



If you take a particular section of android apps for example let’s say social networking apps, you would see many of the features this apps have are similar in some or the other way such as setting a profile picture, updating status, browsing through feeds etc. but the one thing which differentiates this applications and provide each its unique identity is the pattern or manner in which its layout is done. Now given the huge popularity of android you could not expect a completely new layout pattern from each and every app but what most of the developers do is take the basic layouts which you see in every entry level application and mold it in their style and fashion to suit the needs.





Now this basic layout are not provided in android SDK (which I really wish were included) so you have to either try to create your own layout for view you see in many mainstream applications or you can try to search for a third –party library and reference it in your project to get that view. But as always we at android4devs try to make your development easier and so we have brought you the best layout libraries to make your layouts look awesome. So let’s take a look at the list





Cards View





Cards view is the view representing a rounded corner boxes with a shadow at the bottom. This view first came in the notice with the “Google Now” application it could also be seen on google play store application as well. Google now had implemented cards with different behaviors such as swipe to dismiss, Stacking cards etc. This all effects can also be implemented with the libraries mentioned below. Placing the contents on cards and giving a specific margin makes the content look more focusing and pleasing. I recommend every beginner android developers to implement this view unless they get another good content holder view.





CardsUI – https://github.com/nadavfima/cardsui-for-android By Nadavfima

Cardslib – https://github.com/gabrielemariotti/cardslib By Gabriele Mariotti

Cards UI– https://github.com/afollestad/Cards-UI By Aidan Follestad





Note - If you want a simple way to implement cards view for a view you can do that by just setting the background property (android:background="@drawable/card_background") of the layout to image card background and you would get the effect on the layout.





Android View Hover









Android View Hover is one of our favourite library this android library have some of the awesome view hovers which can be used on many different kinds of the application the GIFs provided by the contributor will give you more clear idea of what kind of view hovers you can implement with this library. This library is a perfect fit for magazine style of apps also it can be used by tweaking a little bit in many other applications. Though the understanding and implementing the library for beginners would be a bit tricky as it uses many advanced concepts. If you have any problem or issue regarding this library or if you want a specific tutorial please comment.





AndroidViewHover - https://github.com/daimajia/AndroidViewHover by daimajia









DynamicBox





1. Loading Content

2. Show an exception if raised

3. Show a custom view

DynamicBox helps in indicating what’s happening behind the scene when some network or heavy data fetching tasks are performed by the application. If you are working with network data fetching and want to display a loading view DynamicBox will come in handy and provide a quick method to do just the same. DynamicBox typically shows a loading spinner for the data fetching and once the data is fetched it triggers the set activity or fragment. While showing an exception you can customize the layout as per your likes for the DynamicBox to display.





Circular View





Now Circle is a basic shape and is a necessary design element for most of the designers unfortunately we can not render a circle in android that easily as there is no circular view provided with the SDK, But you don’t have to worry there is a library which will help you implement all types of circular views in your project. From the design point of view, circles can be used in many aspects such as Buttons, Image Holders and Mapping System Design etc. The two libraries which we like the most are as below





CircularImageView - https://github.com/Pkmmte/CircularImageView by Pkmmte

CircularView - https://github.com/sababado/CircularView by sababado









Showcase View





Showcase View is a library which helps you to highlight the specific part of android application by circling it and overlaying the rest of the screen. This library is helpful for the first launch introduction of the application. You can guide the users about different gestures available, specific buttons and any other point in the App. Showcase view will make your application easier for the first-time users. Also only use this library when necessary.





ShowcaseView -









DyanamicBox is a library which helps in inflating the layout to showamlcurranThat's It,If you have any trouble implementing any of the above libraries then please comment below we would provide a step by step tutorial for the requested library by the users