Sharing code between GAEJ and Android projects - android

In Eclipse:
Is it possible to Sharing code between GAEJ and Android projects? And or GAEJ and another GAEJ?
Thanks

there was a nice talk about GAE & Android integration on the last GoogleIO 2012:
Google I_O 2012 - Building Mobile App Engine Backends for Android, iOS and the Web
they show how to use same data structures for data exchange between Android and GAE.

If you asking about how to set it up in Eclipse, I use the 'linked source' option in the source tab of Java Build Path. Here's a blog post with details:
http://blog.christoffer.me/2011/01/sharing-code-between-multiple-java.html
If you are asking about whether it is practical - from the code perspective - that is trickier.
When trying to share Android code with GAE/J I discovered that I had dependencies on android packages, e.g. android.util.Base64. Sharing code means dropping stuff like this and using 3rd party libraries instead. For example, the Guava library works on GAE/J and Android:
http://code.google.com/p/guava-libraries/
Logging is another problem. My GAE/J code was writing to java.util.logging.Logger, whereas my Android code ultimately logs to 'android.util.Log.println. If you use a common library framework like log4j or just writing to System.Out I think you will lose functionality in the log viewer - ideally you would have a logging library or shim that mapped to java.util.logging.Logger or android.util.Log.println depending on the platform.

Related

Android: What is the difference between SDK and library project

For applications like facebook, they provide SDK . I have used many third party libraries for different requirements. What is the difference between both the cases . That is the code bundled as library or as sdk
A Library is a chunk of code that you can call from your own code, to help you do things more quickly/easily. For example, a Bitmap Processing library will provide facilities for loading and manipulating bitmap images, saving you having to write all that code for yourself.
An SDK (software development kit) is a library (often with extra tool applications, data files and sample code) that aid you in developing code that uses a particular system (e.g. extension code for using features of an operating system (Windows SDK), drawing 3D graphics via a particular system (DirectX SDK), writing add-ins to extend other applications (Office SDK), or writing code to make a device like an Arduino or a mobile phone do what you want)
From this thread
Android SDK -> is the core features and software tools that allow you to create an app for the Android Platform. An SDK contains lots of libraries and tools which you will use to develop your application.
A Library -> is a collection of pre-built compiled code which you can use to extend your application's features. For example, you may need to show some graphics in your application. Instead of creating this from scratch, you may choose to use a pre-built library someone else has developed which will give you the features you need thus saving you some time.
Thanks to Nithish for this explanations
SDK is software development kit which provides a platform/a way to develop software while library project is a project which have some lines of code to solve any desire problem, it may have design or code files.
Generally library project focus only one problem but SDK is complete kit/tool to develop any task, if want some functionality in your code which is not present in SDK than we will go for any library project.
SDK is so that you can build applications for FaceBook. SDK can usually only be used in a more specific context. A library is so that you can take the library and use it on your own applications. A library is meant to be portable.
You can obviously use code from anywhere to anywhere, but I think thats the main difference.

Is it possible to compile a Xamarin project as a library for iOS and Android?

I need to create an API library for Android and iOS. I have experience working with Android projects, but zero experties in iOS. I was wondering if I could create a Project library in Xamarin that compiles as a JAR for Android and as an... I-don't-know-which-type for iOS.
No, that isn't possible. Depending on what you are trying to accomplish there may be alternatives. If you are trying to make a library that can be used by others you could make it a Xamarin component - there is a component store you could put it on if you want it to be generally available, otherwise you can use any normal means of source or object distribution.
If you need to interact with a native app/library then you could make the C# code the "owner" of it and have it call into the native code. This works for both IOs and Android (and is used to work with e.g the play services from google).
No, it is unfortunately not possible to do that.
It seems to me that what you need is a Portable Class Library also known as PCL. It allows you to create a project which can be referenced by all Xamarin supported platforms (such as iOs and Android). There are obviously limitations to the approach like not being able to reference platform specific libraries but in your case (of writing an API) it should suffice.
You can read more in this link
Good Luck!

Can the Eventful java client library be used for Android?

I am creating an app showing local events for android. I was hoping to use the Eventful API, since that came with its own java-based client library. However, I'm not sure if it's fit for Android, since I know a lot of these java based client libraries use stuff Android doesn't support.
So, does anybody know if it works?
My entire project is available # github if you want to check it out for yourself.
The API is found here.
Android does not have have issues with Java client libraries. It is build on top of standard Java, and can use all of the framework features.
Furthermore, it looks like this API offers a RESTful interface, which is for sure supported by Android.
Bottom line, I do think you can use this API in Android without issue.
I'd say the easiest way is to compile and run an application that embeds the library and tests a few methods.
Typically, you may have issues with the way the networking is handled. There are 2 main ways in android to do HTTP, the Java and the Apache way, I think the Java URL API is fully supported and very close to the actual Java version, but the Apache has some hidden differences.
The main risks you'll have are A/ that it uses classes or packages that are not present on Android. B/ that a class does not behave as expected, which does happen from time to time, as the Android implementation is entirely specific.
Apparently you have already tried to run an android app with the library included? Did you encounter a specific error? If you, can you post the stacktrace?

Android API from Go

I know that Go programs can be compiled for Android.
How can I use Android specific API, like getting GPS coordinates or opening a URL with the default browser, from within a Go program?
I'm afraid it's hardly possible at the moment. In the "Meet the Go Team" I/O sessions, the guys from the Go team stated that they have no plans to add Android support to Go.
What we have now is just a compiler for ARM architecture. Unfortunately, this is pretty much useless for real Android apps, though such programs can be launched from the command line on Android devices.
Most of the Android framework is written in Java, so to interact with it your code should be compiled to a *.so libary, that will be loaded and called via the JNI interface. And it's not possible with the current Go compiler (gc, not sure about the gccgo).
Maybe you will be able to make bindings to the Android NDK API with cgo, that would allow you to create applications in Go since API level 9 (Android 2.3)
UPD: You can now use JNI from Go and create java bindings automatically with golang.org/x/mobile package. In Go 1.4 it's still experimental, but there are plans to include it into Go 1.5 release. The package also provides bindings for GL, audio and user input (hopefully they would also add iOS support and that would be compatible for Android and iOS one day). Anyway this package is mostly oriented at writing games in Go, rather than using Go as a replacement for Java on Android.
Take a look at my answer to Android App from Go programming language. The goandroid project allows you to create Android apps in Go through the NDK.
(Disclaimer: I'm the author of goandroid)
Edit: As mentioned in the comments, Go 1.5 adds official support for Android apps in pure Go or as a mix of Java and Go. iOS is also expected to arrive in time for the final 1.5 release. See https://github.com/golang/mobile for more details.
GO 1.4 doc says, "Go 1.4 can build binaries for ARM processors running the Android operating system. It can also build a .so library that can be loaded by an Android application using the supporting packages in the mobile subrepository"
There is package app option in "golang.org/x/mobile/app" library that lets you write Apps for Android (and eventually, iOS).
Step 1: Create a platform independent GUI library using Golang that uses OpenGL to draw and an intelligent event and data-binding system to write the apps in. Any software using OpenGL is going to be more-or-less portable. Essentially, re-write Kivy in Golang.
Step 2: Create introspection/reflection based wrapper for using Java classes similar to PyJNIus (also a Kivy project).
Step 3: Lots more hard work, because there is a lot to do to get to the level of Kivy
Step 4: Profit

Multiple Projects one Source

We have a program that we wish to deploy across multiple devices.
Standalone Captive AIR
Web based flash app
iOS app
Android app
The code other than some UI stuff is identical in a lot of parts. I'm wondering what's the best approach. Should we have a shared library project or should we have one big project with different complier settings controlled through ant or some other method.
Accessing and using Shared Library Project is the best way to be implemented for cross platform Projects. Other than this Approach you can use ant Build.
The answer would ordinarily have a lot to do with the "UI stuff" that's different, but since it sounds like you're Flash/AIR, that's probably not a big concern. If it were me, I would go w/ the "one big project" approach, and get a serious CI/NI and SCM suite that was compatible w/ my IDE. If you're using Eclipse/Aptana, I like Husdon/Surround. (Full disclosure: I used to work # Seapine.) If you're not using Eclipse, you should check out the CI/SCM options that integrate w/ your IDE (and themselves; e.g., Hudson has a Surround module and vice versa). The shared library thing works, but since Flash is Flash darn near everywhere, I don't see the need for the increased division of separate projects. A full-featured CI can manage the compiler differences for you quite effectively.
We're using this combination of approaches for a large scale mobile/web project that currently exists in the IOS AppStore, and will soon be released on Android and the web:
One main project that uses compiler directives to handle specific platform logic and elements
Compiler directives to handle specific platform logic within the main project codebase
A separate project for our video and interactivity engine, which is mostly platform independent, using switch statements for platform specific logic
One shared SWC for graphical assets. Platform specific elements are prefixed with the platform and an underscore. Compiler directives are used to specify which movieclips get displayed on screen
Ant scripts to do the compiling for the various platforms
Native Extensions to interface with hardware specific features
We use some commercial, some open source, and some homemade ANE's for things like AppStore integration, social media features, network monitoring, notifications and inter-app communications.
com.adobe.extension.NetworkInfo.ane
com.milkmangames.extensions.EasyPush.ane
com.milkmangames.extensions.GoViral.ane
com.milkmangames.extensions.StoreKit.ane
(I have no affiliation with milkmangames)
I'm currently writing an Android ANE to handle inter-app communication using Intents. It's a project I'm open sourcing at:
https://github.com/interactivenyc/ANESampleProject.
I'm currently stuck on a problem there and will be posting a question very soon with the details if anyone is interested in following that project. The project setup is fairly well described in the ReadMe file displayed on the front page of the project.
If you use git for versioning take a look at submodules. I used it to keep everything in one project, but versioning each module separately, and it resulted a fine solution.

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