Using an API to automatically populate a list in Android Studio

Fakman87

Hey lads,

I'm currently doing a project for college that should display the top 50 books on Good Reads. I received an API key from them but honestly have no clue how to populate the list using this API.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Sheeps

A little more information about what you're trying to do? Are you trying to populate a list view in android sdk? Have you read the api documentation? It looks like it's just an HTTP XML based api. Get familiar with how to use something like the android http client. Then get an example online of a of a get request. Put the two together.

Then you get a http response look at how you can parse it. Look at how you can use an XML parser to get the data from the response. Then you're going to need to find out how to modify your list item with the relevant text. Look at list adapters. Is it just a text view?

Answer these questions and you're on your way to getting started.

jester77

Are you allowed to use 3rd party libs? Retrofit is excellent, it's a type safe http client that makes network configuration and handling very easy.

To add data to a list, look at RecyclerView and how data is managed with the the Adapter and ViewHolder.

Buford T Justice

Have they provided documentation for running queries against their API?

EDIT: They have some documentation here

But in a nutshell, you submit a query via browser link including your API key, and the service will return an XML response which you can parse however you see fit.

Fakman87

Thanks very much for the help lads!

I'm in over my head here. This is the code I have for the listview currently:

public class BookActivity extends AppCompatActivity {
ListView listView;
ArrayAdapter<String> adapter;
String[] books = {"1984",
"The Great Gatsby",
"The Catcher in the Rye",
"Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone",
"The Hobbit"};

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.activity_book);
Toolbar toolbar = (Toolbar) findViewById(R.id.toolbar);
setSupportActionBar(toolbar);
listView = (ListView)findViewById(R.id.list_view);
adapter = new ArrayAdapter<String>(this,android.R.layout.simple_list_item_1,books);
listView.setAdapter(adapter);

I'm adding those strings manually there but totally lost with the API business :P

deconduo

Fakman87 wrote: »

Thanks very much for the help lads!

I'm in over my head here. This is the code I have for the listview currently:

public class BookActivity extends AppCompatActivity {
ListView listView;
ArrayAdapter<String> adapter;
String[] books = {"1984",
"The Great Gatsby",
"The Catcher in the Rye",
"Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone",
"The Hobbit"};

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.activity_book);
Toolbar toolbar = (Toolbar) findViewById(R.id.toolbar);
setSupportActionBar(toolbar);
listView = (ListView)findViewById(R.id.list_view);
adapter = new ArrayAdapter<String>(this,android.R.layout.simple_list_item_1,books);
listView.setAdapter(adapter);

I'm adding those strings manually there but totally lost with the API business :P

A simple view of web APIs is that you call a particular URL and you get a page with data, usually in XML or JSON format. For Goodreads an example (from the API documentation) is:

https://www.goodreads.com/search.xml?key=YOUR_KEY&q=Ender%27s+Game

If you go to that URL replacing YOUR_KEY with the actual API key you have, you should get a list of books related to Ender's Game (the search term in the URL).

The full list of API methods are documented here:
http://www.goodreads.com/api/index

Fakman87

That's great thanks I'll try that now