daeken / alayout

DSL for Android UIs

ALayout -- Intelligent DSL for Android UIs

ALayout is intended to be a simple, intelligent DSL for building Android UIs. In its current form, it is really just a nicer syntax around the XML, but future versions will have constants where useful, 'macros' for defining common element groups, etc.

Example

Here's some example XML from the Android SDK:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
              android:layout_width="fill_parent" 
              android:layout_height="fill_parent" 
              android:orientation="vertical" >
    <TextView android:id="@+id/text"
              android:layout_width="wrap_content"
              android:layout_height="wrap_content"
              android:text="Hello, I am a TextView" />
    <Button android:id="@+id/button"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:text="Hello, I am a Button" />
</LinearLayout>

Now the equivalent ALayout code:

from alayout import *

with LinearLayout(width=FILL, height=FILL, orientation=VERTICAL):
	with TextView(id='text', width=WRAP, height=WRAP) as tv:
		tv['text'] = 'Hello, I am a TextView'
	Button(
			id='button', width=WRAP, height=WRAP,
			text='Hello, I am a Button'
		)

There's a lot less repetition, and you have the ability to write it how you wish. You should use with blocks for nesting, but you can also use them for non-nested tags, as you can see with the TextView. You can also see how you can modify attributes on tags after creation. Note that some attributes are special: id has its value transformed to prepend @+id/, width/height become layout_width/height, etc.

Running

Simply run the Python file containing your ALayout code, and it'll print your XML.