Vlad Dm
The pack of standard open source Android projects
Let's consider the pack of popular open source GitHub libraries that are likely used in the majority of Android-based apps.
Retrofit
License: Apache 2.0
GitHub Stars: 20,370
This Android open source project is able to convert REST API into Java interface. Retrofit allows you to write a qualitative code in pure Java by means of using almost any RESTful API.
It is worth mentioning that the core features include dynamically built requests, errors proceeding, and the capability to transfer files. Also, this Git open source library gives you a powerful infrastructure for authentication, and API interaction as well as sending web requests by means of OkHttp.
Retrofit automatically converts JSON into objects with the help of another open source Android repository called Gson. All the library's logic is built upon annotations that allow the creation of dynamic requests within a server.
In addition, as for the Android-based library, it is pretty light and relatively easy to use.
Advantages:
- Easy to use & install
- Great documentation
- Lightness
Disadvantages:
- Lack of images loading support
Glide
License: Apache 2.0
GitHub stars: 14,600
Loading images is a quite widespread task with Android development. Glide Android open source repository is able to download and display pictures from multiple sources. It also takes care of caching and memory consumption.
However, to find the balance between the quality and memory usage, you need to change Glide's default configuration from RGB-555 to ARGB-8888.
By taking this easy step, you will increase the total quality of images and preserve the balance of memory consumption. To make it clear, take a look at the graph underneath that shows the memory consumption in the analogous open source for Android.
Glide's memory consumption in comparison with Picasso
Advantages:
- Fast loading
- Low memory consumption
- GIF support
Disadvantages:
- Size in 430 kb
Butter Knife
License: Apache 2.0
GitHub stars: 15,500
As you know, the necessity for using a seemingly repetitive code during the project appears quite often. In order to keep up with a good programming style, you should avoid using so-called boilerplate code. For this purpose, open source Android libraries like Butter Knife were created. This library uses an InjectView annotation to remove some boilerplate and shorten your code.
Advantages:
- Easy setup
- Lets you write less code
- Good performance
Disadvantages:
- No Pojo Injection support
Parceler
License: Apache 2.0
GitHub stars: 2,700
Besides Butter Knife, the problem of repetitive code could also be solved by Parceler, Android open source project. GitHub made it possible for developers to easily search for tools like this one that makes code creation easier. Parceler's library generates the necessary wrapper classes, while automatically compiling data. This way, the library allows you to reduce the number of repetitive steps that are needed to achieve the increased performance of Parcelables.
Advantages:
- Eliminates manual generation of Parcelable code
- Big base of method count
Disadvantages:
- Cannot handle RealmList by default
LeakCanary
License: Apache 2.0
GitHub stars: 14,500
To create some top Android projects, you have to take care of memory consumption. LeakCanary library was designed for detecting and eliminating memory leaks. The problem is that the lifetime of some objects are limited. However, in case the object is held by any chain of references within the memory after its lifetime is over - the memory leaks appear and through time an app will have a lack of memory.
This is one of the top GitHub projects when it comes to the elimination of memory leaks. The library is able to solve this problem by means of a single code line. After its addition, you are going to get a leak trace as soon as it is detected.
LeakCanary leaks detection
The results may surprise you since there are up to 94% fewer crashes provoked by OOM errors.
Advantages:
- Easy to integrate
- Automatic leak detection
Disadvantages:
- Sometimes produces false positives
More open source libraries in the article Top List of Free and Open Source Projects: GitHub
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