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Jetpack Compose by Tutorials

Second Edition · Android 13 · Kotlin 1.7 · Android Studio Dolphin

Before You Begin

Section 0: 6 chapters
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Section I: Getting Started With Jetpack Compose

Section 1: 4 chapters
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Section II: Composing User Interfaces

Section 2: 4 chapters
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Section III: Building Complex Apps With Jetpack Compose

Section 3: 5 chapters
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Section IV: UI Testing & Accessibility

Section 4: 2 chapters
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Section V: Glances & Keeping Upto Date With Jetpack Compose

Section 5: 3 chapters
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Section VI: Appendices

Section 6: 1 chapter
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3. Building Layout Groups in Compose

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In this chapter, you’ll learn about layouts in Jetpack Compose. Each layout has a specific usecase, and you’ll learn how to pick the right one for the UI you want to build. Finally, you’ll group composable functions inside different kinds of layouts to make a more complex UI.

In the previous chapter, you focused on displaying the elements onscreen; this time, you’ll focus on positioning those elements.

As always, it’s best to start with the basics. Read on to discover what the Jetpack Compose replacements for the basic layouts in Android are.

Using Basic Layouts in Jetpack Compose

In the previous chapter, you learned how to write basic composable functions. The next step is to build a more complex UI by positioning those elements in a specific way—arranging them.

When working with XML, you achieve that by using a layout, a class that extends ViewGroup. ViewGroup can hold zero or more views and is responsible for measuring all of its children and positioning them on the screen according to different rules.

In Jetpack Compose, the replacement for ViewGroup is called Layout. Look at the source code to understand how Layout() works:

@Composable inline fun Layout(
  content: @Composable () -> Unit,
  modifier: Modifier = Modifier,
  measurePolicy: MeasurePolicy
)

There are two important parameters here:

  1. content: A composable function that holds children of the Layout.
  2. measurePolicy: Responsible for defining measuring and layout behavior.

Measuring and positioning the elements is a complex job. That’s why Jetpack Compose offers predefined layout types that handle this for you.

Every implementation of these predefined layouts has its own logic for positioning the children. With this in mind, there are layouts that order items vertically or horizontally, layouts that build complex UI with navigation drawers and simpler layouts, which stack children vertically. All of those layouts use measurePolicy to position items in different ways, so you don’t have to do it yourself!

When thinking about basic layouts, the first thing that might come to mind is a LinearLayout. Your next step is to learn about LinearLayout’s composable counterpart.

Linear Layouts

To follow the code in this chapter, make sure to open this chapter’s starter project, within the chapter materials.

Using Rows

Open RowScreen.kt and look inside. You’ll see an empty composable function, MyRow(), where you’ll write your code. You’ll add a Row, a LinearLayout counterpart, when it comes to horizontal layouts.

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Exploring Rows

Open the Row() signature, to look at what you can do with it:

Using Columns

The Compose counterpart for a vertically-oriented LinearLayout is a Column.

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Exploring Columns

Now you’ve learned how to use Columns, check how they differ from a Row, by opening the Column() signature:

Using Boxes

The composable counterpart for a FrameLayout is called a Box. Just like FrameLayout, it’s used to display children relative to their parent’s edges, and allows you to stack children. This is useful when you have elements that need to be displayed in those specific places or when you want to display elements that overlap, such as dialogs.

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Exploring Boxes

When you have multiple children inside a Box, they’re rendered in the same order as you placed them inside the Box. Here’s the implementation:

Using Surfaces

Surface is a new layout that serves as a central metaphor in Material Design. What’s unique about Surface is it can only hold one child at a time, but it provides many style treatments for the content of its children, such as the elevation, border and more.

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Exploring Surfaces

To see what else a Surface() has to offer, open its signature:

Scaffold

The Scaffold is a new layout that Jetpack Compose introduced. You use it to implement a visual layout following the standard Material Design structure you are all familiar with by now. It combines several different material components to construct an entire screen. Because the Scaffold() offers multiple ways to build your UI, it’s best to jump into the code, and play around with it!

Using Scaffold

Open ScaffoldScreen.kt and look inside. You’ll see three empty composable functions:

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Completing the Screen

To complete the screen, implement the two remaining composables. Add the following code to complete MyTopAppBar():

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Exploring Scaffold

To learn more about all the parameters the Scaffold() lets you use, open its signature:

Key Points

Where to Go From Here?

You now know how to use multiple predefined composables to implement different features. You’ve also learned how to group and position them inside layouts to make a complete screen.

2. Learning Jetpack Compose Fundamentals
4. Building Lists With Jetpack Compose
Have a technical question? Want to report a bug? You can ask questions and report bugs to the book authors in our official book forum here.
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