Any plans for a 5th edition?

Android Programming (4th Edition) General Book Discussion
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I’ve been with this book since the 2nd edition and it has been a great reference & resource for my class. As with any documentation, particularly Android, it quickly becomes deprecated/obsolete and needs revision. There are several key updates that have been identified and solutions are being posted here (apologies for the self links).

Plus components/features to add back in:

  • ViewPager2
  • Preferences
  • Location
  • Maps
  • Non-single fragment activities

With Android 10 & 11 there are updates for:

  • Notifications
  • Permissions

Another option is to add a segment on Jetpack Compose.

I’m sure there are many other possibilities and the danger is a 1,000 page book that includes everything to date.

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Eric from BNR here. To answer your question, yes we are planning a 5th edition of the Android book. It’s our goal to release the edition before the end of 2021, probably in December.

While I can’t speak to what specifically will change, we are aware of areas where the book needs work and will look to address those as we get toward a release.

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Wonderful news!

I had posted prior to the 4th edition, but I’d love to get involved in assisting in any way possible. As either a contributor, tester, reviewer, etc. I have converted much of the book to work with ViewBinding, NavGraphs, Paging, etc.

Please feel free to reach out.

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Hii!
I am looking forward to get going with the BNR Android 5th edition.
Any updates when it will be released?

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Hi Eric, Any update on the new version please. I am eagerly waiting to start with it.

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I, too, am eager for a timeline. I’ll be using this book for my Android Programming course starting in January. Should I anticipate the 5th edition by early-mid January, or stick with the 4th edition? Thanks for the information.

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I too am hoping to use the book for my spring course, but judging by the timing of the 4th edition being released I’m not optimistic it’ll be available in time.

I’m thinking it would be ready for a Spring 2023 course and then we’re dealing with the deprecated features already.

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I imagine there could be enough on the Jetpack Compose topic alone to make it a separate book…

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Hi all - Eric from BNR here. Thanks for your patience with my reply. Unfortunately we hit some delays with the production of the 5th edition, so we have had to shift our timeline. We are planning for a release this spring (April/May).

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Will the book be solely using Jetpack Compose for UI for the projects, or will there just be a small section introducing Compose?

Personally I’d love to see full projects with Compose.

Also I prefer ebooks to real books, it’s just handy to have on one screen and copy and paste sections of code. Will it be released as an ebook/ PDF also?

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  • I concur hoping the book is as much Compose & Jetpack components as possible.
  • Move away from MVC to MVVM.
  • Scaffold for TopBar, Drawer, BottomBar, Snackbar.
  • LiveData and State (Observer patterns)
  • Room DB
  • Retrofit
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Dagger Hilt and Flow would be good also

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I have been seeing Hilt referenced in many places. Do you know of any good tutorials walking through the process?

Beyond

and

?

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Also Testing would be great

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With April just around the corner, is it still expected April/May? Just Amazon has August 29th as release date on the UK site.

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Thanks for linking the post to this thread.

I’m afraid by next spring this book again will not be current enough to be used as a course textbook - with only 4 chapters on Compose. Hopefully they publish a Table of Contents so I can get a better idea of the book content, but I fear my days of using BNR as a resource for Android development have passed. The Android documentation and medium.com articles have proved current & helpful.

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Yes am not sure if it will be a complete resource for Compose, but will have to see.
Another title that is supposed to be released by the end of the month is the following. I have been in touch with the author and he has told me all the book uses Compose.

There are a few courses on Udemy, plus some good stuff on youtube by Philip Lackner, CodingInFlow and Adam McNeilly

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Hey everyone! My name is Bryan and I am one of the authors of the 5th edition. It has now been released in a digital form (printed copies are coming soon).

We have also created a new space here in the forums in order to discuss topics related to this new edition (Android Programming (5th Edition) - Big Nerd Ranch Book Forums). Please join us there if you want to talk about it!