Add Android Greeter demo #517

pepone · 2025-06-05T17:13:43Z

Copilot

Pull Request Overview

This PR introduces an Android demo for the Ice Greeter application. It adds the necessary Slice definitions, resource files (layouts, themes, drawables, and XML configurations), application logic in Kotlin, and Gradle build configuration to support the demo.

Added a Slice file defining the Greeter interface
Created resource files and layouts for the Android UI
Implemented MainActivity and application initialization to integrate with the Ice framework

Reviewed Changes

Copilot reviewed 38 out of 38 changed files in this pull request and generated 3 comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
java/Ice/greeter-android/app/src/main/slice/Greeter.ice	Added Slice definition for the Greeter interface
java/Ice/greeter-android/app/src/main/res/xml/data_extraction_rules.xml	Added sample data extraction rules for Android backup configuration
java/Ice/greeter-android/app/src/main/res/xml/backup_rules.xml	Added sample backup rules file
java/Ice/greeter-android/app/src/main/res/values/themes.xml	Defined light theme styling
java/Ice/greeter-android/app/src/main/res/values/strings.xml	Added app name string resource
java/Ice/greeter-android/app/src/main/res/values/colors.xml	Defined color resources
java/Ice/greeter-android/app/src/main/res/values-night/themes.xml	Defined dark theme styling
java/Ice/greeter-android/app/src/main/res/mipmap-anydpi/ic_launcher_round.xml, ic_launcher.xml	Added launcher icon vector assets
java/Ice/greeter-android/app/src/main/res/layout/activity_main.xml	Created the main activity layout for user input and greeter response
java/Ice/greeter-android/app/src/main/res/drawable/ic_launcher_foreground.xml, ic_launcher_background.xml	Added vector drawable assets for the launcher icons
java/Ice/greeter-android/app/src/main/java/com/example/ice/androidgreeter/MainActivity.kt	Implemented the main activity with UI interaction and Ice proxy calls
java/Ice/greeter-android/app/src/main/java/com/example/ice/androidgreeter/App.kt	Added Application class to initialize and provide the Ice Communicator
java/Ice/greeter-android/app/src/main/AndroidManifest.xml	Configured application manifest with permissions, theme, and activity declarations
java/Ice/greeter-android/app/proguard-rules.pro	Included ProGuard rules for build optimization
java/Ice/greeter-android/app/build.gradle.kts	Set up Gradle build configuration including dependencies and plugins
java/Ice/greeter-android/app/.gitignore, java/Ice/greeter-android/.gitignore	Specified files to be ignored by version control

Copilot · 2025-06-06T09:54:37Z

java/Ice/greeter-android/app/src/main/res/layout/activity_main.xml

+            android:layout_width="match_parent"
+            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
+            android:text="10.0.2.2"
+            android:inputType="textUri" />


[nitpick] Consider using a more appropriate inputType for IP addresses. For example, using 'numberDecimal' or a plain 'text' input may better suit IP address input.

Suggested change

android:inputType="textUri" />

android:inputType="numberDecimal" />

Copilot · 2025-06-06T09:54:37Z

java/Ice/greeter-android/app/build.gradle.kts

+    alias(libs.plugins.android.application)
+    alias(libs.plugins.kotlin.android)
+    // Apply the Slice-tools plugin to enable Slice compilation.
+    id("com.zeroc.ice.slice-tools") version "3.8.+"


Using a dynamic version pattern ("3.8.+") may lead to non-deterministic builds. Consider specifying a fixed version number for reproducible builds.

Suggested change

id("com.zeroc.ice.slice-tools") version "3.8.+"

id("com.zeroc.ice.slice-tools") version "3.8.5"

Copilot · 2025-06-06T09:54:38Z

java/Ice/greeter-android/app/src/main/res/layout/activity_main.xml

+        android:text=""
+        android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium"
+        android:padding="16dp"
+        android:textColor="@android:color/black"


Using a hard-coded text color may lead to accessibility issues in dark mode. Consider referencing a theme attribute to ensure proper contrast in different modes.

Suggested change

android:textColor="@android:color/black"

android:textColor="?android:attr/textColorPrimary"

bernardnormier · 2025-06-06T14:31:26Z

java/Ice/greeter-android/app/src/main/java/com/example/ice/androidgreeter/App.kt

@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
+// Copyright (c) ZeroC, Inc.
+
+package com.example.ice.androidgreeter


It would be nice for the demo name and package name to be consistent: either greeter android or android greeter, not demo=greeter-android and package=androidgreeter.

I prefer "Android Greeter".

bernardnormier · 2025-06-06T14:32:41Z

java/Ice/greeter-android/app/src/main/java/com/example/ice/androidgreeter/MainActivity.kt

@@ -0,0 +1,83 @@
+package com.example.ice.androidgreeter


Missing copyright line

bernardnormier · 2025-06-06T14:34:49Z

java/Ice/greeter-android/app/src/main/java/com/example/ice/androidgreeter/MainActivity.kt

+                    // The proxy is recreated for each request to ensure the latest IP address is used.
+                    val greeter = GreeterPrx.createProxy(communicator, "greeter:tcp -h $ip -p 4061")
+
+                    // Send the greetAsync request on a background thread and wait for the response


Is this correct?

The Ice async API does not block the calling thread so it should not be necessary to send this request "on a background thread".

In Android you can not start any Network IO in the UI thread, this includes Asynchronous Network IO.

See https://developer.android.com/reference/android/os/NetworkOnMainThreadException

In 3.7 we worked around that with the Background IO executor but it was removed in 3.8 (We should mention in the CHANGELOG).

See zeroc-ice/ice@b4ca088

externl

Looks good. I didn't test in a simulator. What does the UX look like?

externl · 2025-06-09T13:09:36Z

java/Ice/android-greeter/.gitignore

Is this our standard .gitignore?

externl · 2025-06-09T13:12:08Z

java/Ice/android-greeter/app/src/main/java/com/example/ice/androidgreeter/App.kt

+ * through [getCommunicator]. If initialization fails, the application will crash immediately.
+ */
+class App : Application() {
+    private var communicator: Communicator? = null


Where is this communicator destroyed?

it is not, application remains in the background until is killed.

The Android app life cycle is a bit complex I think it is not worth to enter into these details for a simple greeter.
https://developer.android.com/guide/components/activities/activity-lifecycle

Can't we use https://developer.android.com/guide/components/activities/activity-lifecycle#ondestroy?

I pointed to the wrong doc, the communicator lives in the application and is independently of the activity life cycle. And activity can be destroyed because the UI change orientation, but this shouldn't trigger a communicator destroy.

There is Application.onTerminate but is only useful for emulators

https://developer.android.com/reference/android/app/Application#onTerminate()

bernardnormier · 2025-06-09T15:11:20Z

java/Ice/android-greeter/app/src/main/java/com/example/ice/androidgreeter/MainActivity.kt

+        val greetButton = findViewById<Button>(R.id.greetButton)
+        val greetResponse = findViewById<TextView>(R.id.greetResponse)
+
+        // Retrieve the Ice communicator from the application class


In all other demos, we end most comments with a period.

Add Android Greeter demo

1a3769e

pepone requested a review from Copilot June 5, 2025 17:13

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pepone mentioned this pull request Jun 6, 2025

Create Android Version of Ice/greeter Demo #516

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Review fixes

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pepone marked this pull request as ready for review June 6, 2025 09:53

pepone requested review from bernardnormier, Copilot and externl June 6, 2025 09:53

Copilot AI reviewed Jun 6, 2025

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pepone mentioned this pull request Jun 6, 2025

Create Ice SwiftUI greeter demo #518

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Copilot AI mentioned this pull request Jun 6, 2025

Add Ice SwiftUI greeter demo #519

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bernardnormier approved these changes Jun 6, 2025

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Rename

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externl approved these changes Jun 9, 2025

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bernardnormier reviewed Jun 9, 2025

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pepone added 4 commits June 10, 2025 10:15

Merge remote-tracking branch 'origin/main' into android-greeter

c00ea24

Include build logic

69de9da

Review fixes

1dd7e3b

Comment format

090b2c6

pepone merged commit c823eb7 into zeroc-ice:main Jun 10, 2025
10 of 11 checks passed

	android:inputType="textUri" />
	android:inputType="numberDecimal" />

	id("com.zeroc.ice.slice-tools") version "3.8.+"
	id("com.zeroc.ice.slice-tools") version "3.8.5"

	android:textColor="@android:color/black"
	android:textColor="?android:attr/textColorPrimary"

		@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
		// Copyright (c) ZeroC, Inc.

		package com.example.ice.androidgreeter

Add Android Greeter demo #517

Add Android Greeter demo #517

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pepone commented Jun 5, 2025

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