.