Notes on developing Android apps from *NIX command line.
Vim, ctags, vjde, jdb, ant, Taglist, code completion, ndk-build, jni, android command line dev, ddms
If you are a Vi user, then building your Android application from the command line can save you time. Here are my notes on setting up Vim w/ tags and code completion for Android development. I've also included the relevant Ant commands for building Android apps from the command line. The example includes the commands for building and installing an Android app that links to a dependent java library which resides outside of the project source tree (in this case, the lvl lib), along with a C shared library that resides in the local jni/ directory.
Useful Vim Plugins for Android Development
Setting up Vim JDE (vjde) requires a few configuration changes in order to work well with Android projects.
Place
vjde.tgz in
$HOME/.vim and
tar -zxvf vjde.tgz from within
$HOME/.vim. Change the permissions on
$HOME/.vim/plugin/vjde/readtags as follows:
chmod +x $HOME/.vim/plugin/vjde/readtags. Fire up an empty editor: $ vim and enter the following in command mode: :helptags $HOME/.vim/doc.
:h vjde will then pull up the help page.
That should take care of setting up vjde. Now cd to your Android project dir. Open a blank editor and input the following in command mode:
:Vjdeas .myproject.prj
:let g:vjde_lib_path='/<path_to_android_sdk_top_level_dir>/platforms/<desired_sdk_target>/android.jar:bin/classes:build.classes'
:Vjdesave
:q!
Next, Open up a source file in your project and type :Vjdeload .myproject.prj in command mode (or script and/or add to .vimrc). You can then use <ctrl-x><ctrl-u> for code completion. For example: import android.<ctrl-x><ctrl-u> and you will get a nice little dialog box for browsing the matching frameworks.
Next, run ctags over your java and native sources as follows: $ ctags -R src gen jni
Once NERD tree and Taglist are placed in ~/.vim/plugin/, the following lines in your .vimrc will allow you to use <ctrl-n> and <ctrl-m> to toggle the file explorer and visual tag list.
nmap <silent> <c-n> :NERDTreeToggle<CR>
nnoremap <silent> <c-m> :TlistToggle<CR>
Also, if you need a status line:
set statusline=\ %{HasPaste()}%F%m%r%h\ %w\ \ CWD:\ %r%{CurDir()}%h\ \ \ Line:\ %l/%L:%c
function! CurDir()
let curdir = substitute(getcwd(), '/Users/myhomedir/', "~/", "g")
return curdir
endfunction
function! HasPaste()
if &paste
return 'PASTE MODE '
else
return ''
endif
endfunction
Vim should be good to go at this point. cd back to $HOME/src/myproject. This particular example accounts for a dependent Java library (the lvl) that resides outside of the project source tree, a shared library (which consists of a few C files natively compiled), and plain java source files in the appropriate src/com/ package subdir.
From within your top level project dir (assuming that you came from Eclipse, otherwise, you can use android create ...),
$ android update project --name myproject --target <desired_sdk_target> --path $HOME/src/myproject
$ android update project --target <desired_sdk_target> --path $HOME/src/myproject --library ../lvl_lib_dir
Make sure to check project.properties to ensure that the android.library.reference.1 variable now contains the relative pathname of the lvl lib directory.
Assuming that jni/Android.mk and jni/Application.mk are appropriately setup for your shared library, run ndk-build from the top level project directory.
ant debug should now handle the build and debug version of the application package file.
Start up an Emulator and then install your app with adb -r install bin/myproject-debug.apk or use ant install.
Next, open the Dev tools application in the emulator and configure the following: set wait for debugger and select your application for debugging.
Next, run ddms & and check the debug port. It should be 8700.
Subsequently, start your activity with adb shell 'am start -n com.mycohname.myproject/.BaseActivityName'
And finally, connect via jdb from the shell with
$ jdb -sourcepath $HOME/src/myproject -attach localhost:8700 and start your debugging.
