I am trying to use progurard with my android applications.
The proguardGui accepts an input, and an output, the input requires a jar file. but the APK file for android doesn't contain any jar?
I tried passing the apk file, and also the dex file inside the apx, but proguard doesn't accept them as an input. proguard only accepts jars, ears, wars, zips so how can i use the proguard gui with my android application?
I detailed complete instructions on how to do it here: http://www.androidengineer.com/2010/07/optimizing-obfuscating-and-shrinking.html
Basically, you have to first set up an Ant build for your Android project, which is relatively painless. Then, you add in the ProGuard Ant target between the Java compilation step and the DEX step. Remember, ProGuard only works on Java bytecode, and Android uses the Dalvik JVM which uses .dex bytecode, so that's why it happens between those two steps.
Actually the Android SDK already integrates ProGuard.
You only need to uncomment the line "proguard.config=....." in the file project.properties (created or updated by Android SDK 17 or higher), in order to enable ProGuard.
Source: ProGuard examples -> a complete Android Application
Related
I wrote an Android app that uses no dependencies or modules, has a single activity, and has a single layout file.
How can I build an apk file of my app on the command line without using Gradle (or other "build systems" or "dependency management" software)?
Use the following steps to build your apk manually, if you don't want use ant/gralde to build. But you must have Android SDK installed at least.
create R.java from aapt
use javac to compile all java source to *.class
use dx to convert all *.class to dex file, e.g output is classes.dex
create initial version of APK from assets, resources and AndroidManfiest.mk, e.g output is MyApplication.apk.unaligned
use aapt to add classes.dex generated in step 3 to MyApplication.apk.unaligned
use jarsigner to sign MyApplication.apk.unaligned with debug or release key
use zipalign to align the final APK, e.g output is MyApplication-debug.apk or MyApplication-release.apk if signing with release key
Done
I have created a sample script to do all the stuffs above, see here
Actually, Some articles have discussed this topic, see the following links.
https://www.apriorit.com/dev-blog/233-how-to-build-apk-file-from-command-line
https://spin.atomicobject.com/2011/08/22/building-android-application-bundles-apks-by-hand/
Try this for building apps with support libraries from command line. https://github.com/HemanthJabalpuri/AndroidExplorer
alijandro gave a perfect answer. I managed to write simple ANT script that builds production APK with AdMob and without gradle usage. A couple useful comments:
If you want to obfuscate classes you have to jar the compiled classes (between javac and dx steps) and run proguard on it
For AdMob you have to extract the following jars from zip archives (like
C:\Users\<User>\AppData\Local\Android\sdk\extras\google\m2repository\com\google\android\gms\play-services-ads\10.2.6\play-services-ads-10.2.6.aar):
play-services-ads-10.2.6.jar
play-services-ads-lite-10.2.6.jar
play-services-base-10.2.6.jar
play-services-basement-10.2.6.jar
play-services-clearcut-10.2.6.jar
play-services-gass-10.2.6.jar
play-services-tasks-10.2.6.jar
These archives should be passed in javac and dx
For AdMob there are several additional simple config steps as well
Gradle does a lot of mess with android projects, so own script looks like a singular solution for projects that are going to go into production
A while back I stumbled across this thread after getting frustrated with both Android Studio and Gradle. Inspired by the answer from alijandro and this template from authmane512, I wrote a series of scripts to compile an Android app (including with dependencies/packages) in Java or Kotlin without any external build system.
Link: https://github.com/jbendtsen/tiny-android-template
There is a little bit of DIY involved here, but given that it's the sort of stuff that something like Gradle would do for you, I would argue that it's useful to know. Besides, it's like wayyyy less slow, and you have a lot more control how your app gets assembled.
Many times after building an app and uploading it to play store I realize that I haven't guarded the apk using proguard feature provided by android and anyone can decompile the app using various tools to get my app's source code. So is it possible that whenever i create a new project the proguard feature is automatically enabled and my app's source code can be secure?
For obfuscation just add to project.properties file in android project the following line:
proguard.config=proguard.cfg
see details in android's development page here
Probably you will have to right a custom ant build script which throws an error when proguard property is not set in properties.To write custom ant build script visit this link:
http://www.androidengineer.com/2010/06/using-ant-to-automate-building-android.html
I need to compile my application with additional libraries. The problem is that I do not want to include external libraries inside my application.
In Eclipse I have the option to toggle if I want a selected library/source to be exported with my application or not.
How could I modify ant script to simply skip the given libraries, and to not include them when building apk?
Also, any information regarding how adt plugin creates apk would be nice.
Use the libraryjars option in Proguard. It skips the jar from the output. Quoting the documentation.
Specifies the library jars (or wars, ears, zips, or directories) of the application to be processed. The files in these jars will not be included in the output jars.
The proguard android example can get you started on the config file. Proguard can also be invoked from ant.
First of all, i'm new on ProGuard, but i read some tutorials and i know that the best way to use it on android is the one described on android.developer guide.
im trying to obfuscate the code of my new Android app with ProGuard. For that i enter this website: http://developer.android.com/tools/help/proguard.html#enabling
But it tells: "hen you create an Android project, a proguard.cfg file is automatically generated in the root directory of the project."
That file does not exist on my project root directory, so i dont know how to continue. My Android app is for api level 4, 1.6, so, is it possible that this is a problem for using ProGuard?
How can i use proguard with an app for api 4 (android 1.6)
Thanks a lot
You need a proguard.cfg File. You can either create it by hand or use the proguard-GUI (> java -jar proguardgui.jar). Using the GUI makes some things easier, but a basic understandig of proguard and obfuscating is still required. It isn't very comfortable to use the gui for obfuscating your release apk, so proviging the config-file and using the SDKs Build tools is still the best way to go.
The ACRA Documentation features an Example for a proguard.cfg http://code.google.com/p/acra/wiki/ACRAProGuardHowTo most of the stuff is ACRA related and can be ommited if you don't use ACRA in your project.
I Don't know if the SDK is supposed to create an proguard.cfg. If never seen one which was created automaticaly, so i suggest you go with the file as supplied by the acra-guys for a starting point.
Make sure that you are using the latest Android SDK. You can check this with the standard android application from the SDK.
Then make sure that your project directory is up-to-date too, by typing
adb update project -p MyProjectDirectory
(from the command-line, with the proper path to the directory of your project). This should create a ProGuard configuration file, which is called proguard-project.txt in recent releases of the SDK.
You can then enable ProGuard by uncommenting the proper line in project.properties.
I have been working on one project which is too complex and contain very much space with so many images and Java files as well.
Somewhere I have read about the proguard which optimizes the code.
I have used it, but it's still does not have an effect on my final APK file.
It might be I have made a mistake somewhere. I have the following this like http://developer.android.com/guide/developing/tools/proguard.html.
How can I optimize my code?
You can add it to the default.properties. I've been adding manually without having a problem so far.
If you add the line:
proguard.config=proguard.cfg
As said it will only use ProGuard when exporting signed application (Android Tools => Export Signed Application)
If you start the project with the SDK before Android 2.3 the proguard.cfg file will not be created (next to default.properties as in 2.3>).
To enable automatic creation of it, just simply update to the SDK of Android 2.3 and create a new project with existing sources (which are the sources of the project you currently have).
Automagically the proguard.cfg fill will be created.
Without optimizations the compiler produces very dumb code - each command is compiled in a very straightforward manner, so that it does the intended thing.
The Debug builds have optimizations disabled by default, because without the optimizations the produced executable matches the source code in a straightforward manner.
Please refer this one
From documentation:
ProGuard is integrated into the Android build system, so you do not have to invoke it manually. ProGuard runs only when you build your application in release mode, so you do not have to deal with obfuscated code when you build your application in debug mode.