You’ve been asked by NY Times to design a simple app to see the current best selling books of the week, based on their website:
Their developers have already created some foundation for the app, but the networking isn't working and it doesn’t look very good so far. This is a big job, so you'll have to apply all your skills in Layouts, RecyclerView, and API calls!
The core requirements are to create an app that allows the user to scroll through a list of books. They should be able to see the book's ranking, cover, title, author, and description.
The formatting and layout of the app have been improved, using View styling to better match the NY Times website. The "buy" button opens the book's Amazon listing.
By the end of this lab you will be able to...
- Request data from an API
- Parse data into a Kotlin model
- Bind data to View objects
- Style Views and arrange them using ConstraintLayout
- Live data is loaded from the NY Times API
- Books are displayed using a RecyclerView
- Book cover images are downloaded and displayed using Glide
The stretch features will help develop this app into something closer to the NY Times website.
- View elements are styled in the .xml files
- The "Buy" button successfully opens the page on Amazon
View elements are styled in the .xml files The "Buy" button successfully opens the page on Amazon
- BestSellerBook - the model representing a single book
- BestSellerBooksFragment - the fragment for our app, responsible for the networking
- BestSellerBooksRecyclerViewAdapter - the adapter for the RecyclerView, responsible for connecting the Views with the models
- MainActivity - the starting point for the code, creates a BestSellerBooksFragment
- OnListFragmentInteractionListener - an interface used by the RecyclerView adapter
[
{
"rank": 1,
"rank_last_week": 1,
"weeks_on_list": 4,
"asterisk": 0,
"dagger": 0,
"primary_isbn10": "1250178630",
"primary_isbn13": "9781250178633",
"publisher": "St. Martin's",
"description": "In 1965, a nursing student follows her brother to serve during the Vietnam War and returns to a divided America.",
"price": "0.00",
"title": "THE WOMEN",
"author": "Kristin Hannah",
"contributor": "by Kristin Hannah",
"contributor_note": "",
"book_image": "https:\/\/storage.googleapis.com\/du-prd\/books\/images\/9781250178633.jpg",
"book_image_width": 333,
"book_image_height": 500,
"amazon_product_url": "https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/1250178630?tag=NYTBSREV-20",
"age_group": "",
"book_review_link": "",
"first_chapter_link": "",
"sunday_review_link": "",
"article_chapter_link": "",
"isbns": [
{
"isbn10": "1250178630",
"isbn13": "9781250178633"
},
{
"isbn10": "1250178657",
"isbn13": "9781250178657"
}
],
"buy_links": [
{
"name": "Amazon",
"url": "https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/1250178630?tag=NYTBSREV-20"
},
{
"name": "Apple Books",
"url": "https:\/\/goto.applebooks.apple\/9781250178633?at=10lIEQ"
},
{
"name": "Barnes and Noble",
"url": "https:\/\/www.anrdoezrs.net\/click-7990613-11819508?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.barnesandnoble.com%2Fw%2F%3Fean%3D9781250178633"
},
{
"name": "Books-A-Million",
"url": "https:\/\/www.anrdoezrs.net\/click-7990613-35140?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.booksamillion.com%2Fp%2FTHE%2BWOMEN%2FKristin%2BHannah%2F9781250178633"
},
{
"name": "Bookshop",
"url": "https:\/\/bookshop.org\/a\/3546\/9781250178633"
},
{
"name": "IndieBound",
"url": "https:\/\/www.indiebound.org\/book\/9781250178633?aff=NYT"
}
],
"book_uri": "nyt:\/\/book\/9ce735af-71cf-5ff3-a367-43ee07e3fdd7"
},
{
"rank": 2,
"rank_last_week": 0,
"weeks_on_list": 1,
"asterisk": 0,
"dagger": 0,
"primary_isbn10": "0593331346",
"primary_isbn13": "9780593331347",
"publisher": "Putnam",
"description": "The 24th book in the Joe Pickett series. A man released from prison uses grizzly bear attacks to cover his acts of revenge.",
"price": "0.00",
"title": "THREE-INCH TEETH",
"author": "C.J. Box",
"contributor": "by C.J. Box",
"contributor_note": "",
"book_image": "https:\/\/storage.googleapis.com\/du-prd\/books\/images\/9780593331347.jpg",
"book_image_width": 332,
"book_image_height": 500,
"amazon_product_url": "https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/0593331346?tag=NYTBSREV-20",
"age_group": "",
"book_review_link": "",
"first_chapter_link": "",
"sunday_review_link": "",
"article_chapter_link": "",
"isbns": [
{
"isbn10": "0593331346",
"isbn13": "9780593331347"
},
{
"isbn10": "0593331354",
"isbn13": "9780593331354"
}
],
"buy_links": [
{
"name": "Amazon",
"url": "https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/0593331346?tag=NYTBSREV-20"
},
{
"name": "Apple Books",
"url": "https:\/\/goto.applebooks.apple\/9780593331347?at=10lIEQ"
},
{
"name": "Barnes and Noble",
"url": "https:\/\/www.anrdoezrs.net\/click-7990613-11819508?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.barnesandnoble.com%2Fw%2F%3Fean%3D9780593331347"
},
{
"name": "Books-A-Million",
"url": "https:\/\/www.anrdoezrs.net\/click-7990613-35140?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.booksamillion.com%2Fp%2FTHREE-INCH%2BTEETH%2FC.J.%2BBox%2F9780593331347"
},
{
"name": "Bookshop",
"url": "https:\/\/bookshop.org\/a\/3546\/9780593331347"
},
{
"name": "IndieBound",
"url": "https:\/\/www.indiebound.org\/book\/9780593331347?aff=NYT"
}
],
"book_uri": "nyt:\/\/book\/653dbf55-a521-5f74-bccb-0c7fc48456bb"
},
{
"rank": 3,
"rank_last_week": 0,
"weeks_on_list": 1,
"asterisk": 0,
"dagger": 0,
"primary_isbn10": "0593599837",
"primary_isbn13": "9780593599839",
"publisher": "Del Rey",
"description": "After the secret of her magic to repel attacks is revealed, Freya encounters dangerous tests by the gods.",
"price": "0.00",
"title": "A FATE INKED IN BLOOD",
"author": "Danielle L. Jensen",
"contributor": "by Danielle L. Jensen",
"contributor_note": "",
"book_image": "https:\/\/storage.googleapis.com\/du-prd\/books\/images\/9780593599839.jpg",
"book_image_width": 331,
"book_image_height": 500,
"amazon_product_url": "https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/0593599837?tag=NYTBSREV-20",
"age_group": "",
"book_review_link": "",
"first_chapter_link": "",
"sunday_review_link": "",
"article_chapter_link": "",
"isbns": [
{
"isbn10": "0593599837",
"isbn13": "9780593599839"
},
{
"isbn10": "0593599845",
"isbn13": "9780593599846"
}
]
}
]