Develop Reference

ManifestPlaceholders for multiple elements with same variable

In my AndroidManifest.xml file I have the following line:
<supports-gl-texture android:name="${supportedTexture}" />
I inject the correct supported texture in gradle file based on the selected flavor, for example like this:
productFlavors {
ETC1 {
manifestPlaceholders = [supportedTexture: "GL_OES_compressed_ETC1_RGB8_texture"]
}
}
However, this doesn't work if I want to add several supports-gl-texture lines in the manifest. So how should I edit AndroidManifest.xml and build.gradle file if I'd like to have multiple supportedTextures like this:
<supports-gl-texture android:name="GL_OES_compressed_ETC1_RGB8_texture" />
<supports-gl-texture android:name="GL_AMD_compressed_ATC_texture" />
Would it be possible to do something like this in gradle file:
productFlavors {
ETC1 {
manifestPlaceholders = [supportedTexture: "GL_OES_compressed_ETC1_RGB8_texture"]
}
ETC1andATC {
//manifestPlaceHolders = ???
}
}
Or is my only option to go outside gradle and have for example multiple Manifest files which I copy to project depending on gradle flavor?

If you have limited numbers of supported textures then you can define multiple keys for all those textures and use in the manifest file.
productFlavors {
ETC1 {
manifestPlaceholders = [
supportedTexture1: "GL_OES_compressed_ETC1_RGB8_texture",
supportedTexture2: "GL_AMD_compressed_ATC_texture"]
}
}
Then in your manifest
<supports-gl-texture android:name="${supportedTexture1}" />
<supports-gl-texture android:name="${supportedTexture2}" />

Android 65k multidex issue for android system application

Developing an system application which works with multiple libraries and aar files resulting application get the Multidex 65k issue which is reported by many developers working on Android studio .
In my case as am working on android system build environment not sure how to enable the multidex option ?
Have extended the Application and added MultiDex.install(this); which is making no difference for the compilation resulting
trouble writing output: Too many method references: 156862; max is 65536.
You may try using --multi-dex option.
Not able to find any reference to work on the system build for this kind of issue .
Any pointers on this will be helpful
Thanks

Update in your gradle
defaultConfig {
..............
multiDexEnabled true
}
dexOptions should add..
dexOptions {
//incremental = true;
preDexLibraries = false
javaMaxHeapSize "4g"
}
dependency add
compile 'com.android.support:multidex:1.0.1'
Also In Your AndroidManifest.xml add this lines android:name
<application
android:allowBackup="true"
android:icon="#mipmap/ic_launcher"
android:label="#string/app_name"
android:supportsRtl="true"
android:theme="#style/AppTheme"
android:name="android.support.multidex.MultiDexApplication"
>

Idea is if apk method is > 64K, then we break it to have multiple dex files.
In build.gradle
android {
defaultConfig {
...
// Enabling multidex support.
multiDexEnabled true
}
...
}
dependencies {
// Add this dependency
compile 'com.android.support:multidex:1.0.0'
}
Hope this helps.
Reference: Android Dev

You can visit Configure Apps with Over 64K Methods for details.
Here some excerpt from it:
Setting up your app development project to use a multidex configuration requires that you make a few modifications to your app development project. In particular you need to perform the following steps:
Change your Gradle build configuration to enable multidex
Modify your manifest to reference the MultiDexApplication class
Modify the module-level build.gradle file configuration to include the support library and enable multidex output, as shown in the following code snippet:
android {
compileSdkVersion 21
buildToolsVersion "21.1.0"
defaultConfig {
...
minSdkVersion 14
targetSdkVersion 21
...
// Enabling multidex support.
multiDexEnabled true
}
...
}
dependencies {
compile 'com.android.support:multidex:1.0.0'
}
In your manifest add the MultiDexApplication class from the multidex support library to the application element.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
package="com.example.android.multidex.myapplication">
<application
...
android:name="android.support.multidex.MultiDexApplication">
...
</application>
</manifest>
UPDATE
If you have included Google Play Service library, instead using:
compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services:9.4.0'
Try to only use what you really need. Something like this:
com.google.android.gms:play-services-base:9.4.0
com.google.android.gms:play-services-ads:9.4.0 // only need ads
com.google.android.gms:play-services-gcm:9.4.0 // only need gcm
Read more at Setting Up Google Play Services.

Android Gradle product flavor fails in child library

This issue should solve my other issue where I need to update the child libraries content provider: Using build types in Gradle libraries to run same app that uses ContentProvider on one device
I have a product flavor in the root application that is successfully changing the package name so I can deploy different versions of the app. When I try to add the same product flavor in a child library, the build fails because the root application fails to load a java class that is referenced from the child library because now the package name has changed? I thought that product flavors did not effect the java class package structure?
ATCApp.gradle root application
...
dependencies {
...
compile project(':libraries:FYC')
...
}
...
android
{
...
productFlavors
{
prod {
packageName "com.company.android"
}
qa {
packageName "com.company.android.qa"
}
}
}
FYC.gradle child library
...
android
{
...
productFlavors
{
prod {
resValue "string", "authority", "com.company.android.fyc.models.listing.listingprovider"
}
qa {
resValue "string", "authority", "com.company.android.qa.fyc.models.listing.listingprovider"
}
}
}
Adding the above product flavors in the child FYC library causes the root application to throw an error:
/src/main/java/com/company/android/HomeBroadcastReceiver.java:7: package com.company.android.fyc.controllers does not exist
import com.company.android.fyc.controllers.FYCHomePagerActivity;
Thanks for any help!

I'm pretty sure you can't do dependencies on flavors (aka, chained flavors), as Gradle offers no way to express such a thing. Your root project can have different dependencies based on the flavor, but those dependencies cannot be explicit flavors themselves. The output of sub-projects should be predictable and consistent.

Using build types in Gradle to run same app that uses ContentProvider on one device

I have set up Gradle to add package name suffix to my debug app so I could have release version that I'm using and debug version on one phone. I was referencing this: http://tools.android.com/tech-docs/new-build-system/user-guide#TOC-Build-Types
My build.gradle file looks like this:
...
android
{
...
buildTypes
{
debug
{
packageNameSuffix ".debug"
versionNameSuffix " debug"
}
}
}
Everything works fine until I start using a ContentProvider in my app. I get:
Failure [INSTALL_FAILED_CONFLICTING_PROVIDER]
I understand that this happens because two apps (release and debug) are registering same ContentProvider authority.
I see one possibility to solve this. If I understand correctly, you should be able to specify different files to use when building. Then I should be able to put different authorities in different resource files (and from Manifest set authority as string resource) and tell Gradle to use different resource for debug build. Is that possible? If yes then any hints on how to achieve that would be awesome!
Or maybe it's possible to directly modify Manifest using Gradle? Any other solution on how to run same app with ContentProvider on one device is always welcome.

None of existing answers satisfied me, however Liberty was close. So this is how am I doing it.
First of all at the moment I am working with:
Android Studio Beta 0.8.2
Gradle plugin 0.12.+
Gradle 1.12
My goal is to run Debug version along with Release version on the same device using the same ContentProvider.
In build.gradle of your app set suffix for Debug build:
buildTypes {
debug {
applicationIdSuffix ".debug"
}
}
In AndroidManifest.xml file set android:authorities property of your ContentProvider:
<provider
android:name="com.example.app.YourProvider"
android:authorities="${applicationId}.provider"
android:enabled="true"
android:exported="false" >
</provider>
In your code set AUTHORITY property that can be used wherever needed in your implementation:
public static final String AUTHORITY = BuildConfig.APPLICATION_ID + ".provider";
Tip: Before it was BuildConfig.PACKAGE_NAME
That's it! It will work like a charm. Keep reading if you use SyncAdapter!
Update for SyncAdapter (14.11.2014)
Once again I will start with my current setup:
Android Studio Beta 0.9.2
Gradle plugin 0.14.1
Gradle 2.1
Basically, if you need to customise some values for different builds you can do it from the build.gradle file:
use buildConfigField to access it from the BuildConfig.java class
use resValue to access it from resources e.g. #string/your_value
As an alternative for resources, you can create separate buildType or flavour directories and override XMLs or values within them. However, I am not going to use it in example below.
Example
In build.gradle file add the following:
defaultConfig {
resValue "string", "your_authorities", applicationId + '.provider'
resValue "string", "account_type", "your.syncadapter.type"
buildConfigField "String", "ACCOUNT_TYPE", '"your.syncadapter.type"'
}
buildTypes {
debug {
applicationIdSuffix ".debug"
resValue "string", "your_authorities", defaultConfig.applicationId + '.debug.provider'
resValue "string", "account_type", "your.syncadapter.type.debug"
buildConfigField "String", "ACCOUNT_TYPE", '"your.syncadapter.type.debug"'
}
}
You will see results in BuildConfig.java class
public static final String ACCOUNT_TYPE = "your.syncadapter.type.debug";
and in build/generated/res/generated/debug/values/generated.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
<!-- Automatically generated file. DO NOT MODIFY -->
<!-- Values from default config. -->
<item name="account_type" type="string">your.syncadapter.type.debug</item>
<item name="authorities" type="string">com.example.app.provider</item>
</resources>
In your authenticator.xml use resource specified in build.gradle file
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<account-authenticator xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:accountType="#string/account_type"
android:icon="#drawable/ic_launcher"
android:smallIcon="#drawable/ic_launcher"
android:label="#string/app_name"
/>
In your syncadapter.xml use the same resource again and #string/authorities too
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<sync-adapter xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:contentAuthority="#string/authorities"
android:accountType="#string/account_type"
android:userVisible="true"
android:supportsUploading="false"
android:allowParallelSyncs="false"
android:isAlwaysSyncable="true"
/>
Tip: autocompletion(Ctrl+Space) does not work for these generated resource so you have to type them manually

New Android build system tip: ContentProvider authority renaming
I guess all of you have heard of the new Android Gradle-based build system. Let's be honest, this new build system is a huge step forward compared to the previous one. It is not final yet (as of this writing, the latest version is 0.4.2) but you can already use it safely in most of your projects.
I've personnaly switched most of my project to this new build system and had some issues because of the lack of support in some particular situations. One of which is the support for ContentProvider authority renaming
The new Android built system lets you deal with different types of your app by simply modifying the package name at build time. One of the main advantage of this improvement is you can now have two different versions of your app installed on the same device at the same time. For instance:
android {
compileSdkVersion 17
buildToolsVersion "17.0.0"
defaultConfig {
packageName "com.cyrilmottier.android.app"
versionCode 1
versionName "1"
minSdkVersion 14 // Listen to +Jeff Gilfelt advices :)
targetSdkVersion 17
}
buildTypes {
debug {
packageNameSuffix ".debug"
versionNameSuffix "-debug"
}
}
}
Using such a Gradle configuration, you can assemble two different APKs :
• A debug APK with the com.cyrilmottier.android.app.debug package name
• A release APK with the com.cyrilmottier.android.app package name
The only issue with that is you won't be able to install the two APKs at the same time if they both expose a ContentProvider with the same authorities. Pretty logically we need to rename the authority depending on the current build type … but this is not supported by the Gradle build system (yet? ... I'm sure it will be fixed soon). So here is a way to go:
First we need to move the provider Android manifest ContentProvider declaration to the appropriate build type. In order to do that we will simply have :
src/debug/AndroidManifest.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
package="com.cyrilmottier.android.app"
android:versionCode="1"
android:versionName="1">
<application>
<provider
android:name=".provider.Provider1"
android:authorities="com.cyrilmottier.android.app.debug.provider"
android:exported="false" />
</application>
</manifest>
src/release/AndroidManifest.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
package="com.cyrilmottier.android.app"
android:versionCode="1"
android:versionName="1">
<application>
<provider
android:name=".provider.Provider1"
android:authorities="com.cyrilmottier.android.app.provider"
android:exported="false" />
</application>
</manifest>
Make sure to remove the ContentProvider declaration from the AndroidManifest.xml in src/main/ because Gradle doesn't know how to merge ContentProviders having the same name but a different authority.
Finally we may need to access to the authority in the code. This can be done pretty easily using the BuildConfig file and the buildConfig method:
android {
// ...
final PROVIDER_DEBUG = "com.cyrilmottier.android.app.debug.provider"
final PROVIDER_RELEASE = "com.cyrilmottier.android.app.provider"
buildTypes {
debug {
// ...
buildConfigField "String", "PROVIDER_AUTHORITY", PROVIDER_DEBUG
}
release {
buildConfigField "String", "PROVIDER_AUTHORITY", PROVIDER_RELEASE
}
}
}
Thanks to this workaround you'll be able to use BuildConfig.PROVIDER_AUTHORITY in your ProviderContract and install two different versions of your app at the same time.
Originaly on Google+:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/118417777153109946393/posts/EATUmhntaCQ

While Cyril's example works great if you only have a few build types, it quickly gets complicated if you have many build types and/or product flavors as you need to maintain lots of different AndroidManifest.xml's.
Our project consists of 3 different build types and 6 flavors totaling 18 build variants, so instead we added support for ".res-auto" in ContentProvider authorities, which expand to the current packagename and removes the need to maintain different AndroidManifest.xml
/**
* Version 1.1.
*
* Add support for installing multiple variants of the same app which have a
* content provider. Do this by overriding occurrences of ".res-auto" in
* android:authorities with the current package name (which should be unique)
*
* V1.0 : Initial version
* V1.1 : Support for ".res-auto" in strings added,
* eg. use "<string name="auth">.res-auto.path.to.provider</string>"
*
*/
def overrideProviderAuthority(buildVariant) {
def flavor = buildVariant.productFlavors.get(0).name
def buildType = buildVariant.buildType.name
def pathToManifest = "${buildDir}/manifests/${flavor}/${buildType}/AndroidManifest.xml"
def ns = new groovy.xml.Namespace("http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android", "android")
def xml = new XmlParser().parse(pathToManifest)
def variantPackageName = xml.#package
// Update all content providers
xml.application.provider.each { provider ->
def newAuthorities = provider.attribute(ns.authorities).replaceAll('.res-auto', variantPackageName)
provider.attributes().put(ns.authorities, newAuthorities)
}
// Save modified AndroidManifest back into build dir
saveXML(pathToManifest, xml)
// Also make sure that all strings with ".res-auto" are expanded automagically
def pathToValues = "${buildDir}/res/all/${flavor}/${buildType}/values/values.xml"
xml = new XmlParser().parse(pathToValues)
xml.findAll{it.name() == 'string'}.each{item ->
if (!item.value().isEmpty() && item.value()[0].startsWith(".res-auto")) {
item.value()[0] = item.value()[0].replace(".res-auto", variantPackageName)
}
}
saveXML(pathToValues, xml)
}
def saveXML(pathToFile, xml) {
def writer = new FileWriter(pathToFile)
def printer = new XmlNodePrinter(new PrintWriter(writer))
printer.preserveWhitespace = true
printer.print(xml)
}
// Post processing of AndroidManifest.xml for supporting provider authorities
// across build variants.
android.applicationVariants.all { variant ->
variant.processManifest.doLast {
overrideProviderAuthority(variant)
}
}
Example code can be found here: https://gist.github.com/cmelchior/6988275

Since the plugin version 0.8.3 (actually 0.8.1 but it wasn't working properly) you can define resources within the build file so this could be a cleaner solution because you don't need to create strings files nor additional debug/release folders.
build.gradle
android {
buildTypes {
debug{
resValue "string", "authority", "com.yourpackage.debug.provider"
}
release {
resValue "string", "authority", "com.yourpackage.provider"
}
}
}
AndroidManifest.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
package="com.yourpackage"
android:versionCode="1"
android:versionName="1">
<application>
<provider
android:name=".provider.Provider1"
android:authorities="#string/authority"
android:exported="false" />
</application>
</manifest>

I don't know if anybody mention it. Actually after android gradle plugin 0.10+, the manifest merger will provide the official support for this function:
http://tools.android.com/tech-docs/new-build-system/user-guide/manifest-merger
In AndroidManifest.xml, you can use ${packageName} like this:
<provider
android:name=".provider.DatabasesProvider"
android:authorities="${packageName}.databasesprovider"
android:exported="true"
android:multiprocess="true" />
And in your build.gradle you can have:
productFlavors {
free {
packageName "org.pkg1"
}
pro {
packageName "org.pkg2"
}
}
See full example here:
https://code.google.com/p/anymemo/source/browse/AndroidManifest.xml#152
and here:
https://code.google.com/p/anymemo/source/browse/build.gradle#41

Use ${applicationId} placeholders in xml and BuildConfig.APPLICATION_ID in code.
You will need to extend the build script to enable placeholders in xml files other than the manifest. You could use a source directory per build variant to provide different versions of the xml files but maintenance will become cumbersome very quickly.
AndroidManifest.xml
You can use the applicationId placeholder out of the box in the manifest. Declare your provider like this:
<provider
android:name=".provider.DatabaseProvider"
android:authorities="${applicationId}.DatabaseProvider"
android:exported="false" />
Note the ${applicationId} bit. This is replaced at build time with the actual applicationId for the build variant that is being built.
In code
Your ContentProvider needs to construct the authority string in code. It can use the BuildConfig class.
public class DatabaseContract {
/** The authority for the database provider */
public static final String AUTHORITY = BuildConfig.APPLICATION_ID + ".DatabaseProvider";
// ...
}
Note the BuildConfig.APPLICATION_ID bit. It is a generated class with the actual applicationId for the build variant being built.
res/xml/ files, e.g. syncadapter.xml, accountauthenticator.xml
If you want to use a Sync Adapter you will need to provide meta-data for the ContentProvider and AccountManager in xml files in the res/xml/ directory. The applicationId placeholder is not supported here. But you can extend the build script yourself to hack it in.
<sync-adapter xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:accountType="${applicationId}"
android:allowParallelSyncs="false"
android:contentAuthority="${applicationId}.DatabaseProvider"
android:isAlwaysSyncable="true"
android:supportsUploading="true"
android:userVisible="true" />
<account-authenticator xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:accountType="${applicationId}"
android:icon="#drawable/ic_launcher"
android:label="#string/account_authenticator_label"
android:smallIcon="#drawable/ic_launcher" />
Again, note the ${applicationId}. This only works if you add the below gradle script to the root of your module and apply it from build.gradle.
build.gradle
Apply the extra build script from the module build.gradle script. A good place is below the Android gradle plugin.
apply plugin: 'com.android.application'
apply from: './build-processApplicationId.gradle'
android {
compileSdkVersion 21
// etc.
build-processApplicationId.gradle
Below is working source for a res/xml/ placeholder build script. A better documented version is available on github. Improvements and extensions are welcome.
def replace(File file, String target, String replacement) {
def result = false;
def reader = new FileReader(file)
def lines = reader.readLines()
reader.close()
def writer = new FileWriter(file)
lines.each { line ->
String replacedLine = line.replace(target, replacement)
writer.write(replacedLine)
writer.write("\n")
result = result || !replacedLine.equals(line)
}
writer.close()
return result
}
def processXmlFile(File file, String applicationId) {
if (replace(file, "\${applicationId}", applicationId)) {
logger.info("Processed \${applicationId} in $file")
}
}
def processXmlDir(File dir, String applicationId) {
dir.list().each { entry ->
File file = new File(dir, entry)
if (file.isFile()) {
processXmlFile(file, applicationId)
}
}
}
android.applicationVariants.all { variant ->
variant.mergeResources.doLast {
def applicationId = variant.mergedFlavor.applicationId + (variant.buildType.applicationIdSuffix == null ? "" : variant.buildType.applicationIdSuffix)
def path = "${buildDir}/intermediates/res/${variant.dirName}/xml/"
processXmlDir(new File(path), applicationId)
}
}
Strings.xml
In my opinion there is no need to add placeholder support for resource strings. For the above use case at least it is not needed. However you could easily change the script to not only replace placeholders in the res/xml/ directory, but also in the res/values/ directory.

I would rather prefer a mixture between Cyril and rciovati. I think is more simplier, you only have two modifications.
The build.gradle looks like:
android {
...
productFlavors {
production {
packageName "package.name.production"
resValue "string", "authority", "package.name.production.provider"
buildConfigField "String", "AUTHORITY", "package.name.production.provider"
}
testing {
packageName "package.name.debug"
resValue "string", "authority", "package.name.debug.provider"
buildConfigField "String", "AUTHORITY", "package.name.debug.provider"
}
}
...
}
And the AndroidManifest.xml:
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
package="package.name" >
<application
...>
<provider android:name=".contentprovider.Provider" android:authorities="#string/authority" />
</application>
</manifest>

gradle.build
android {
compileSdkVersion 23
buildToolsVersion "23.0.1"
defaultConfig {
applicationId "com.example.awsomeapp"
minSdkVersion 9
targetSdkVersion 23
versionCode 1
versionName "1.0.0"
}
productFlavors
{
prod {
applicationId = "com.example.awsomeapp"
}
demo {
applicationId = "com.example.awsomeapp.demo"
versionName = defaultConfig.versionName + ".DEMO"
}
}
buildTypes {
release {
signingConfig signingConfigs.release
debuggable false
minifyEnabled false
proguardFiles getDefaultProguardFile('proguard-android.txt'), 'proguard-rules.txt'
}
debug {
applicationIdSuffix ".debug"
versionNameSuffix = ".DEBUG"
debuggable true
}
}
applicationVariants.all { variant ->
variant.outputs.each { output ->
// rename the apk
def file = output.outputFile;
def newName;
newName = file.name.replace(".apk", "-" + defaultConfig.versionName + ".apk");
newName = newName.replace(project.name, "awsomeapp");
output.outputFile = new File(file.parent, newName);
}
//Generate values Content Authority and Account Type used in Sync Adapter, Content Provider, Authenticator
def valueAccountType = applicationId + '.account'
def valueContentAuthority = applicationId + '.authority'
//generate fields in Resource string file generated.xml
resValue "string", "content_authority", valueContentAuthority
resValue "string", "account_type", valueAccountType
//generate fields in BuildConfig class
buildConfigField "String", "ACCOUNT_TYPE", '"'+valueAccountType+'"'
buildConfigField "String", "CONTENT_AUTHORITY", '"'+valueContentAuthority+'"'
//replace field ${valueContentAuthority} in AndroidManifest.xml
mergedFlavor.manifestPlaceholders = [ valueContentAuthority: valueContentAuthority ]
}
}
authenticator.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<account-authenticator xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:accountType="#string/account_type"
android:icon="#drawable/ic_launcher"
android:label="#string/app_name"
android:smallIcon="#drawable/ic_launcher" />
sync_adapter.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<sync-adapter xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:contentAuthority="#string/content_authority"
android:accountType="#string/account_type"
android:userVisible="true"
android:allowParallelSyncs="false"
android:isAlwaysSyncable="true"
android:supportsUploading="true"/>
AndroidManifest.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" android:versionCode="1" android:versionName="1.0.0" package="com.example.awsomeapp">
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.GET_ACCOUNTS"/><!-- SyncAdapter and GCM requires a Google account. -->
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.AUTHENTICATE_ACCOUNTS"/>
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.USE_CREDENTIALS"/>
<!-- GCM Creates a custom permission so only this app can receive its messages. -->
<permission android:name="${applicationId}.permission.C2D_MESSAGE" android:protectionLevel="signature"/>
<uses-permission android:name="${applicationId}.permission.C2D_MESSAGE"/>
<application....
.......
<!-- Stub Authenticator -->
<service
android:name="com.example.awsomeapp.service.authenticator.CAuthenticatorService"
android:exported="true">
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.accounts.AccountAuthenticator"/>
</intent-filter>
<meta-data android:name="android.accounts.AccountAuthenticator" android:resource="#xml/authenticator"/>
</service>
<!-- -->
<!-- Sync Adapter -->
<service
android:name="com.example.awsomeapp.service.sync.CSyncService"
android:exported="true"
android:process=":sync">
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.content.SyncAdapter"/>
</intent-filter>
<meta-data android:name="android.content.SyncAdapter" android:resource="#xml/sync_adapter" />
</service>
<!-- -->
<!-- Content Provider -->
<provider android:authorities="${valueContentAuthority}"
android:exported="false"
android:name="com.example.awsomeapp.database.contentprovider.CProvider">
</provider>
<!-- -->
</application>
</manifest>
Code:
public static final String CONTENT_AUTHORITY = BuildConfig.CONTENT_AUTHORITY;
public static final String ACCOUNT_TYPE = BuildConfig.ACCOUNT_TYPE;

Based on the sample by #ChristianMelchior, here's my solution, which fixes two issues in the previous solutions:
solutions that change values.xml in the build directory cause a full rebuild of resources (including aapt of all drawables)
for an unknown reason, IntelliJ (and probably Android Studio) do not reliably process the resources, causing the build to contain un-replaced .res-auto provider authorities
This new solution does things more the Gradle way by creating a new task and allows for incremental builds by defining input and output files.
create a file (in the example I put it in a variants directory), formatted like a resource xml file, which contains string resources. These will be merged into the app's resources, and any occurrence of .res-auto in the values will be replaced with the variant's package name, for example <string name="search_provider">.res-auto.MySearchProvider</string>
add the build_extras.gradle file from this gist to your project and reference it from the main build.gradle by adding apply from: './build_extras.gradle' somewhere above the android block
make sure you set a default package name by adding it to the android.defaultConfig block of build.gradle
in AndroidManifest.xml and other configuration files (such as xml/searchable.xml for auto-completion search providers), reference the provider (for example #string/search_provider)
if you need to get the same name, you can use the BuildConfig.PACKAGE_NAME variable, for example BuildConfig.PACKAGE_NAME + ".MySearchProvider"
https://gist.github.com/paour/9189462
Update: this method only works on Android 2.2.1 and later. For earlier platforms, see this answer, which has its own set of problems, since the new manifest merger is still very rough around the edges…

I've written a blogpost with Github sample project that tackles this problem (and other similar problems) in a slightly different way than Cyril's.
http://brad-android.blogspot.com/2013/08/android-gradle-building-unique-build.html

Unfortunately, the current version (0.4.1) of the android plugin doesn't seem to provide a good solution for this. I haven't had time to try this yet, but a possible workaround for this problem would be to use a string resource #string/provider_authority, and use that in the manifest: android:authority="#string/provider_authority". You then have a res/values/provider.xml in the res folder of each build type that should override the authority, in your case this would be src/debug/res
I've looked into generating the xml file on the fly, but again, there doesn't seem to be any good hooks for it in the current version of the plugin. I'd recommend putting in a feature request though, I can imagine more people will run into this same issue.

The answer in this post works for me.
http://www.kevinrschultz.com/blog/2014/03/23/using-android-content-providers-with-multiple-package-names/
I use 3 different flavours so I create 3 manifest with content provider in each flavour as kevinrschultz said:
productFlavors {
free {
packageName "your.package.name.free"
}
paid {
packageName "your.package.name.paid"
}
other {
packageName "your.package.name.other"
}
}
Your main Manifest not include providers:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" >
<!-- Permissions -->
<application>
<!-- Nothing about Content Providers at all -->
<!-- Activities -->
...
<!-- Services -->
...
</application>
And your manifest in your each flavour including provider.
Free:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" >
<application>
<!-- Content Providers -->
<provider
android:name="your.package.name.Provider"
android:authorities="your.package.name.free"
android:exported="false" >
</provider>
</application>
</manifest>
Paid:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" >
<application>
<!-- Content Providers -->
<provider
android:name="your.package.name.Provider"
android:authorities="your.package.name.paid"
android:exported="false" >
</provider>
</application>
</manifest>
Other:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" >
<application>
<!-- Content Providers -->
<provider
android:name="your.package.name.Provider"
android:authorities="your.package.name.other"
android:exported="false" >
</provider>
</application>
</manifest>

Why not just add this?
type.packageNameSuffix = ".$type.name"

My solution is to use placeholder replacement in AndroidManifest.xml. It also handles packageNameSuffix attributes so you can have debug and release as well as any other custom builds on the same device.
applicationVariants.all { variant ->
def flavor = variant.productFlavors.get(0)
def buildType = variant.buildType
variant.processManifest.doLast {
println '################# Adding Package Names to Manifest #######################'
replaceInManifest(variant,
'PACKAGE_NAME',
[flavor.packageName, buildType.packageNameSuffix].findAll().join()) // ignores null
}
}
def replaceInManifest(variant, fromString, toString) {
def flavor = variant.productFlavors.get(0)
def buildtype = variant.buildType
def manifestFile = "$buildDir/manifests/${flavor.name}/${buildtype.name}/AndroidManifest.xml"
def updatedContent = new File(manifestFile).getText('UTF-8').replaceAll(fromString, toString)
new File(manifestFile).write(updatedContent, 'UTF-8')
}
I have it up on a gist too if you want to see if it evolves later.
I found to be a more elegant approach than the multiple resources and XML parsing approaches.

Create Free/Paid versions of Application from same code

So I'm coming down to release-time for my application. We plan on releasing two versions, a free ad-based play-to-unlock version, and a paid fully unlocked version. I have the code set up that I can simply set a flag on startup to enable/disable ads and lock/unlock all the features. So literally only one line of code will execute differently between these versions.
In order to release two separate applications, they require different package names, so my question is this: Is there an easy way to refactor my application's package name? Eclipse's refactoring tool doesn't resolve the generated R file, or any XML references in layout and manifest files. I've attempted to make a new project using the original as source, but I can't reference the assets and resources, and I'm looking to avoid duplicating any of my code and assets. It's not a huge pain to refactor it manually, but I feel there must be a better way to do it. Anybody have an elegant solution to this?
Edit/Answered:
For my situation I find it perfectly acceptable to just use Project -> Android Tools -> Rename Application Package. I wasn't aware this existed, and I feel like an idiot for posting this now. Thanks for everyone's answers and comments, feel free to vote this closed.

It's very simple by using build.gradle in Android Studio. Read about productFlavors. It is a very usefull feature. Just simply add following lines in build.gradle:
productFlavors {
lite {
packageName = 'com.project.test.app'
versionCode 1
versionName '1.0.0'
}
pro {
packageName = 'com.project.testpro.app'
versionCode 1
versionName '1.0.0'
}
}
In this example I add two product flavors: first for lite version and second for full version. Each version has his own versionCode and versionName (for Google Play publication).
In code just check BuildConfig.FLAVOR:
if (BuildConfig.FLAVOR == "lite") {
// add some ads or restrict functionallity
}
For running and testing on device use "Build Variants" tab in Android Studio to switch between versions:

Possibly a duplicate of Bulk Publishing of Android Apps.
Android Library projects will do this for you nicely. You'll end up with 1 library project and then a project for each edition (free/full) with those really just containing different resources like app icons and different manifests, which is where the package name will be varied.
Hope that helps. It has worked well for me.

The best way is to use "Android Studio" -> gradle.build -> [productFlavors + generate manifest file from template]. This combination allows to build free/paid versions and bunch of editions for different app markets from one source.
This is a part of templated manifest file:
<manifest android:versionCode="1" android:versionName="1" package="com.example.product" xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
<application android:allowBackup="true" android:icon="#drawable/ic_launcher"
android:label="#string/{f:FREE}app_name_free{/f}{f:PAID}app_name_paid{/f}"
android:name=".ApplicationMain" android:theme="#style/AppTheme">
<activity android:label="#string/{f:FREE}app_name_free{/f}{f:PAID}app_name_paid{/f}" android:name=".ActivityMain">
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN"/>
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER"/>
</intent-filter>
</activity>
</application>
This is template "ProductInfo.template" for java file: ProductInfo.java
package com.packagename.generated;
import com.packagename.R;
public class ProductInfo {
public static final boolean mIsPaidVersion = {f:PAID}true{/f}{f:FREE}false{/f};
public static final int mAppNameId = R.string.app_name_{f:PAID}paid{/f}{f:FREE}free{/f};
public static final boolean mIsDebug = {$DEBUG};
}
This manifest is processed by gradle.build script with productFlavors and processManifest task hook:
import java.util.regex.Matcher;
import java.util.regex.Pattern;
import org.gradle.api.DefaultTask
import org.gradle.api.tasks.TaskAction
...
android {
...
productFlavors {
free {
packageName 'com.example.product.free'
}
paid {
packageName 'com.example.product.paid'
}
}
...
}
afterEvaluate { project ->
android.applicationVariants.each { variant ->
def flavor = variant.productFlavors[0].name
tasks['prepare' + variant.name + 'Dependencies'].doLast {
println "Generate java files..."
//Copy templated and processed by build system manifest file to filtered_manifests forder
def productInfoPath = "${projectDir}/some_sourcs_path/generated/"
copy {
from(productInfoPath)
into(productInfoPath)
include('ProductInfo.template')
rename('ProductInfo.template', 'ProductInfo.java')
}
tasks.create(name: variant.name + 'ProcessProductInfoJavaFile', type: processTemplateFile) {
templateFilePath = productInfoPath + "ProductInfo.java"
flavorName = flavor
buildTypeName = variant.buildType.name
}
tasks[variant.name + 'ProcessProductInfoJavaFile'].execute()
}
variant.processManifest.doLast {
println "Customization manifest file..."
// Copy templated and processed by build system manifest file to filtered_manifests forder
copy {
from("${buildDir}/manifests") {
include "${variant.dirName}/AndroidManifest.xml"
}
into("${buildDir}/filtered_manifests")
}
tasks.create(name: variant.name + 'ProcessManifestFile', type: processTemplateFile) {
templateFilePath = "${buildDir}/filtered_manifests/${variant.dirName}/AndroidManifest.xml"
flavorName = flavor
buildTypeName = variant.buildType.name
}
tasks[variant.name + 'ProcessManifestFile'].execute()
}
variant.processResources.manifestFile = file("${buildDir}/filtered_manifests/${variant.dirName}/AndroidManifest.xml")
}
}
This is separated task to process file
class processTemplateFile extends DefaultTask {
def String templateFilePath = ""
def String flavorName = ""
def String buildTypeName = ""
#TaskAction
void run() {
println templateFilePath
// Load file to memory
def fileObj = project.file(templateFilePath)
def content = fileObj.getText()
// Flavor. Find "{f:<flavor_name>}...{/f}" pattern and leave only "<flavor_name>==flavor"
def patternAttribute = Pattern.compile("\\{f:((?!${flavorName.toUpperCase()})).*?\\{/f\\}",Pattern.DOTALL);
content = patternAttribute.matcher(content).replaceAll("");
def pattern = Pattern.compile("\\{f:.*?\\}");
content = pattern.matcher(content).replaceAll("");
pattern = Pattern.compile("\\{/f\\}");
content = pattern.matcher(content).replaceAll("");
// Build. Find "{$DEBUG}" pattern and replace with "true"/"false"
pattern = Pattern.compile("\\{\\\$DEBUG\\}", Pattern.DOTALL);
if (buildTypeName == "debug"){
content = pattern.matcher(content).replaceAll("true");
}
else{
content = pattern.matcher(content).replaceAll("false");
}
// Save processed manifest file
fileObj.write(content)
}
}
Updated: processTemplateFile created for code reusing purposes.

Gradle allows to use generated BuildConfig.java to pass some data to code.
productFlavors {
paid {
packageName "com.simple.paid"
buildConfigField 'boolean', 'PAID', 'true'
buildConfigField "int", "THING_ONE", "1"
}
free {
packageName "com.simple.free"
buildConfigField 'boolean', 'PAID', 'false'
buildConfigField "int", "THING_ONE", "0"
}

For everyone who want to use the solution by Denis:
In the new gradle version packageName is now applicationId and don't forget to put productFlavors { ... } in android { ... }
productFlavors {
lite {
applicationId = 'com.project.test.app'
versionCode 1
versionName '1.0.0'
}
pro {
applicationId = 'com.project.testpro.app'
versionCode 1
versionName '1.0.0'
}
}

One approach I'm experimenting with is using fully-qualified names for activities, and just changing the package attribute. It avoids any real refactoring (1 file copy, 1 text sub).
This almost works, but the generated R class isn't picked up, as the package for this is pulled out of AndroidManifest.xml, so ends up in the new package.
I think it should be fairly straight forward to build AndroidManifest.xml via an Ant rule (in -pre-build) that inserts the distribution package name, and then (in -pre-compile) the generated resources into the default (Java) package.
Hope this helps,
Phil Lello

If you want another application name, depending of the flavor, you can also add this:
productFlavors {
lite {
applicationId = 'com.project.test.app'
resValue "string", "app_name", "test lite"
versionCode 1
versionName '1.0.0'
}
pro {
applicationId = 'com.project.testpro.app'
resValue "string", "app_name", "test pro"
versionCode 1
versionName '1.0.0'
}
}