Bandera (MVC for Android)

Automation for android model-view binding

This little library provides compile-time annotations for model-UI bidirectional binding so you don't need to do that boring findViewById-setChangeListener stuff again.

Currently only a subset is implemented: TextView, EditText, DateTimePicker, ProgressBar, ImageView, ImageButton. But this is an open source project. Wink-wink, nudge-nudge.

HOW2

• Specify bandera-compile.jar as your (yet another) annotation processor.

• Just declare your model class like :

    public class MainActivityModel // always use creative names! {
        private int catCount;
        
        public MainActivityModel(CatRecordFromDb cats) {
          // init your viewmodel here 
          // ...
        }
    
      	@BindModel({ R.id.practice_image, R.id.buttonStart }) // RO binding to imageUri for ImgView and ImgButton
        public String getFancyImage() {
          return getModel().imageUrl;
        }
        
      	@BindModel(R.id.editNumberOfCats) // getter for EditText value initialisation
        public int getCatsCount() {       // method name can be anything, getters just need the "get" in front
          return catCount;                // conversion from int to String happens magically at google offices* (even offline!)
        }
    
        @BindModel(R.id.editNumberOfCats)         // setter to update the model from the control
        public void setCatNumber(int catCount) {  // setter name doesn't need to match getter's, just be "set<Whatever>"
          this.catCount = catCount;               // the value is already converted into target type
          recalculateTotal();                     // do the magic after cat count changed
        }
    }    // * Measurement of correctness of this description is pending indifinitely
  

• Then in your MainActivity you do the woodoo in form of

      binder = doo.bandera.Models.Bind(this, new MainActivityModel(catsFromDb)); // doo.bandera.Models.Bind for your activity/model pair is generated during compilation
  

• If you've updated the model from outside, just call

    binder.updateDirtyValues(); // scans what changed in the model and updates widgets
  

• Specify bandera-runtime.jar as exported dependency for your apk.

• Ready to roll.

And then the magic begins. Widgets are automatically populated from the model, model is updated back after user interactions.

That's all.