Ambiguous Reference using PCL and Shared Project - android

I am developing a system where I want to share WCF Service logic between an Android app and an IOS app
I thought the best way of doing this was to create a PCL which I can reference in both
I have shared code which I have packaged up into a shared project.
This is referenced by my PCL. So far so good!
However, as soon as I reference this PCL in my IOS app I get a problem, it appears as though 2 versions of ILocation, one for PCL and one from my actual project.
Am I right in thinking that the only way around this is to have my WCF code in a
I am experimenting with shared projects in Visual Studio 2013
I have an Interface ILocation which is included in my shared project

You just have to move ILocation.cs from SharedProject into Pcl project. Files in SharedProject will still be able to access ILocation type because SharedProject files are actually part of Android and iOS project.
Shared project is nothing more then group of files that are linked(added) into project referencing shared project. This is same as if you would have some folder in your solution folder called SharedFiles and add links to files in this folder from other projects(Android, iOS..). Compiling this projects results into generating new IL(intermediate language code) for each of this projects and types are conflicting. If you ever used common AssemblyInfo.cs and used file linking for this... Well this is same only difference is that you don't have to reference new file in each project but only SharedProject.

Related

Multiple Native Modules in Android Studio

I have a C++ codebase that is currently set up in Visual Studio (to run on Windows), with multiple Projects with inter-dependencies. I'm trying to bring it over to Android Studio, to get it running on Android.
I'm familiar with Visual Studio and C++, but quite new to Android Studio's Gradle and CMake.
My (possibly wrong) expectation is to try and treat Android Studio Projects like Visual Studio Solutions, and Android Studio Modules like Visual Studio Projects. Given that my codebase uses multiple Projects in Visual Studio, I am trying to create multiple Modules in Android Studio -- each one with their own build.gradle and CMakeLists.txt files.
The issue is that I cannot get one section of code (AS Module) to link with the other. I am compiling these different sections as STATIC using add_library() (I plan to have one Module that creates a SHARED library, to load into Java).
I can easily get the includes to work via include_directories("../OtherModule/src/"). However, I cannot get it to link. I cannot find the .so (or similar) file to link to (via target_link_libraries() or equivalent). When I extract the .arr file from a given Module, I do not see any .so or anything.
I realize that I could simply put the entire codebase under one Module (using one build.gradle and one CMakeLists.txt -- or network of CMakeLists.txt's using add_subdirectory()). I don't know if this is fine, or if it would take more/less time to build.
I'm sure that there could be multiple ways to set this up, and it could just be a matter of preference. All research that I've done thus far has only found strictly adding native code to the same module with Java code -- doing basic JNI native bridge stuff. I haven't been able to find a single article about multiple native Modules linking together.
I'm hoping that someone with more experience with native development on Android could help me out. Thanks!
TL;DR: Simplified scenario: (Without being concerned with the JNI native bridge) I have two Modules in Android Studio, both with only native code. I would like to have each Module have its own build.gradle and CMakeLists.txt, creating its own STATIC libraries. One Module depends on the other and must set the correct include and link directories. How do?! Is this even correct (or should there ever be only one Module with native code)?
I asked a related question here. It seems to me that AS...
...does not actually link the final module-library unless it's SHARED (it does allow static 'sub-libraries' within the module); consider making the final library shared - you will have to System.loadLibrary() it specifically in Java though.
...does not allow you to install files to other places (e.g., from your native module to your Android app). I work around this by fetching the library through set_target_properties( jniwrapper PROPERTIES IMPORTED_LOCATION ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/../libnative/build/intermediates/cmake/${BUILD_TYPE}/obj/${ANDROID_ABI}/libnative.so ) and setting BUILD_TYPE in build.gradle. Not overly elegant though.
Overall, this does not seem to be an encouraged use-case in AS...

Adding a Xamarin Component to Shared Code

I am developing a Xamarin project for both Android and iOS. I would like to use a Xamarin Component (from the store) in my shared code base. Currently, I have created a "Shared Project", but it seems like it is not possible to add the component to this project. Is this correctly understood? And if so, is there some kind of workaround?
Thanks.
Add the component to all your platform specific projects and then you can use it on the shared project. If there are any discrepancies in the API's between the platforms you will have to resolve these with compiler flags or partial classes/methods.
http://developer.xamarin.com/guides/cross-platform/application_fundamentals/shared_projects/
A Shared Project does not get compiled on its own, it exists purely as
a grouping of source code files that can be included in other
projects. When referenced by another project, the code is effectively
compiled as part of that project. Shared Projects cannot reference any
other project type (including other Shared Projects).
Components are platform specific. To use platform specific code in a shared or PCL project you can use DI to pass a reference to a common interface into your shared code.
http://developer.xamarin.com/guides/cross-platform/xamarin-forms/dependency-service/

Android Studio - Common Codebase

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).

Sharing Java library with Android Apps

I'm just getting started in Android development, and use Netbeans with NBAndroid and SDK 17.
I'd like to use the same Java source code in my Java and Android app.
http://developer.android.com/guide/developing/projects/projects-eclipse.html says how to do it in Eclipse (although it is sketchy on the .JAR connection thing), but I can't seem to make it work in NB.
Based on that link, My understanding is that the correct setup for the Android app is an Android Application project which references an Android Library project which in turn references a .JAR library produced by a Java Library project. I could then also have a Java Application project referring to the same Java Library project.
So, I've set up this project structure... I have an AndroidApp project which is a basic HelloAndroid Activity in a com.ex package. This project includes an AndroidLib library project in the Libraries folder. I also have a LibClass.java file which defines a simple LibClass class which has one function getText() that just returns a String to be displayed. The MainActivity in the AndroidApp calls this to get the String to output.
When I put LibClass.java directly into the AndroidLib project, everything is fine.
But what I want to do is to share the source code with Java.
So I want to move the LibClass.java into the JavaLib library, whose .JAR file is included in the AndroidLib project. However, when I tried that, I get an error in the MainActivity class, complaining it can't find LibClass. Looking at the Projects window, I can see LibClass.class inside the com.ex package in the JavaLib.jar in the Libraries folder of the AndroidLib project. And AndroidLib is visible in the Libraries folder of the AndroidApp project, but it doesn't show any packages or other contents there.
So I feel like I'm just one step away from making this work. Do I need to do something with one or other of the AndroidManifest files perhaps? Or do something with the build.xml files? Or am I on the wrong track altogether?
I'd be really grateful if someone could post a how-to for this.
I'm trying something similar; I've got Java EE projects, built using Eclipse, and I'm trying to utilize some of that code from my Android projects. This should give me a shared codebase rather than a bunch of confusing SVN externals which I've had to endure before.
Rather than creating JAR files I've found that working with the source and building for the platform works best (well, it has been working but I've got a problem with it at the moment). So, what I'm doing is:
c:\MySvnFolderStructure\MyJavaProjectFolder\src\ (and then all the source under that)
c:\MySvnFolderStructure\MyJavaProjectFolder\android\ (and all the Eclipse Android project gubbins)
c:\MySvnFolderStructure\MyJavaProjectFolder\jee\ (and all the Eclipse JEE project gubbins)
The Android and Java EE projects do not have their own src folders, they both link to the src folder in their parent folder. What this means is that each of the Java implementations is building its own byte code version from the source, and using its own external libraries (like the Apache HTTP ones, for example).
Naturally they can't share stuff like awt (as mentioned in another post), but there's plenty of stuff that does cross-over especially if it's core Java classes that are being used.
Also, it's proving a bit tricky writing JUnit tests as there needs to be some duplication of the test code at the moment because the Android ones need extra instrumentation, but I'm working on it.
Also, see this post about relative paths in Eclipse, which means the folders can be checked-out to different places on different machines (like we all do with our version control check-outs) and still be shared.
if I understand your situation correct, you are trying to use a custom java library for both your android and java applications.
For this scenario, you can build the java library first. Instead of adding the java library jar as android library, you can drop the jar directly inside the libs folder of android project and add it to android project's build path.
If you are using ANT scripts for building the java library jar , you can consider adding the source files also as part of jar. This will help you get code assistance when you develop the android part. But this part is purely optional.
The problem is that the Java platform in Android is different from the JDK platform.
In particular, the .JAR library CANNOT refer to anything that is not icluded in the Android platform. An example of things you can't refer to is java.awt.* (except you can have java.awt.fonts).
There is also a difference between JDK String and Android String -- Android does not implement the isEmpty() method.

multiple dependent android projects in eclipse

I just started to play with android dev and java+eclipse is pretty new to me. I managed to create simple project and run it on my device. Now I want to create simple game (more of them actually) and I would love to use shared code base for all of them (game loop, initialization, etc..).
Problem is that I have no idea how to correctly do this. I created android project called engine with all basic stuff that I need and made it work on device. Now I tried to create another project in same workspace called mygame. Main class (activity) of mygame is MyGameApp which inherits from EngineApp (main activity of my engine project) which inherits from Activity.
I added engine project into required projects in mygame build path tab in properties. Problem is that when I try to run this project it crashes on ClassNotFoundException trying to find my MyGameApp class.
Any help (or pointer to some articles that explain how this is done) is greatly appreciated. few hours of googling didn't help much :/
You need to set up an Android Library Project
An Android library project is a development project that holds shared Android source code and resources. Other Android application projects can reference the library project and, at build time, include its compiled sources in their .apk files. Multiple application projects can reference the same library project and any single application project can reference multiple library projects.
The docs go on to say how to convert an existing project to a library project:
You can also convert an existing application project into a library. To do so, simply open the Properties for the project and select the "is Library" checkbox. Other application projects can now reference the existing project as a library project.

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