Building Android Apps with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, 2nd Edition

Chapter 8. Submitting Your App to the Android Market

Finally, the moment you’ve been waiting for: submitting your completed app to the Android Market. The process is actually pretty straightforward: you just need to prepare a release version of the app and upload it.

Preparing a Release Version of Your App

You need to do a few things to get the app ready for distribution:

• Remove any debugging or logging code

• Version the app

• Compile the app

• Sign the compiled app with a private key

Removing Debug Code

There’s no reason to have debugging or logging code slowing down your app while it’s running on a user’s phone. If you have added any such code (see The JavaScript Console) to your HTML, CSS, or JavaScript files, now’s the time to take it out.

You should also open up the AndroidManifest.xml file: in Eclipse, locate AndroidManifest.xml in the Package Explorer and double-click it. Next, click the AndroidManifest.xml tab at the bottom of the Android Manifest page to edit its raw XML. Then, search for “debuggable” and set it to false. When you’re done, it should look something like this:

...
<application 
    android:icon="@drawable/ic_launcher" 
    android:label="@string/app_name"
	android:debuggable="false">
...

While you have the manifest file open, you might as well ensure that android:icon and android:label are specified as shown in the previous listing. You’re probably using the default icon that’s used by Android. You should prepare an icon for your app in several resolutions and place them in the appropriate ...