#Dumbledroid

Android + webservice = magic!

Download the example app on Google Play to see it in action!

##Current version 1.0 (20130227)

Android Studio / Maven users: 'io.leocad:dumbledroid:1.0'

Eclipse users: download the binary here: dumbledroid-1.0.jar.

Eclipse plugin: install it using the update site: http://leocad.io/dumbledroidplugin/. Learn how to install the plugin here.

##Purpose Dumbledroid is a framework that enables integration between an Android app and a RESTful server using magic. Actually, it's not real magic. I'm kidding.

Using Dumbledroid, the developer doesn't have to write parsers for JSON or XML documents from a web service. It maps the document nodes to the class fields and does this automagically!

Dumbledroid also does automatic caching in memory and in disk. Presto!

##Origin of the name Dumbledroid was named after the wizard Dumbledore, a blatant copy of Gandalf major character of the Harry Potter series.

##How it works This framework gets the names of the JSON/XML nodes and uses reflection to find out the names of the class fields. Then, it maps the value of the first to the second.

It also adds non-intrusive memory caching using SoftReferences, i.e., when the garbage collector needs the memory, it is freed. The disk cache works by saving the data to the user's SD card.

Furthermore: its connection with the web service is smart. Dumbledroid only opens a connection and checks the headers. If the web service's version wasn't modified since the last time Dumbledroid downloaded it, the framework will use the cached version.

##Usage You can find a whole working example on the DumbledroidExample folder of this repository. It's a working Android project that uses the Dumbledroid framework. But for the purposes of this manual, following are step by step instructions.

###Step 1: Add the framework to your Android project

Using Android Studio?

Add this to your project's build.gradle:

repositories {
    maven { url 'http://leocad.io/mvn' }
}

dependencies {
    compile 'io.leocad:dumbledroid:1.0'
}

Using Eclipse?

You can do this in two different ways: importing the Dumbledroid project on Eclipse and referencing it as a library project or simply copying the binary file (.jar) to the libs directory of your Android project. You can find the latest binary on the "Current Version" paragraph of this document.

###Step 2: Add the permissions to your AndroidManifest.xml Dumbledroid requires the following permissions to work:

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />

The WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE is optional and is used by the disk cache.

###Step 3: Generate (or write) your classes Dumbledroid has its own Eclipse plugin to generate the classes from a URL. Unfortunately, there is no plugin for Android Studio just yet. If you're using Android Studio, skip this part.

If you use Eclipse, you can find instructions on how to install the plugin here.

After installing it, go to the File > New > Other… menu and select Dumbledroid Model file.

Then, just paste the URL for the JSON or XML, tweak the settings and aparecium! You're done!

If you want to manually write your classes, you'll need to create the fields that correspond to your JSON or XML document.

For example, if you have a JSON like this:

{
	"name": "Luke",
	"surname": "Skywalker",
	"age": 18,
	"isFromDarkSide": false,
	"averageShipSpeed": 138.46
}

You'll need to write a class like this:

public class Jedi extends AbstractModel {
    
	private String name;
	private String surname;
	private int age;
	private boolean isFromDarkSide;
	private double averageShipSpeed;

	public Jedi() {
		super("YOUR_JSON_URL");
	}
	
	@Override
	protected DataType getDataType() {
		return DataType.JSON;
	}
}

The names of the class fields should be exactly the names of the JSON nodes. The class must extend AbstractModel, provide an URL in the constructor and return DataType.JSON or DataType.XML in the getDataType() method.

Feel free to make the fields public or to write getters and setters. Dumbledroid doesn't care about that.

###Step 4: Call Dumbledroid from within your Activity (or Context) After that, you'll just need to do this:

Jedi jedi = new Jedi();
jedi.load();

That's it. Your JSON is already parsed and mapped to the Jedi instance. If you enabled caching, Dumbledroid already took care of that for you. Simple, isn't it?

Note: make sure to call load() from a background thread, or your app can crash.

##Learn more You can find some interesting articles about Dumbledroid usage and code examples at the Wiki page.

##License Dumbledroid source code is released under BSD 2-clause license. Check LICENSE file for more information.

If you use this code, I'd appreciate you refer my name (Leocadio Tiné) and the link to this project's page in your project's website or credits screen. Though you don't have any legal/contractual obligation to do so, just good karma.

##Logo credits The logo was created using Androidify.

##Suggestions? Comments? Pull requests are always welcome. So are donations :)

To find me, buzz at me[at]leocad.io or follow me on Twitter. To read interesting stuff, go to my blog.

Special thanks to Luis Medeiros, diegocarloslima and santialbo for the pull requests and to jvfl, icfs, and JJordani for the idea for the Eclipse plugin and the sample code to get me started.

:::::::::::::
::         ::
:: Made at ::
::         ::
:::::::::::::
     ::
Hacker School
:::::::::::::