Android Command Line Dev with VI

Notes on developing Android apps from *NIX command line.

Building an Android application from the command line with VI can save time. Here are some notes on setting up Vim w/ tags and code completion for Android development. The relevant Ant commands for building Android apps from the command line are included. 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

• Tag List
• Nerd Tree
• VIM JDE

Setting up Vim JDE (vjde) requires a few configuration changes in order to work well with Android projects. First, download vjde.tgz version 2.6.18 from http://www.vim.org/scripts/download_script.phpsrc_id=16253

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

Open 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 the 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 the project and type :Vjdeload .myproject.prj in command mode (or script and/or add to .vimrc). Use <ctrl-x><ctrl-u> for code completion. For example: import android.<ctrl-x><ctrl-u> and a nice little dialog box for browsing the matching frameworks.

Next, run ctags over the 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 .vimrc will allow the use of <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, for 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 the top level project dir (assuming that Eclipse was used, otherwise, android create can be used ...),
$ 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 the 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 the app with a
db -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 the application for debugging.

Next, run ddms & and check the debug port. It should be 8700.
Subsequently, start the 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 debugging.