Applications manifest and librarys manifest in Android - android

I'm developing an application, with another project as my library.
What properties are merged in the manifest files?
Example - If the permissions are already specified in the Library's manifest file, do they need to be specified again in the applications manifest?
Also, if there is a service in the Library project, do I need to specify again manually in the Applications manifest too (additional to library's manifest).
Thanks

There is a section of this page: http://developer.android.com/tools/projects/projects-eclipse.html#SettingUpLibraryProject that says you must (re)declare all of the bits of the library project that your application will be using in the manifest file.
Declaring library components in the manifest file
In the manifest file of the application project, you must add
declarations of all components that the application will use that are
imported from a library project. For example, you must declare activity, service, receiver, provider, and so on, as well as permission, uses-library, and similar elements.
Declarations should reference the library components by their
fully-qualified package names, where appropriate.
Personally, this seems redundant, but it may be because the app doesn't need to use all of the components of the library project, and the app shouldn't assume it will.

Related

Android - How should you manage multiple modules? Manifests, grades, etc.

I understand this question is vague, but can someone outline the rules and/or how we should be dealing with multiple modules?
I've been trying to separate my app out into a base feature module, application module and instant app module.
However I've been having a nightmare building it.
I've tried searching online but there isn't really much documentation in it?
Ive got two activities in my base module manifest, as I want these in both my installed and instant app. Do I then need to copy these activity manifest entries into my other manifests? I tried running my installed apk without adding in these activities (I thought it might pull it from the base module) but then android studio says can't find default activity to launch the application with. So I need to copy the activity entries into all manifests?
I've also got manifest entry conflicts from all the libraries I'm using. FacebookInitProvider , FacebookInitProvider, CrashlyticsInitProvider etc. I don't have these entries in any manifest, they are adding themselves in to every manifest causing merge conflicts when building.
With the build grades, I've put in the base just the libraries necessary to run the base / instant app (to keep it as small as possible). The installed gradle then has all the extra libraries for the full sized application. If I use
implementation project(":base")
Will it automatically pull in all the dependencies that base uses? Or do I need to redeclare these?
I ask because after getting the app to build, firebase and firestore was causing an exception on getting the instance with the message "Firestore module not found" which makes it look like it hasn't pulled in the dependencies properly?
I apologise for the lengthy post, but I'm honestly at the end of my tether here. Truly stuck!
Im not sure I understand all your project structure correctly so I will give you general information on an app with modules:
Lets say you have the application called "appone" and have a module called "moduleone"
In the module gradle file you declare the minimum you need for the module to work properly by itself and in the manifest just configuration specific for the module that will not be required to be defined in the appone manifest.
Now in the appone manifest, this is the main file, you will have to set here the activity declarations and app permissions (not in moduleone), android studio merges the two files automatically so when you compile it will make one manifest file with both manifests contents so this is what can make conflicts if you declare the same or conflicting data on both files.
In the appone build.gradle file this is where you declare the implementation project(':moduleone'), and the implementation of libraries required by appone.
If for example moduleone uses firebase library and in appone you also directly require access to the firebase library you could declare it in both build.gradle files, you just need to make sure both use the same version.
Also you will need to declare moduleone on the settings.gradle file using: include ':moduleone'
appone is declared as an com.android.application and moduleone is declared as com.android.library.
Also appone has in its manifest an activity declared with the LAUNCHER category.

How to Keep Placeholders in an AAR's Manifest?

I'm building an AAR library for Android and need to include a ContentProvider in the library's manifest, as such:
<provider
android:name="sdk.example.Preferences"
android:authorities="${applicationId}.preferences"
android:exported="false"
/>
The problem is that when the AAR is built, ${applicationId} is replaced by the AAR's package. What I want is for the manifest of the final AAR to keep ${applicationId} so that it can be replaced with the main application's package when it itself is built. Any idea how to do this?
Currently I'm editing the AAR manually to achieve this, but want to find a better solution
Well - the first approach that comes to mind is to use a resource for the authority name, but this is not possible - Using #string for android:authorities in a ContentProvider.
There is however a Maven job that replaces the authority, but I have no idea how it behaves when AAR libraries are involved - Android Manifest with #String reference - specifically android:authorities.
Please report your solution.
This is now done automatically in Android Studio 2.0

Android manifestmerger.enabled does not work for sharedUserId

In my Android library manifest file I have set sharedUserId property.
I have referenced to this lib project in my app1 and app2.
I have added manifestmerger.enabled=true to project.properties files of both apps.
However sharedUserId does not work (note: it works ok if I set thisproperty to app manifest file directly).
While looking app/bin/AndroidManifest I dont see this property - so looks like merge didn't happen.
I am using Eclipse ADT build22.3.0
Any idea what is the problem?
Basically what I want is to have ability to expose propery from my jar library.
This is not intended to work.
From the inline documentation of the ManifestMerger class
- root manifest: attributes ignored, warn if defined.
The Android Manifest documentation lists android:sharedUserId under the root element of the Manifest file, so it will be in the group of things which cannot be merged in from a library.
You may of course have additional issues preventing merging from working in general but even after those are corrected it should not work for sharedUserId (and other root level attributes) in specific.

Test specific androidmanifest file attributes and extra activities

I am using android studio 0.45 with gradle build to build my project. (gradle version 1.9). In my test folder I creating an extra activity that I don't want to be part of my release code. Where do I specify this activity in the Android Manifest. The gradle setup only allows for one AndroidManifest file as far as I can tell.
I am also using extra permissions in the test project to simulate phone calls that I don't need in my release code. How do I setup the manifest file so as to add permissions on a build specific mechanism...
It sounds like you should set up a product flavor for your test type, that includes the extra activity, and extra permissions in your AndroidManifest file. A flavor lets you have source files that are specific only to that flavor, and properties in the manifest that get merged together with the main manifest at build time.
Read the docs at http://tools.android.com/tech-docs/new-build-system/user-guide#TOC-Product-flavors and give it a shot.

Android Library Manifest vs. App Manifest

I've read similar questions here, but am still not clear on a couple of things. Using a Library Project means that my overall project will have two manifests -- one for the library and the other for the "main" app project -- and I'm not clear what goes in which or if there is some redundancy.
I'm developing an app widget with "lite" and "paid" versions, so will have almost all code in a library project. Being a widget, the library will have at least a receiver, a service, a configuration activity, plus a couple of other activities. So where should the full declarations of these components -- including intents, filters, etc. -- be declared? Do they go in the manifest for the library, or in the manifest for the application package itself, referencing the classes in the library (e.g. android:name="com.foo.mylibrary.MyService")?
Some examples I've looked at seem to declare them in both manifests, but I suspect that putting these in one or the other is a no-op.
Using a Library Project means that my overall project will have two manifests -- one for the library and the other for the "main" app project -- and I'm not clear what goes in which or if there is some redundancy.
The library project manifest is not presently used.
Gradle for Android, and therefore Android Studio, support library projects and AARs publishing a manifest. This can include things like activity declarations, required permissions or features, or minimum supported Android SDK levels.
The rules for how library manifests are merged with the app's own manifest -- particularly when you take build types and product flavors into account -- is a bit complex.
So where should the full declarations of these components -- including intents, filters, etc. -- be declared?
In the host project.
The library could publish those components, and the Android Studio host project can then remove them if needed.
Do they go in the manifest for the library, or in the manifest for the application package itself, referencing the classes in the library (e.g. android:name="com.foo.mylibrary.MyService")?
The latter.
In either (with Gradle for Android and Android Studio). In theory, it is easier for the library to publish the components, so the app author does not have to. Personally, I am not a huge fan of this, as too many developers will wind up shipping unnecessary manifest entries.
As of ADT r20 Preview 3 it is now possible to merge manifests. So common configuration can now be put into the library manifest. See https://stackoverflow.com/a/10400355/262789 for more information.
Version 13 of Intellij IDEA is necessary for manifest merging support (manifestmerger.enabled=true). Also the Grade based build system appears to be necessary for Android Studio support.
Any referenced android elements like activities, receivers, services, etc. MUST go into your Application manifest or they won't be recognized by the OS. As you guessed, the Library manifest file is pretty much an empty implementation
UPDATE
As CommonsWare points out above, the Android build tools will now attempt to merge the various manifests on your behalf. Leaving up the original answer for posterity

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