Google Tag Manager and Analytics Integration

Firstly, we can say that you can send events from your app to GA directly. However, you can send events to GTM and then GTM will send those to analytics. Many reasons can be said why to use GTM over GA such as in here. But it always a Design/Need decision!

Anyhow, For Android, A draft implementation is at https://developers.google.com/tag-manager/android/v4/#getting-started

Check it, you may have some questions, you would find the answers in here I hope. So those are some of the lessons I learnt:
- Event Names and keys at Android code should match the corresponding ones at GTM.

dataLayer.pushEvent("openScreen",      DataLayer.mapOf("screenName", screenName));

- If you send Events from GTM to GA, the "value" field should be always Integer . if not, it will not be sent

public static void pushEvent(Context context, String event,String category, String label, Integer labelValue) {

        DataLayer dataLayer = TagManager.getInstance(context).getDataLayer();

        dataLayer.pushEvent(event, DataLayer.mapOf("eventCategory", category,"eventLabel", label, "eventValue", labelValue);

    }

- Configure GTM with Variables, Triggers, and Tags. as described here: https://developers.google.com/tag-manager/android/v4/ua#create-transaction-tag

- Use pushEvent rather than push. It is easier!

Android activity state machine

Nice slide from Android Dev Summit:

Let us standardize it!

Android font and caligraphy

So if you want to set an external font to a text view, you have different options:

- A common step: Get the font and put it under assets/fonts folder (create it if it not already created)

1 - Use this Gist:

Typeface typeface = Typeface.createFromAsset(getAssets(),"Roboto-Regular.ttf");
TextView textview = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.textview);
textview.setTypeface(typeface); 

2 - Use DataBinding Lib as described in here: fontbinding

3- Use XML attributes through custom widget: this is a good blog covering it all Custom fonts

Some questions and answers "About me!"

I got those questions from a recruiter and I thought it is Ok to share them as a kind of about me!:

1. What position are you looking for? Android Pervasive Engineer with great capacity of Technology Evangelism 
2. Do you have any experience working in a Scrum environment?
   1. If yes, what was your role? Developer among Development Team
   2. What did you like about the process? Adapting to changes responsively and actively. Continous communication with frequent updates.
3. What is your opinion on CI? Continous Integration is an essential building block in Software Development. Whenever you develop a feature, you are pretty sure that it will work seamlessly with other parts of software. if used properly, gives confidence about the product and its quality.
4. What is QA for you and who is responsible for it? Quality Assurance is a proactive approach to tell this app would not crash. Every one working on the app is responsible for the quality of the app besides the QA team.
5. What does Software Architecture mean to you? How do you ensure you have a maintainable and extensible code base? Building blocks interacting with each other and if you want to scale, you need architecture.  By following Best Practices, Design Patterns, Separating Concerns, Readable Naming Convention and surely Unit Testing.
    
6. How big were the teams you worked in? And what is the ideal team size you feel comfortable with? as Android mobile development team 2-4 people. And it depends on the context 2 to 4 is nice with capacity of Pair Programming. 
7. What is your experience in terms of mobile? I started with the early version of Android 1.1. I keep on track with latest trends in Android development as I am still eager to learn. I conduct presentations, workshops and participate in hackathons whenever possible besides I consider myself as a Mobile Computing Evangelist. 

Configure Android Studio for UnitTesting with legacy structure

So you want to to use unit testing with Android Studio and you have an old code base that does not follow the standard folder structure of Android Studio.

- You need to create test/java folders in the module you want to test.
-- Tip: use external file explorer (e.g. Mac Finder) to do so outside Android.
- Add this to you module dependencies at build.gradle:
-- compile 'junit:junit:4.12'

-- Add Junit to the classPath

-- Start Testing!

Working with Legacy Code

As I am trying to find my way to a better quality well structured code, I am in my journey reading "Working Effectively with Legacy Code" by Michael Feathers.

I found the following strategy interesting:
"The general legacy management strategy is:
1. Identify change points
2. Find an inflection point
3. Cover the inflection point
 a. Break external dependencies
 b. Break internal dependencies
 c. Write tests
4. Make changes
5. Refactor the covered code."

Dependencies Report in Android

So I learnt a nice feature through the Android Summit, How to generate dependencies report for certain module in your app:

-Gradle plugin -> your module -> help -> dependecies
- It will suffer saying no configurations
- Go to  Edit configurations -> tasks -> put your module you need to analyze e.g. ":app:dependencies"
- Build and run again, you would get sth like that:
+--- com.android.support:multidex:1.0.1
+--- project :volley
+--- com.squareup.picasso:picasso:2.5.2
+--- com.beaconinside:beaconinside-sdk-basic-1.2.2:
+--- com.android.support:support-v4:21.0.0 -> 23.0.1
|    \--- com.android.support:support-annotations:23.0.1
+--- com.android.support:appcompat-v7:21.0.0
|    \--- com.android.support:support-v4:21.0.0 -> 23.0.1 (*)
+--- com.google.android.gms:play-services-analytics:7.5.0
|    \--- com.google.android.gms:play-services-base:7.5.0
|         \--- com.android.support:support-v4:22.0.0 -> 23.0.1 (*)
+--- com.google.android.gms:play-services-gcm:7.5.0
|    \--- com.google.android.gms:play-services-base:7.5.0 (*)
+--- com.amazonaws:aws-android-sdk-core:2.+ -> 2.2.9
|    \--- com.google.code.gson:gson:2.2.4 -> 2.3.1
+--- com.amazonaws:aws-android-sdk-sns:2.+ -> 2.2.9
|    +--- com.amazonaws:aws-android-sdk-core:2.2.9 (*)
|    \--- com.amazonaws:aws-android-sdk-sqs:2.2.9
|         \--- com.amazonaws:aws-android-sdk-core:2.2.9 (*)
+--- com.readystatesoftware.systembartint:systembartint:1.0.3
+--- com.sensorberg.sdk:android-sdk-bootstrapper:2.0.0
|    \--- com.sensorberg.sdk:android-sdk:1.0.0 -> 1.0.4
|         +--- com.sensorberg.android:okvolley:1.1.4
|         |    +--- com.squareup.okhttp:okhttp-urlconnection:2.2.0
|         |    |    \--- com.squareup.okhttp:okhttp:2.2.0
|         |    |         \--- com.squareup.okio:okio:1.2.0
|         |    +--- com.google.code.gson:gson:2.3.1
|         |    +--- com.squareup.okhttp:okhttp:2.2.0 (*)
|         |    \--- com.sensorberg.android:volley:1.2.4
|         +--- io.realm:realm-android:0.79.1
|         +--- net.danlew:android.joda:2.7.2
|         |    \--- joda-time:joda-time:2.7
|         +--- com.sensorberg.android:networkstate:1.0.0
|         \--- com.sensorberg.android:volley:1.2.4
+--- com.sensorberg.sdk:android-sdk:1.0.4 (*)
+--- org.igniterealtime.smack:smack-bosh:4.1.5
|    +--- org.igniterealtime.smack:smack-core:4.1.5

Happy analyzing! :)