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This is a challenge meant for individuals applying for an Android Developer position at Smashing Boxes.
The purpose of this challenge is to provide a relevant, uniform code example by demonstrating use of the Android platform's core frameworks to implement a simple feature common to many applications -- search.
The ideal application will consist of the following workflow:
On the initial application startup, if assets/item.csv hasn't been parsed out and stored into a database, run a routine to do so. If the user minimizes or closes the application, this routine should still continue until finished. When finished, if the user is currently viewing the application, a list should be populated with all results (i.e. an empty query should display all items). Once results are present, a menu item should be displayed to allow the user to provide a search query that will filter the list of displayed results by dispatching an additional query. Note: Query strings should filter on the "Item Description" column of the CSV.
Feel free to use as many Classes/Nested Classes, relevant external gradle libraries, etc that you find necessary to come to a solution.
- Usage of each of the core Android framework components Activity, Service, BroadcastReceiver, and ContentProvider.
- Usage of the ToolBar to receive the user's search input that updates the ui as the user types.
- Knowledge of File parsing, and type conversion.
- Knowledge of database creation, insertion, and querying. Any optimizations performed here are always a plus.
- Use of a SharedPreferences object to persist global application state.
- Useage of a ListView, Adapter, (Bonus: RecyclerView) and user feedback while no results are present.
- Use of standard Java naming conventions (Beans Conventions), Android best practices, and code comments where necessary.
- This may differ depending on DB choice Usage of an SQL statement to query search results for both partial and exact textual matches. Results should be queried through a ContentResolver, and the number of results, as well as the results themselves should be displayed.
10 Results
Item 1
Item 2
Item 3
...
Feel free to complete as much of this challenge as you feel is reasonable for your skill level.
Send relevant code source as .zip, tar.gz, or link to a git url accompanied with a signed .apk file to matt.wood@smashingboxes.com.