Android Widgets - Overview

Progress Bar

• Part of Android UI Kit, which includes built-in UI components and tools provided by the Android SDK.
• Used to indicate the progress of an operation.
• Two Modes:
  • Determinate: Displays the remaining percentage and completed work.
  • Indeterminate (Default): Cyclic animation when the operation duration is unknown.

Seek Bar

• Extends Progress Bar.
• Common use cases: Adjusting volume, brightness for media playing, setting a price range etc
• Allows users to drag a thumbnail to adjust progress.
• Customizable with min, max, and step values.

Date and Time Picker Dialogs

• Enables users to select a date or time.
• Two main types:
  • DatePickerDialog – Allows users to select a date.
  • TimePickerDialog – Allows users to select a time.

Calendar View

• Displays a calendar interface for selecting dates.
• Configurable date range (defined in XML or code).
• Introduced in API 11.
• Functions similarly to Date and Time Picker, but Date and Time Picker is more versatile.

WebView

• Allows displaying web content within an app without using Android’s native views.
• Supports HTTP and HTTPS.
• JavaScript is disabled by default (but can be enabled).
• Developers can:
  • Show a loading indicator while a page loads.
  • Customize error handling and override link click behavior.

Rating Bar

• Extension of SeekBar and ProgressBar.
• Displays a star-based rating system.
• Returns a floating-point number representing the rating.

VideoView

• Used for playing video files.
• Can be integrated with SessionPlayer or MediaController.
• setVideoURI is method to set source
• Start/Stop Video (start(), pause(), stopPlayback())

TextureView

• Used for displaying a content stream.
• Typically used for videos and camera previews
• Can be customized - rotated scaled
• A TextureView does not handle media playback by itself; instead, it requires a content source, such as a MediaPlayer, Camera, OpenGL, or a custom renderer.
• To display a video, you can use MediaPlayer with SurfaceTexture