300 CHAPTER 8: Android UI Design: Using Advanced ViewGroup Layout Containers
You learned about the seven global or parent configuration parameters which go in the parent
which you can use to affect how child UI widgets in the grid are positioned, aligned, and even span
between grid cells. You upgraded your Hello Universe application to use the Android 4.0 API Level 14
in your AndroidManifest.xml file, so these UIs work.
You learned about how to leverage the most popular user interface widget, the ImageButton class,
and how to set it up using its basic android:src digital image source parameter to reference some
cool galaxy button images we are going to expand on in the next chapter. You also learned how to
set-up a SlidingPaneLayout UI design using only XML markup, and (for now) using zero Java code
changes. You learned how the android:layout_weight and android:layout_width parameters affect
how the SlidingPaneLayout class’s engine will render your sliding pane UI design for the end users of
your application.
Next, in Chapter 9, you’ll learn all about graphic design for Android, including foundational graphics
theories and concepts, how to create a wide spectrum of resolution density image assets, how to
create interactive multi-state ImageButton assets, how to use the NinePatch classes and the 9-patch
tool, and about image compositing.