Apps Is there a good tool for devloping an app gui?

[A.Nonymous]

I will preface this by saying that I am a noob to Android development and haven't actually written a program from the ground up in anything since my college days nearly 10 years ago. I've been diving into Java development with the goal of developing an app for the Marketplace sometime this year. I've got an idea for an app and I've designed the logic for it on paper at least. I just need to design a gui for the app and, of course, actually figure out how to code the thing.

In any case, I have some coding background in VB. I know that in the VB editor I learned in, you had the ability to design your forms and your GUI for your program separately from the actual code. Then you could go into the code and edit what each button actually did, what function it called, etc.... You could basically build the GUI separately from the underlying code, then code the function of each piece of the GUI.

Is there anything like this for Android? I'm struggling with the idea that the only way to design the interface is in actual code. I mean, you run the program, you don't like where a button is or it's color and then you have to tweak the code and run it again to see if you got the results you wanted? It seems clunky to me, but that might be my inexperience speaking. Is there a way around this?

 

[markb]

Have you had a look at the GUI editor that comes with the Android SDK yet?
I'm not sure I'd describe it as a "good tool", and it won't be as sophisticated as the GUI editors you describe. But I'm not aware of any other editors.

If you haven't seen the editor yet, it's basically a tool that lets you place widgets, and it creates an XML file for you. But I end up editing the XML file manually anyway, and personally I find it easier to type what I want rather than use the visual editor.

The XML keeps the GUI layout separate from the code, so if you want to move buttons around, change fonts, colours, sizes etc you don't have to change any code, just change the XML.

Mark

 

[KlaymenDK]

Is there a good tool for devloping an app gui?

No. But there is DroidDraw, which is way, way better than nothing.

 

[A.Nonymous]

Have you had a look at the GUI editor that comes with the Android SDK yet?
I'm not sure I'd describe it as a "good tool", and it won't be as sophisticated as the GUI editors you describe. But I'm not aware of any other editors.

If you haven't seen the editor yet, it's basically a tool that lets you place widgets, and it creates an XML file for you. But I end up editing the XML file manually anyway, and personally I find it easier to type what I want rather than use the visual editor.

The XML keeps the GUI layout separate from the code, so if you want to move buttons around, change fonts, colours, sizes etc you don't have to change any code, just change the XML.

Mark

I wasn't aware one was available. What's the best way to get into it?

I want a tabbed layout for my app I think and I'd like to configure the GUI and the layout before I start the actual coding. I know that people care more about how an app looks a lot of times than they do about it's actual function for whatever reason.

 

[markb]

If you start developing an app following a book or web based tutorial, you'll soon be introduced to the layout XML files, and the GUI editor.

If you haven't got to that stage yet then it's probably too big a topic to explain in a reply here. Have you looked at any documentation, downloaded the SDK, set up Eclipse etc.?

A quick google, a visit to the official Android developer docs, or a book, will get you started.

Mark