Android – How to build an android library with Android Studio and gradle

androidandroid-studiogradle

I am trying to migrate a project from Eclipse but nothing I have tried is working. In Eclipse I have 3 projects (2 android app projects and 1 android library project). The 2 app projects depend on the library project. When I do the gradle export I get 3 projects that don't work. I am open to restructuring the project but haven't found any documentation on how this should be done.

Is there a way to make the 3 projects that Eclipse exports work together? Am I better off restructuring things and if so is documentation for how this should be done?

Update

I have uploaded the entire project to GitHub https://github.com/respectTheCode/android-studio-library-example

Update 1

Based the suggestions from Padma Kumar this is what I have tried.

Create a new Project called MyApp
Click File > New Module, choose Android Library and name it MyLib
Click Build > Make Project

The build fails with this error

Module "MyLib" was fully rebuilt due to project configuration/dependencies changes
Compilation completed with 1 error and 0 warnings in 19 sec
1 error
0 warnings
/.../MyApp/MyLib/build/bundles/debug/AndroidManifest.xml
Gradle: <manifest> does not have package attribute.

I then added a package attribute to the manifest making it

<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" package="com.example.mylib" >

After building I get this error

Module "MyApp" was fully rebuilt due to project configuration/dependencies changes
Compilation completed with 2 errors and 0 warnings in 13 sec
2 errors
0 warnings
/.../MyApp/MyLib/src/main/java/com/example/mylib/MainActivity.java
Gradle: package R does not exist
Gradle: package R does not exist

Adding dependency doesn't seem to have any impact on the error. Continuing from above

Click File > Project Structure > Modules > MyApp-MyApp
Switch to Dependencies Tab
Click + > Module Dependency and pick MyLib
Click Apply and OK
Click Build > Make Project

Update 2

Based the suggestions from Ethan this is where we get

The 2 sub project build.gradle seem to have all of the correct parts and the only difference is the plugin line bellow is the MyApp/build.gradle.

buildscript {
    repositories {
        maven { url 'http://repo1.maven.org/maven2' }
    }
    dependencies {
        classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:0.4'
    }
}
apply plugin: 'android'

dependencies {
    compile files('libs/android-support-v4.jar')
}

android {
    compileSdkVersion 17
    buildToolsVersion "17.0.0"

    defaultConfig {
        minSdkVersion 7
        targetSdkVersion 16
    }
}

The root project build.gradle was empty so I added the two projects like this

dependencies {
    compile project(":MyLib")
    compile project(":MyApp")
}

I now get this error when building

Gradle:
FAILURE: Build failed with an exception.
* Where:
Build file '/Users/kevin/GitHub/AppPress/MyApp/build.gradle' line: 2
* What went wrong:
A problem occurred evaluating root project 'MyApp'.
> Could not find method compile() for arguments [project ':MyLib'] on root project 'MyApp'.
* Try:
Run with --stacktrace option to get the stack trace. Run with --info or --debug option to get more log output.

Update 3

Big thanks Ethan for solving this.

Add compile project(':SubProjects:MyLib') to the MyLib/build.gradle
Remove compile files('libs/android-support-v4.jar') from the MyLib/build.gradle
Close project and Import the root project from gradle

Update 4

As of 0.1.2 you can now include compile "com.android.support:support-v4:13.0.0" instead of compile files('libs/android-support-v4.jar'). Since it is coming from mavin now you can include this in multiple projects without problems.

buildscript {
    repositories {
        mavenCentral()
    }

    dependencies {
        classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:0.4.2'
    }
}

apply plugin: 'android'

dependencies {
    compile "com.android.support:support-v4:13.0.0"

    compile project(':SubProjects:MyLib')
}

Update 5

As of 0.1.3 there is now a "Sync Project" button in the toolbar. You can click that instead of reimporting your project after making changes to .gradle files.

Best Answer

Note: This answer is a pure Gradle answer, I use this in IntelliJ on a regular basis but I don't know how the integration is with Android Studio. I am a believer in knowing what is going on for me, so this is how I use Gradle and Android.

TL;DR Full Example - https://github.com/ethankhall/driving-time-tracker/

Disclaimer: This is a project I am/was working on.

Gradle has a defined structure ( that you can change, link at the bottom tells you how ) that is very similar to Maven if you have ever used it.

Project Root
+-- src
|   +-- main (your project)
|   |   +-- java (where your java code goes)
|   |   +-- res  (where your res go)
|   |   +-- assets (where your assets go)
|   |   \-- AndroidManifest.xml
|   \-- instrumentTest (test project)
|       \-- java (where your java code goes)
+-- build.gradle
\-- settings.gradle

If you only have the one project, the settings.gradle file isn't needed. However you want to add more projects, so we need it.

Now let's take a peek at that build.gradle file. You are going to need this in it (to add the android tools)

build.gradle

buildscript {
    repositories {
        mavenCentral()
    }
    dependencies {
        classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:0.3'
    }
}

Now we need to tell Gradle about some of the Android parts. It's pretty simple. A basic one (that works in most of my cases) looks like the following. I have a comment in this block, it will allow me to specify the version name and code when generating the APK.

build.gradle

apply plugin: "android"
android {
        compileSdkVersion 17
        /*
        defaultConfig {
            versionCode = 1
            versionName = "0.0.0"
        }
        */
    }

Something we are going to want to add, to help out anyone that hasn't seen the light of Gradle yet, a way for them to use the project without installing it.

build.gradle

task wrapper(type: org.gradle.api.tasks.wrapper.Wrapper) {
    gradleVersion = '1.4'
}

So now we have one project to build. Now we are going to add the others. I put them in a directory, maybe call it deps, or subProjects. It doesn't really matter, but you will need to know where you put it. To tell Gradle where the projects are you are going to need to add them to the settings.gradle.

Directory Structure:

Project Root
+-- src (see above)
+-- subProjects (where projects are held)
|   +-- reallyCoolProject1 (your first included project)
|       \-- See project structure for a normal app
|   \-- reallyCoolProject2 (your second included project)
|       \-- See project structure for a normal app
+-- build.gradle
\-- settings.gradle

settings.gradle:

include ':subProjects:reallyCoolProject1'
include ':subProjects:reallyCoolProject2'

The last thing you should make sure of is the subProjects/reallyCoolProject1/build.gradle has apply plugin: "android-library" instead of apply plugin: "android".

Like every Gradle project (and Maven) we now need to tell the root project about it's dependency. This can also include any normal Java dependencies that you want.

build.gradle

dependencies{
    compile 'com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-core:2.1.4'
    compile 'com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-databind:2.1.4'
    compile project(":subProjects:reallyCoolProject1")
    compile project(':subProjects:reallyCoolProject2')
}

I know this seems like a lot of steps, but they are pretty easy once you do it once or twice. This way will also allow you to build on a CI server assuming you have the Android SDK installed there.

NDK Side Note: If you are going to use the NDK you are going to need something like below. Example build.gradle file can be found here: https://gist.github.com/khernyo/4226923

build.gradle

task copyNativeLibs(type: Copy) {
    from fileTree(dir: 'libs', include: '**/*.so' )  into  'build/native-libs'
}
tasks.withType(Compile) { compileTask -> compileTask.dependsOn copyNativeLibs }

clean.dependsOn 'cleanCopyNativeLibs'

tasks.withType(com.android.build.gradle.tasks.PackageApplication) { pkgTask ->
  pkgTask.jniDir new File('build/native-libs')
}

Sources:

Related Solutions

Android – How to close/hide the Android soft keyboard programmatically

You can force Android to hide the virtual keyboard using the InputMethodManager, calling hideSoftInputFromWindow, passing in the token of the window containing your focused view.

// Check if no view has focus:
View view = this.getCurrentFocus();
if (view != null) {  
    InputMethodManager imm = (InputMethodManager)getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE);
    imm.hideSoftInputFromWindow(view.getWindowToken(), 0);
}

This will force the keyboard to be hidden in all situations. In some cases, you will want to pass in InputMethodManager.HIDE_IMPLICIT_ONLY as the second parameter to ensure you only hide the keyboard when the user didn't explicitly force it to appear (by holding down the menu).

Note: If you want to do this in Kotlin, use: context?.getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE) as InputMethodManager

Kotlin Syntax

// Only runs if there is a view that is currently focused
this.currentFocus?.let { view ->
    val imm = getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE) as? InputMethodManager
    imm?.hideSoftInputFromWindow(view.windowToken, 0)
}

Android Studio: Add jar as library

I've been struggling with the same thing for many hours, trying to get the Gson jar to work no less. I finally cracked it – here are the steps I took:

Put the Gson jar (in my case, gson-2.2.4.jar) into the libs folder
Right click it and hit 'Add as library'
Ensure that compile files('libs/gson-2.2.4.jar') is in your build.gradle file (or compile fileTree(dir: 'libs', include: '*.jar') if you are using many jar files)

Edit : Use implementation files('libs/gson-2.2.4.jar') (or implementation fileTree(dir: 'libs', include: '*.jar')) in Android Studio 3.0+
Do a clean build (you can probably do this fine in Android Studio, but to make sure I navigated in a terminal to the root folder of my app and typed gradlew clean. I'm on Mac OS X, the command might be different on your system

After I did the above four, it started working fine. I think the 'Add as library' step was the one I'd previously missed, and it didn't work until I cleaned it either.

[Edit - added the build.gradle step which is also necessary as others have pointed out]

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Android – How to close/hide the Android soft keyboard programmatically

Android Studio: Add jar as library

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