android-template

Minimalist Android app template using Gradle.

You can use this as a starting point to create new apps from scratch.

Structure

• build.gradle - root gradle config file
• settings.gradle - root gradle settings file
• app - our only project in this repo
• app/build.gradle - project gradle config file
• app/src - main project source directory
• app/src/main - main project flavour
• app/src/main/AndroidManifest.xml - manifest file
• app/src/main/java - java source directory
• app/src/main/res - resources directory

Building

It is recommended that you run Gradle with the --daemon option, as starting up the tool from scratch often takes at least a few seconds. You can kill the java process that it leaves running once you are done running your commands.

Tasks work much like Make targets, so you may concatenate them. Tasks are not re-done if multiple targets in a single command require them. For example, running assemble install will not compile the apk twice even though install depends on assemble.

Clean

gradle clean

Debug

This compiles a debugging apk in build/outputs/apk/ signed with a debug key, ready to be installed for testing purposes.

gradle assembleDebug

You can also install it on your attached device:

gradle installDebug

Release

This compiles an unsigned release (non-debugging) apk in build/outputs/apk/. It's not signed, you must sign it before it can be installed by any users.

gradle assembleRelease

Test

Were you to add automated java tests, you could configure them in your build.gradle file and run them within gradle as well.

gradle test

Lint

This analyses the code and produces reports containing warnings about your application in build/outputs/lint/.

gradle lint

Further reading

• Build System Overview
• Gradle Plugin User Guide
• Gradle Plugin Release Notes