Flix

Flix is an app that allows users to browse movies from the The Movie Database API.

Flix Part 2

User Stories

REQUIRED (10pts)

  • (8pts) Expose details of movie (ratings using RatingBar, popularity, and synopsis) in a separate activity.
  • (2pts) Allow video posts to be played in full-screen using the YouTubePlayerView.

BONUS

  • Implement a shared element transition when user clicks into the details of a movie (1 point).
  • Trailers for popular movies are played automatically when the movie is selected (1 point).
    • When clicking on a popular movie (i.e. a movie voted for more than 5 stars) the video should be played immediately.
    • Less popular videos rely on the detailed page should show an image preview that can initiate playing a YouTube video.
  • Add a play icon overlay to popular movies to indicate that the movie can be played (1 point).
  • Apply data binding for views to help remove boilerplate code. (1 point)
  • Add a rounded corners for the images using the Glide transformations. (1 point)

App Walkthough GIF


Notes

One of the challenges that I have faced on creating this renewed version of Flixster is when I'm trying to pipe data from API to the program.


Flix Part 1

User Stories

REQUIRED (10pts)

  • (10pts) User can view a list of movies (title, poster image, and overview) currently playing in theaters from the Movie Database API.

BONUS

  • (2pts) Views should be responsive for both landscape/portrait mode.

    • (1pt) In portrait mode, the poster image, title, and movie overview is shown.
    • (1pt) In landscape mode, the rotated alternate layout should use the backdrop image instead and show the title and movie overview to the right of it.
  • (2pts) Display a nice default placeholder graphic for each image during loading

  • (2pts) Improved the user interface by experimenting with styling and coloring.

  • (2pts) For popular movies (i.e. a movie voted for more than 5 stars), the full backdrop image is displayed. Otherwise, a poster image, the movie title, and overview is listed. Use Heterogenous RecyclerViews and use different ViewHolder layout files for popular movies and less popular ones.

App Walkthough GIF



GIF created with LiceCap.

Notes

The greatest challenge that I encountered when creating this project was when I need to set up the RecyclerView. In addition to that, understanding how the data transmission between API and the app works really takes me quite some time to fully understand the concept being used.

Open-source libraries used

  • Android Async HTTP - Simple asynchronous HTTP requests with JSON parsing
  • Glide - Image loading and caching library for Androids