Coding for Android on steroids with Kotlin

CODING FOR ANDROID ON STEROIDS
WITH KOTLIN
KAI KOENIG (@AGENTK)

AGENDA
▸ What is Kotlin?
▸ Language idioms & concepts
▸ Kotlin and Android
▸ Anko DSL
▸ Libraries and Tools
▸ Final thoughts

WHAT IS KOTLIN?
SOME FUNDAMENTALS
▸ Statically typed programming
language for the JVM and Android
▸ Started as internal language “Project
Kotlin” at Jetbrains in 2010
▸ Now: Open-Source, Apache License
▸ Kotlin SDK plus tool support for IntelliJ,
Android Studio, Eclipse
▸ Named after an island in the Gulf of
Finland

WHAT IS KOTLIN?
MOTIVATION FOR KOTLIN
▸ The Java platform is awesome, but it has its issues:
▸ sometimes tied to backwards/legacy compatibility
▸ can be a very verbose language and produce bloated code
▸ type system has various ﬂaws
▸ Kotlin aims to ﬁx a lot of those issues
▸ compiles to Java 6 byte code therefore caters well for Android runtimes

WHAT IS KOTLIN?
HOW DOES A SIMPLE CONVERSION LOOK LIKE?
public String listConvert(Collection<Integer>
collection) {
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
sb.append("{");
Iterator<Integer> iterator =
collection.iterator();
while (iterator.hasNext()) {
Integer element = iterator.next();
sb.append(element);
if (iterator.hasNext()) {
sb.append(", ");
}
}
sb.append("}");
return sb.toString();
}
fun listConvert(collection: Collection<Int>): String {
val sb = StringBuilder()
sb.append("{")
val iterator = collection.iterator()
while (iterator.hasNext()) {
val element = iterator.next()
sb.append(element)
if (iterator.hasNext()) {
sb.append(", ")
}
}
sb.append("}")
return sb.toString()
}
fun listConvertKt(collection: Collection<Int>): String {
return collection.joinToString(prefix = "{",postfix = "}")
}

LANGUAGE IDIOMS &
CONCEPTS
https://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/geraldford/6976818221/

LANGUAGE IDIOMS & CONCEPTS
OVERVIEW
▸ Immutability
▸ String templates & Enum classes
▸ Null safety
▸ Properties and Fields
▸ Type inference and casts
▸ Data classes
▸ Syntactic sugar (loops, ranges etc)
▸ Extension functions
▸ Lambdas
▸ Collection API
▸ Type-safe builders
▸ Java-Kotlin-Interop

IMMUTABILITY
▸ Built-in support for mutable and
immutable variables, properties and
ﬁelds
▸ Keywords var and val
▸ val - immutable (recommended)
▸ var - mutable
▸ Similar concept applies for class
properties, val creates getters, var
creates getters and setters (more later)
val a: Int = 1
val b = 1
val c: Int
c = 1
var x = 23
x += 1

STRING TEMPLATES & ENUM CLASSES (I)
▸ Kotlin Strings can contain template
expressions
▸ String templates start with a $ character
and
▸ can contain simple references such
as $s, as well as
▸ complex expressions in curly braces:  
${s.length}
val s = "abc"
val str = "$s.length is ${s.length}"
Output:
abc.length is 3

STRING TEMPLATES & ENUM CLASSES (II)
▸ Kotlin has a dedicated and expressive
enum class
▸ Can be used very nicely in conjunction
with String templates
enum class Locale(val hello: String) {
DE_DE("Hallo"),
EN_NZ("Hello"),
MI_NZ("Kia Ora")
}
class Customer(val firstName:String,
val lastName:String,
val locale: Locale = Locale.DE_DE) {
fun sayHello() = println(
"${locale.hello}, $firstName $lastName")
}
fun main(args : Array<String>) {
val myCustomer = Customer("Sandra",
"Musterfrau",
Locale.MI_NZ)
myCustomer.sayHello()
}

NULL SAFETY
▸ Motivation: A better way to deal with NPEs
▸ Kotlin differentiates nullable types from non-
nullable types by adding a ? to the type:
▸ String: no nullable
▸ String?: nullable
▸ Handle manually
▸ Use Safe Call operator ?.
▸ Use the !! operator to allow/trigger a NPE
// Won't compile
var lastName: String = null
// Will compile
var lastNameNullable: String? = null
// Will also not compile
println(lastNameNullable.length)
// Option 1 (-1)
println(if (lastNameNullable != null)
lastNameNullable.length else -1)
// Option 2 (null)
println(lastNameNullable?.length)
// Option 3 (NPE)
println(lastNameNullable!!.length)

PROPERTIES AND FIELDS
▸ Kotlin classes have mutable or
immutable properties
▸ Default getter/setters for properties,
can be customised
▸ An automated backing ﬁeld can be
provided by the compiler (if required)
▸ Alternative: use an explicit backing
property
var counter = 0
set(value) {
if (value >= 0)
field = value
}
public class Address {
public var name: String = ...
public var street: String = ...
public var city: String = ...
public var state: String? = ...
public var zip: String = ...
}

TYPE INFERENCE AND CASTS (I)
▸ When possible, Kotlin will infer the type
of variables
▸ Explicit conversions, type widening and
inference
▸ Smaller types are not subtypes of
bigger types, no implicit conversion
▸ Types are often inferred from the
context
val b: Byte = 1
// This won't work
val i: Int = b
// This will
val i: Int = b.toInt()
val l: Long = 1L + 3

TYPE INFERENCE AND CASTS (II)
▸ is or !is checks if an object adheres to a
certain type
▸ Smart cast: Compiler tracks is-expressions
for immutable values
▸ works for val local variables and private,
internal or in-module performed casts
▸ works for var local variables if the
variable hasn’t been modiﬁed between
check and usage, never for var
properties
fun whatIs(x: Any) {
when (x) {
is Int -> println(x + 42)
is String -> println(x.length)
is IntArray -> println(x.sum())
}
}
whatIs(4) // 46
whatIs("4") // 1
whatIs(intArrayOf(1,2,3,4,5)) // 15

DATA CLASSES
▸ The POJOs/Beans of other languages
▸ Data classes implicitly create:
▸ getters/setters (non-data classes
have those too) - recommend to use
val as often as possible.
▸ useful implementations for equals(),
hashCode(), toString(), copy()
▸ copy() has default parameters and
can be used to alter a copy
data class ChromeEncryptedPayload(
val encryptedPayload: String,
val encryptionHeader: String,
val cryptoKeyHeader: String)
val pl = ChromeEncryptedPayload(
encryptedPayload = "...",
encryptionHeader = "...",
cryptoKeyHeader = "...")
val anotherPl = pl.copy(
encryptedPayload = "...")

EXTENSION FUNCTIONS
▸ Allow adding new functionality to a
class without inheritance or Decorators
▸ Kotlin has extension functions as well
as extension properties
▸ Resolved statically, don’t actually
modify the class (excellent example
why this has to be the case at http://
goo.gl/EN6bTs
fun Int.sum(otherInt: Int): Int =
this + otherInt
3.sum(7)
fun Activity.toast(message: CharSequence,
duration: Int =
TOAST.LENGTH_SHORT) {
Toast.makeText(this, message,
duration).show()
}
// In onCreate of an Activity
override fun onCreate(...) {
...
toast("Hi there")
...
}

LAMBDAS
▸ Anonymous function or “function
literal”, closely related to the ideas of
Higher-Order-Functions
val sum = { x: Int, y: Int -> x + y }
val sum: (Int, Int) -> Int = { x, y ->
x + y }
private fun convertPetListToDomain(list: List<Pet>): List<PetDomain> {
return list.map { convertPetItemToDomain(it) }
}
private fun convertPetItemToDomain(pet: Pet): PetDomain {
return PetDomain(pet.age,pet.size,pet.id,pet.name,pet.sex,pet.breed)
}

TYPE-SAFE BUILDERS (I)
▸ Builders are a very popular approach in
Groovy to deﬁne data in a declarative
way
▸ Often used for:
▸ generating XML or JSON
▸ UI layout (Swing components) etc
▸ In Kotlin, builders even can be type-
checked
JsonBuilder builder = new JsonBuilder()
builder.records {
car {
name 'HSV Maloo'
make 'Holden'
year 2006
country 'Australia'
}
}
String json = JsonOutput.prettyPrint
(builder.toString())

TYPE-SAFE BUILDERS (II)
▸ html() is a function with a lambda as an
argument (init)
▸ init’s type is a function type with
receiver, this allows you to:
▸ pass receiver (of type HTML) to
function
▸ call members of instance inside the
function
fun result(args: Array<String>) =
html {
head {
title {”HTML in Kotlin"}
}
body {
...
}
}
fun html(init: HTML.() -> Unit): HTML {
val html = HTML()
html.init()
return html
}

TYPE-SAFE BUILDERS (III)
▸ HTML class has functions to build the
head and the body elements of the
DSL.
▸ Not shown: classes further down in the
hierarchy:
▸ Head, Body etc.
▸ Complete HTML builder example at:
http://goo.gl/TndcC9
class HTML {
...
fun head(headBuilder: Head.() -> Unit) {
head = Head()
head?.headBuilder()
}
fun body(bodyBuilder: Body.() -> Unit) {
body = Body()
body?.bodyBuilder()
}
}

JAVA-KOTLIN-INTEROP
▸ Java and Kotlin are fully interoperable from an integration point of view
▸ Your Java code can call and use Kotlin code
▸ Your Kotlin code can call and use Java code
▸ The latter is in particular useful because it means you can continue to use pretty
much any existing Android/Java library
▸ Check out Hendrik Kokocinski’s sample Kotlin app that uses all kinds of well
known Android/Java libs: https://goo.gl/xdYqf5

KOTLIN AND ANDROID
https://realm.io/assets/img/news/tutorial-kotlin-anko-cover.png

KOTLIN AND ANDROID
TOOLCHAIN AND FLOW
Java sourcesKotlin sources
Bytecode
javackotlinc
Dalvik ART JVM

KOTLIN AND ANDROID
PROJECT SETUP
▸ Use Android Studio 2.x or IntelliJ 2016
▸ Install Kotlin plugin (comes within “Jetbrains plugins”)
▸ Gradle dependencies project-level:
▸ classpath "org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-gradle-plugin:1.0.4"
▸ Gradle dependencies module-level:
▸ compile 'org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-stdlib:1.0.4'
▸ apply plugin: 'kotlin-android'
▸ main.java.srcDirs += 'src/main/kotlin'

KOTLIN AND ANDROID
KOTLIN EXTENSIONS FOR ANDROID
▸ Provides of a set of synthetic properties that bind views to those properties
▸ Alternative to Butter Knife-style bindings, no need for additional runtime
library (Kotlin Extensions for Android are a Kotlin compiler plugin)
▸ import kotlinx.android.synthetic.main.<layout>.*
▸ import kotlinx.android.synthetic.main.<layout>
▸ usage: <componentid>.doSomething()

KOTLIN AND ANDROID
SYNTHETIC PROPERTIES
package ventegocreative.co.nz.kotlindemo
import android.support.v7.app.AppCompatActivity
import android.os.Bundle
import kotlinx.android.synthetic.main.activity_main.*
class MainActivity : AppCompatActivity() {
override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
setContentView(R.layout.activity_main)
helloworld.text = "Hey, I'm dynamically set"
}
}

ANKO DSL
WHAT IS A DSL?
▸ Domain-Speciﬁc Language
▸ Limited expressiveness:
▸ DSLs are usually not general-purpose languages
▸ strongly focussed on a particular domain
▸ examples: SQL, Ant XML, XSLT, Gradle etc.

ANKO DSL
A DSL FOR LAYOUTS
▸ The most important element of Anko is the Layout DSL
▸ Idea: replace XML layout deﬁnitions by Kotlin code - without having to build
the layout in a fully programmatic sense
▸ Anko DSL is modular and extensible

ANKO DSL
LAYOUT XML
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:orientation="vertical"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent">
<EditText
android:gravity="center"
android:text="@string/empty_todos_message"
android:layout_weight="7"
android:layout_height="wrap_content" />
<Button
android:layout_weight="1"
android:text="Say Hello"
android:layout_height="0dp" />
</LinearLayout>

ANKO DSL
PROGRAMMATIC LAYOUT IN KOTLIN
val act = this
val layout = LinearLayout(act)
layout.orientation = LinearLayout.VERTICAL
val name = EditText(act)
val button = Button(act)
button.text = "Say Hello"
button.setOnClickListener {
Toast.makeText(act, "Hello, ${name.text}!", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show()
}
layout.addView(name)
layout.addView(button)

ANKO DSL
ANKO DSL
verticalLayout {
val name = editText()
button("Say Hello") {
onClick { toast("Hello, ${name.text}!") }
}
}

ANKO DSL
ANKO DSL INTERNALS
▸ Anko DSL example from previous slide looks very similar to the earlier HTML
builder example
▸ Anko uses extension functions arranged into type-safe builders and lambdas
▸ You don’t have to write all those extensions by hand though - Anko generates
them based on the Android SDK’s android.jar

ANKO DSL
GETTING STARTED WITH ANKO DSL (I)
▸ Depending on minSdkVersion of project, import: 
compile "org.jetbrains.anko:anko-sdk{15|19|21|23}:0.9"
▸ If the project uses an Android Support library, import matching Anko library: 
compile "org.jetbrains.anko:anko-recyclerview-v7:0.9"

ANKO DSL
GETTING STARTED WITH ANKO DSL (II)
▸ General approach:
▸ Anko DSL automatically becomes
available in onCreate() in an Activity
▸ no need for setContentView(), Anko
DSL also automatically sets the
content view for activities
override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
verticalLayout {
padding = dip(30)
editText {
hint = "Name"
textSize = 24f
}
editText {
hint = "Password"
textSize = 24f
}
button("Login") {
textSize = 26f
}
}
}

ANKO DSL
ANKO DSL IN FRAGMENTS
▸ In fragments, use  
onCreateView(…)
▸ Returns UI {…}.view:
▸ mandatory before Anko 0.8
▸ works well for Fragments
▸ createTodo() is a fragment-private
method
override fun onCreateView(inflater: LayoutInflater?,
container: ViewGroup?,
savedInstanceState: Bundle?): View? {
return UI {
verticalLayout {
padding = dip(24)
var title = editText {
id = R.id.title
hintResource = R.string.hint
}
...
button {
id = R.id.add
textResource = R.string.add
onClick { view -> createTodo(title, desc) }
}
}
}.view
}

ANKO DSL
ANKO COMPONENTS
class EditFragmentUI : AnkoComponent<EditFragment> {
override fun createView(ui: AnkoContext<EditFragment>) = with(ui) {
verticalLayout {
padding = dip(24)
var title = editText {
id = R.id.title
hintResource = R.string.hint
}
...
button {
id = R.id.add
textResource = R.string.add
onClick { view -> ui.owner.createTodoFrom(title, desc) }
}
}
}
}
override fun onCreateView(...)= EditFragmentUI().createView(AnkoContext.create(ctx,this))

ANKO DSL
EXTENDING ANKOS DSL FUNCTIONALITY
▸ Multiple ways to do this:
▸ insert an existing XML layout into an Anko DSL declaration: 
▸ adding new DSL elements to the language
include<View>(R.layout.mylayout) { ... }
inline fun ViewManager.customView(theme: Int = 0) = customView(theme) {}
inline fun ViewManager.customView(theme: Int = 0, init: CustomView.() -> Unit) =
ankoView({ CustomView(it) }, theme, init)
inline fun Activity.customView(theme: Int = 0) = customView(theme) {}
inline fun Activity.customView(theme: Int = 0, init: CustomView.() -> Unit) =
ankoView({ CustomView(it) }, theme, init)

ANKO DSL
THERE’S MORE
▸ Intent wrappers for various purposes: e.g. sendSMS(number, [text])
▸ Intent builders
▸ Service shortcuts
▸ Configuration qualifiers: configuration(screenSize = ScreenSize.LARGE,
orientation = Orientation.LANDSCAPE) { … }
▸ Asynchronous tasks
▸ SQLLite

LIBRARIES AND TOOLS
https://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/sillygwailo/5990089210/

LIBRARIES AND TOOLS
OVERVIEW
▸ Kotter Knife
▸ Butter Knife
▸ KAndroid
▸ Kovenant
▸ Fuel, Injekt, Spek, Kotson

LIBRARIES AND TOOLS
KOTTER KNIFE (AND BUTTER KNIFE)
▸ Kotter Knife provides view binding in a similar way to Butter Knife for Android/
Java
▸ Why *Knife over KAE?
▸ Porting code from Java/Butter Knife to Kotlin
▸ Features like listener binding and resources binding that don’t exist in KAE.
▸ Sample code for Butter Knife/Kotlin in the ofﬁcial Jetbrains Kotlin Examples repo
(https://goo.gl/rH7vBu)

LIBRARIES AND TOOLS
KOTTER KNIFE VS BUTTER KNIFE VS KAE (I)
findViewById(R.id.send).setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
@Override
public void onClick(View v) {
Log.d("MainActivity", "onClick: send")
}
});
@OnClick(R.id.send)
void clickSend(View v) {
Log.d("MainActivity", "onClick: send")
}

LIBRARIES AND TOOLS
KOTTER KNIFE VS BUTTER KNIFE VS KAE (II)
findViewById(R.id.send).setOnClickListener { view -> Log.d("MainActivity",
"onClick: send") };
val btnSend: Button by bindView(R.id.send)
btnSend.setOnClickListener({ view -> Log.d("MainActivity", "onClick: send") })
import kotlinx.android.synthetic.activity_main.*
btn_send.setOnClickListener({ view -> Log.d("MainActivity", "onClick: send") })

LIBRARIES AND TOOLS
KANDROID
▸ View binding (again)
▸ TextWatcher
▸ SeekBar Extension
▸ SearchView Extension
▸ Shortcuts to system services
▸ Logging
▸ Dealing with Intents
▸ SDK Version API (from/to)
▸ Thread management

LIBRARIES AND TOOLS
KOVENANT
▸ Core: foundations of a Promise
framework
▸ Tasks & Callbacks
▸ Chaining (Then, ThenApply)
▸ Lazy Promises
▸ Cancelling and Voiding
▸ Combine: combines 2-20 promises
▸ Functional: adds map, bind and
apply to support more advanced
HOF constructs in Kovenant
▸ JVM: Executors and Throttles (thread
pools)
▸ Android: UI callbacks and interacting
with UI Thread

FINAL THOUGHTS
https://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/brickset/16099265973/

FINAL THOUGHTS
PERFORMANCE
▸ Runtime is pretty much on-par with Java
▸ Pre Kotlin 1.0.2: Build process was slower than a comparable app in Java -
mainly due to how the Kotlin compiler works (no partial builds/compilation)
▸ Kotlin libraries do add to the size of the application as well as to the method
count
▸ Kotlin runtime + stdlib are similar in method count to support-v4 or play-
services-base and add signiﬁcantly less than Scala or Groovy

FINAL THOUGHTS
LANGUAGE AND MATURITY
▸ Kotlin 1.0 was a big step for the language
▸ Surprisingly mature for a 1.0 release (but 5+ years in the making), full of great
concepts and idioms, getting better with each release
▸ Anko is very stable given it’s still a 0.x release
▸ Anko makes UI declaration actually pleasurable but offers way more than only
a layout DSL

FINAL THOUGHTS
WHAT DID WE LEARN?
▸ What is Kotlin?
▸ Language idioms & concepts
▸ Kotlin and Android
▸ Anko DSL
▸ Libraries and Tools
▸ Final thoughts

RESOURCES
RESOURCES
▸ Kotlin: http://kotlinlang.org
▸ Anko: https://github.com/Kotlin/anko
▸ Kotter Knife: https://github.com/JakeWharton/kotterknife
▸ KAndroid: https://github.com/pawegio/KAndroid
▸ Kovenant: https://github.com/mplatvoet/kovenant
▸ Fuel: https://github.com/kittinunf/Fuel
▸ Injekt: https://github.com/kohesive/injekt
▸ Spek: http://jetbrains.github.io/spek/
▸ Kotson: https://github.com/SalomonBrys/Kotson

RESOURCES
GET IN TOUCH
Kai Koenig
Email: kai@ventego-creative.co.nz
Twitter: @AgentK

Coding for Android on steroids with Kotlin

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