I'm working on a library project that provides access to a service. We started the project few months ago and we were supporting Eclipse only (since Android Studio was a prewview edition).
Now that Android Studio has become a "beta" version, and its popularity has increased greatly, we had the intention to support it as welll, but we are facing the problem of how to support both "styles" with the same base (project structure and code).
The library we are building has a UI that forced us to have the library as library project instead of just a simple jar. We have this project working with ANT to build the required files (jars) and packaging everthing in a library project.
Android Studio now introduces the .aar library files, that can also contain UI.
So our problem is finding examples of other library projects containing UI that are also supporting both IDE's. Wondering if someone else have face this same situation.
Is is possible to have a Library Project to support both IDEs? (Eclipse and Android Studio)
Thanks to #CommonsWare. When I looked at your projects I realize that we didn't need our project to be "Android Studio compatible". Since we wanted to share the project as an .aar file, I had only to make a build.gradle at the root of my library project and add the gradle folder (containing the gradle wrapper jars).
In this way I can use the console and create a .aar file using "./gradlew aR" command. Now I can distribute the library project for Eclipse users or the .aar file for Android Studio users.
I'm testing the .aar file, and the only problem I have right now is that classes inside a jar file within libs folder inside the .aar file are not recognized, just the classes present inside "classes.jar", but I think I would create another question here in SOF since is not relevant for this question.
Related
I've created a project and a library separately using Android Studio, each in a separate folder inside some directory.
I tried to add the library as a module to the project, and noticed that instead of just referencing the library like in Eclipse, the library was copied inside the project directory.
That means that if this happened N times for N projects, then I'll have N copies of the library and I'll need to update them all when any update is to be done.
I'm working on v 1.0.2 of Android Studio.
Any one has a better idea to do it?
Three options I know of:
You can specify the path to the external library:
Android studio add external project to build.gradle
Include the compiled jar file from the library in the libs directory of the N apps.
Publish the artifact (the jar from library project) to a gradle repository and then you can add dependencies to that project just like you would for the support library etc.
See http://gradle.org/docs/current/userguide/artifact_management.html
I need to import this library project into my eclipse. While i am trying to use this project it have some error. Can you help me on this. https://github.com/daimajia/AndroidImageSlider
That project is created for use with Gradle for Android. Eclipse does not support that yet. It is also distributed as an AAR, which Eclipse does not support. There are recipes for converting AARs into Eclipse-friendly Android library projects that you can try. Otherwise, you will need to reorganize the project code yourself to support the classic Eclipse-style project structure. Mostly, that will involve moving the contents of library/src/main/ into a regular Eclipse Android library project:
The res/ directory and AndroidManifest.xml file would go in the library project root directory
The java/ directory would be renamed src/ and also go in the library project directory
However, you will have to repeat this process each and every time the library's author updates the library, at least for those updates that you are interested in.
You may wish to see if there is an alternative library that meets your needs but is better packaged for use with Eclipse.
Basically there are some changes to be done to eclipse project before importing it to eclipse like src folder.
The project you posted may contains many error since it have two more android project dependency.
I tired to convert above project with its dependency :
Checkout Complete Source Code
There is one more project lib u need to add LIB
Has anyone found a good way to utilize Android .aar libraries within Unity3D, other than unzipping them?
Snippets from the Unity 4.2 Release Notes:
Android: Added support for Android Library Projects (no compilation
support, so the libraries have to be pre-compiled).
Android: Remove Eclipse project support in favor of Android project support.
Android: Support for Android SDK rev22.
The Unity documentation clarifies
Pre-compiled means all .java files must have been compiled into jar files located in either the bin/ or the libs/ folder of the project.
I'm familiar with using the jar + res/ solution; but I am specifically trying to identify the best way of incorporating the precompiled aar. Is there something better than unzipping it?
With Unity 5, just place .aar files in the project. (They don't even need to be in /Plugins/Android anymore, just check the inspector and make sure they are turned on for Android platform).
I've been spinning a jar for android library project and including this jar in my other apps. But on developer.android.com, I see this statement that I can't distribute a library in a jar:
You cannot export a library project to a JAR file
A library cannot be distributed as a binary file (such as a JAR file).
This will be added in a future version of the SDK Tools.
I really don't understand what does that mean.
It is possible to create an Android library project that does not
include source code. The limitations are:
You still have to ship the resources.
You have to rewrite your code to avoid using R. values, as they
will be wrong. You will have to look up all resource IDs using
getResources().getIdentifier() and/or reflection.
I have the instructions in The Busy Coder's Guide to Advanced Android
Development (http://commonsware.com/AdvAndroid), though the
instructions are new enough that none of my free versions have them.
Quoting some of the instructions from the current edition:
"You can create a binary-only library project via the following steps:
Create an Android library project, with your source code and such –
this is your master project, from which you will create a version of
the library project for distribution.
Compile the Java source (e.g., ant compile) and turn it into a JAR file
Create a distribution Android library project, with the same
resources as the master library project, but no source code
Put the JAR file in the distribution Android library project's libs/
directory
The resulting distribution Android library project will have everything a
main project will need, just without the source code."
Personally, I'd just wait a bit. I am hopeful that the official
support for library-projects-as-JARs will be available soonish.
It means that (at the current time) you must distribute your entire project folder. Rather than just a jar file like you can for java libraries.
When someone wants to use your library they will import your project into eclipse, and then in project properties->android they will add your project as an android library.
A few common ways used to distribute a Library project are by using git, or zipping your project folder and making it available online.
After updating to ADT 14/15 I started having a couple problems with our build.
With one Android based libraries (call it Framework) which is added into the actual android project app (call it App). The Framework project has a couple jar files in its own lib folder which is added to its own build path. Those same jar files are required to be added to the App's build path as well.
So jar files on the Framework build path
Framework/libs roboguice
Framework/libs gson
Those same jar files on the App build path
Framework/libs roboguice
Framework/libs gson
Also the Framework.apk is added via the Android Library panel in the App's project properties.
Both projects are targeting the same Android.
Now when I build the project I seem to have resolved the errors however when running it, at times I receive the Missing Framework.apk in the console window.
So based on this scenario any thoughts on how to correct this build? I have a feeling its still setup incorrectly.
This should help you out!
http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2011/10/changes-to-library-projects-in-android.html