ExplosionField is a 97 word library whose only install line uses Gradle's retired configuration

The only install line uses a retired Gradle configuration

The Getting started section is one snippet, and the word doing the work in it is the configuration name:

 dependencies {
   compile 'tyrantgit:explosionfield:1.0.1'
 }

That configuration was the way to declare a dependency in older Gradle builds, and it has since been replaced by configurations with different scoping semantics. Copying the line into a current build file will not do what its author intended. The coordinates themselves are still the interesting part: a group, an artifact and a version, with the version reading one point zero point one. There is no repository declaration anywhere in the snippet, and the README never says which artifact repository serves them, so the sample assumes you already have a repository configured that can resolve them. That assumption is the gap a reader has to close themselves.

The Java sample starts with an ellipsis

The code sample is two lines long and the first one is a variable declaration whose value is an ellipsis, which is where a constructor call would go. The second line is the method that does the work, taking the view you want the effect applied to. So the entire public surface this repository documents is a type name, a constructor the reader must supply, and a single method. There is no documented configuration for the effect: no duration, no particle count, no intensity, no callback. If the library exposes any of those, they are not in this repository's description of it, which means the linked third-party directory entry is the more complete reference for anyone deciding whether it does what they need.

There is a demo app in the repository

The tree is larger than the README suggests. Ten top level entries include a library module, an application module, a root build file and settings file, a properties file, a Gradle wrapper with its Windows batch counterpart, and a single animated image file committed at the root. The application module is the part worth noting: someone built a runnable demo, which means the effect was at least exercised on a device at some point, and it also means there is working example code in the repository even though the README does not point at it. The wrapper being committed means the build pins its own Gradle version, which is helpful for a project of this age, since the version that works with a retired configuration is not the version you would get today.

The licence lives only inside the README

The License section of the README reproduces the Apache License 2.0 text in an indented block, with a copyright line naming the author and the year 2015 above it. There is no licence file among the top level entries, and the repository's own header records no recognised licence value. So the only place the terms are stated is the body of the readme, which is a fragile place for a licence: a fork, a mirror or a packaging script that copies the source without the readme carries no terms at all. That is a bookkeeping gap rather than a legal one, given the notice is unambiguous, but it is the kind of gap that makes a licence audit take longer than it should.

The version in the sample has no matching release

The snippet names version one point zero point one, and the repository has no releases at all. Those two facts together mean the artifact was published from somewhere this repository does not document, most likely a Maven-style repository, and that the source here and the published artifact were never tied together by a tag a reader could check. The branch history offers one more clue: the default branch was last pushed on 2017-01-17, while the copyright line says 2015. So the library is roughly a decade old in the README's own accounting and closer to that in the code, and there is nothing in this repository that tells you which version of the source produced the artifact your build would fetch.

Documentation is one link to a third-party directory

Above the title, the README links to a page on an Android library directory, and that is the only external reference in the file. Everything else is the effect description in six words, the install snippet, the two-line sample and the licence. So the practical documentation for this library is hosted by somebody else and written for a different purpose, which means it will describe the library's features rather than its current state. If you are evaluating it, that directory entry is the place to look for the configuration options and the screenshots this repository does not have, and the age of both is the thing to keep in mind when you read them.

A single-view effect with no integration guidance

What the sample demonstrates is a one-line integration: you have a view, you pass it to a method, and the effect plays. There is no guidance here about lifecycle, about whether the view must be attached to a window first, about recycling in a list, or about what happens on rotation. For an effect of this kind those are the questions that decide whether it is usable, and the repository answers none of them. What it does establish is the scope: this is a small view-level library, not a particle system or an animation framework, and the name in the repository and the image file at its root both describe one effect rather than a set of them.

Editorial conclusion

ExplosionField is worth copying if you want exactly this effect and you are willing to vendor the code, which for a library of this size is probably the honest approach given where it stands. Three things to check first. The only install instruction uses a Gradle configuration that has since been removed, so you will be adapting it rather than pasting it. The dependency coordinate it gives names no artifact repository, so the sample will not resolve without configuration the README does not provide. And the code has not been touched since 2017, so treat it as a starting point rather than a dependency.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

1. Official README
2. Project repository
3. README
4. Releases