Android Note-Taking App with Room Database
Build an Android note-taking app in Java. You write notes, give each one a category (such as Work, Personal or Ideas) with its own color, and find them again with search, sorting and category filters. Notes are saved on the phone with the Room database library, and the app follows the MVVM architecture recommended by Google: screens show data from a ViewModel, which gets it from a repository, which uses Room. The list updates by itself through LiveData whenever notes change. You'll learn Room entities, DAOs and relationships, RecyclerView with ListAdapter, ViewModel and LiveData, swipe gestures with undo, and running database work off the main thread.
- Estimate
- ~12.5h
- Steps
- 7
- Completed by
- 0
- Proposed by
- codeseed.app
Android SDK · Room · RecyclerView · LiveData
Project roadmap
- 01
Set up Room
~2hCreate an Android project in Java and add Room. Define entities Note (id, title, content, category id, created and updated timestamps) and Category (id, name, color), with a foreign key from notes to categories. Write DAOs with queries returning LiveData, and a database singleton that adds default categories on first creation. Run writes on an ExecutorService, never on the main thread. Done when: the app starts and the default categories exist in the database.
- 02
Add the repository and ViewModel
~1.5hCreate a NoteRepository wrapping the DAOs and the executor, and a NotesViewModel (AndroidViewModel) exposing the notes and categories as LiveData, plus insert, update and delete methods. Screens talk only to the ViewModel. Done when: the ViewModel returns notes added in code.
- 03
Show the notes list
~2hShow notes in a RecyclerView with a ListAdapter and DiffUtil, so only changed rows are redrawn. Each row shows the title, the first two lines of content, the date and a colored category label. Show an empty-state message when there are no notes. Add a floating button for a new note. Done when: the list updates by itself when notes are added or changed.
- 04
Build the add and edit screen
~2hCreate a screen for writing and editing a note, with a category picker (a Spinner or chips) and Save and Delete actions. The title or content can't both be empty. Confirm before discarding unsaved changes on Back. Keep what the user typed when the screen rotates, by storing it in a ViewModel. Done when: notes can be created, edited and deleted, and rotating doesn't lose text.
- 05
Add swipe to delete and search
~2hSwipe a note left or right to delete it, with ItemTouchHelper, and show a Snackbar with Undo that restores it. Add a search box in the toolbar that filters notes by title or content, using a Room query with LIKE. Done when: swiping deletes and Undo restores the note, and search filters as you type.
- 06
Filter and sort
~1.5hAdd category filter chips (All plus each category) and a sort menu (newest, oldest, title A to Z), remembered in SharedPreferences. Add a screen to add, rename and recolor categories, and decide what happens to notes when their category is deleted, for example moving them to Uncategorized. Done when: filtering and sorting work together, and the choice is remembered after restarting.
- 07
Test it
~1.5hWrite instrumented DAO tests with an in-memory Room database (insert, update, delete, search and filter by category), and a unit test for the ViewModel using InstantTaskExecutorRule. Done when: all tests pass.
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