The android tool provides you with commands to create all three types of
projects. An Android project contains all of the files and resources that are needed to build a
project into an .apk file for installation.
To create an Android project, you must use the android tool. When you create a
new project with android, it will generate a project directory with some default
application files, stub files, configuration files and a build file.
To create a new Android project, open a command-line, navigate to the tools/
directory of your SDK and run:
android create project \ --target <target_ID> \ --name <your_project_name> \ --path path/to/your/project \ --activity <your_activity_name> \ --package <your_package_namespace>
target is the "build target" for your application. It corresponds to an
Android platform library (including any add-ons, such as Google APIs) that you would like to
build your project against. To see a list of available targets and their corresponding IDs,
execute: android list targets.name is the name for your project. This is optional. If provided, this name
will be used for your .apk filename when you build your application.path is the location of your project directory. If the directory does not
exist, it will be created for you.activity is the name for your default Activity class. This
class file will be created for you inside
<path_to_your_project>/src/<your_package_namespace_path>/
. This will also be used for your .apk filename unless you provide a name.package is the package namespace for your project, following the same rules as
for packages in the Java programming language.Here's an example:
android create project \ --target 1 \ --name MyAndroidApp \ --path ./MyAndroidAppProject \ --activity MyAndroidAppActivity \ --package com.example.myandroid
Once you've created your project, you're ready to begin development. You can move your project
folder wherever you want for development, but keep in mind that you must use the Android Debug Bridge (adb) — located in the
SDK platform-tools/ directory — to send your application to the emulator (discussed
later). So you need access between your project solution and the platform-tools/ folder.
Tip: Add the platform-tools/ as well as the tools/ directory
to your PATH environment variable.
Caution: You should refrain from moving the location of the SDK directory, because this will break the build scripts. (They will need to be manually updated to reflect the new SDK location before they will work again.)
If you're upgrading a project from an older version of the Android SDK or want to create a new
project from existing code, use the android update project command to update the
project to the new development environment. You can also use this command to revise the build
target of an existing project (with the --target option) and the project name (with
the --name option). The android tool will generate any files and
folders (listed in the previous section) that are either missing or need to be updated, as needed
for the Android project.
To update an existing Android project, open a command-line and navigate to the
tools/ directory of your SDK. Now run:
android update project --name <project_name> --target <target_ID> --path <path_to_your_project>
target is the "build target" for your application. It corresponds to an
Android platform library (including any add-ons, such as Google APIs) that you would like to
build your project against. To see a list of available targets and their corresponding IDs,
execute: android list targets.path is the location of your project directory.name is the name for the project. This is optional—if you're not
changing the project name, you don't need this.Here's an example:
android update project --name MyApp --target 2 --path ./MyAppProject
A library project is a standard Android project, so you can create a new one in the same way
as you would a new application project. Specifically, you can use the android tool
to generate a new library project with all of the necessary files and folders.
To create a new library project, navigate to the <sdk>/tools/ directory and
use this command:
android create lib-project --name <your_project_name> \ --target <target_ID> \ --path path/to/your/project \ --package <your_library_package_namespace>
The create lib-project command creates a standard project structure that includes
preset property that indicates to the build system that the project is a library. It does this by
adding this line to the project's default.properties file:
android.library=true
Once the command completes, the library project is created and you can begin moving source code and resources into it, as described in the sections below.
If you want to convert an existing application project to a library project, so that other
applications can use it, you can do so by adding a the android.library=true property
to the application's default.properties file.
A library project's manifest file must declare all of the shared components that it includes, just as would a standard Android application. For more information, see the documentation for AndroidManifest.xml.
For example, the TicTacToeLib example library
project declares the Activity GameActivity:
<manifest>
...
<application>
...
<activity android:name="GameActivity" />
...
</application>
</manifest>
If you want to update the build properties (build target, location) of the library project, use this command:
android update lib-project \ --target <target_ID> \ --path path/to/your/project
If you are developing an application and want to include the shared code or resources from a library project, you can do so easily by adding a reference to the library project in the application project's build properties.
To add a reference to a library project, navigate to the <sdk>/tools/
directory and use this command:
android update lib-project \ --target <target_ID> \ --path path/to/your/project --library path/to/library_projectA
This command updates the application project's build properties to include a reference to the
library project. Specifically, it adds an android.library.reference.n
property to the project's default.properties file. For example:
android.library.reference.1=path/to/library_projectA
If you are adding references to multiple libraries, note that you can set their relative
priority (and merge order) by manually editing the default.properties file and
adjusting the each reference's .n index as appropriate. For example, assume
these references:
android.library.reference.1=path/to/library_projectA android.library.reference.2=path/to/library_projectB android.library.reference.3=path/to/library_projectC
You can reorder the references to give highest priority to library_projectC in
this way:
android.library.reference.2=path/to/library_projectA android.library.reference.3=path/to/library_projectB android.library.reference.1=path/to/library_projectC
Note that the .n index in the references must begin at "1" and increase
uniformly without "holes". References appearing in the index after a hole are ignored.
At build time, the libraries are merged with the application one at a time, starting from the lowest priority to the highest. Note that a library cannot itself reference another library and that, at build time, libraries are not merged with each other before being merged with the application.
In the manifest file of the application project, you must add declarations of all components
that the application will use that are imported from a library project. For example, you must
declare any <activity>, <service>,
<receiver>, <provider>, and so on, as well as
<permission>, <uses-library>, and similar elements.
Declarations should reference the library components by their fully-qualified package names, where appropriate.
For example, the TicTacToeMain example
application declares the library Activity GameActivity like this:
<manifest>
...
<application>
...
<activity android:name="com.example.android.tictactoe.library.GameActivity" />
...
</application>
</manifest>
For more information about the manifest file, see the documentation for AndroidManifest.xml.
To build an application project that depends on one or more library projects, you can use the standard Ant build commands and compile modes, as described in Building and Running. The tools compile and merge all libraries referenced by the application as part of compiling the dependent application project. No additional commands or steps are necessary.