I have around 49 android apps. All of them have a reference to one library project. Till now, I have been developing on eclipse. Now, I am moving to Android Studio. What's the way to reference a library project in Android Studio?
I tried the answer mentioned in
How to include library projects in Android Studio that are stored in a separate git repository?
This actually copies the library project within the app project. So, If i change anything in the library, it will not be reflected in 48 other apps.
How about creating a library project, then adding it to Bintray and including in your projects dependencies?
Follow this guide up to the point where you'll be able to include your library like this:
repositories {
maven {
url 'https://dl.bintray.com/$DEVELOPER$/maven/'
}
}
...
dependencies {
compile 'groupId:artefact:0.0.1'
}
Then consider sharing it on jCenter / mavenCentral.
Beware, that sharing code privately on Bintray is not free. This solution would be really optimal for opensource library though
you can have your library code in git and add it to your application projects as a sub module. so if you modify the library from one project you can push the changes to the library git and then from other application you can pull those changes. it would be better to keep separate branch of library for each application so as not to conflict with the usage on modification.
i have explained the steps to add a git library as a sub module in here: Android Studio, how to add my own git repository as a library project(sub module)?
Related
I have an Android project in which I have added Android library as a module and use it within the project. Android library module is part of the project.
what I want to do is, remove the Android library from the project and host it in Github and use the Android library as a dependency in Android project.
Is that possible, if so how can I achieve that please.
If you think I should not be creating a Android library within the Android project I want to use it in, and create Android library as a separate project do let me know as well. (But this was it is a bit hard to debug I think)
Your suggestion and advice will be very helpful
Thanks
R
You need to publish your Library to Github Packages in order to use it as a dependency.
Follow this tutorial to do it.
Update 1
Another way to do that is by using JitPack. You just need to publish your library into Github repository and then you create a dependency using JitPack from that repo.
I work for a company which has a android mobile application developed by an offshore team. I have access to GitHub repositories.
I am piecing together the android app block by block and it is giving me hell.
How do I distinguish between module, libraries, jar, library projects, gradle projects, aar and jar. Can someone please give me a practical definition. NOT out of a freaking google search. I have Google too.
PS yes I am a noob and not proud of it.
I'm just giving a brief description about each of these. I hope I'm clear.
Module : A Module is an component of your application that can build / test independently and re use it in another application if required.
Libraries : AAR files, JAR files etc.
JAR : Java library
AAR : Just like JAR, only difference is that it also contains android specific files like resources etc.
Gradle Project : Gradle is just a build system which is used by Android Studio to build the android project. Its very much powerful as compared to the build system which was used in Eclipse earlier.
Library Project : An Android library project is similar to an Android app project in that it also includes a project manifest file in the project’s root directory. Also, this directory contains src, res, and other directories that you also find when building an app project.
However, there is a significant difference. You cannot compile a library project into an APK file because a library project doesn’t describe an app. Instead, it provides reusable code and resources that contribute to an app when the app’s project and source code refer to the library project. At build time, this code and these resources are merged into the app’s APK file.
To explain more on this, let me give you an example :
Say you want to use a networking library volley for making API calls, now since this is an open source library from Google you can clone it making customisations as per your requirement.
You can make volley library as your Library Project, build it independently, unit test, etc.
Now say you started building an application where you need to make HTTP calls so you need to add volley library to your project. You have two choices for that :
Compile your library project volley, generate the aar file and add it your app Project.
Add Volley as module in your project. (If you choose this option you can make changes to volley library in same studio project since it will act as a component in your project)
Please let me know if something is not clear.
1.) Module
A module is a collection of source files and build settings that allow you to divide your project into discrete units of functionality. Your project can have one or many modules and one module may use another module as a dependency. Each module can be independently built, tested, and debugged.
There are 4 type of module in Android Studio.
Phone & Table Module
Android Wear Module
Android TV Module
Glass Module
2.) Support Library
The Android Support Library offers a number of features that are not built into the framework. These libraries offer backward-compatible versions of new features, provide useful UI elements that are not included in the framework, and provide a range of utilities that apps can draw on.
Support libraries provide a range of different features:
Backward-compatible versions of framework components.
UI elements to implement the recommended Android layout patterns.
Support for different form factors.
Miscellaneous utility functions.
3.) Jar file
JarFile is used to read jar entries and their associated data from jar files.
for more detail visit this : https://developer.android.com/reference/java/util/jar/JarFile.html
4.) Android Library Project
The Android team introduced a new binary distribution format called Android ARchive(AAR). The .aar bundle is the binary distribution of an Android Library Project.
An AAR is similar to a JAR file, but it can contain resources as well as compiled byte-code. This allows that an AAR file is included in the build process of an Android application similar to a JAR file
5.) Gradle and Gradle Project
Gradle is an automated build toolkit that allows the way in which projects are built to be configured and managed through a set of build configuration files. This includes defining how a project is to be built, what dependencies need to be fulfilled for the project to build successfully and what the end result (or results) of the build process should be. The strength of Gradle lies in the flexibility that it provides to the developer. The Gradle system is a self-contained, command-line based environment that can be integrated into other environments through the use of plug-ins. In the case of Android Studio, Gradle integration is provided through the appropriately named Android Studio Plug-in.
for more detail visit this : http://www.techotopia.com/index.php/An_Overview_of_Gradle_in_Android_Studio
I would like to open source a library project that I am working on in android studio (hosted on GitHub) and allow others to include the project as a dependency.
Example:
dependencies {
compile 'com.test:myproject:1.0'
}
I've done some research, and have only discovered how to create a module and import it locally within my project. Does anyone know the necessary steps to take to achieve what I want?
Basicly you can publish your app on a public repository like maven or jCenter. The easiest way is to published on bintray, it's free for open source public library. You can use the following library to help you
Also, look into jitpack.io. It is easily the quickest way for getting a JVM projects up and ready especially if you're already using Github. Here's the extra docs for it as well.
So I recently migrated to Android Studio from Eclipse. For the most part, it's better, but I haven't found a good way to maintain a shared codebase between multiple projects.
What I want to do is be able to share some code between several of my applications. Each application is in its own project. From what I've seen, most people add it as a library module in the application's project. The problem with that is the module is accessible from only one project. The other projects within which my other applications reside can't access the library.
It seems to me like there should be a mechanism for creating another library project and then allow each of the application projects to access that code. This worked in Eclipse, where I would create another project in my workspace, mark it as a library, and then have the other projects reference it. I would be able to change the code in the library and then all of the projects referencing it would automatically build with the updated code.
Is this something I could do in Android Studio?
Yes this is possible:
Create the project you would like to have as a shared library - we'll refer to it as sharedProject.
Now in the project that you want to use this library open settings.gradle and paste the following:
include '..:sharedProject:app'
Open your build.gradle and paste the following under the dependencies element:
compile project(':..:sharedProject:app')
You can use this technique for as many projects as you'd like to refer to your common codebase in sharedProject. Note that this assumes your project and your sharedProject directories are in a common workspace directory (which is almost always the case).
I recently wanted to adopt submodules from GIT with my Android projects but stumbled into some problems.
Backstory
I have multiple projects but many use the same external library (Android library-project), in order to make the GIT cleaner and make the GIT for each project contain all the needed material I though of using GIT sub-modules for the Android library project. This part works fine I got the library included as a sub-module for the projects.
Issue
But Android uses these library-projects which basically is a regular project which is added to the project and I can only add the same project once in Eclipse. So if I need to work on more than one project at a time I have to use multiple instances of Eclipse/workspace instead of using Eclipse the regular way.
Is there a way to have only 1 instance of my library project in eclipse and at the same time have all the projects reference to their respective libraries? Or any other suggestions how I should handle this?
Any help is very appreciated
You cannot have the library project as a single instance in Eclipse for the following reason.
Each project which uses the library might reference a different version of the library. Since your submodule is a physical checkout (working directory) of a particular version there is no way to represent more then one state of the repository at a certain point in time.
Workaround:
Prepare a "server" location for the library project. It is good enough to create a clone using git clone --bare.
Clone the "server" library project into your workspace.
Prefix the library project to reflect the name of the main project it is used in.
Repeat step 2 and 3 for each main project you need the library to work with.
Everytime you do changes in the library project create a feature branch. In each main project consider if the new feature might be useful or hindering. If it does not fit you obviously need to rewrite the feature you just created. When you are done update the version of the library (don't be shy using tags with Semantic Versioning).