September 2016
Intermediate to advanced
456 pages
10h 57m
English
Content preview from Expert Android Studio
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Chapter 6Android Build System
WHAT'S IN THIS CHAPTER?
- Android build system: Gradle
- Using Gradle
- Managing dependencies
- Configuring Android Plugin for Gradle
- Writing a Gradle plugin
Android Studio has introduced many changes to the Android development lifecycle that are limited not only to the IDE and tools but also to the build system. A Gradle-based build system was introduced with the initial release of Android Studio.
Prior to Android Studio, the Android ecosystem did not have one default build system. Some developers relied on Apache Ant scripts, whereas other developers preferred more sophisticated Maven builds. Another popular way to build Android apps uses mk files, which were widely used by developers using the Native Development Kit (NDK).
A common and yet simple approach followed by developers was to copy libraries (jar or aar files) into the libs folder and let Eclipse build tools to handle the build. However, this approach created problems when the project was integrated with source control systems. Although Maven addressed most of the dependency and automated test/build issues, it introduced another layer of complexity and performance problems.
In this chapter, you learn how to use Gradle effectively to control builds, manage dependencies and, even better, how to add custom tasks by writing your own plugins.
USING GRADLE
The Gradle build system was first released in 2007. Unlike Maven, which relies on XML, Gradle uses a Groovy-based domain-specific language for ...
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O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.Julian F.
I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.Addison B.
I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.Amir M.
I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.