How do I move files in Android IDE - android

I'm using Android IDE to develop, and I need to move source files from one folder to another, but I can't seem to find a way to actually MOVE a file (even copy and delete in two steps would work).
Am I blind? This seems like a required feature of any IDE, and given how good Android IDE is, I find it shocking if this feature was overlooked.
NOTE: This question is NOT about Android Studio!

You are right. The (essential) feature to move files around is missing from Android IDE.
Workaround:
You can manipulate the files in any explorer. Your project files are placed in /sdcard/AppProjects/YourProject.
You can count on the fact that such a feature will not be missing for long.

I would download a file manager (I like root browser) and switch between the two apps as a temporary work around. That app is updated fairly often so I would also just shoot the developers a feature request. I am sure they would consider it essential as you do.

PREFACE: Use a file manager; this hack renames Java classes.
Rename, with the relative path as the new name.
Let's say I wanted to move file from /sdcard/A to /sdcard/B. I'd long-press on file, chose rename, and type the new destination as ../B/file.
This doesn't seem like deliberate feature, rather a side effect of blindly passing path strings to the underlying framework. Can't say I don't like it, although, I'd recommend using a proper file explorer app.

Right-mouse click on any element (folder, Class, or XML file) the click = 'cut'.
Right-mouse click on the folder where you would like the files to be moved to, and then select 'paste'.
This works the same as moving files in the file-system.
For the most part (depending on where you are moving to and from) you can just drag-and-drop your files to move them as well.

I often achieve this goal by simply drag and drop. And the IDE also takes care of all the refactoring stuff.

Related

Save android studio activity on separate file

I had created a bulky activity and now I need to modify a lot in it. I decided to first copy paste the entire code on text box but I do not think it is the right way. I want to save the activity consisting of xml file and .java file in a single file that can be recalled if required. Is this possible or should I copy and paste both file to some location manually.
Thanks
In modern Software development it is often a good practice to use some kind of version control system.
A lot of people are using systems based on git like GitLab, GitHub, BitBucket etc.
These tools help to manage your source code in different versions and enable you to switch between versions easily.
In your case you could decide to work with github and after pushing your project you could compare your recent code with the new one until you decide your refactoring is done.
If you decide to dive into this you find many tutorials with google.
e.G https://www.codecademy.com/learn/learn-git

Debug on many phones in Android Studio

Is it possible to debug an app on many phones at the same time in Android Studio? By this I mean launching multiple debug instances, each one on a different phone, like in Eclipse.
At the time of posting this question probably the only solution was the one posted by George V.M. Now, after several updates of Android Studio, this can be easily done by creating N copies of the same Debug configuration and launching each of them on a separate phone.
Update
You might want to take a look at Vlad's answer. This one is pointless for newer versions of Android Studio. In case anyone is still curious, this was my really hacky way of solving the problem
In case anyone out there is still looking for a solution to this, here's what I've found.
I'm working on a project that requires wireless communication between 2 instances of the same app running on 2 phones (actually, 2 or more). There were a lot of times where I wished I could debug 2 devices at a time. It wasn't until recently that I figured out how to do it.
It's actually quite simple: Have 2 instances of Android Studio open and you can debug multiple devices at once, (one device on each Android Studio instance) with breakpoints and everything!
Catch 1: You can't open two instances of the same project
I haven't been able to run two instances of Android Studio where both instances have the same project open. It will just redirect you to the already open project.
Solution:
The solution to this is to just make a copy of your project somewhere on your PC and open that project allowing you to have two copies of the same project open.
Catch 2: Changes have to be made on each copy manually.
Now here's a new problem. What if while debugging, you find a mistake in your code and amend it. Now you have to make sure you make that exact same amendment in your second copy of the project so that the second device doesn't have the same error if it hits those lines. This is annoying, having to remember to make a change twice; once in each copy of the project.
Solution:
My solution to this problem was to just make a 'symbolic link' of the project instead of a physical copy.
(A symbolic link is a 'nickname' or a 'reference' to a file. If you make a symbolic link fileB that points to fileA, although they seem like two distinct files to the OS, they in fact point to the exact same physical file. Any changes made on fileA will be reflected in fileB since they point to the same physical file/data on the disk. Instructions on how to create symbolic links are given below)
Now hold on just one second!!! Making a symbolic link of the entire project might not be a very smart idea since you'll have two Android Studios trying to edit the same files. This could lead to problems, especially in the case of build files and IDE files.
So what I did was make a symbolic link of only the source files, or any file which I'd be editing directly and which AS wouldn't normally touch, and make a physical copy of every other file.
The only thing you need to do is remember to hit Ctrl+S after making changes to your code in one AS instance so that the changes will be reflected on the second one. It might still take a couple of seconds for those changes to be reflected in the second instance but you can just click the "Synchronize" button (top left, next to "Open" and "Save") on your second AS which will cause all externally changed files, i.e., the file you just edited in your first instance, to be reloaded from disk.
You still need to be careful though. Every time you make a change in one AS, make sure you save all those changes and that those changes are reflected in the second AS before you try doing any editing in the second AS. Otherwise conflicts could cause you to lose the changes you made in one copy. One way around this is to force yourself to make changes to a file only on one AS and not the other.
Actual Instructions:
Okay that was a lot of talk. Here are the steps you can follow along with tips:
Close Android Studio and make a copy of your project into another folder on your PC
Go to your second copy and delete all your source code files since we're going to make symbolic links of them.
(these are the files I usually make symbolic links of instead of a copy:
all build.gradle files
the entire app/src folder
if you have any other loose source or resource files or othwerwise non IDE files that you might edit, make symbolic links of them as well
Make a symbolic link of all those non IDE files from the first project folder into your second project folder.
to make a symbolic link of a file in Windows, use
mklink path\to\symbolic\link path\to\original\file
to make symbolic link of a folder in Windows, use
mklink /j "path\to\symbolic\link" "path\to\original\folder"
to make a symbolic link of a file or folder in Linux, use
ln -s "path/to/original/file_or_folder" "path/to/link"
Open up Android Studio again. It will probably open the original copy of your project if that was the last project you opened in AS.
Go to File>Open and open up the second project copy on your PC.
You will now have 2 copies of your project running and you will be able to debug your app on 2 devices at the same time! (Remember that breakpoints won't be shared between the two copies)
If you are talking about attaching the debugger to several phones, I'm going to say no.
The port will be blocked with that traffic from one phone.
Unless someone figure out a hacky way to do this, atm It's not possible as far as my knowledge.
Android studio has its VM devices, but it requires installing Intel Accelerator because it's too slow until it show up. alternatively, I recommended "Genymotion" for running multiple instances and different devices. I'm using it and its working perfectly.
It may takes a while for setup and installing but once its installed it will be light weight and I promise you'll be pleased while working on it =)
Here is the link:
genymotion intallation user guide,
genymotion website

Android studio does not create files

I added a new fragment to my project in Android studio like the way I did it a couple of times before, but now it says that this file das not exist (and is read only). I cannot edit a thing in it but also do not know how to correctly close it, so I can't use the name, which I really want...
I cannot find the file anywhere within my project and it is also not listed in the project+path (Name/App/src/main/...) but in the entire windows location (E:/...).
And how can I create a permanent file, or better, why does it not work any more?
This must be a fault on your side. Are you sure you are in the right folder? This is the only explanation I could think of. So you creat the files but outside of your project's folder, so you cannnot edit them or anything else, but read them...
Bene
Make sure that you have no LINT ERRORS.
For checking it:
Go to the bottom right side of Android Studio. Tap on "Gradle Console" tab.
If you have some errors(red text) - remove them and try again.

Android & iOS: Best way to create multiple similar apps

I've created an app which pulls data from a JSON file and displays it.
Now that app is specific for one sports team. I want to create the same app for 10 other teams.
Plus there will be an accompanying pro version of the app.
I'll be doing the same thing for the iOS version.
The only difference between the apps will be colors, logos and url of the data source.
I wanted to know if there was a better way to create apps. Instead of individually creating 40 different projects.
It will help me in updating the app as opposed to copy pasting the same code 40X.
Are there any special features available in eclipse and xcode to do that?
Thanks
I would simply swap out the resources for each team and rebuild the app.
For example, with Android, maintain an AndroidManifest.xml and a res/ subdirectory tree for each team. When it is time to build, simply copy over the resources into the project, overwriting the previous team.
I don't know of any existing tool to do this automatically, however.
Have you looked into using PhoneGap and just create a "mobile site" that detects the app that is connecting and adjusts the data/styles accordingly.
There's always the possibility of creating ONE app allowing the user to set the team preference upon first load, and swapping out resources programmatically.
With Titanium Studio you can write code using Javascript and it convert your code in native objective-c code, native android code, native html 5 code and soon also in windows phone code. It`s the best free cross platform IDE
Upon reviewing your responses, you seem to want a strategy to manage your resources. Since different OS has different resource requirements (screen-size, iOS 2x png for example). The most common strategy is to keep a separate resource structure and setup build target to copy/xcopy replace these image resources before build. Source control + an OSX build server would be most beneficial.
After creating these apps I've found the following way to be the most easiest way to create a similar app.
Android:
1. Select the project from the project explorer sidebar copy it and then paste it. Give it a new name.
Select the new project and then right click > Android Tools > Change Package Name.
Give it a new package name. Eclipse will give you an option to refactor the code, say yes.
Go to res/values and change all strings.
Change the icons and other images.
Go to src click the package and then refactor it. Give it the new package name.
Go to manifest file and rename any old names which might still be lingering.

NetBeans and Android image

New to Android development and have decided to use NetBeans 6.9.1 as my IDE. So far the process has been somewhat painful, but I'm getting things rolling. However, I am creating an ImageView subclass for my first custom View and I can't figure out how to add my Box.png file to the project. Drag and Drop doesn't work, there are no right-click options to add a file to the Resources folder, no dropdown menus to add images, no way to add the image to a package. Could use some insight, thanks!
Just go to the project folder and copy the images you want into the res/drawable folder. The IDE helps you a lot with code completion, error checking, etc... but that simple task can be done by hand.
Then, you can reference your resources by using something like: R.drawable.image Notice that I'm not using the image extension. If you wonder what R is, let me give you a brief explanation:
Each resource that is saved in the resources directory is referenced in the R class. That's a file that is autogenerated by Android and it's used to reference those resources from your code. In this case, it will be in R.drawable.* since it's a drawable resource. There are other kind of resources, like layouts: R.layout.something or strings R.string.whatever. That's essential for the android development, so you better read some tutorials (or buy books) in order for you to get started.
So, in your case will be something like setImageDrawable(R.layout.wood); However, I highly recommend to read first a couple of tutorials. Google about it, you will find tons of them.

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