I've followed the instructions in the project's original README.txt file. I've also tried to limit the time I spent on it to a few hours as indicated, meaning I didn't carry out some changes I would consider more important in production code (see below).
In summary, I've done the following:
- Fixed the defects in the original project, including making the HTTP requests resilient to redirects
- Improved the layout files and remove unnecessary nesting
- Tidied and refactored the code for better readability and maintainability
- Added an image cache to speed up successive loads of thumbnail images
- Hooked up the dummy Refresh menu item so it does refresh the data
- Added a progress indicator when data is loading, and an error message when the data cannot be retrieved
As the brief didn't ask for tests I haven't implemented any, but I have removed static methods as a first step towards more testable, mockable code. See below for more comments on testing.
Third-party libraries
Third-party libraries are a double-edged sword: they help us avoid reinventing the wheel, but at the expense of increasing the app's method count and surrendering maintenance responsibility to a third party that may not be dependable. Some also come with a steep learning curve and insufficient documentation. I always consider the benefit vs. risk before using them.
In this case, HTTP code is difficult to implement and maintain (my code still doesn't handle retries for example), so I'd add the well-supported libraries Retrofit, Gson and Picasso for implementing the HTTP requests.
App architecture and testability
The current architecture is OK for such a trivial app, but it doesn't scale well and isn't very suitable for automated testing, both of which would be a concern once the app grows to include some more views and view transition logic.
I'd improve on this as follows:
- Move as much logic as possible out of the Android framework classes (Activities and Fragments), e.g. by introducing an architecture such as MVP, MVVM or VIPER.
- Refactor non-mocked Android classes (such as
LogandTextUtils) to replace them with mockable alternatives or wrappers. - Add non-Android unit tests using JUnit and Mockito.
- Optionally, add Android unit tests using Espresso.
I'd be happy to do this work as an additional commit if you'd like to see how I'd go about it. :)