SPINNER control for Android UI

These days, as part of my side project, I have started working with Android. There was a requirement to show type of travel (business, economy, tourist, etc.,) basis for the customer who is awaiting to check-in into our clients hotel.

Android gives us a simple spinner item that can be quickly built and used. Below is the sample. For the sake of the sample, i have hard coded the location names, instead of picking up from SQLlite.


for my MainActivity.xml, i have made it implement  AdapterView.OnItemSelectedListener .

Then, defined the spinner and its dataset
        //to read the spinner element
        Spinner spinner =(Spinner) findViewById(R.id.spinner);
        spinner.setOnItemSelectedListener(this);
        // Spinner Drop down elements
        List<String> categories = new ArrayList<String>();
        categories.add("Business");
        categories.add("Family trip");
        categories.add("back packing tourist");
        categories.add("delegation visitor");
        categories.add("Other Tourism ");


Then, i have set the Adaptor details for the ArrayList and the spinner to bind together.

// Creating adapter for spinner
        ArrayAdapter<String> dataAdapter = new ArrayAdapter<String>
                                    (this, android.R.layout.simple_spinner_item, categories);

       // Drop down layout style
       dataAdapter.setDropDownViewResource(android.R.layout.simple_spinner_dropdown_item);

   // attaching data adapter to spinner
       spinner.setAdapter(dataAdapter);



Override the methods for onItemSelected

 @Override
    public void onItemSelected(AdapterView<?> adapterView, View view, int position, long id) {
        // On selecting a spinner item
        String item = adapterView.getItemAtPosition(position).toString();

        // Showing selected spinner item
        Toast.makeText(adapterView.getContext(), "Selected: " + item, Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
    }

    @Override
    public void onNothingSelected(AdapterView<?> adapterView) {

    }

here is the out come of the code in the emulator.

Making a logged In customer :: Few more ways

In this new world of technology, where eCommerce is making the established shop sellers sweat, one of the ways where you show growth is by the number of people registered with your site. 

But is it good to have a forced signup page as the landing page? 

Many people from famous sites like Smashing Magazine, Design Moto etc., say that let the customer experience the site first and make her love your way and then let her decide when to become a logged in customer. Sure, she will become when she wants to end up buying an item from you.

(note: This is not to critisize any website owners and handlers, they are purely opinion and debate based. Feel free to contact me if any of the content is objectionable for you)