B4A Library DesignSupport - Additional Material Design components

This library is a wrapper to some of the objects of Googles Design Support library.

Requirements:

This library requires B4A 6.31 or above.
From V2.32 on B4A V6.80 or newer is required. If you use an older B4A version use the V2.31 library.
AppCompat 3.30 or above is required.
The examples need some additional libraries like AHViewPager, XMLViewEx, XMLLayoutBuilder

Currently it supports:

• Snackbar - The new modern toastmessages
  
  
• TabLayout - The new material like tabs with fixed tabs and scrolling tabs feature. Works standalone or together with a ViewPager library. Supports icons as tabs and custom layouts for the tabs.
  
  
• FloatlabelEditText - An enhanced EditText object that supports a floating label, counter and error messages.
  
  
• FloatingActionButton - A very simple Floating Action Button. Has show- and hide animations but is very simple.
  
• NavigationDrawer - Material Design compliant Navigation Drawer. See NavigationView Example for detailed instructions.
  
• BottomNavigationView - Material Design compliant Bottom Navigation View. See BottomNavigationView Example for detailed instructions.
  

Installation:

Note: Please, Please read these instructions carefully. AppCompat depends on many things like a special theme with special features. Even special versions of build tools are required and last but not least there are often bugs in the Google support libraries.

I created this instructions to help you getting things ready for using AppCompat. So please follow these instructions carefully and all should work as expected and you don't have to ask in the forum.

Thanks.

1. This library depends on the AppCompat library. So do all the setup needed for AppCompat.
2. Copy the DesignSupport.xml, DesignSupport.jar and DesignSupport.aar files to your CustomLibs folder
3. Install/Update Android Support Packages with the SDK Manager.

Setup and usage:

1. Setup your project like a project that uses AppCompat library.

If you want to use the DSFloatlabelEditText object with the ErrorText or counter feature you should add the following item to your Theme:

<item name="textColorError">@color/design_textinput_error_color_light</item>

Otherwise your app will crash if the textinput reaches the maxCounter length.

If you want to use the DSNavigationDrawer object you should add the following items to your Theme:

<item name="android:windowDrawsSystemBarBackgrounds">true</item>
<item name="android:statusBarColor">@android:color/transparent</item>

Your support:
Creating libraries and wrappers for existing library projects is a lot of work. The use of this library is totally free and you even don't need to mention in your app that you use it.
But if you use this library in your projects and you think it is useful to you please consider to make a donation:

Thanks very much for your support.

Version History:

V1.00

• Initial version with SnackBar and TabLayout objects.

V2.00

• Requires B4A 6.0 or above
• Uses new Maven repositories for support libraries
• Enhanced Designer support (custom properties are supported)
• New: DSFloatlabelEditText - New EditText with floating label, counter, error messages
• New: DSFloatingActionButton - Standard Floating Action Button.

V2.10

• New: Requires Support Repository 36
• New: DSNavigationDrawer - A complete DrawerLayout implementation/wrapper
• New: DSNavigationView
• New: Support for ShowPasswordToggle in FloatLabelEditText
• Fix: FloatLabelEditText.Enabled=True/False should work now.

V2.20

• Fix: DSNavigationDrawer should work without a secondary drawer.
• New: BottomNavigationView - Wrapper for the BottomNavigationView
• Fix: Some minor fixes and changes

V2.21

• Fix: DSTablayout can use other ViewPagers than AHViewPager
• Fix: Small internal bugfixes.

V2.22

• Fix: Change packagename to anywheresoftware.b4a.orbjects to reduce resouce fields

V2.23

• Fix: Fix error in FloatLabelEditText

V2.30

• New: Dismiss event for DSSnackbar
• New: Support CharSequence where possible

V2.31

• Fix: Getters return String instead of CharSequence to avoid problems.

V2.32

• Fix: Compiled against B4A 6.80 Core library to avoid some problems with CharSequences.

V3.00

• Fix: Compiled against Support Library 28.0.0 to fix a problem with TabLayout

 

[ernschd]

I have an error when I'm trying to compile ScrollingTabs example:

B4A Version: 10.2
Java Version: 8
Parse den Code.    (0.00s)
Building folders structure.    (0.03s)
Kompiliere den Code.    (0.01s)
Kompiliere Layoutcode.    (0.00s)
Organisiere Libraries.    (0.00s)
    (AndroidX SDK)
Generiere R Datei.    (0.00s)
Kompiliere generierten Java Code.    Error
B4A line: 57
TabLayout.SetViewPager(VP)
javac 1.8.0_241
src\example\tablayout\scrollingtabs\main.java:380: error: cannot access ViewPager
mostCurrent._tablayout.SetViewPager((androidx.viewpager.widget.ViewPager)(mostCurrent._vp.getObject()));
                      ^
  class file for android.support.v4.view.ViewPager not found
1 error

I'm using AppCompat Version 4, DesignSupport Library and AHViewPager Version 3
android.jar is Version 29

 

[tuhatinhvn]

I have an error when I'm trying to compile ScrollingTabs example:

B4A Version: 10.2
Java Version: 8
Parse den Code.    (0.00s)
Building folders structure.    (0.03s)
Kompiliere den Code.    (0.01s)
Kompiliere Layoutcode.    (0.00s)
Organisiere Libraries.    (0.00s)
    (AndroidX SDK)
Generiere R Datei.    (0.00s)
Kompiliere generierten Java Code.    Error
B4A line: 57
TabLayout.SetViewPager(VP)
javac 1.8.0_241
src\example\tablayout\scrollingtabs\main.java:380: error: cannot access ViewPager
mostCurrent._tablayout.SetViewPager((androidx.viewpager.widget.ViewPager)(mostCurrent._vp.getObject()));
                      ^
  class file for android.support.v4.view.ViewPager not found
1 error

I'm using AppCompat Version 4, DesignSupport Library and AHViewPager Version 3
android.jar is Version 29

You need JettyFile using ANdroidx not Android

 

[ernschd]

Thank you, now it's working.

 

[delgadol]

today i update my sdk, whith material 1.3, the code that include this library cras and no compiled


thanks in advance.

 

[Rubsanpe]

today i update my sdk, whith material 1.3, the code that include this library cras and no compiled


thanks in advance.

Hi, look at this

Error after upgrading with SDK Manager

Hi. I just updated the Android SDK with the SDK Manager and it told me that there was a library update called Material-13. After updating it when I compile the application it tells me: Generando el fichero R. Error...

www.b4x.com

Rubén

 

[delgadol]

Hi, look at this

Error after upgrading with SDK Manager

Hi. I just updated the Android SDK with the SDK Manager and it told me that there was a library update called Material-13. After updating it when I compile the application it tells me: Generando el fichero R. Error...

www.b4x.com

Rubén

this is the new package, i restore my sdk from backup, and all be ok again. but with this new update, we can not compile new apk from older source code with this library

 

[Rubsanpe]

Hi, I also always update everything to the latest versions with the SDK Manager. As it has been made clear in the thread I have referred you to, you should only download the artifacts that compile tells you that they are missing. If you update everything it can happen that an update is no longer compatible with what you had until that moment.

Rubén

 

[Abdou1283]

Hi, after update to b4a 10.7 beta #1, i get this error

java.lang.NoSuchFieldError: No static field navdrawer_layout of type I in class Lanywheresoftware/b4a/objects/R$layout; or its superclasses (declaration of 'anywheresoftware.b4a.objects.R$layout' appears in /data/app/com.royal.streaming--wzVsrCFObwRMz2djCN0AA==/base.apk)

Could abyone help me, please. i'm using appcompat 4.0 and designsupport 3.0

 

[Erel]

This library is not compatible with AndroidX sdk. AppCompat works fine.

 

[Abdou1283]

ok thx Erel

 

[so27]

I have contacted the developer, he is trying to find a solution to make the library AndroidX compatible.

 

[Ulhas Rane]

hello,
I tried all example on Android api 30 & java jdk-11.0.1 but getting errors. i am using B4a 10.7 version
For example if i try to run BottomNavigationView example . I am getting error as shown in image. I searched forum but cant understand how to relove it

Your help will be highly appreciable to resolve the same

 

[so27]

hello,
I tried all example on Android api 30 & java jdk-11.0.1 but getting errors. i am using B4a 10.7 version
For example if i try to run BottomNavigationView example . I am getting error as shown in image. I searched forum but cant understand how to relove it

Your help will be highly appreciable to resolve the same

This library is not yet compatible with AndroidX and does not work from B4a10.7 at the moment.

See here.

 

[Ulhas Rane]

This library is not yet compatible with AndroidX and does not work from B4a10.7 at the moment.

See here.

Thanks for your refence. But as per same post it says AppCompat works fine. and this is based on AppCompat library only so it should work is what my understanding.
Please correct me if i am wrong?
Once again thanks for your valuable response

 

[Spavlyuk]

I found a workaround with a bit of Erel's help.

With a tool such as 7-zip, open DesignSupport.aar and/or DesignSupport.androidx.aar.
Select AndroidManifest.xml and click on File -> View.
Edit the package to "de.amberhome.objects", save the file and close the editor.
7-zip should now prompt you to re-archive the aar file with the modified contents. Click yes to confirm.
Clean the project and/or restart b4a.

I had to do that only for DesignSupport.aar to get it working. I can't tell if it's a good idea but it should work as a temporary solution.

In any case, since google is no longer updating the design support library it's probably best you migrate to a different library or write your own wrapper of material components like I'm doing.

 

[Ulhas Rane]

I found a workaround with a bit of Erel's help.

With a tool such as 7-zip, open DesignSupport.aar and/or DesignSupport.androidx.aar.
Select AndroidManifest.xml and click on File -> View.
Edit the package to "de.amberhome.objects", save the file and close the editor.
7-zip should now prompt you to re-archive the aar file with the modified contents. Click yes to confirm.
Clean the project and/or restart b4a.

I had to do that only for DesignSupport.aar to get it working. I can't tell if it's a good idea but it should work as a temporary solution.

In any case, since google is no longer updating the design support library it's probably best you migrate to a different library or write your own wrapper of material components like I'm doing.

Thanks
But i did the same but no success, I have both DesignSupport.aar and DesignSupport.androidx.aar file in my additional library.
Can you please share both this modified lib with your test code ,i will check same at my end?

Once again thanks for your responce

 

[so27]

I found a workaround with a bit of Erel's help.

With a tool such as 7-zip, open DesignSupport.aar and/or DesignSupport.androidx.aar.
Select AndroidManifest.xml and click on File -> View.
Edit the package to "de.amberhome.objects", save the file and close the editor.
7-zip should now prompt you to re-archive the aar file with the modified contents. Click yes to confirm.
Clean the project and/or restart b4a.

I had to do that only for DesignSupport.aar to get it working. I can't tell if it's a good idea but it should work as a temporary solution.

In any case, since google is no longer updating the design support library it's probably best you migrate to a different library or write your own wrapper of material components like I'm doing.

Thanks for the tip. It works for me. Now when I run the Jetifier, it wants to modify DesignSupport.aar. Do it or don't do it?

 

[BarryW]

DSNavigationDrawer - How to change item textsize?

 

[Spavlyuk]

Thanks
But i did the same but no success, I have both DesignSupport.aar and DesignSupport.androidx.aar file in my additional library.
Can you please share both this modified lib with your test code ,i will check same at my end?

Once again thanks for your responce

You seem to be having a different issue, I suggest what others have already said. Deleted/backup your current SDK and reinstall the one on the B4A page.

Thanks for the tip. It works for me. Now when I run the Jetifier, it wants to modify DesignSupport.aar. Do it or don't do it?

My guess is that running it won't cause issues but I can't be 100% sure. If it does, make sure the package name is "de.amberhome.objects".

 

[Abdou1283]

I found a workaround with a bit of Erel's help.

With a tool such as 7-zip, open DesignSupport.aar and/or DesignSupport.androidx.aar.
Select AndroidManifest.xml and click on File -> View.
Edit the package to "de.amberhome.objects", save the file and close the editor.
7-zip should now prompt you to re-archive the aar file with the modified contents. Click yes to confirm.
Clean the project and/or restart b4a.

I had to do that only for DesignSupport.aar to get it working. I can't tell if it's a good idea but it should work as a temporary solution.

In any case, since google is no longer updating the design support library it's probably best you migrate to a different library or write your own wrapper of material components like I'm doing.

Very very nice solution. It works.