Jetpack Compose by Tutorials — Updated for the Compose Beta!

Developing against the shifting sands of beta frameworks is always a challenge — but it’s a challenge that we have always embraced at raywenderlich.com. That’s why we’re excited to announce that our book, Jetpack Compose by Tutorials, First Edition, has now been updated to run on the beta version of the Jetpack Compose framework, and is available today!

A bit of history: we wrote the very first version of the Jetpack Compose book on top of the alpha versions of the framework, knowing that the beta release with a stable API would be just around the corner.

Well, ever since Google announced the beta release of Jetpack Compose, we’ve been busy working to bring the book up-to-date to the stable version of the API, and we’re happy to share it with you today.

Keep reading to see what’s inside, and how you can get your updated copy today!

What is Jetpack Compose by Tutorials?

In Jetpack Compose by Tutorials, you’ll learn how to build a powerful app using Jetpack Compose, how to style your apps using Material Design, how to create special animations and state transitions, how to use modifiers, and much more!

You’ll focus on learning Jetpack Compose not only through theory, but also through real-world project examples.

Who is this Book For?

This book is for intermediate Android developers, who are looking to expand their knowledge of the UI toolkit and add more tools to build beautiful interfaces to their belt, with Jetpack Compose.

It’s also for advanced developers who are well-versed with the legacy Android Toolkit and possibly know something about Jetpack Compose, but haven’t had the time to dive deep into the topic and explore more advanced concepts of Compose such as state handling, connecting the declarative UI to application architecture pattern, using animations and more.

What’s Inside Jetpack Compose by Tutorials?

Jetpack Compose by Tutorials takes you through the process of building a complete real-world app over three sections.

Section I: Getting Started with Jetpack Compose

In this section, you’ll learn all about the fundamental components Jetpack Compose provides, and how to build common user interface components, such as containers, navigation controls and lists. You’ll dive deep into the API and learn a lot about this amazing new UI toolkit.

Learn how the Jetpack Compose stack works, from the UI level all the way down to the underlying tech.

Learn how the Jetpack Compose stack works, from the UI level all the way down to the underlying tech.

1. Developing UI in Android: From developing a fully programmatic interface or writing XML-powered layouts, to using different libraries with custom DSLs, there have been many legacy solutions in the Android UI Toolkit to solve issues of reusability, scalability and performance. Review the “old” ways of writing UI code, and explore the new and awesome UI toolkit called Jetpack Compose.
2. Learning Jetpack Compose Fundamentals: Learn more about the theory of composable functions by trying out the basic Jetpack Compose components. Each composable function has a code sample and is shown inside the app.
3. Building Layout Groups in Compose: The chapter covers the theory behind composable layouts and instructions on how to use those layouts to group basic elements into a more complex UI.
4. Building Lists with Jetpack Compose: This chapter covers the theory behind scrollable containers and building dynamic horizontal and vertical lists in Jetpack Compose.

Section II: Composing User Interfaces

When working on apps and user interfaces, it’s not only important to know what each piece of the interface should be, but also how all these pieces come together to build a beautiful and fully-functional design that’ll wow your users.

Now that you’ve amassed quite a lot of knowledge about the basics of Jetpack Compose and its fundamental UI elements, you’re ready to dive deeper into building custom Compose elements, managing their state in a performant way and styling them using modifiers and built-in Material Design features.

Over these four chapters, you’ll learn how to attach LiveData structures to your state management, rely on different styling modifiers, and combine these topics to create a powerful UI!

Learn about state and data flow in Jetpack Compose, an important part of declarative UI design.

Learn about state and data flow in Jetpack Compose, an important part of declarative UI design.

5. Combining Composables: Learn how to combine different small composable functions into bigger and more complex custom UI. Learn how to think about the UI structure before implementing composables.
6. Using Compose Modifiers: In this chapter you’ll learn how to style your UI components using Jetpack Compose modifiers. Using them, you’ll add shapes, colors, borders, paddings and more!
7. Managing State in Compose: Learn how to manage state and build unidirectional flows of data combining Jetpack Compose, ViewModels and LiveData constructs.
8. Applying Material Design to Compose: Learn how to implement Material Design components in Jetpack Compose. Dive deeper into state handling and implement more JetNotes features.

Section III: Building Complex Apps with Jetpack Compose

Now that you’ve built your app’s basic UI, it’s time to take it to another level. In this section, you’ll apply custom, complex designs that help you stand out from thousands of similar apps! This usually involves building complex custom components and applying animations to represent state changes when your users interact with the UI.

Over the next five chapters, you’ll dive deeper into the Jetpack Compose API to learn how to connect Compose UI to legacy Android code, react to Compose UI lifecycles, and animate different state changes and user interactions.

In the process, you’ll build an awesome app that represents a real-world project — and you’ll apply best practices to improve the user experience.

You’ll build real-world and fully functional apps featuring the power of Jetpack Compose!

You’ll build real-world and fully functional apps featuring the power of Jetpack Compose!

9. Using ConstraintSets in Composables: Learn how to reference ConstraintSets in Compose and how to use them to position views just like in a ConstraintLayout.
10. Building Complex UI in Jetpack Compose: Learn how to build a complex UI in Jetpack Compose using all the fundamental components and combining them together.
11. Reacting to Compose Lifecycle: Learn how to listen to and react to lifecycle callbacks of Jetpack Compose components.
12. Animating Properties Using Compose Learn how to animate UI properties using different animation features of Jetpack Compose.
13. Adding View Compatibility Learn how to use Jetpack Compose in new projects and combine it with the View API, or how to add Jetpack Compose to existing projects.