Top 7 Kotlin libraries

After the official launch of Kotlin by Google for Android app development, many developers have taken a keen interest in this language. According to researchers, Kotlin has become so popular that it has replaced the developer’s number one choice, Java, and is surely the future of Android apps. Developers are finding Kotlin libraries quite amazing, compared to other open-source platforms. Today, every Android app development company is using Kotlin for the development process as it helps to boost overall productivity and makes the code base steadier.

At present, Kotlin libraries are the new buzz across the Android developer’s community as they want to explore different libraries and reap more benefits for delivering better Android apps. In this article, we’ll be discussing some major Kotlin libraries that will help developers to make the right choice, as per their needs.

1. Kotlin Coroutines

Some of the APIs embark on long-running operations that include IO, CPU, file IO, or GPU-intensive work and require a caller to block until they come to an end. But with Kotlin Coroutines, things are quite different. This helps to shun blocking thread and replaces it with the more convenient operation known as suspension of coroutines. Kotlin Coroutines enable developers to develop asynchronous programs in a simpler way, which are primarily based on the concept of continuation-passing style programming.

2. FlexboxLayout

If you want to develop flexible layouts in your application, then FlexboxLayout is an amazing Android layout manager that can help you bring the analogous capabilities to the CSS Flexible Box Layout Module. This feature has extended the ViewGroup similar to Android linear layout and relative layout. You can also add different layouts to Flexbox such as flexWrap, flexDirection, justifyContent, alignItems, and alignContent. While using this layout you can arrange items in a horizontal manner and for step, you’ll be shifted to the next line.

3. Anko

This is one of the popular Android libraries as it is written in Kotlin but maintained by JetBrains. The goal of this library is to speed-up the Kotlin Android development process, which makes it convenient as compared to other libraries. Anko has got its names from the first two letters of (An)droid and (Ko)tlin, naming it Anko. In addition, the library has four diverse modules that include Layouts, SQLite, Commons, and Coroutines.

4. RxKotlin

This is the most lightweight library as compared to all the above-mentioned Android libraries because it adds convenient extension functions to RxJava, which allows you to utilize RxJava and Kotlin exceptionally. Although Kotlin has language features like extension functions that help to simplify the usage of RxJava even more. RxKotlin assists in gathering all these conveniences into one centralized library and standardize conventions for using RxJava with Kotlin.

5. KBinding

As the name suggests, KBinding is the data binding library for Kotlin, which is widely used with Anko to allow data binding seamlessly and comprehensively to understand the syntax. This library enables you to bind the data of your models straight to the XML views in a very flawless way. It represents four data binding models, which are as follows:

• OneWay: Binding from model to view
• TwoWay: Binding from model to view and view to model
• OneTime: Binding from model to view and auto-release after first emit
• OneWayToSource: Binding from view to model

6. Ktlint

We always advise you to focus on what matters and adds value to the business rather than spending time on non-revenue generating tasks. Ktlint library includes both linear and formatted as it is a single binary, in which, it tries to capture the code from Android Kotlin Guide Style and kotlinlang.org. With this library, you can put over the importance of code clarity and community conventions than preferences. This will make things quite easy for people who are reading your codes, freeing up your time spent documenting everything.

7. Klaxon

This is also a lightweight library that helps you parse JSON in Kotlin. In this library, the values are parsed from a suitable JSON file to the following type:

• • Long
  • Int
  • String
  • Double
  • JsonObject
  • JsonArray
  • Boolean

Concluding Thoughts

So these are the top 7 Kotlin libraries that Android developers can utilize for their development process. Say goodbye to developing Android apps from scratch as these libraries can provide a model without consuming too much time.

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