Making a responsive dashboard structure for JetLagged with Jetpack Compose

Posted by Rebecca Franks – Developer Relations Engineer

This weblog submit is a part of our sequence: Adaptive Highlight Week the place we offer assets—weblog posts, movies, pattern code, and extra—all designed that can assist you adapt your apps to telephones, foldables, tablets, ChromeOS and even vehicles. You’ll be able to learn extra within the overview of the Adaptive Highlight Week, which might be up to date all through the week.

We’ve heard the information, creating adaptive layouts in Jetpack Compose is less complicated than ever. As a declarative UI toolkit, Jetpack Compose is nicely suited to designing and implementing layouts that modify themselves to render content material in another way throughout a wide range of sizes. By utilizing logic coupled with Window Dimension Lessons, Stream layouts, movableContentOf and LookaheadScope, we are able to guarantee fluid responsive layouts in Jetpack Compose.

Following the discharge of the JetLagged pattern at Google I/O 2023, we determined so as to add extra examples to it. Particularly, we needed to show how Compose can be utilized to create a good looking dashboard-like structure. This text exhibits how we’ve achieved this.

Use FlowRow and FlowColumn to construct layouts that reply to totally different display sizes

Utilizing Stream layouts ( FlowRow and FlowColumn ) make it a lot simpler to implement responsive, reflowing layouts that reply to display sizes and mechanically circulate content material to a brand new line when the accessible area in a row or column is full.

Within the JetLagged instance, we use a FlowRow, with a maxItemsInEachRow set to three. This ensures we maximize the area accessible for the dashboard, and place every particular person card in a row or column the place area is used properly, and on cell units, we principally have 1 card per row, provided that the gadgets are smaller are there two seen per row.

Some playing cards leverage Modifiers that don’t specify a precise measurement, due to this fact permitting the playing cards to develop to fill the accessible width, as an illustration utilizing Modifier.widthIn(max = 400.dp), or set a sure measurement, like Modifier.width(200.dp).

FlowRow(
    modifier = Modifier.fillMaxSize(),
    horizontalArrangement = Association.Middle,
    verticalArrangement = Association.Middle,
    maxItemsInEachRow = 3
) {
    Field(modifier = Modifier.widthIn(max = 400.dp))
    Field(modifier = Modifier.width(200.dp))
    Field(modifier = Modifier.measurement(200.dp))
    // and many others 
}

We might additionally leverage the load modifier to divide up the remaining space of a row or column, take a look at the documentation on merchandise weights for extra data.

Use WindowSizeClasses to distinguish between units

WindowSizeClasses are helpful for increase breakpoints in our UI for when parts ought to show in another way. In JetLagged, we use the courses to know whether or not we must always embrace playing cards in Columns or hold them flowing one after the opposite.

For instance, if WindowWidthSizeClass.COMPACT, we hold gadgets in the identical FlowRow, the place as if the structure it bigger than compact, they’re positioned in a FlowColumn, nested inside a FlowRow:

            FlowRow(
                modifier = Modifier.fillMaxSize(),
                horizontalArrangement = Association.Middle,
                verticalArrangement = Association.Middle,
                maxItemsInEachRow = 3
            ) {
                JetLaggedSleepGraphCard(uiState.worth.sleepGraphData)
                if (windowSizeClass == WindowWidthSizeClass.COMPACT) {
                    AverageTimeInBedCard()
                    AverageTimeAsleepCard()
                } else {
                    FlowColumn {
                        AverageTimeInBedCard()
                        AverageTimeAsleepCard()
                    }
                }
                if (windowSizeClass == WindowWidthSizeClass.COMPACT) {
                    WellnessCard(uiState.worth.wellnessData)
                    HeartRateCard(uiState.worth.heartRateData)
                } else {
                    FlowColumn {
                        WellnessCard(uiState.worth.wellnessData)
                        HeartRateCard(uiState.worth.heartRateData)
                    }
                }
            }

From the above logic, the UI will seem within the following methods on totally different machine sizes:

Use movableContentOf to keep up bits of UI state throughout display resizes

Movable content material permits you to save the contents of a Composable to maneuver it round your structure hierarchy with out dropping state. It ought to be used for content material that’s perceived to be the identical – simply in a distinct location on display.

Think about this, you might be shifting home to a distinct metropolis, and also you pack a field with a clock within it. Opening the field within the new house, you’d see that the time would nonetheless be ticking from the place it left off. It won’t be the proper time of your new timezone, however it is going to undoubtedly have ticked on from the place you left it. The contents contained in the field don’t reset their inner state when the field is moved round.

What if you happen to might use the identical idea in Compose to maneuver gadgets on display with out dropping their inner state?

Take the next state of affairs under consideration: Outline totally different Tile composables that show an infinitely animating worth between 0 and 100 over 5000ms.

@Composable
enjoyable Tile1() {
    val repeatingAnimation = rememberInfiniteTransition()

    val float = repeatingAnimation.animateFloat(
        initialValue = 0f,
        targetValue = 100f,
        animationSpec = infiniteRepeatable(repeatMode = RepeatMode.Reverse,
            animation = tween(5000))
    )
    Field(modifier = Modifier
        .measurement(100.dp)
        .background(purple, RoundedCornerShape(8.dp))){
        Textual content("Tile 1 ${float.worth.roundToInt()}",
            modifier = Modifier.align(Alignment.Middle))
    }
}

We then show them on display utilizing a Column Structure – displaying the infinite animations as they go:

However what If we needed to put the tiles in another way, primarily based on if the cellphone is in a distinct orientation (or totally different display measurement), and we don’t need the animation values to cease working? One thing like the next:

@Composable
enjoyable WithoutMovableContentDemo() {
    val mode = bear in mind {
        mutableStateOf(Mode.Portrait)
    }
    if (mode.worth == Mode.Panorama) {
        Row {
           Tile1()
           Tile2()
        }
    } else {
        Column {
           Tile1()
           Tile2()
        }
    }
}

This seems fairly commonplace, however working this on machine – we are able to see that switching between the 2 layouts causes our animations to restart.

That is the right case for movable content material – it’s the identical Composables on display, they’re simply in a distinct location. So how will we use it? We are able to simply outline our tiles in a movableContentOf block, utilizing bear in mind to make sure its saved throughout compositions:

val tiles = bear in mind {
        movableContentOf {
            Tile1()
            Tile2()
        }
 }

Now as an alternative of calling our composables once more contained in the Column and Row respectively, we name tiles() as an alternative.

@Composable
enjoyable MovableContentDemo() {
    val mode = bear in mind {
        mutableStateOf(Mode.Portrait)
    }
    val tiles = bear in mind {
        movableContentOf {
            Tile1()
            Tile2()
        }
    }
    Field(modifier = Modifier.fillMaxSize()) {
        if (mode.worth == Mode.Panorama) {
            Row {
                tiles()
            }
        } else {
            Column {
                tiles()
            }
        }

        Button(onClick = {
            if (mode.worth == Mode.Portrait) {
                mode.worth = Mode.Panorama
            } else {
                mode.worth = Mode.Portrait
            }
        }, modifier = Modifier.align(Alignment.BottomCenter)) {
            Textual content("Change structure")
        }
    }
}

This can then bear in mind the nodes generated by these Composables and protect the inner state that these composables at present have.

We are able to now see that our animation state is remembered throughout the totally different compositions. Our clock within the field will now hold state when it is moved all over the world.

Utilizing this idea, we are able to hold the animating bubble state of our playing cards, by inserting the playing cards in movableContentOf:

Language
val timeSleepSummaryCards = bear in mind {
            movableContentOf {
                AverageTimeInBedCard()
                AverageTimeAsleepCard()
            }
        }
        LookaheadScope {
            FlowRow(
                modifier = Modifier.fillMaxSize(),
                horizontalArrangement = Association.Middle,
                verticalArrangement = Association.Middle,
                maxItemsInEachRow = 3
            ) {
                //..
                if (windowSizeClass == WindowWidthSizeClass.Compact) {
                    timeSleepSummaryCards()
                } else {
                    FlowColumn {
                        timeSleepSummaryCards()
                    }
                }
                //
            }
        }

This enables the playing cards state to be remembered and the playing cards will not be recomposed. That is evident when observing the bubbles within the background of the playing cards, on resizing the display the bubble animation continues with out restarting the animation.

Use Modifier.animateBounds() to have fluid animations between totally different window sizes

From the above instance, we are able to see that state is maintained between modifications in structure measurement (or structure itself), however the distinction between the 2 layouts is a bit jarring. We’d like this to animate between the 2 states with out difficulty.

Within the newest compose-bom-alpha (2024.09.03), there’s a new experimental customized Modifier, Modifier.animateBounds(). The animateBounds modifier requires a LookaheadScope.

LookaheadScope permits Compose to carry out intermediate measurement passes of structure modifications, notifying composables of the intermediate states between them. LookaheadScope can be used for the brand new shared component APIs, that you could have seen lately.

To make use of Modifier.animateBounds(), we wrap the top-level FlowRow in a LookaheadScope, after which apply the animateBounds modifier to every card. We are able to additionally customise how the animation runs, by specifying the boundsTransform parameter to a customized spring spec:

val boundsTransform = { _ : Rect, _: Rect ->
   spring(
       dampingRatio = Spring.DampingRatioNoBouncy,
       stiffness = Spring.StiffnessMedium,
       visibilityThreshold = Rect.VisibilityThreshold
   )
}


LookaheadScope {
   val animateBoundsModifier = Modifier.animateBounds(
       lookaheadScope = this@LookaheadScope,
       boundsTransform = boundsTransform)
   val timeSleepSummaryCards = bear in mind {
       movableContentOf {
           AverageTimeInBedCard(animateBoundsModifier)
           AverageTimeAsleepCard(animateBoundsModifier)
       }
   }
   FlowRow(
       modifier = Modifier
           .fillMaxSize()
           .windowInsetsPadding(insets),
       horizontalArrangement = Association.Middle,
       verticalArrangement = Association.Middle,
       maxItemsInEachRow = 3
   ) {
       JetLaggedSleepGraphCard(uiState.worth.sleepGraphData, animateBoundsModifier.widthIn(max = 600.dp))
       if (windowSizeClass == WindowWidthSizeClass.Compact) {
           timeSleepSummaryCards()
       } else {
           FlowColumn {
               timeSleepSummaryCards()
           }
       }


       FlowColumn {
           WellnessCard(
               wellnessData = uiState.worth.wellnessData,
               modifier = animateBoundsModifier
                   .widthIn(max = 400.dp)
                   .heightIn(min = 200.dp)
           )
           HeartRateCard(
               modifier = animateBoundsModifier
                   .widthIn(max = 400.dp, min = 200.dp),
               uiState.worth.heartRateData
           )
       }
   }
}

Making use of this to our structure, we are able to see the transition between the 2 states is extra seamless with out jarring interruptions.

Making use of this logic to our entire dashboard, when resizing our structure, you will notice that we now have a fluid UI interplay all through the entire display.

Abstract

As you possibly can see from this text, utilizing Compose has enabled us to construct a responsive dashboard-like structure by leveraging circulate layouts, WindowSizeClasses, movable content material and LookaheadScope. These ideas may also be used on your personal layouts which will have gadgets shifting round in them too.

For extra data on these totally different subjects, make sure to take a look at the official documentation, for the detailed modifications to JetLagged, check out this pull request.