Generating An Android Application

Iron Speed Designer generates an Android application and Android application package (.apk) using the Deployment Wizard. The Android application is a native application that will open the device’s browser to the application’s mobile start page. It creates the Android application and application package in the folder specified in the Deployment Wizard.

Creating an Android application requires that additional supporting software be installed on the development machine. See the Android Application Installation Requirements section for the details.

Configure Other Application Settings

In the Configure step of the Deployment Wizard, click the “Configure Other Application Settings…” button to set the Key Validity Property.

In the property sheet, you can specify the value for the “Key Validity” property which specifies the duration of days for which the generated public/private keys are valid. A validity period of 25 years (9125 days) or more is recommended.. See the “Signing Considerations” section about key validity at:

http://developer.android.com/tools/publishing/app-signing.html

 

Deployment folders created when the Android application is generated

If your application is named MyApp1, when Deployment Wizard finishes you will see a MyApp1_Deploy folder in the same folder as your application. It should contain the following files and folders:

MainActivity-release.apk – this is the file to be uploaded when you submit the Android application to the Google Play store or any other store.

MyApp1 – this is a folder containing Android application generated files. To open your project in another IDE like Eclipse use the .project file inside this folder.

google-play-services_lib – this folder containing the Dependent project for the generated Android application. This project is used by the main project “MyApp1”.

Keystore – this is a folder containing the public/private keys used to sign your generated .apk file. You can use the same keys if you want to sign your application outside Iron Speed Designer.

Distribute the native mobile application from your web site

You can distribute your native Android application from your web site.  

Step 1: Create a new MIME type in IIS fir the file extension .apk  and Mime type application/vnd.android.package-archive:

Step 2: On the page where you want users to download your native app add a link using the following code (replace ~/myfile.apk with the real relative URL pointing to the .apk file inside your application folder):

< html>
< asp:HyperLink ID="lnkdwnload" runat="server" NavigateUrl="~/myfile.apk">Download myfile</asp:HyperLink>
< /html>

Step 3: Modify web.config’s <system.webserver><staticContent> node (or add it to web.config if you do not have it):

<system.webserver>
< staticContent>
< mimeMap fileExtension=".apk" mimeType="application/vnd.android.package-archive"/>
< /staticContent>
</system.webserver>

Step 4: When users click the link from their mobile device it will download the app. They will then install from the downloaded file.

Running the application on your Android device

Once the application has been created you want to run it on your Android device.
Just follow the directions in:

http://developer.android.com/tools/building/building-cmdline.html#ReleaseMode

Then you can use the following command to run the application on your device for testing:

adb -d install <Generated_APK_FilePath>.apk

 

Publishing an Android application

Once the application is tested you can make it available to the public at Google Play as described at http://developer.android.com/distribute/googleplay/publish/register.html

See Also

Android Application Installation Requirements

Android SDK Manager Package Installation.