If you are an Android application developer who wants to start with a skeleton Android project, you can use the android-quickstart archetype developed by akquinet, which is shown in the following code:
$ mvn archetype:generate -B -DarchetypeGroupId=de.akquinet.android.archetypes -DarchetypeArtifactId=android-quickstart -DarchetypeVersion=1.0.4 -DgroupId=com.packt.samples -DartifactId=my-android-app -Dversion=1.0.0
This command produces the following skeleton project:
my-android-app
|-pom.xml
|-AndroidManifest.xml
|-android.properties
|-src/main/java/com/packt/samples/HelloAndroidActivity.java
|-res/drawable-hdpi/icon.png
|-res/drawable-ldpi/icon.png
|-res/drawable-mdpi/icon.png
|-res/layout/main.xml
|-res/values/strings.xml
|-assetsTo build the Android skeleton project, run the following Maven command from the my-android-app directory:
$ mvn clean install -Dandroid.sdk.path=/path/to/android/sdk
The previous command looks straightforward, but based on your Android SDK version, you might encounter certain issues. Some of the possible issues and solutions are as follows:
- You will see the following error if you pass an invalid value to the
android.sdk.pathargument:[ERROR] Failed to execute goal com.jayway.maven.plugins.android.generation2:maven-android-plugin:2.8.3:generate-sources (default-generate-sources) on project my-android-app: Execution default-generate-sources of goal com.jayway.maven.plugins.android.generation2:maven-android-plugin:2.8.3:generate-sources failed: Path "/Users/prabath/Downloads/adt-bundle-mac-x86_64-20140702/platforms" is not a directory.The path should point to the Android
sdkdirectory, and right under it, you should find theplatformsdirectory. By settingandroid.sdk.pathto the correct path, you can avoid this error. - By default, the
android-quickstartarchetype assumes the Android platform to be 7. You will see the following error if the Android platform installed in your local machine is different from this:[ERROR] Failed to execute goal com.jayway.maven.plugins.android.generation2:maven-android-plugin:2.8.3:generate-sources (default-generate-sources) on project my-android-app: Execution default-generate-sources of goal com.jayway.maven.plugins.android.generation2:maven-android-plugin:2.8.3:generate-sources failed: Invalid SDK: Platform/API level 7 not available.To fix this, open the
pom.xmlfile and set the right platform version with<sdk><platform>20</platform></sdk>. - By default, the
android-quickstartarchetype assumes that theaapttool is available undersdk/platform-toolsdirectory. However, with the latestsdk, it has been moved tosdk/build-tools/android-4.4W, and you will get the following error:[ERROR] Failed to execute goal com.jayway.maven.plugins.android.generation2:maven-android-plugin:2.8.3:generate-sources (default-generate-sources) on project my-android-app: Execution default-generate-sources of goal com.jayway.maven.plugins.android.generation2:maven-android-plugin:2.8.3:generate-sources failed: Could not find tool 'aapt'.To fix the error, you need to update the
maven-android-pluginversion andartifactId.Open up the
pom.xmlfile inside themy-android-appdirectory and find the following plugin configuration. ChangeartifactIdtoandroid-maven-pluginandversionto4.0.0-rc.1, which is shown as follows:<plugin> <groupId> com.jayway.maven.plugins.android.generation2 </groupId> <artifactId>android-maven-plugin</artifactId> <version>4.0.0-rc.1</version> <configuration></configuration> <extensions>true</extensions> </plugin>
Once the build is completed, android-maven-plugin will produce the my-android-app-1.0.0.apk and my-android-app-1.0.0.jar artifacts inside the target directory.
To deploy the skeleton Android application (apk) to the connected device, use the following Maven command:
$ mvn android:deploy -Dandroid.sdk.path=/path/to/android/sdk