Maven: The Complete Reference
   - 14.3. Getting Started

14.3. Getting Started

The HelloFlashlight example application serves as a starting point to introduce you to the usage of the Android Maven Plugin. The code for the helloflashlight example application as well as various more complex examples are available as part of the plugin samples project.

To enable a Maven based build of an Android project a pom.xml has to be added in the root folder of the project:

The HelloFlashlight pom.xml file. 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
         xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
         xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
    <groupId>com.simpligility.android</groupId>
    <artifactId>helloflashlight</artifactId>
    <version>1.0.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
    <packaging>apk</packaging>
    <name>HelloFlashlight</name>

    <dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>com.google.android</groupId>
            <artifactId>android</artifactId>
            <version>1.6_r2</version>
            <scope>provided</scope>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>
    <build>
        <finalName>${project.artifactId}</finalName>
        <sourceDirectory>src</sourceDirectory>
        <pluginManagement>
            <plugins>
                <plugin>
                    <groupId>com.jayway.maven.plugins.android.generation2</groupId>
                    <artifactId>android-maven-plugin</artifactId>
                    <version>3.0.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
                    <extensions>true</extensions>
                </plugin>
            </plugins>
        </pluginManagement>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>com.jayway.maven.plugins.android.generation2</groupId>
                <artifactId>android-maven-plugin</artifactId>
                <configuration>
                    <run>
                        <debug>true</debug>
                    </run>
                    <sdk>
                        <platform>4</platform>
                    </sdk>
                    <emulator>
                        <avd>16</avd>
                    </emulator>
                    <undeployBeforeDeploy>true</undeployBeforeDeploy>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>
</project>

The highlights of this pom.xml are:

  • the packaging type of apk
  • the dependency to the Android platform jar
  • and the build configuration with the Android Maven Plugin

The Android Package packaging type apk is what activates the Android-specific lifecycle modifications of the Android Maven Plugin. It takes care of all the specific calls to the Android SDK tools, that process resources, convert Java bytecode and so on. The Android Maven Plugin needs to be configured with extensions set to true for this to work as visible in the pluginManagement section.

The declared dependency to the android platform jar is available in Maven Central with various platform versions. Alternatively you could use an Android jar from the Maven Android SDK Deployer with the modified groupId and artifactId. The documentation of the deployer shows all valid dependencies.

The scope of provided is important. It signals to Maven that the contents of the jar will not need to be packaged into the application package, because they are available at runtime on the device as part of the environment.

In addition the android jar artifacts only contain exception throwing stubs for all methods in order to define the API for the compiler. They can not be executed on the development machine, but rely on an emulator or device runtime environment.

The configuration of the Android Maven Plugin is done in the build section. Initially only the sdk platform parameter is required to be specified. You can use either a platform version number or a API level number as documented on the Android developer documentation.

Tip

The version of the Android Maven Plugin in the pom file is a development version. Replace it with the latest released version, when running the example yourself or download the stable branch of the samples.

To build the application and run it on an already started emulator or attached device you could use

mvn install android:deploy android:run











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