Chapter 2. Building a Mobile Layout

Having set up Android Studio and SDK, along with real and virtual devices for testing on, and having had a brief look at one of the application templates provided by Android Studio, we are now in a position to take a more detailed look at how Android layouts are constructed, and how support libraries are used to create material layouts for older versions of Android.

There are several built-in layout formats provided with the SDK, and more available from the support libraries. As these layouts can be nested within one another, it is possible to put together almost any imaginable screen structure. This chapter will outline how screen components can be scaled, proportioned, and aligned, as well as how resources such as images and text are kept separate from layout definitions, and how this simplifies such things as translation. Although the content of this chapter is essential for creating material layouts, it does largely apply to all Android layouts...