Chapter 12

Publishing Android Applications

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN IN THIS CHAPTER

  • How to prepare your application for deployment
  • Exporting your application as an APK file and signing it with a new certificate
  • How to distribute your Android application
  • Publishing your application on the Android Market

So far you have seen quite a lot of interesting things you can do with your Android device. However, in order to get your application running on users’ devices, you need a way to deploy it and distribute it. In this chapter, you will learn how to prepare your Android applications for deployment and get them onto your customer’s devices. In addition, you will learn how to publish your applications on the Android Market, where you can sell them and make some money!

PREPARING FOR PUBLISHING

Google has made it relatively easy to publish your Android application so that it can be quickly distributed to end users. The steps to publishing your Android application generally involve the following:

1. Export your application as an APK (Android Package) file.

2. Generate your own self-signed certificate and digitally sign your application with it.

3. Deploy the signed application.

4. Use the Android Market for hosting and selling your application.

In the following sections, you will learn how to prepare your application for signing, and then learn about the various ways to deploy your applications.

This chapter uses the LBS project created in Chapter 9 to demonstrate how to deploy an Android ...

Get Beginning Android™ 4 Application Development now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.