Getting started with Android & Maven

Is hard to imagine a project that is expected to deliver something without having a build script that automates the process. Batch/shell script is a primitive example but ant and maven are well established industry standards for build solutions. Maven scope is slightly bigger than that but main part of maven is for building.

Android folks have selected ant as their choice. In the sdk you can find ant examples (platforms/android-8/ant) and by using android create project command you can get a skeleton of android project that is built by ant.

Maven is widely considered as next step in evolution after ant so no wonder that many people start asking question if there is a support for android in maven.

Android maven plugin is the answer they look for. To get started there are few ways to do it

• Use samples and modify http://code.google.com/p/maven-android-plugin/wiki/Samples
• Using archetype(s) https://github.com/akquinet/android-archetypes/wiki
  mvn archetype:generate \
  -DarchetypeArtifactId=android-quickstart \
  -DarchetypeGroupId=de.akquinet.android.archetypes \
  -DarchetypeVersion=1.0.5 \
  -DgroupId=your.company \
  -DartifactId=my-android-application
  
• Mavenize existing android project

When analyzing samples, at the first glance you will notice that standard maven directory layout is not preserved. The reason for that is that maven android plugin does not want to go into the way of android development tools (adt) layout. People accustomed to maven will find it slightly odd.

To work with eclipse you obviously need m2eclipse plugin and maven-android-integration plugin. You can find that with eclipse marketplace directly from eclipse.

After plugins are installed the next thing you do is to import the project in eclipse (Import -> Existing maven project), it does not work on start but after clean or two you have a compilable maven + android project.

When project is imported in eclipse it will be treated as maven project but also will have android nature. This allows the developer to use a Run As Android Application (and Debug).

When you go to a builders configuration page (Projects -> Properties -> Builders) you should see 4 builders, 2 from adt (android resource builder and precompiler) and java and maven builder. I don't think that the 2 former are really necessary for the project. At least disabling them does not cause anything noticeably bad.

To learn what is available from the android plugin use help:describe goal.

mvn -Dplugin=android help:describe -Dfull=true This would display a lengthy list with the targets you may use along with the configuration xmls that can be placed in the pom.xml in plugin configuration.

Most important goals are

• android:apk - to create android pakcage
  
• android:deploy - to deploy on emulator/device
  
• android:emulator-start
  

My own opinion

I must admit I was never a fan of maven. Mainly because mobile projects I was involved in where rather small, having no dependencies and mostly ant based. When I tried learn on my own I was put off by the conventions imposed by maven. My prejudice towards maven would last probably longer hadn't been I forced to use maven. Then I gradually discovered the power of auto dependency management and the benefits of conventions.

As android is concerned I still find some clashes but the maven plugin is strongly developed. Mailing list is active, development is active and new features arrive at good pace (recently apklib).
Still have not dwelt very deeply in android maven development so I cannot say is industry ready yet or not but the future looks promising.