Let's say I have an Android Project set up and a git repository for it. Where can I put my keystore (and other sensitive files) inside my project so I can be guaranteed that it will not end up inside the .apk when I export the app (but will be inside the git repository)?
For instance, I can't put sensitive files inside the assets folder because that will end up inside the .apk.
Is there a place to store these kind of files in the Android file hierarchy I am missing?
Don't put your keystore anywhere in your source control or project folder even if you have .gitignored it. It is a personal document, to be treated as you would your SSH keys.
It is better to keep it in an external location, such as your documents folder or personal keystore folder, which you manage yourself. As you have mentioned, these don't need to end up in the APK so they are purely supporting documents and files.
Is there a place to store these kind of files in the Android file hierarchy I am missing?
Put them in the project root. The only file from the project root that is incorporated directly into the APK is AndroidManifest.xml, and even that is moving with the new build system and project directory structure.
Or, create some other directory that does not collide with any existing directories and will not be used by Android, like _stuff/.
Or, have your project itself be in a subdirectory, putting other related files in a peer directory.
Also, make sure you set up your .gitignore properly such that files only go into the Git repo that you actually want in the Git repo.
Related
I am trying to link to an external file from a shared repository between my iOS and Android apps. This does not present a problem for iOS, but it does for Android. My current solution is to create a copy of the file from the external repository and place it in my projects Assets folder. This solution works, but is not much of a good one in my opinion and involves too many extra steps.
Using Eclipse, I am able to link to a resource. It's as simple as copying a file into my Assets folder and being prompted to either copy the file or link to the resource. If I link to the resource and try to run my app, I get a FileNotFoundException. If I copy the file instead, the app file is found just fine.
Ideally, I'd like to link to the file so that when I pull a new update from git then I don't need to copy the file over every single time. I'd prefer to link to the file.
I don't know what Eclipse uses "under the covers" for "Link here" drag-and-drop stuff. However, it is an Eclipse-ism. Android's build tools are fairly isolated from Eclipse proper, and so they won't know about those links.
Using a hardlink, or perhaps a symlink, at the OS X filesystem level should work, as both Eclipse and Android's build tools should treat it like a local file.
I am working on an Android App and the APK file is located in the out folder. I am also using Mercurial as version control system and cloned the repo, the clone was successful but Mercurial created two APK files one inside the bin directory and another in the root directory of the project.
Why Mercurial created these extra two APK files and how to get rid of them?
You have these two files in repo, clone just show it to you
You didn't see only these files in original Working Copy, because (not discovered yet) local settings for original workspace now ignore these files (after they was commited to repo - see hg log FILENAME), but adding to ignore-list doesn't mean "automatically forget and remove from repo"
how to get rid of them?
In cloned repo-root create .hgignore, add global pattern for all and any (?) *.apk-file
hg forget both APK (or Forget from CMenu of THG)
commit changes
remove files from WorkingCopy
I think I may know the answer to this question already, but I just wanna be 100% sure. Anyways, I am writing an Android app using Eclipse 4.2 ("Juno"). I want to create my SQLite database by using external files and reading/parsing these files by my code. Hence, I created my own directory called /database and placed it in my project's root directory. Then, Eclipse starts complaining, reports a problem and says:
Invalid recourse directory name.
I even tried placing my database directory in the existing /res directory, but that caused the same Eclipse problem. Just want to confirm what my initial thoughts are: Is it not allowed for me to define my own directories in the project and bundle it in with my release?
If so, then I guess I'll have to follow along with what was posted in this stackoverflow question.
put it in /assets not in /res and it should work.
You should be able to create arbitrary directories in the root of your Android project, however your application won't be able to access these files. This is useful for development purposes like storing test data, documentation, or jar files. However, you cannot create non-standard directories in places like gen and res.
I'm pretty new to eclipse and Android and I'm trying to add some files to the assets folder, but certain files and directories are not being included in the .apk file.
I have set-up the following structure in the solution:
/assets
/textures
/test.png
/splash.png
/xml
/testData.xml
I don't know if there is a specific way to get eclipse to re-build/compile the project and add the new assets to the assets folder in the .apk, but the /xml subfolder (and its contents) are not in the apk. Subsequently I get FilenotFoundExceptions thrown when I deploy the app. The textures are all included.
How can I force a recompile and rebuild of the apk and is there anywhere to manually check which files are included in the project (like an assets manifest file)?
As far as I know there are no restrictions placed on hierarchy or file formats for within the assets folder. Also, when I dragged the files from the desktop to the solution explorer, I selected 'copy files to project'.
Thanks
It appears one cannot use upper-case letters in the naming of files within the assets folder. Contrary to my example above, I was actually using camel-backed file names within the folders. After changing the file names to lower-case, the apk was automatically re-built with the assets the next time I deployed
In a class belonging to a Library project I call:
webview.loadUrl("file:///android_asset/info.html", null);
Unfortunately, this only works if I duplicate the file info.html into the Application's project asset folder as well.
Is there a way to tell an Android library code: "look for this file in the library's assets folder, not in the application's assets folder" ?
This answer is out of date, the gradle build system and AAR files support assets.
From the Android Docs:
Library projects cannot include raw assets
The tools do not support the use of raw asset files (saved in the assets/ directory) in a library project. Any asset resources used by an application must be stored in the assets/ directory of the application project itself. However, resource files saved in the res/ directory are supported.
If you want to include files from a Library project, you'll need to put it in the resources instead of the assets. If you're trying to load HTML files from your library project into a WebView, this means that you'll have to go a more roundabout method than the usual asset URL. Instead you'll have to read the resource data and use something like loadData.
This is now possible using the Gradle build system.
Testing with Android Studio 0.5.0 and v0.9 of the Android Gradle plugin, I've found that files such as
MyLibProject/src/main/assets/test.html
are correctly packaged in the final application and can be accessed at runtime via the expected URL:
file:///android_asset/test.html
You can achieve this by creating a symbolic link in the project's asset folder that points to the directory in the library project.
Then you can access as below:
webview.loadUrl("file:///android_asset/folder_in_a_libary_project/info.html", null);
Okay. Ive been stressing out and losing sleep about this for a while. Im the type of person that loves API creation, and HATES complicated integration.
There arent many solutions around on the internet, so im quite proud of what Ive discovered with a bit of Eclipse Hackery.
It turns out that when you put a file in the Android Lib's /assets folder. The target apk will capture this and place it on the root of the APK archive. Thus, making general access fail.
This can be resolved by simply creating a Raw Java Library, and placing all assets in there, ie (JAVALIB)/assets/fileX.txt.
You can in turn then include this as a Java Build Path Folder Source in
Project > Properties > Java Build Path > Source > Link Source.
Link Source
Click on Variables. and Add New Variable, ie VAR_NAME_X. location : ../../(relative_path_to_assets_project)
Click Ok
Now, when you build and run your app, the assets folder in the APK will contain your (GLOBAL Library) files as you intended.
No need to reconfigure android internals or nothing. Its all capable within a few clicks of Eclipse.
I confirm that Daniel Grant's approach works for at least the following situation: target project does NOT have an asset folder (or the folder is empty, so you can safely delete it).
I did not setup any variable.
Simply setup a LinkSource as follows (just an example)
Linked folder location: /home/matthew/workspace_moonblink/assetsForAdvocacy/assets
Folder name : assets
The "assetsForAdvocacy" is a Java project, (created with New- Project - Java Project) with empty src folder, and a new folder named "assets", which now provides the entire assets folder for the target project.
This is a fairly straightforward way within Eclipse to provide assets re-use across many different projects IF they do not already have assets, good enough to get going with. I would probably want to enhance it to become a content provider in the long run, but that is a lot more development.
My project accesses the assets with the following code:
String advocacyFolderInAssets = "no_smoking/"; //a folder underneath assets/
String fn =advocacyFolderInAssets+imageFilename;
Bitmap pristineBitmapForAdvocacy = getBitmapFromAsset(context, fn);
I use Motodev Studio 3.1.0 on Ubuntu. It would not let me 'merge' a new assets folder in the new assets-only project onto an existing assets folder in the target project.
If you want to use a setup where multiple derivate products are created from one library you might consider using svn:externals or similar solution in your SCM system. This will also do the trick that static assets like online help may be versioned seperately from the android source code.
I found this older question, it might help you, too.
This is the official way Google uses to archive this (from the above post): Link