Cards contain content and actions about a single subject. They can be used standalone, or as part of a list. Cards are meant to be interactive, and aren't meant to be be used solely for style purposes.
Cards provides two different versions, MDCCard inheriting from UIControl and MDCCardCollectionCell inheriting from UICollectionViewCell.
A card's state determines its visual styling.
When treated as a UIControl (MDCCard), it has a default styling (UIControlStateNormal), and a highlighted styling (UIControlStateHighlighted) when interacted with.
When treated as a UICollectionViewCell (MDCCardCollectionCell), it has a default styling (MDCCardCellStateNormal), a highlighted styling (MDCCardCellStateHighlighted), and lastly a selected styling (MDCCardCellStateSelected).
Customization to the card is exposed via its API either in MDCCard or MDCCardCollectionCell. Currently the card consists of these customizations:
(MDCCardCollectionCell customization only):
An MDCCard can be added and used as you would add any UIView or UIControl, if manually in code, or through Interface Builder.
An MDCCardCollectionCell can be added, used, and reused as a UICollectionViewCell, if manually in code, or through Interface Builder.
MDCCardThemer exposes apis to theme MDCCard and MDCCardCollectionCell instances as either a default or outlined variant. An outlined variant behaves identically to a default styled card, but differs in its coloring and in that it has a stroked border. Use ‘applyScheme:toCard:’ to style an instance with default values and ‘applyOutlinedVariantWithScheme:toCard:’ to style an instance with the outlined values.
MDCCard subclasses UIControl and provides a simple class for developers to subclass and create custom cards with ink, shadows, corner radius, and stroke matching the Material spec.
MDCCard uses the highlighted property that is built-in in UIControl and the UIControlState to move between states.
MDCCardCollectionCell subclasses UICollectionViewCell and provides a simple collection view cell for developers to use in their collections with ink, shadows, corner radius, and stroke matching the Material spec.
MDCCardCollectionCell uses the selected property that is built-in in UICollectionViewCell and has its own MDCCardCellState to keep track of the current state it is in.