[Android Useful Examples] Android Widgtets Tutorial

 widget is a small gadget or control of your android application placed on the home screen. Widgets can be very handy as they allow you to put your favourite applications on your homescreen in order to quickly access them. You have probably seen some common widgets , such as music widget , weather widget , clock widget e.t.c

Widgets could be of many types such as information widgets, collection widgets, control widgets and hybrid widgets. Android provides us a complete framework to develop our own widgets.

Widget - XML file

In order to create an application widget , first thing you need is AppWidgetProviderInfo object, which you will define in a seperate widget XML file. In order to do that, right click on your project and create a new folder called xml. Now right click on the newly created folder and create a new XML file. The resource type of the XML file should be set to AppWidgetProvider. In the xml file, define some properties which are as follows:

<appwidget-provider 
   xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" 
   android:minWidth="146dp" 
   android:updatePeriodMillis="0" 
   android:minHeight="146dp" 
   android:initialLayout="@layout/activity_main"></appwidget-provider>