Android UI Library for the User App | Zoho Creator Help

Android UI library


NotesThis help page is for users in Creator 6. If you are in the older version (Creator 5), click here. Know your Creator version.
The Android UI library helps you use the UI components of the modules and also to design your own custom UIs.

Prerequisites

  • The latest version of Android Studio

Register your Android app with Zoho

  1. Click  Mobile  from the left pane.
  2. Click on the required row of the iOS app for which you want to configure the core framework. The  For User - SDK  pane will open on the right. 

  3. Click  Generate Client .

  4. This will generate the  client ID ,  client secret , and  redirectURI  for the Android app that you want to integrate with your Creator application.

  5. Downloaded the  zcapp_info.properties  file, then add it to your project's  raw  folder:  "<your_project_folder>/app/src/main/res/raw" . (Create a folder named  raw  in this location if it doesn't exist)

Install the Android UI library for the user app using Kotlin

NotesNote: The Android app must have a minimum SDK version 22 or higher.

  1. Integrate SDK in your Android app:
    1. Add the Zoho maven repository URL in  app/build.gradle.
      allprojects {
            repositories {
                  google()
                  mavenCentral()
                  maven {
                             url 'https://maven.zohodl.com'
                  }
       
            }
      }
      Note:While adding the repository URLs in build.gradle you may encounter Build was configured to prefer settings repositories over project repositories issue. To proceed further, you need to add the repository URLs in settings.grade.
    2. Integrate Zoho Creator UI Library & Authentication Library in  app/build.gradle
      dependencies { 
       implementation 'com.zoho.creator:creator-ui:1.6.0' 
      implementation 'com.zoho.accounts.android:zaccountssdk:V3_1' 
      }

    4. Click  Sync Now  in the bar that appears in the IDE.
  2. Configure your project with the following code:
    1. Add the below string in the  strings.xml  of your app:
      <string name="ui.label.appname" translatable="false"> YOUR APP NAME </string>
      <string name="c_id"> GENERATED CLIENT ID </string>
      <string name="c_secret"> GENERATED CLIENT SECRET ID </string>
      <string name="redir_url"> REGISTERED REDIRECT URI</string>
      <string name="accounts_url"> https://accounts.zoho.com</string><!-- enter the accounts URL of your respective DC. For eg: US users use ' https://accounts.zoho.com'. -->
       
      Your Creator account's  base URL  depends on the  data center  it's associated with.  Learn more
    2. In the  oncreate  method in your application / activity class, Initialize the Accounts SDK as follows: 
      ZohoSDK.getInstance(this).init(scopes, showlogs)
      where,
      • scopes - "aaaserver.profile.READ,zohocontacts.userphoto.READ,ZohoContacts.contactapi.READ,
        ZohoCreator.meta.CREATE,ZohoCreator.meta.READ,ZohoCreator.meta.UPDATE,
        ZohoCreator.meta.DELETE,ZohoCreator.data.CREATE,ZohoCreator.data.READ,
        ZohoCreator.data.UPDATE,ZohoCreator.data.DELETE,Stratus.stratusop.READ,
        ZohoCRM.modules.READ,ZohoCRM.users.READ"
        Note: The scope list have been updated for version 1.4 and above.
      • showLogs - To show debug logs or not
    3. Create an Activity called  HandleRedirectActivity  and add the following code in its  oncreate  method: 
      ZohoSDK.getInstance(this).handleRedirection(this);
    4. Add the following code to the  AndroidManifest.xml  file:
      <activity android:name=".HandleRedirectActivity" android:exported="true">
         <intent-filter>
            <action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW" />
            <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
            <category android:name="android.intent.category.BROWSABLE" />
            <data android:scheme="<REDIRECTURI_WITHOUT_COLON_AND_SLASH>" />
      </intent-filter>
      </activity>
    5. To open the login screen, add the below code snippet: 
      val sdk = ZohoSDK.getInstance(applicationContext)
if (!sdk.isUserSignedIn) {
   sdk.presentLoginScreen(this, object : ZohoTokenCallback {

      override fun onTokenFetchInitiated() {

      }

      override fun onTokenFetchComplete(zohoToken: ZohoToken?) {
         // This method will be called after user logged-in successfully
      }

      override fun onTokenFetchFailed(zohoErrorCodes: ZohoErrorCodes?) {
         // This method will be called if any error occurred in the login. You will receive the error code in this callback.
      }

   }, null)
} else {
   // Start intent to your first activity
}
    6. Implement the Creator Authentication interface  ZCOauthHelper  as follows:
      class ZCAuthImpl(private val context: Context) : ZCOauthHelper {

    @Throws(ZCException::class)
    override suspend fun getAccessToken(): String? {
        return ZohoSDK.getInstance(context).token.token
    }

    override fun getInitialScopes(context: Context): String 	  {
        return ""
    }

    override fun isUserSignedIn(): Boolean {
        return ZohoSDK.getInstance(context).isUserSignedIn
      
    }

    override fun getUserData(): Any? {
        return null
    }

    override fun getTransformedUrl(url: String): String {
        return url
    }

    override fun checkAndLogout(): Boolean {
        return false
    }
override fun isEnhanceTokenNeeded(newScopes: String): Boolean {
        return false
    }

    override fun enhanceToken(tokenHelper: ZCOauthHelper.ZCOAuthTokenHelper, newScopes: String) {
    }
          override fun enhanceTokenWithOnDemandScope(tokenHelper: ZCOauthHelper.ZCOAuthTokenHelper) {
    }
}
    7. Add the following code to your application's / activity's  oncreate  method to set the instance of Authentication interface to the Creator SDK:
      ZCAPIUtil.setOAuthHelper(ZCAuthImpl(applicationContext))
    8. Add the following to your  AndroidManifest.xml  file, under the application tag:
      android:name="com.zoho.creator.a.ZCreatorApplication"

FAQ

  1. I'm getting merge conflicts while generating a build. How to resolve them?
    Please add tools:replace="android:allowBackup,android:label,android:theme" under the application tag in the AndroidManifest.xml file and try again.
  2. I get the "Duplicate class android.support.v4.app" error. What should I do?
    To resolve this error, you'll need to add android.enableJetifier=true in gradle.properties file.
  3. I get the "Duplicate class androidx.lifecycle.ViewModelLazy found in modules jetified" error. What should I do?
    To resolve this error, please add implementation 'androidx.lifecycle:lifecycle-viewmodel-ktx:2.4.0' to your dependency list

References