Introduction to Glide: Image loading library for Android

As an Android developer, you're probably familiar with the challenges of loading and displaying images in your app. Whether you're loading images from the network, local files, or resources, having a library that makes this process as smooth and efficient as possible is essential. That's where Glide comes in.

Glide is a fast and efficient image loading library for Android. It is designed to handle all the complexity involved in loading and displaying images in your app, so you don't have to. In this article, we'll take a deep dive into what Glide is, how it works, and why you should consider using it in your next Android project.

What is Gliding?

Glide is an open source library for loading and displaying images in Android. It was created by the team at Bump Technologies and is now maintained by Google. Glide is designed to handle all the complexity of loading and displaying images in your app so you don't have to. Whether you load images from the network, local files, or resources, Glide makes it easy to get the images you need, when you need them.

How does Glide work?

Glide uses a combination of memory caching, disk caching, and network loading to efficiently and smoothly load images in your application. When you request an image using Glide, the library first checks its memory cache to see if it has already been loaded. If so, Glide returns the image immediately without loading it from the network or disk.

If the image is not in the memory cache, Glide next checks its disk cache. If the image is found on disk, Glide loads it into memory and returns it. If the image is not in the disk cache, Glide loads it from the network.

Once the image is loaded, Glide caches it in memory and on disk, so the next time you request the same image, it can load faster.

Why use Glide?

Here are a few reasons why you should consider using Glide in your next Android project:

1. Speed: Glide is designed to be fast and efficient. It combines memory caching, disk caching, and network loading to ensure that images load quickly and smoothly even on slow devices.
2. Simplicity: Glide is easy to use. With just a few lines of code, you can load and display images from a variety of sources, including the network, local files, and assets.
3. Flexibility: Glide offers a wide range of options and features so you can customize how images are loaded and displayed to suit your specific needs.
4. Community: Glide is an open source project with a large and active community of contributors. If you need help or want to contribute to the project, you can find a wealth of resources and support online.

in conclusion

Glide is a fast and efficient image loading library for Android. It is designed to handle all the complexity of loading and displaying images in your app so you don't have to. Whether you load images from the network, local files, or resources, Glide makes it easy to get the images you need, when you need them. If you're looking for a library to help you load and display images in your next Android project, consider giving Glide a try.

In conclusion, Glide is a highly recommended library for Android developers. Its speed, simplicity, flexibility, and community make it an ideal choice for any project that requires efficient and smooth image loading. Whether you are building a simple or complex application, Glide can help you get the images you need quickly and easily.

So if you're ready to take your image loading and display capabilities to the next level, give Glide a try. You won't be disappointed!

Here is a simple example using Glide.

First add your dependencies to your application project Gradle file.

 implementation 'com.github.bumptech.glide:glide:4.11.0'

Next we need to add ImageView in activity_main.xml

 <ImageView
 android:id="@+id/image_view"
 android:layout_width="match_parent"
 android:layout_height="match_parent"
 app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent"
 app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
 app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
 app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"
 android:contentDescription="@string/image_sample" />

Don't forget to add internet permission in AndroidManifest.xml file.

 <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET"/>

In MainActivity, we add the Glide code like this:

 import android . os . Bundle
 import android . widget . ImageView
 import androidx . appcompat . app . AppCompatActivity
 import com . bumptech . glide . Glide

 class MainActivity : AppCompatActivity () {

 private lateinit var imageView : ImageView

 override fun onCreate ( savedInstanceState : Bundle ? ) {
 super . onCreate ( savedInstanceState )
 setContentView ( R . layout . activity_main )

 imageView = findViewById ( R . id . image_view )

 Glide . with ( this )
 . load ( "https://your-image-url.com/image.png" )
 . into ( imageView )
 }
 }