I am developing an android app which is available as a free trial version and as a paid pro version. Of course, both are sharing large amounts of code so I moved the core functionality into an android library project. I created two independend android projects which use the core project as a library. So far, it works. But when compiling the final apps I realize the apps size more than doubled compared to the library project.
As I changed almost nothing besides the code layout I can't explain why this happens. I suppose it may have something to do with exported libraries the core library project includes. In Eclipse I can see both the library project as well as the app projects do show all the jar files the library includes in their respective "Android Private Libraries"-folders. Are those libs included twice, maybe?
I found out it was proguard that is (of course) not being invoked when building the library project. And the new app projects didn't have any proguard configuration yet. Adding proguard optimization to the app projects solved the issue. The complete build is now only 200KB bigger than before (1MB). Looks like this is the minimum overhead.
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I prefer eclipse over android studio, my question is if I can still use it to build projects for future development - for example the recycleview library. It is supported in eclipse too, but will future google libraries continue to support it?
My second question is, if I'm using eclipse to make an app, will it be run on new devices too, as the project structure is different in eclipse and android studio.
My final question is how can I use libraries from android arsenal if I don't use android studio (all the libraries there are for maven and gradle)?
I prefer eclipse over android studio, my question is if I can still use it to build projects for future development - for example the recycleview library. It is supported in eclipse too, but will future google libraries continue to support it?
In the end, it is all just Java, XML, and other such resources. The RecyclerView library is no exception- it is just a library that can be used in any IDE.
The IDE you use for development is just a tool to view and edit these project files. Separately, you use a build system to build the application. Your IDE, the build system, and the project files are completely separate and one doesn't depend on the other to create a functioning application. In fact, you can build an Android application without an IDE at all.
The biggest issue you might run into here is the format of libraries such as RecyclerView. In the Eclipse days (note that Eclipse Android projects typically use Ant for building), most libraries came as either JAR files or Android libraries (of source code). With the release of Android Studio and the Android Gradle plugin, everything is shifting towards Gradle dependencies.
Also be aware that Google is not going to continue supporting Eclipse development. The tools for building Android application in Eclipse will not continue to receive updates, so bugs may pop up in the future that prevent you from continuing to use it effectively.
My second question is, if I'm using eclipse to make an app, will it be run on new devices too, as the project structure is different in eclipse and android studio.
The output of building an Android application is the same regardless of how or where you build it - you get an APK with the same file structure. The structure of the built APK is independent of the structure of the source code.
My final question is how can I use libraries from android arsenal if I don't use android studio (all the libraries there are for maven and gradle)?
Eclipse can use both Gradle and Maven for building. If you want to use libraries as Gradle or Maven dependencies, you will need to set up your project to use either Maven or Gradle to build instead of Ant. Otherwise you can still find JARs for most projects that don't rely on the Android framework, or you will need to get the source code for the library and set it up as a project dependency yourself.
I'm using a library (https://github.com/PhilJay/MPAndroidChart) for plotting data in an android app. When app-release.apk is created by the program it is ready to be installed on the tablet I use for testing.
What is puzzling to me is how the parts of the library, which i use, follow with the release. In other scenarios, for example in Visual Studio and c# - program being installed on Window machine, libraries require dll files to be installed and registered on each targeted machine. In my scenario the library is written specifically for Android, but if I somehow managed to include a c++ or a c# library in my Android app using tools like libstdc++ or MONO, would it work the same way when it comes down to app-realease.apk?
Are all classes in a library included in the app-release.apk or just the parts that I use?
Thanks in advance and please let me know if the question is unclear before downvoting it!
Normally, when you build your APK, all the libs you have imported (jars) are included and transformed to dex files, as the rest of your code. So, yes all the classes are included, even if you don't use them.
You can use Proguard to remove them from the APK. Look at this post :
Use Proguard for stripping unused Support lib classes
Before Gradle was used with libgdx I could just open my Eclipse project in AIDE and everything worked fine. As of libgdx version 1.0 I now use Gradle in Eclipse but I don't know how to get this to work with AIDE.
It's not finding the jar libraries because I get compile errors about unknown libgdx classes.
Do I have to add a local Maven repository or is there another way?
Thanx!
I had similar issues, and what worked for me is I started a libgdx project within AIDE (yes it has that function), let it set itself up properly with all the libraries etc in the lib folder, then copied my code into the respective core, android etc folders as appropriate.
It's a bit fiddly, and I'm still not 100% there yet as I'm trying to work off two git branches, one for laptop (with gradle, your original project), and one for AIDE (with all the libraries already in it)
It should at least help you get your project working.
I implemented the current version of ActionBarSherlock to my Android Project.
Everything works fine and I don't get any errors.
But when I try to debug or export my project I don't get an .apk-file out of my project. Just a .jar-file with the name of my project.
I've read about some problems the SDK had with building projects that contain external libraries but this was at SDK version 14 and so I hope, this bug is fixed...
So there might be another cause for this problem.
Does anybody know a possible solution?
You cannot get *.jar file as the result of building Android project. This seems very strange to me. There must be something wrong with your project settings (if you changed them), or the project you build is of the wrong type (i.e. it is Java Application instead of Android Application).
You didn't mention which IDE do you use, but I assume you use Eclipse.
Make sure you have installed Android SDK and Eclipse ADT correctly (just in case).
Next thing to try is to create a new Android Application project from existing sources (there should be such option during the process of creation).
trying to do some Android development, which means Eclipse, however, most of my experience is Microsoft tools (e.g. Visual Studio). My java experience is mostly either Blackberry dev in the JDE and some miscellaneous stuff back in the Java 1.0 days.
My question is this. In VS200x, there is a .sln (solution), .csproj(project), etc...
What are the equivalent file extensions for Eclipse? Do they even exist? I am having trouble with the basics, like how does one load a project into a workspace.
Is there a tutorial for Microsoft refugees somewhere?
Have a look here for "An introduction to Eclipse for Visual Studio users"...
Basically, for Java program (I never done any Android development) the basic Eclipse configuration files for a project are a .classpath (defining the dependencies of your project), and a .project file, that contains all specificities to your project configuration. In addition to that, a .settings directory is created, which contains some configuration files for plugins activated on your project.
Edit:
Eclipse is the most used IDE for the Java development. However, the best IDE is JetBrains IntelliJ IDEA. I see that there is a plugin for it to develop Android applications (here). If you can affort this wonderful application ($249), you will not regret it! You may eventually try the free 30 days trial...
You need to use file import and then choose Existing projects into workspace.
A .project file and a .classpath file will be created.
I find the Eclipse way of working to be incredibly frustrating having come from Delphi/JBuilder where a single project file held all your settings.
Make sure that you back up your workspace as well - there is nothing worse than recreating it when you are under pressure!
My 2 cents :
Make sure to version control your .project and .classpath. You may aslo want to use path variables to reference directory where the external dependencies (third parties libs) are located.
Are you doing it for fun or for commercial purposes? Because if money is involved, if I were you, I would really consider investing in IntelliJ, which is arguably the best IDE Java IDE out there, but unfortunately it is not exactly free. The Android SDK has some support for IntelliJ out of the box so it's not like you had to write all the makefiles yourself manually. If you liked Visual Studio, you would like IntelliJ, so why don't you download the trial version and have a look at it.
Just my 2 cents.