ABSA task

Below are the requirements for the task:

Please create a simple Android app that uses the Numbers API (http://numbersapi.com/). The app should allow the user to get a fact on a random number as well as have the ability and search for a fact about a specific date, The app should cover the following criteria:

Be written in Kotlin
Use of constraint layouts
Follow the MVVM pattern

APK

Grab one from here (https://github.com/gatanga/absa-task/blob/main/app/build/outputs/apk/debug/app-debug.apk) or just build

Features in the app

• On the Trivia page:
  • You can generate a random number and get a fact about that number. The random number is between 0 and 100. I noticed fewer facts on numbers greater than a 100.
  • The Trivia page also has an input field where you can enter your own number and get a fact about that number.
  • Please note that a number can have multiple facts. Hence, after randomly generating a number or entering a number in the textfield, you can get different facts after pressing the "Search" button repetitively.
• On the date page:
  • You can use a normal date picker (more info here: https://m2.material.io/components/date-pickers/android) to pick a day and month. The year is ignored.
  • After pressing search, you get a fact about that date.
  • Please note that a date can have multiple facts. Hence, after choosing a date, you can get different facts after pressing the "Search" button repetitively.
• Trivia and Date are part of a viewpager2 (with a TabLayout)

How to build the project

Requirements

• Get Java JDK (You can use the Oracle JDK or the OpenJDK one). Download JDK 11 or above.
  • Add the JDK to your path
  • Set the JAVA_HOME value in the environment. For Unix and Linux based OS, you can use the command "whereis java". Mine is in /usr/bin/JAVA. You can then set it using export JAVA_HOME=/usr/bin/JAVA. On my Mac, I add add export JAVA_HOME=/usr/bin/JAVA to *~ /.bash_profile* and then do source ~/.bash_profile to have JAVA_HOME added permanently to the path.
• Android Studio (Download one from here: https://developer.android.com/studio).

Checkout the project

You can use git clone https://github.com/gatanga/absa-task.git to check out the project or use a git based UI app like https://www.sourcetreeapp.com/ or https://desktop.github.com/

Building the project

1. Open Android studio

2. Click on "Import project" or "Open Project" as seen in these screenshots below: or or

3. If you don't already have build and compile tools, Android Studio will need to download those tools which might take some time.

4. Project gradle syncing -- This process is quite lengthy, so you might want to go grab a cup of coffee/tea/beer if it's beer Friday 😂

5. Android Studio might default to a JDK lower than 11 (I think depending on what version of Android Studio you are using). In this case, you can select the JDK >=11 by going to: Android Studio Preferences -> Build, Execution, Deployment -> Build Tools -> ** Gradle** -> Select the Gradle JDK in the window on the right. Please see image below:

6. Android Studio will sync again.

7. Run the the app:

Tech stark

• Kotlin DSL for gradle management
• Android Studio for IDE
• Kotlin for coding language
• MVVM for design pattern
• XML layouts instead of Jetpack Compose
• Architecture components
• Android Hilt for dependency injection
• Retrofit for RESTful calls
• Coroutines for thread management
• LiveData for communication between ViewModels and android views (Fragments and Activities)
• Flow for communication between non Android context components

Project architecture

• I decided to organize the project in a modular way.
  • The actuall design pattern as per request is MVVM.
  • But underneath, I created the app(ui), domain, data and models modules. My experience is that this allows different teams to work independently without so much confliction.
    • The models module is a standard kotlin library module.
    • The data and domain modules are Android Library modules. This should not be the case though. They deal with backend work/interacting and should definitely be kotlin-library modules instead. However, because I was using Hilt for dependency injection in Android modules, I did not want to use a second library for DI in these modules. This is because Hilt is not supported in non Android modules.
• Please don't pay much attention to the UI.
  • Definitely needs a redesign
  • I did not focus on it and would be happy to build a proper UI.
  • You will notice there are no progress indicators :):
• Also, I have a small coverage of unit tests. I know that traditionally, we should write unit tests first.
• I am happy to have 100% coverage + UI tests later.