CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javaandroidandroid-studio
filipp.kowalski
filipp.kowalski

Reputation: 5605

Creating my own Android library and exporting it to .jar

Before you say that this question was asked. I want to say that I have read through most of the questions and they give just workarounds for this solution and other ones are out of date.

My question is, how create Android library in Android Studio, so I can export it to closed .jar with no sources and distribute it to other developers.

When I click New Module -> Android Library, it creates me folder under my current project. I don't want that. I want to create library from the beggining (where is option for this in Android Studio?), so it is standalone project which later I can export to jar.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 826

Answers (2)

Scott Barta
Scott Barta

Reputation: 80010

Android Studio doesn't have UI to allow you to create an Android Library as a new project. To do this, you'll have to one of a few different routes.

Before you start, I'd encourage you to think about packaging your library as an .aar instead of a .jar, since you say it will be calling Android APIs. The reason for this is that .aar is a richer format for Android projects and allows the archive to include manifest information, such as the minimum required SDK and such -- it will go farther to ensure that your library is compatible with the environment it's being included in. The disadvantage is that only the Gradle build system supports .aar files, so Eclipse users wouldn't be able to use the archive.

Though you're not using Android resources, if in the future you do need to include resources in your archive, you'll be set up.

There's more information on .aar here: http://tools.android.com/tech-docs/new-build-system/aar-format

If you want to package in .aar format, you could go a couple routes:

You could create a project with the New Project wizard. This will initially be set up to make a full-fledged Android app that compiles to an APK. You can go into the app module's build.gradle file and change this line:

apply plugin: 'com.android.application'

to:

apply plugin: 'com.android.library'

It will now build an .aar. However, this project will still have resources in it, and maybe layouts and activities depending on what options you chose in the wizard, so you may have to rip out what you don't want.

The alternative is you could start with a blank slate, crafting your own build.gradle file from scratch that uses the com.android.library plugin, and fleshing out the source directories. This will be more cumbersome, but as with all difficult activities, you'll learn a lot and it will build character, or you can at least tell yourself that as you're puzzling things out.

If you want to package as .jar instead of .aar, then again there are a couple routes you could go. For this type, if you want maximal assistance from the UI, you could start a new Android project and add a plain Java module to it. You can either remove the unwanted Android module from the project, or you could even leave it alone; the build process will output a .jar for your plain Java module in any event.

Your plain Java module will need to depend on the android.jar archive from the appropriate platform in your SDK.

Alternately, you could build this module up from scratch, authoring the build.gradle file and setting up the sources yourself, and then you could import that into Android Studio as a new project.

Upvotes: 3

Puh
Puh

Reputation: 305

Actually it's a bad idea to use your IDE as project management/build system Take a look on gradle or maven also take a look to
http://tools.android.com/tech-docs/new-build-system/user-guide

however, if you want do this in ide:

  1. File -> Project Structure. in opened window add jar in Artifacts tab
  2. Build -> Build Artifact.

https://www.jetbrains.com/idea/webhelp/packaging-a-module-into-a-jar-file.html

it's shouldn't be specific for android lib

Upvotes: 2

Related Questions