-The `android` module provides support for the Android platform
+Android platform support and APIs
# Compilation for Android
# Host system configuration
-To compile for Android, you must install the Android SDK and NDK.
-The tools `android`, `ndk-build` and `ant` must be in your PATH.
+To compile Android apps from a 64 bits GNU/Linux host you can reuse an existing Android Studio
+installation or make a clean install with command line tools only.
-# Configure your Android application
+Note that this guide supports only 64 bits GNU/Linux hosts with support for a Java 8 JDK,
+it may be possible to support other platforms with some tweaks.
+
+1. Install the required SDK packages using one of these two methods:
+
+ a. Using Android Studio, open `Tools > Android > SDK Manager`, in the SDK Tools tab,
+ install "Android SDK Build-Tools", CMake and NDK.
+
+ b. From the command line, run this script for a quick setup without Android Studio.
+ You will probably need to tweak it to you system or update the download URL
+ to the latest SDK tools from https://developer.android.com/studio/index.html#command-tools
+
+ ~~~
+ # Fetch and extract SDK tools
+ mkdir -p ~/Android/Sdk
+ cd ~/Android/Sdk
+ wget https://dl.google.com/android/repository/sdk-tools-linux-3859397.zip
+ unzip sdk-tools-linux-3859397.zip
+
+ # Update tools
+ tools/bin/sdkmanager --update
+
+ # Accept the licenses
+ tools/bin/sdkmanager --licenses
+
+ # Install the basic build tools
+ tools/bin/sdkmanager "build-tools;27.0.0" ndk-bundle
+ ~~~
+
+3. Set the environment variable ANDROID_HOME to the SDK installation directory, usually `~/Android/Sdk/`.
+ Use the following command to setup the variable for bash.
+
+ ~~~
+ echo "export ANDROID_HOME=~/Android/Sdk/" >> ~/.bashrc
+ ~~~
+
+4. Install Java 8 JDK, on Debian/Ubuntu systems you can use the following command:
+
+ ~~~
+ sudo apt install openjdk-8-jdk
+ ~~~
+
+# Configure the Android application
The _app.nit_ framework and this project offers some services to
customize the generated Android application.
See http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/manifest/uses-sdk-element.html
* The annotation `android_activity` defines a Java class used as an
- entrypoint to your application. As of now, this annotation should
- only be used by low level implementations of Nit on Android.
- It's usefulness will be extended in the future to customize user applications.
+ entry point to your application. As of now, this annotation should
+ only be used by low-level implementations of Nit on Android.
+ Its usefulness will be extended in the future to customize user applications.
+
+## Android implementation
+
+There is two core implementation for Nit apps on Android.
+`android::nit_activity` is used by apps with standard windows and native UI controls.
+`android::game` is used by, well, games and the game frameworks `mnit` and `gamnit`.
+
+Clients don't have to select the core implementation, it is imported by other relevant modules.
+For example, a module importing `app::ui` and `android` will trigger the importation of `android::nit_activity`.
-## Project entry points
+## Lock app orientation
Importing `android::landscape` or `android::portrait` locks the generated
application in the specified orientation. This can be useful for games and
other multimedia applications.
+## Resources and application icon
+
+Resources specific to the Android platform should be placed in an `android/` folder at the root of the project.
+The folder should adopt the structure of a normal Android project, e.g., a custom XML resource file can be placed
+at `android/res/values/color.xml` to be compiled with the Android application.
+
+The application icon should also be placed in the `android/` folder.
+Place the classic bitmap version at `android/res/mipmap-hdpi/ic_launcher.png` (and others),
+and the adaptive version at `android/res/mipmap-anydpi-v26/ic_launcher.xml`.
+The Nit compiler detects these files and uses them as the application icon.
+
+Additional `android/` folders may be placed next to more specific Nit modules to change the Android resources
+for application variants. The more specific resources will have priority over the project level `android/` files.
+
# Compilation modes
There are two compilation modes for the Android platform, debug and release.
optionally `TSA_SERVER`. These settings can be set in a startup script such as
`~/.bashrc` or in a local Makefile.
- You can use the following commands by replacing the right hand values
+ You can use the following commands by replacing the right-hand values
to your own configuration.
~~~