This week, I worked on improving both the Android and the iOS versions of the Flixter.

In the Android app, I added a RatingBar that converted a movie’s score out of 10 to stars on a view for a particular movie. Using YouTubePlayerView, I also added the ability to play a movie’s trailer video in full screen:

In the iOS app, I added the ability to view a grid layout of movie posters matching a certain genre using a CollectionView and I also added the ability to tap on a TableView cell in order to view a detailed screen about a particular movie.

I’ve resumed teaching high school CS full-time, but I am also now working towards an advanced certificate in web and mobile applications development.

I was perhaps a little overzealous and enrolled in too many interesting classes initially:

• Linear Algebra (this wasn’t required for my CS degree, but a lot of grad CS courses require it, if I choose to go on to a Masters/PhD)
• Advanced Web Frameworks (part of the web and mobile applications program)
• Android Development (a free course through CodePath)
• iOS Development (another free course through CodePath)

I have decided to drop the linear algebra course since it is the only one that requires specific meet times, which made things a bit challenging since the course meets right after I finish teaching, when my brain was ready for a nap.

Here’s the first Android assignment I’ve completed, Flixter. It uses NYT’s Movie API to populate a TableView with information fetched from a query.

You can find more details about the app and its source code on Github!

We also did the Flixter assignment in the iOS class using Swift.

Here is my project on GitHub