Use of cardstream in google place picker sample code - google-places-api

Question

The sample code in google place picker uses cardstream lib. Is this a open source lib and if so where do i find the documentation/guide for using it ?
github URL: https://github.com/googlesamples/android-play-places/tree/master/PlacePicker

Answer 1

I think the cardstream java code is a great set of java methods that one can use in your app. While there are no javadocs for cardstream you can read the descriptions of the method in the code itself as the method descriptions are written above the individual methods.
I would however make sure that your app can use cardstream before you import it into your code.
For example, if I look at the code, I can see that cardstream is just manipulating a linearLayout and not really adding cards to a recyclerview / listview.
The mainactivity displays the layout from here https://github.com/googlesamples/android-play-places/blob/master/PlacePicker/Application/src/main/res/layout/activity_main.xml:
<fragment
android:id="#+id/fragment_cardstream"
android:name="com.example.google.playservices.placepicker.cardstream.CardStreamFragment"
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
tools:context=".MainActivity"
tools:layout="#layout/cardstream"/>
The fragment then pulls the layout from here:
https://github.com/googlesamples/android-play-places/blob/master/PlacePicker/Application/src/main/res/layout/cardstream.xml
<ScrollView xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:fillViewport="true">
<com.example.google.playservices.placepicker.cardstream.CardStreamLinearLayout
style="#style/CardStream"
android:id="#+id/card_stream"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"/>
</ScrollView>
The layout here that the fragment uses is a cardStreamLinearLayout.
If your app just want to addViews / removeView for a few cards from a linearLayout, then this library is great. But most android apps will want to add on a 'stream' of cards, so it doesn't really make sense from an efficiency perspective to add them onto the linearLayout as that would really be inefficient.
There are tools available on android like listview or recyclerview which would provide a better experience as they are optimised to do so.