Develop Reference

Gradle build failing due to keystore.properties file missing

I'm trying to use this alarm app on Android Studio - https://github.com/philliphsu/ClockPlus . However, gradle build is failing (error message below). Please let me know what needs to be fixed for this to work.
Error:/Users/***/Documents/Apps/ClockPlus-master/keystore.properties (No such file or directory). Let me know what exactly is this keystore.properties and is it possible to create this file as it's not available in the github repo files.

what exactly is this keystore.properties?
When you want to publish your app in the google play, you need to sign your app. When you create a signing configuration,Android Studio ,by default, adds your signing information in plain text to the module's build.gradle files. If you are working with a team or open-sourcing your code, you should move this sensitive information out of the build files so it is not easily accessible to others. To do this, you should create a separate properties file to store secure information and refer to that file in your build files. That file is the keystore properties file.
Read more about this
Is it possible to create this file as it's not available in the github
repo files?
Create a file named keystore.properties in the root directory of your project. This file should contain your signing information, as follows:
storePassword=myStorePassword
keyPassword=mykeyPassword
keyAlias=myKeyAlias
storeFile=myStoreFileLocation
If you do not have store password, key password etc. you should sign your app.
Read more about this
The whole information about this is in the Android Developer documentation, in the link I provided above.

Difficulties setting up Gradle to send ProGuard mapping files to Firebase

I am trying to follow this documentation tutorial by Firebase to setup Android Studio to automatically send my ProGuard mappings file when building a release APK for my Android application.
However, I couldn't seem to understand steps 4 and 5 in the "Uploading ProGuard mapping files with Gradle" part, mainly because I didn't find any gradle.properties file in my project root or home path and because I wish to automate the execution of the app:firebaseUploadReleaseProguardMapping task in Android Studio, which I don't know how to do.
This is the contents of the gradle.properties file I've created in my project root directory:
FirebaseServiceAccountFilePath = /app/firebase-crash-reporting.json
The firebase-crash-reporting.json file is my Firebase crash reporting private key. My mappings file is generated in the /app/build/outputs/mapping/release/ directory, if that helps.
Please assist me in completing those 2 steps and automatizing the process in Android Studio.

Just add
afterEvaluate {
assembleRelease.doLast {
firebaseUploadReleaseProguardMapping.execute()
}
}
In the android section of build.gradle file.
This will automatically upload the ProGuard mappings file to Firebase as well as run/deploy the APK to the device using ADB.

gradle.properties is owned and managed completely by you. You have to create it if it doesn't already exist. This means you should probably read the Gradle documentation on it to best understand how it provides properties to your builds, and which location is best for your properties.
You are not even obliged to use gradle.properties. You can also specify all the properties for the Crash Reporting plugin via the command line.
When you specify a path for the service account file, you should specify the full, unambiguous path to the file. In your example, it looks like you're assuming that it will look under the app directory in your project. If you want to do that, you still have to give the full path to the file.

Using a linked file in Assets directory - FileNotFound Exception

I am trying to link to an external file from a shared repository between my iOS and Android apps. This does not present a problem for iOS, but it does for Android. My current solution is to create a copy of the file from the external repository and place it in my projects Assets folder. This solution works, but is not much of a good one in my opinion and involves too many extra steps.
Using Eclipse, I am able to link to a resource. It's as simple as copying a file into my Assets folder and being prompted to either copy the file or link to the resource. If I link to the resource and try to run my app, I get a FileNotFoundException. If I copy the file instead, the app file is found just fine.
Ideally, I'd like to link to the file so that when I pull a new update from git then I don't need to copy the file over every single time. I'd prefer to link to the file.

I don't know what Eclipse uses "under the covers" for "Link here" drag-and-drop stuff. However, it is an Eclipse-ism. Android's build tools are fairly isolated from Eclipse proper, and so they won't know about those links.
Using a hardlink, or perhaps a symlink, at the OS X filesystem level should work, as both Eclipse and Android's build tools should treat it like a local file.

Connection with SQLLite on Unity3D using Javascript in Android

How can connect with SQLLite from Android using Unit3D and Javascript?
Someone can'i help me?

Here are the specific steps to getting SQLite set up in your project.
Download SQLite - you'll want the ZIP file with the DLL inside
that's in the Precompiled Binaries for Windows section.
Important Copy sqlite3.dll into your into your project's Plugins folder (make a folder called Plugins if you don't have one).
You won't get a warning if you don't do this, and your project will run fine in the editor, however, it will fail to work when you actually build your project, and will only provide information about this in the log file.
This will give you a License Error if you're using Unity Indie, but it doesn't seem to have an effect on the actual play in the editor, nor does it seem to effect the ability to build stand-alone versions.
Alternately, you can leave it out of your project entirely, but when you build your application, you'll need to include a copy of sqlite3.dll in the same directory as the .exe in order for it to work.
In your project, add in the dbAccess.js file: http://wiki.unity3d.com/index.php/SQLite#dbAccess.js
You should be good to go!
Source (and the above is pretty much copied word-for-word from):
http://wiki.unity3d.com/index.php/SQLite

how to reference an asset in a library project

In a class belonging to a Library project I call:
webview.loadUrl("file:///android_asset/info.html", null);
Unfortunately, this only works if I duplicate the file info.html into the Application's project asset folder as well.
Is there a way to tell an Android library code: "look for this file in the library's assets folder, not in the application's assets folder" ?

This answer is out of date, the gradle build system and AAR files support assets.
From the Android Docs:
Library projects cannot include raw assets
The tools do not support the use of raw asset files (saved in the assets/ directory) in a library project. Any asset resources used by an application must be stored in the assets/ directory of the application project itself. However, resource files saved in the res/ directory are supported.
If you want to include files from a Library project, you'll need to put it in the resources instead of the assets. If you're trying to load HTML files from your library project into a WebView, this means that you'll have to go a more roundabout method than the usual asset URL. Instead you'll have to read the resource data and use something like loadData.

This is now possible using the Gradle build system.
Testing with Android Studio 0.5.0 and v0.9 of the Android Gradle plugin, I've found that files such as
MyLibProject/src/main/assets/test.html
are correctly packaged in the final application and can be accessed at runtime via the expected URL:
file:///android_asset/test.html

You can achieve this by creating a symbolic link in the project's asset folder that points to the directory in the library project.
Then you can access as below:
webview.loadUrl("file:///android_asset/folder_in_a_libary_project/info.html", null);

Okay. Ive been stressing out and losing sleep about this for a while. Im the type of person that loves API creation, and HATES complicated integration.
There arent many solutions around on the internet, so im quite proud of what Ive discovered with a bit of Eclipse Hackery.
It turns out that when you put a file in the Android Lib's /assets folder. The target apk will capture this and place it on the root of the APK archive. Thus, making general access fail.
This can be resolved by simply creating a Raw Java Library, and placing all assets in there, ie (JAVALIB)/assets/fileX.txt.
You can in turn then include this as a Java Build Path Folder Source in
Project > Properties > Java Build Path > Source > Link Source.
Link Source
Click on Variables. and Add New Variable, ie VAR_NAME_X. location : ../../(relative_path_to_assets_project)
Click Ok
Now, when you build and run your app, the assets folder in the APK will contain your (GLOBAL Library) files as you intended.
No need to reconfigure android internals or nothing. Its all capable within a few clicks of Eclipse.

I confirm that Daniel Grant's approach works for at least the following situation: target project does NOT have an asset folder (or the folder is empty, so you can safely delete it).
I did not setup any variable.
Simply setup a LinkSource as follows (just an example)
Linked folder location: /home/matthew/workspace_moonblink/assetsForAdvocacy/assets
Folder name : assets
The "assetsForAdvocacy" is a Java project, (created with New- Project - Java Project) with empty src folder, and a new folder named "assets", which now provides the entire assets folder for the target project.
This is a fairly straightforward way within Eclipse to provide assets re-use across many different projects IF they do not already have assets, good enough to get going with. I would probably want to enhance it to become a content provider in the long run, but that is a lot more development.
My project accesses the assets with the following code:
String advocacyFolderInAssets = "no_smoking/"; //a folder underneath assets/
String fn =advocacyFolderInAssets+imageFilename;
Bitmap pristineBitmapForAdvocacy = getBitmapFromAsset(context, fn);
I use Motodev Studio 3.1.0 on Ubuntu. It would not let me 'merge' a new assets folder in the new assets-only project onto an existing assets folder in the target project.

If you want to use a setup where multiple derivate products are created from one library you might consider using svn:externals or similar solution in your SCM system. This will also do the trick that static assets like online help may be versioned seperately from the android source code.

I found this older question, it might help you, too.
This is the official way Google uses to archive this (from the above post): Link