Presence of Decent Architecture is lead to developing a Successful Android App

Posted by Konstant Infosolutions on January 9th, 2020

When we are talking to non-tech person about the Android, he must understand Android as a mobile phone or may he said that it is mobile operating system. But what actually Android is??? Only an Android developer can give you the answer. For successful Android developer you must be aware of anything that is include in Android and related to Android application and its architecture. You must be able to handle complex lifecycles and architecture that develops a robust mobile application.

Architectural Pattern in Android

The Android operating system provides a strong base for the developers to develop an app that easily executed on any devices. Having a worthy design pattern itself stops many of the problems occurs during the development.

For this, the developer needs to define each component of an application separately. A clear and well-defined pattern of the app ensures that all your code is organized and thoroughly covered by testing techniques. It enhances the maintenance of code and provides ease in debugging.

Why does the Android app developer need good architecture?

Becoming an Android developer is easy, but having expertise in Android development is a big deal. To develop a successful app, the developer should know everything about the Android architecture that will be beyond the customers’ imagination and should be completed within the ETA.

If not, you may face the following issues:

• Your code is unable to go for unit testing.
• You may face trouble in maintenance as well as adding the new features.
• You may use a large number of functions that create difficulty in debugging.

Thus, to build an excellent Android app, you need a good architecture.

What does your app receive from a proper Architecture?

• Simplicity
• Testability
• Low-cost Maintenance
• Ease in adding and removing new features

In Android, this is not certain that all the developers implement a single pattern for app development. It all depends upon the specific requirements that the developer has. So, the developer must decide the pattern, which creates an effective application. A developer can use different architectures across different apps.

The Classic Three-Tier Architecture

1. MVC (Model-View-Controller) - This was the first iteration of Android app architecture that separates the code into three layers- Model, View, and Controller. Model is the data layer that handles the business logic and communication with the network and database layers. The view is the user interface (UI) layer, which is a simple visualization of the data from the Model. And, Controller is the logic layer that updates the model as needed.
2. MVP (Model-View-Presenter) - This is the most popular pattern that contains three layers - Model, View, and Presenter. Model is the data layer that handles the business logic and communication with the network and database layers. The View is the user interface (UI) layer, which is a simple visualization of the data from the Model. And, Presenter fetches the data from the Model, applies the UI logic and manages the state of the View, decides what to display, and reacts to user input notifications from the View.
3. MVVM (Model-View-ViewModel) - This is the third pattern of Android app architecture that contains three layers- Model, View, and ViewModel. Model abstracts the data from the source. View informs View Model about the users’ activities. And, View Model exposes streams of data relevant to the View.

Android Architecture Components

Once you are familiar with the Android application life-cycle, you are already aware of the Android Architecture Components. It is a collection of libraries that supports developers to design robust, testable, and maintainable apps. The following are the components that Android Architecture Components have:

• Data Binding
• Lifecycles
• LiveData
• Navigation
• Paging
• Room
• ViewModel
• WorkManager

Things that Every Android App Developer should know about the Architecture

Architecture Doesn’t Require any Expertise

Every company has its software architect who takes care of designing the architecture for each project. But being a developer, you should aware of the entire architecture of an application. And, this is the beauty of Android that with the basic knowledge of Android, the developer can understand the overall architecture pattern. So, developer needs no expertise like Android.

Architecture requires clear idea about the MVP & MVVM

MVP is Model-View-Controller and MVVM is Model-View-ViewModel.

Being an Android developer, you should have the clear idea about the two main architecture patterns because the architecture of an app is not limited to the UI separation.

Architecture is Language Agnostic

The Android architecture language-agnostic means the programming language is independent of any other programming language. With the Android architecture, you don’t need to learn the other associated languages for application development. It not only help us design better architecture but also improve developers’ coding skills.

Architecture is Platform Agnostic

There is a misconception that architecture design is not utilized anywhere. But Android Architecture negates this concept, and as language-agnostic, architecture is also platform agnostic. Thus, if you are skilled in designing the architectural patterns, you can implement the same across all the platforms.

Architecture is supplementary to your Skills

Being a developer, knowing the architectural pattern is not coming into your job but it adds more skills into your profile. This will allow you to get better understanding of the project and help you to become a good developer.

Architecture Improves flexibility

Most of the time developer focus on the present requirement of the customer and forget about the future of customers’ that they may require some technology modification in the coming future. If the architecture doesn’t provide much flexibility in the app then architecture is called failed architecture. Thus, the application architecture that you build should be flexible enough to accept the modifications. So, you need to think about this before going to develop an app.

Architecture requires discipline & Commitment

Architecture is a life-long commitment with an app. It’s not a one-day work. It takes time and effort to design architecture or to implement any new feature. You cannot take shortcuts in the architecture. You need thoughtful decisions, even for minute changes.

Final Opinions of developing Android Application

Creating Android application architecture requires a lot of learning, commitment, patience, and exploring. If you combined it properly then only you will be able to create an Android mobile application successfully. So, being an Android developer, you don’t need to become a master in Android architecture but if you hire Android developer, you must examine his/ her understanding with the Android architecture and application development. This will give you the benefit of developing a successful application and in deciding the cost of Android app.