Malachi's Android

Reverse USB Tethering

2012-01-23T14:10:00.000-08:00

I decided to give reverse usb tethering a shot. I don't know which devices easily support this, but I assume you have to be root. In my particular case, I was using an ICS device. These steps could easily screw up your existing cell routing - so make sure your willing to risk it.

Step 0: Make sure the device is booted and connected via USB

Step 1: Enable tethering on the device side

Go to Settings
Under the Wireless & Networks, click on More
Click on Tethering & portable hotspot
Enable USB Tethering

Step 2: Get the IP Address of the device

malachi@onyx:~$ adb shell
root@android:/ # netcfg
lo       UP                                   127.0.0.1/8   0x00000049 00:00:00:00:00:00
dummy0   DOWN                                   0.0.0.0/0   0x00000082 62:bc:02:e1:d5:ea
rmnet0   DOWN                                   0.0.0.0/0   0x00000000 00:00:00:00:00:00
rmnet1   DOWN                                   0.0.0.0/0   0x00000000 00:00:00:00:00:00
rmnet2   DOWN                                   0.0.0.0/0   0x00000000 00:00:00:00:00:00
rmnet3   DOWN                                   0.0.0.0/0   0x00000000 00:00:00:00:00:00
rmnet4   DOWN                                   0.0.0.0/0   0x00000000 00:00:00:00:00:00
rmnet5   DOWN                                   0.0.0.0/0   0x00000000 00:00:00:00:00:00
rmnet6   DOWN                                   0.0.0.0/0   0x00000000 00:00:00:00:00:00
rmnet7   DOWN                                   0.0.0.0/0   0x00000000 00:00:00:00:00:00
sit0     DOWN                                   0.0.0.0/0   0x00000080 00:00:00:00:00:00
rndis0   UP                              192.168.42.129/24 0x00001043 da:02:11:22:14:af

Step 3: Get the matching IP Address of the workstation

malachi@onyx:~$ ifconfig -a usb0
usb0      Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr e2:31:b5:d7:f3:7b
          inet addr:192.168.42.74 Bcast:192.168.42.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::e031:b5ff:fed7:f37b/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
          RX packets:1990 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:1188 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:181334 (181.3 KB) TX bytes:657452 (657.4 KB)

Step 4: Ping the device from the workstation

malachi@onyx:~$ ping 192.168.42.129
PING 192.168.42.129 (192.168.42.129) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 192.168.42.129: icmp_req=1 ttl=64 time=1.01 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.42.129: icmp_req=2 ttl=64 time=0.605 ms

Step 5: Ping the workstation from the device

root@android:/ # ping 192.168.42.74
PING 192.168.42.74 (192.168.42.74) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 192.168.42.74: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.427 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.42.74: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.397 ms

Step 6: Add workstation as the default gateway for the device

root@android:/ # route add default gw 192.168.42.74 dev rndis0

Step 7: Get a list of DNS servers from the workstation

malachi@onyx:~$ cat /etc/resolv.conf
nameserver 172.29.224.11
nameserver 8.8.8.8

Step 8: Add them to the device

root@android:/ # setprop net.dns1 172.29.224.11
root@android:/ # setprop net.dns2 8.8.8.8

Step 9: Setup forwarding from usb0 to eth1 on the workstation
[ most people probably use eth0. Just use ifconfig to check which one is active]

malachi@onyx:~$ sudo su - root
[sudo] password for malachi:
root@onyx:~# echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward
root@onyx:~# exit

malachi@onyx:~$ sudo iptables --flush -t nat
malachi@onyx:~$ sudo iptables --table nat --append POSTROUTING --out-interface eth1 -j MASQUERADE
malachi@onyx:~$ sudo iptables --append FORWARD --in-interface usb0 -j ACCEPT

Step 10: ping google ;)

malachi@onyx:~$ adb shell
root@android:/ # ping google.com
PING google.com (74.125.127.99) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from pz-in-f99.1e100.net (74.125.127.99): icmp_seq=1 ttl=51 time=11.8 ms
64 bytes from pz-in-f99.1e100.net (74.125.127.99): icmp_seq=2 ttl=51 time=11.9 ms

And finally, check things like the Browser...

Fragments

2012-01-03T15:54:00.000-08:00

Well, I've been needing to look into Fragments for awhile now...

First, to generate a blank project...

malachi@onyx:~/work$ mvn archetype:generate -DarchetypeCatalog=http://repository-malachid.forge.cloudbees.com/public-snapshot/archetype-catalog.xml
[INFO] Scanning for projects...
[INFO]
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Building Maven Stub Project (No POM) 1
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO]
[INFO] >>> maven-archetype-plugin:2.2:generate (default-cli) @ standalone-pom >>>
[INFO]
[INFO] <<< maven-archetype-plugin:2.2:generate (default-cli) @ standalone-pom <<<
[INFO]
[INFO] --- maven-archetype-plugin:2.2:generate (default-cli) @ standalone-pom ---
[INFO] Generating project in Interactive mode
[INFO] No archetype defined. Using maven-archetype-quickstart (org.apache.maven.archetypes:maven-archetype-quickstart:1.0)
Choose archetype:
1: http://repository-malachid.forge.cloudbees.com/public-snapshot/archetype-catalog.xml -> org.eoti.kryten:kryten-archetype (kryten-archetype)
2: http://repository-malachid.forge.cloudbees.com/public-snapshot/archetype-catalog.xml -> org.eoti.galatea:galatea-archetype (galatea-archetype)
3: http://repository-malachid.forge.cloudbees.com/public-snapshot/archetype-catalog.xml -> org.eoti.archtest:archtest-archetype (archtest-archetype)
Choose a number or apply filter (format: [groupId:]artifactId, case sensitive contains): : 2
Define value for property 'groupId': : org.eoti.android.test.fragments
Define value for property 'artifactId': : FragmentTest
Define value for property 'version': 1.0-SNAPSHOT: :
Define value for property 'package': org.eoti.android.test.fragments: :
Confirm properties configuration:
groupId: org.eoti.android.test.fragments
artifactId: FragmentTest
version: 1.0-SNAPSHOT
package: org.eoti.android.test.fragments
Y: :
[INFO] ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Using following parameters for creating project from Archetype: galatea-archetype:1.1-SNAPSHOT
[INFO] ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Parameter: groupId, Value: org.eoti.android.test.fragments
[INFO] Parameter: artifactId, Value: FragmentTest
[INFO] Parameter: version, Value: 1.0-SNAPSHOT
[INFO] Parameter: package, Value: org.eoti.android.test.fragments
[INFO] Parameter: packageInPathFormat, Value: org/eoti/android/test/fragments
[INFO] Parameter: package, Value: org.eoti.android.test.fragments
[INFO] Parameter: version, Value: 1.0-SNAPSHOT
[INFO] Parameter: groupId, Value: org.eoti.android.test.fragments
[INFO] Parameter: artifactId, Value: FragmentTest
[WARNING] Don't override file /home/malachi/work/FragmentTest/src/main/android/res/values/strings.xml
[WARNING] Don't override file /home/malachi/work/FragmentTest/src/main/android/res/layout/main.xml
[INFO] project created from Archetype in dir: /home/malachi/work/FragmentTest
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] BUILD SUCCESS
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Total time: 21.579s
[INFO] Finished at: Tue Jan 03 08:30:32 PST 2012
[INFO] Final Memory: 8M/245M
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
malachi@onyx:~/work$ cd FragmentTest/
malachi@onyx:~/work/FragmentTest$ tree
.
├── pom.xml
└── src
    ├── AndroidManifest.xml
    └── main
        ├── android
        │   └── res
        │       ├── drawable
        │       │   └── icon.png
        │       ├── layout
        │       │   └── main.xml
        │       └── values
        │           └── strings.xml
        └── java
            └── org
                └── eoti
                    └── android
                        └── test
                            └── fragments
                                └── FragmentTestActivity.java

13 directories, 6 files

While it should be possible to use the Fragments with pre-HONEYCOMB (http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2011/03/fragments-for-all.html); but for now, let's just try it in the ICS emulator.

Based on the available jars in search.maven.org (http://search.maven.org/#artifactdetails|com.google.android|android|4.0.1.2|jar) let's set the version of the Android dependency in the pom to 4.0.1.2.

Also, change the <sdk><platform>10</platform></sdk> to <sdk><platform>14</platform></sdk>.

For now, comment out the maven-jarsigner-plugin as that requires setting up a keystore.
You'll also need to comment out the <sign /> portion of the android-maven-plugin.

Start up an ICS emulator and try 'mvn clean install' just to make sure we are able to grab the dependencies.
Launch the FragmentTest and you should see your hello world.

Let's move on to adding fragments... this part is derived from http://www.vogella.de/articles/Android/article.html#fragments_tutorial
I've modified their instructions quite a bit to fit into our Maven structure as well as to make things more clear (they had ListFragment extends ListFragment which tends to confuse people).

First, copy src/main/android/res/layout/main.xml to src/main/android/res/layout/detail.xml.
On the new detail.xml, give the TextView an id:

android:id="@+id/ftDetailText"

Now, we'll deal the with portrait layout for FragmentTestActivity:
Replace the TextView in the layout/main.xml with:

    <fragment
        android:id="@+id/ftListFragment"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        class="org.eoti.android.test.fragments.FTListFragment"
    />

Now, let's modify it for landscape...

Copy src/main/android/res/layout/main.xml to src/main/android/res/layout-land/main.xml [note: you will have to create the layout-land directory]

Now, for the layout-land/main.xml:
1. change the LinearLayout to Horizontal:

android:orientation="horizontal"

2. copy/paste the fragment so you now have 2 of them
3. for the first one. let's change the width to:

android:layout_width="300dip"

4. for the second one, change the id to:

android:id="@+id/ftDetailFragment"

5. Change the class to
class="org.eoti.android.test.fragments.FTDetailFragment"

Note: I changed the name of these classes so it would be obvious that these are our classes, and not some default Android implementation. Perhaps a redundant point since we also set the package name.

We'll need to have a separate activity for the detail portion in portrait mode, so let's create the layout for that.
Copy src/main/android/res/layout-land/main.xml to src/main/android/res/layout/details.xml [note: plural details not detail]

For the new details.xml:
1. change the LinearLayout back to Vertical:

android:orientation="vertical"

2. remove the ftListFragment <fragment />

We already have our main FragmentTestActivity. We are missing our DetailActivity. Let's do some more copy/paste.
Copy FragmentTestActivity.java to DetailActivity.java (in the same directory)
Let's edit DetailActivity.java:
1. Change the class name to DetailActivity [I'd change the TAG to match]
2. change the setContentView to R.layout.details
3. add the following just after setContentView:

        Bundle extras = getIntent().getExtras();
        if (extras != null) {
            TextView view = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.ftDetailText);
            view.setText(System.getProperty(extras.getString("key")));
        }

4. Make sure to add the import android.widget.TextView;

We've defined two fragments in the layouts. We need to create those.
First, we'll create our src/main/java/org/eoti/android/test/fragments/FTDetailFragment.java
This one is pretty simple:

package org.eoti.android.test.fragments;

import android.app.Fragment;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.view.LayoutInflater;
import android.view.View;
import android.view.ViewGroup;
import android.widget.TextView;

public class FTDetailFragment extends Fragment
{
    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    }

    @Override
    public void onActivityCreated(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onActivityCreated(savedInstanceState);
    }

    @Override
    public View onCreateView(LayoutInflater inflater, ViewGroup container, Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        return inflater.inflate(R.layout.detail, container, false);
    }

    public void setText(String key)
    {
        ((TextView)getView().findViewById(R.id.ftDetailText)).setText(System.getProperty(key));
    }

}

Next, we'll create our src/main/java/org/eoti/android/test/fragments/FTListFragment.java
This one isn't much more difficult:

package org.eoti.android.test.fragments;

import android.*;
import android.R;
import android.app.ListFragment;
import android.content.Intent;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.view.LayoutInflater;
import android.view.View;
import android.view.ViewGroup;
import android.widget.ArrayAdapter;
import android.widget.ListView;

import java.util.ArrayList;

public class FTListFragment extends ListFragment
{
    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    }

    @Override
    public void onActivityCreated(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onActivityCreated(savedInstanceState);
        ArrayList keys = new ArrayList(System.getProperties().keySet());
        ArrayAdapter adapter = new ArrayAdapter(getActivity(), R.layout.simple_list_item_1, keys);
        setListAdapter(adapter);
    }

    @Override
    public void onListItemClick(ListView l, View v, int position, long id) {
        String key = getListAdapter().getItem(position).toString();
        FTDetailFragment fragment = (FTDetailFragment)getFragmentManager().findFragmentById(org.eoti.android.test.fragments.R.id.ftDetailFragment);
        if(fragment != null)
        {
            fragment.setText(key);
        }else{
            Intent intent = new Intent(getActivity().getApplicationContext(), DetailActivity.class);
            intent.putExtra("key", key);
            startActivity(intent);
        }
    }
}

Last, but not least, we need to add the other activity to your AndroidManifest. Put this inside your <application /> tag.

<activity android:name=".DetailActivity" />

mvn clean install

Launch the application (in portrait mode, I assume)
Select something. You should see a new activity popup with the value of the property you chose.
Hit back, and try it a few times.
When you are done, rotate the emulator using CTRL-F11. I'm not sure about anyone else, but I have to hit it twice quickly or it won't rotate.
Now, when you select an item on the left, the answer is on the right.
When you are done playing with it, CTRL-F12 [twice in my case] to go back to portrait.

UPDATE: If you wish to use it with older devices...
First, I used the maven-android-sdk-deployer to create the maven-compliant compat library for me.

        <dependency>
            <groupId>android.support</groupId>
            <artifactId>compatibility-v13</artifactId>
            <version>r6</version>
        </dependency>

This allows older versions of Android to use the Fragments. In my case, I tested against an Android 2.3.3 emulator.

I made no other changes to the pom. IE: I compiled against a newer SDK and deployed against both.

Other changes to make:

make FTDetailFragment extend android.support.v4.app.Fragment
make FTListFragment extend android.support.v4.app.ListFragment
make DetailActivity extend android.support.v4.app.FragmentActivity
make FragmentTestActivity extend android.support.v4.app.FragmentActivity
In FTListFragment, instead of using getFragmentManager you need to call getSupportFragmentManager. This is part of the FragmentActivity, so you will need to do something like:

((FragmentActivity)getActivity()).getSupportFragmentManager()...

mvn clean install and it should all work... close down the 2.3.3 emulator, start up an ICS emulator and.. it will still work ;)

LVL Testing

2011-12-13T13:18:00.000-08:00

In the beginning, my phone was setup with a Google Apps account (to cut down on the general spam). When using the Market, it was billing my gmail account for the purchases.

A few months back, the Android Market updated itself from a tabbed list of applications to a Windows-8 combination of application links and general advertisements. During that change, they enabled the ability to use multiple accounts with the Google Market. Initially, I was very excited by this prospect.

Unfortunately, while applications were still being purchased with the gmail account - they were now divided into two accounts. The old ones tied to the App account (which was not allowed to purchase anything anymore due to Google Checkout not being available to the Google Apps users) and the new ones tied to the Gmail account itself. Why all apps weren't tied to the account that actually paid for them, I have no idea. I contacted Google about this issue and they suggested that I contact all 184 old application developers and ask them politely to change the email address associated with my purchase. As an app developer that has no idea how to do this myself, I wasn't about to do that.

Enough back story... onto the issue at hand... the Android Market Licensing...

If you have ever published "Copy Protected" apps in Android, you know that Google started suggesting (with bright red warnings) that you switch to the new LVL approach as the old one was going to go away. Ok, that makes sense. I look through the docs (which are a little overwhelming considering what is actually happening) and decided that the best thing I could do is try the sample LVL application first - then worry about securing it after I had it working.

Grabbing the LVL library and sample code from the SDK, I build it and test it. Results were not very good. Here are some things I ran into:

Sometimes it said it was not compatible with my Atrix... then randomly decided to start saying it was compatible.
When publishing an updated version, both the device and the emulator reported (for about 10 minutes) that licensing was not managed by the market.
When on a device tied to multiple accounts, it only counted as licensed if the primary account (first one used on the phone) is the one that bought the application.
If you want to delete the primary account so you can change the order, you have to factory reset the device.
Oh, and of course, it can't be used on Free applications - which leads to lots of Market entries for demos and keys and trials.

So what to do? Google says we have to quit using the copy protection scheme. Using LVL will break hundreds if not thousands of my users. Doesn't sound like there are many options, does it?

Publishing for GoogleTV

2011-12-11T07:24:00.001-08:00

Yesterday I received the 3.1 update to my Logitech Revue box. Definitely better than it was, if for no other reason than the Market is finally there. So what's a developer to do besides install their own apps?

Unfortunately, FetLife wasn't available in the Market. Luckily, I had already expected that. I head over to the migrating page and try to figure out what all I need to change.

Turns out, the only thing I had to do for it to show up in the Market (for GoogleTV) was add this one line to my manifest.

<uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.touchscreen" android:required="false">*lt;/uses-feature>

This effectively makes the market quit filtering it out. After republishing, I go back to my GoogleTV and check the Market. Yep, there it is. (Note: the Market DOES allow multiple user accounts, so if you are using an account other than the one you purchased the app with; you have to add that account as well, or repurchase).

Now, at first, while it showed up, it said it was incompatible. I looked around online for a bit, then found this excellent resource on how to use ADB with my GoogleTV. You can walk through the article, but the jist of it is:

Tell GoogleTV that your dev box is going to be the debugging IP
adb connect googletv-ip-address
adb devices/logcat/etc

So, I fire up logcat, relaunch the Market and... oh, it will let me install it now. It appears that it just takes a little while (15 minutes?) before the Market has analyzed it?

Anyways, app published and installed on the big screen. Now to disable things like camera and vibrate and....

IntelliJ IDEA and the Android Source tree

2011-08-24T10:51:00.000-07:00

It can be quite annoying to develop in the Android source tree if you don't have your IDE properly configured. I thought I'd share a few notes from my testing IDEA with the repo sync'd tree...

When initially making your project, make sure it is a fresh checkout or do a 'make clean'. Otherwise, all the *_intermediates turn into separate modules.

When it auto-detects the Android Facets, uncheck them all. If the Android Facet is setup, you will resolve classes to android-x.jar instead of your module source.

It can also auto-generate gen/ directories which cause duplicate R.java clases during builds if the Android Facet is chosen.

Since we are not using the Android Facets, the R.java files become a problem. To correct this, create a new module (and make it a dependency of any module needing the resolution):

Content Root: out/target/common/R
Module File Location: anywhere BUT out/*

You probably are not going to be working on every single module unless you work with Cyanogen. Right click on a module and add it to your favorites. In the top of the dock, click the pull down and choose to view your favorites.

Build from the command line. You might be able to do it from within the IDE, but I haven't tried that.

Thank you to the JetBrains support team; and a special thanks to Serge Baranov who put up with me long enough to get some of these issues resolved.

Altering system.img, userdata.img and persist.img

2011-07-07T08:08:00.000-07:00

If you have started building the Android source tree yourself, you have undoubtedly wondered how to modify the image files. In this post, we'll look specifically at system.img. This is based on the work found here.

Let's pretend our directories are:
~/work/android: directory where you did your git, envbuild, lunch/choosecombo from.
~/work/tmp: empty directory for us to play in
~/bin: directory on your path

If you have already done a build, you will find out/target/product/generic/system.img. This is a YAFFS2 file.

Preparation

In my case, I did not have a way to mount yaffs2 filesystems. I am sure I could have done some insmods and such; but instead, I chose to just compile this unyaffs.

~/work/tmp$ wget http://unyaffs.googlecode.com/files/unyaffs.c
~/work/tmp$ wget http://unyaffs.googlecode.com/files/unyaffs.h
~/work/tmp$ gcc -o unyaffs unyaffs.c
~/work/tmp$ cp unyaffs ~/bin
~/work/tmp$ rm *

Extracting system.img

~/work/tmp$ cp ~/work/android/out/target/product/generic/system.img .
~/work/tmp$ mkdir tmp2
~/work/tmp$ cd tmp2
~/work/tmp/tmp2$ unyaffs ../system.img

((modify files... for example, etc/init.goldfish.sh))

Rebuilding system.img

~/work/tmp$ rm system.img
~/work/tmp$ ~/work/android/out/host/linux-x86/bin/mkyaffs2image tmp2 system.img

Now you should be able to use the new system.img with your emulator =)

userdata.img and persist.img

These are handled in exactly the same way, just change the filenames.

Altering ramdisk.img

2011-07-07T07:49:00.000-07:00

If you have started building the Android source tree yourself, you have undoubtedly wondered how to modify the image files. In this post, we'll look specifically at ramdisk.img. This is based on the work found here.

Let's pretend our directories are:
~/work/android: directory where you did your git, envbuild, lunch/choosecombo from.
~/work/tmp: empty directory for us to play in

If you have already done a build, you will find out/target/product/generic/ramdisk.img. This is a gzipped cpio file.
Extracting ramdisk.img

~/work/tmp$ cp ~/work/android/out/target/product/generic/ramdisk.img ./ramdisk.cpio.gz
~/work/tmp$ gzip -d ramdisk.cpio.gz
~/work/tmp$ mkdir tmp2
~/work/tmp$ cd tmp2
~/work/tmp/tmp2$ cpio -i -F ../ramdisk.cpio

((modify files... for example, init.rc or init.goldfish.rc))

Rebuilding ramdisk.img

~/work/tmp/tmp2$ cpio -i -t -F ../ramdisk.cpio | cpio -o -H newc -O ../ramdisk2.cpio
~/work/tmp/tmp2$ cd ..
~/work/tmp$ gzip -c ramdisk2.cpio > ramdisk.img

Now you should be able to use the new ramdisk.img with your emulator =)

adb does not have permission to access my Atrix?

2011-03-05T17:20:00.000-08:00

The Atrix does not have the option to allow installing from unknown (ie: non-Market) locations. As such, I was unsure what I would see when I tried to install APKs from the command line...

malachi@onyx:~$ adb devices
* daemon not running. starting it now on port 5037 *
* daemon started successfully *
List of devices attached
???????????? no permissions

Not good... but, surely there is a way around that...?

Turns out it is quite simple really....

1. Stop the existing ADB server.

malachi@onyx:~$ adb kill-server

2. Start adb's server as root. You could try sudo adb instead, but I didn't...

malachi@onyx:~$ sudo su - root
root@onyx:~# adb start-server
* daemon not running. starting it now on port 5037 *
* daemon started successfully *
root@onyx:~# exit
logout

3. Run adb again... this time, with root running the server, it will work.

malachi@onyx:~$ adb devices
List of devices attached
TA20704PWJ device

Motorola Atrix

2011-03-04T19:39:00.001-08:00

After having to pull the battery on my N1 repeatedly today, I decided to take the plunge and upgrade. I'll let you know what I think after I have had some time to play around with it.

Repository has moved

2011-03-04T08:56:00.000-08:00

In Galatea - A Maven/Android Archetype, I showed how to use the maven archetype to create a basic Android app. The server hosting the Nexus repository has been replaced by services from CloudBees.com. As such, the instructions to generate an artifact from the repository have changed.

malachi@onyx:~/work/test2$ mvn archetype:generate -DarchetypeCatalog=http://repository-malachid.forge.cloudbees.com/public-snapshot/archetype-catalog.xml
[INFO] Scanning for projects...
[INFO]
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Building Maven Stub Project (No POM) 1
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO]
[INFO] >>> maven-archetype-plugin:2.0:generate (default-cli) @ standalone-pom >>>
[INFO]
[INFO] <<< maven-archetype-plugin:2.0:generate (default-cli) @ standalone-pom <<<
[INFO]
[INFO] --- maven-archetype-plugin:2.0:generate (default-cli) @ standalone-pom ---
[INFO] Generating project in Interactive mode
[INFO] No archetype defined. Using maven-archetype-quickstart (org.apache.maven.archetypes:maven-archetype-quickstart:1.0)
Choose archetype:
1: http://repository-malachid.forge.cloudbees.com/public-snapshot/archetype-catalog.xml -> ardor3d-archetype (-)
2: http://repository-malachid.forge.cloudbees.com/public-snapshot/archetype-catalog.xml -> galatea-archetype (-)
3: http://repository-malachid.forge.cloudbees.com/public-snapshot/archetype-catalog.xml -> kryten-archetype (-)
Choose a number: : 2

Upgrading NexusOne from 2.2.2 to 2.3.3

2011-02-24T22:26:00.000-08:00

An old coworker, Scott Hooper, pointed out this site for me so I finally managed to get Gingerbread onto my N1 =) Yay me :) Now let's hope it fixes some of those annoying issues (like the repeated need to pull the battery).

One of my apps has hit 1000 users!

2011-02-23T09:35:00.000-08:00

Just thought I would share the great news that my FetLife for Android app (recently acquired by Golden Spiral Software) has hit 1000 users!

NexusOne with Docking Station?

2011-01-27T10:50:00.000-08:00

I was looking for a docking station for my Asus G73J Ubuntu laptop when I ran across the Plugable docking station. Normally, I would not have considered a USB-based docking station, but since this laptop does not come with an ExpressCard, I have little choice.

What initially caught my attention about this universal docking station was that, unlike most of the others, it supported Linux in addition to Mac and Windows. What sealed the deal for me though was seeing it attached to a Nexus One :)

ClassNotFoundException: org.eoti.MyAuthenticationService in loader dalvik.system.PathClassLoader

2010-07-25T21:57:00.000-07:00

I came across an annoying thing today... I install my app and use it. I close it and reopen it a few times. I use other things then come back and use it. Everything is working fine.

Then I reboot. Now, every time it tries to use the authentication mechanism, it force closes. On the phone, it doesn't give any details at all in logCat. On the emulator, I can't replicate it.

Or can I? I go into Manage Applications and force close the app. Launch it and voila, same thing.

Specifically, Account Manager's blockingGetAuthToken is trying to load the authentication class (which it used not more than 30 seconds ago) and I get this:
(slightly cleaned up stack)

W/dalvikvm( 550): threadid=1: thread exiting with uncaught exception (group=0x4001d800)
E/AndroidRuntime( 550): FATAL EXCEPTION: main
E/AndroidRuntime( 550): java.lang.RuntimeException: Unable to instantiate service org.eoti.MyAuthenticationService: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: org.eoti.MyAuthenticationService in loader dalvik.system.PathClassLoader[/data/app/org.eoti.test-1.apk]
E/AndroidRuntime( 550):        at android.app.ActivityThread.handleCreateService(ActivityThread.java:2943)
E/AndroidRuntime( 550):        at android.app.ActivityThread.access$3300(ActivityThread.java:125)
E/AndroidRuntime( 550):        at android.app.ActivityThread$H.handleMessage(ActivityThread.java:2087)
E/AndroidRuntime( 550):        at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:99)
E/AndroidRuntime( 550):        at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:123)
E/AndroidRuntime( 550):        at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:4627)
E/AndroidRuntime( 550):        at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method)
E/AndroidRuntime( 550):        at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:521)
E/AndroidRuntime( 550):        at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:868)
E/AndroidRuntime( 550):        at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:626)
E/AndroidRuntime( 550):        at dalvik.system.NativeStart.main(Native Method)
E/AndroidRuntime( 550): Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: org.eoti.MyAuthenticationService in loader dalvik.system.PathClassLoader[/data/app/org.eoti.test-1.apk]
E/AndroidRuntime( 550):        at dalvik.system.PathClassLoader.findClass(PathClassLoader.java:243)
E/AndroidRuntime( 550):        at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:573)
E/AndroidRuntime( 550):        at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:532)
E/AndroidRuntime( 550):        at android.app.ActivityThread.handleCreateService(ActivityThread.java:2940)
E/AndroidRuntime( 550):        ... 10 more
I/Process ( 550): Sending signal. PID: 550 SIG: 9
I/ActivityManager(   59): Process org.eoti.test:main (pid 550) has died.

Ok... so it is able to load the classes... until a reboot (or force close)... and then it can't find them anymore? If anyone has any thoughts on the matter, I'd be keen to hear them...

Intent Filters

2010-07-18T13:08:00.000-07:00

Let's start with a basic app:

F:\work> mvn archetype:generate -DarchetypeCatalog=http://kallisti.eoti.org:8081/content/repositories/snapshots/archetype-catalog.xml

2: http://kallisti.eoti.org:8081/content/repositories/snapshots/archetype-catalog.xml -> galatea-archetype (null)
Choose a number: : 2
groupId: org.eoti.android.tutorial.intent
artifactId: IntentTest
version: 1.0-SNAPSHOT
package: org.eoti.android.tutorial.intent

F:\work> cd IntentTest
F:\work\IntentTest> mvn clean install

Add this into your IntentTestActivity:

    public void customClickHandler1(View target)
    {
        startActivity(new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW, Uri.parse("custom1://localhost/param1/param2")));
    }

Add this into the end of your LinearLayout in main.xml:

    <Button
        android:text="Click Me #1"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:onClick="customClickHandler1" />

Following this methodology, we can have custom methods rather than multiple if/else.

Create a new activity:

package org.eoti.android.tutorial.intent;

import android.app.Activity;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.widget.TextView;

public class SubActivity extends Activity
{
    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState)
    {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.sub);
        ((TextView)findViewById(R.id.text)).setText(getClass().getSimpleName() + " loaded: " + getIntent().getData());
    }
}

And create the res\layout\sub.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:orientation="vertical"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent"
    >
    <TextView
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:id="@+id/text"
        />
</LinearLayout>

And add it to the AndroidManifest.xml:

        <activity android:name=".SubActivity">
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW"/>
                <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT"/>
                <data android:scheme="custom1" android:host="localhost" android:pathPattern="/param1/.*" />
            </intent-filter>
        </activity>

Redeploy (mvn clean install)

Ok, that all works well... let's try having different path prefixes...

Add another button:
Update main.xml:

    <Button
        android:text="Click Me #2"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:onClick="customClickHandler2" />

Update IntentTestActivity:

    public void customClickHandler2(View target)
    {
        startActivity(new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW, Uri.parse("custom1://localhost/paramA/paramB")));
    }

Create SubActivity2:

package org.eoti.android.tutorial.intent;

import android.os.Bundle;

public class SubActivity2 extends SubActivity
{
    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    }
}

Update AndroidManifest.xml:

        <activity android:name=".SubActivity2">
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW"/>
                <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT"/>
                <data android:scheme="custom1" android:host="localhost" android:pathPattern="/paramA/.*" />
            </intent-filter>
        </activity>

Redeploy (mvn clean install)... Now, we can launch either one by the first part of the URL... what about something at the end?

Make a new activity:

package org.eoti.android.tutorial.intent;

import android.os.Bundle;

public class SubActivity3 extends SubActivity
{
    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    }
}

        <activity android:name=".SubActivity3">
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW"/>
                <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT"/>
                <data android:scheme="custom1" android:host="localhost" android:pathPattern="/paramA/.*/paramC" />
            </intent-filter>
        </activity>

    <Button
        android:text="Click Me #3"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:onClick="customClickHandler3" />

    public void customClickHandler3(View target)
    {
        startActivity(new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW, Uri.parse("custom1://localhost/paramA/paramB/paramC")));
    }

Redeploy (mvn clean install)... what happens? #1 and #2 work; but #3 asks you how you want to handle it (the picker is making you choose between #2 and #3). That's because the 3rd url matches both intent-filters. How do we fix that?

We don't have access to the full regex library (almost none of it really), so the simplest way is to make it behave more like files and directories...

Let's make "/paramA/paramB" more like a directory by appending a slash (ie: "/paramA/paramB/")

    public void customClickHandler2(View target)
    {
        startActivity(new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW, Uri.parse("custom1://localhost/paramA/paramB/")));
    }

        <activity android:name=".SubActivity2">
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW"/>
                <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT"/>
                <data android:scheme="custom1" android:host="localhost" android:pathPattern="/paramA/.*/" />
            </intent-filter>
        </activity>

Redeploy (mvn clean install). Now what happens? All three of them now launch. We have a gotcha here though. Try this:

    <Button
        android:text="Broken"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:onClick="customClickHandler4" />

    public void customClickHandler4(View target)
    {
        startActivity(new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW, Uri.parse("custom1://localhost/paramA/paramB")));
    }

Redeploy (mvn clean install) and you will see that clicking the "Broken" button will cause a stack trace:

E/AndroidRuntime( 1278): Caused by: android.content.ActivityNotFoundException: No Activity found to handle Intent { act=android.intent.action.VIEW dat=custom1://localhost/paramA/paramB }
E/AndroidRuntime( 1278):        at android.app.Instrumentation.checkStartActivityResult(Instrumentation.java:1408)
E/AndroidRuntime( 1278):        at android.app.Instrumentation.execStartActivity(Instrumentation.java:1378)
E/AndroidRuntime( 1278):        at android.app.Activity.startActivityForResult(Activity.java:2817)
E/AndroidRuntime( 1278):        at android.app.Activity.startActivity(Activity.java:2923)
E/AndroidRuntime( 1278):        ... 15 more
W/ActivityManager(   61):   Force finishing activity org.eoti.android.tutorial.intent/.IntentTestActivity

This is because we now require a slash to be on the end (or 'paramC').

Let's try one more thing:

    <Button
        android:text="Wrong"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:onClick="customClickHandler5" />

    public void customClickHandler5(View target)
    {
        startActivity(new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW, Uri.parse("custom1://localhost/paramA/paramB/paramC/paramD/")));
    }

Redeploy (mvn clean install). What happens? Why doesn't it match "/paramA/.*/" from SubActivity2? My only guess is that the "everything" in ".*" excludes the "/"?

So end result? If you are willing to carefully layout your Uris and be limited to ".*" or literals (rather than say '[0-9]+') then this solution MIGHT be cleaner than creating an intent hub to process the strings and start your activities... too bad we don't have access to true Java regex functionality.

Tables

2010-07-16T07:44:00.000-07:00

Let's start with a basic app...

F:\work> mvn archetype:generate -DarchetypeCatalog=http://kallisti.eoti.org:8081/content/repositories/snapshots/archetype-catalog.xml

2: http://kallisti.eoti.org:8081/content/repositories/snapshots/archetype-catalog.xml -> galatea-archetype (null)
Choose a number: : 2
groupId: org.eoti.android.table
artifactId: TableTest
version: 1.0-SNAPSHOT
package: org.eoti.android.table

F:\work> cd TableTest
F:\work\TableTest> mvn clean install

Now, let's create a new src/main/android/res/values/styles.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
    <style name="cell">
        <item name="android:layout_height">32px</item>
        <item name="android:layout_width">32px</item>
    </style>
</resources>

Edit src/main/android/res/layout/main.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<TableLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content">

    <TableRow>
        
        <TextView
            style="@style/cell"
            android:text=" "/>
        
        <TextView
            style="@style/cell"
            android:text="C1"/>
        <TextView
            style="@style/cell"
            android:text="C2"/>
        <TextView
            style="@style/cell"
            android:text="C3"/>
    </TableRow>

    
    <TableRow>
        
        <TextView
            style="@style/cell"
            android:text="R1"/>
        
        <TextView
            style="@style/cell"
            android:text="1x1"/>
        
        <TextView
            style="@style/cell"
            android:text="2x1"/>
        
        <TextView
            style="@style/cell"
            android:text="3x1"/>
    </TableRow>

    
    <TableRow>
        
        <TextView
            style="@style/cell"
            android:text="R2"/>
        
        <TextView
            style="@style/cell"
            android:text="1x2"/>
        
        <TextView
            style="@style/cell"
            android:text="2x2"/>
        
        <TextView
            style="@style/cell"
            android:text="3x2"/>
    </TableRow>

    
    <TableRow>
        
        <TextView
            style="@style/cell"
            android:text="R3"/>
        
        <TextView
            style="@style/cell"
            android:text="1x3"/>
        
        <TextView
            style="@style/cell"
            android:text="2x3"/>
        
        <TextView
            style="@style/cell"
            android:text="3x3"/>
    </TableRow>
</TableLayout>

Redeploy (mvn clean install) and you should see a fairly unimpressive table.

Let's see if we can make it look a little better...

Update your styles.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
    <style name="cell">
        <item name="android:layout_height">32px</item>
        <item name="android:layout_width">32px</item>
        <item name="android:gravity">center</item>
        <item name="android:layout_margin">2dp</item>
    </style>
    <style name="header" parent="@style/cell">
        <item name="android:background">#4D62A4</item>
        <item name="android:textColor">#000000</item>
        <item name="android:textStyle">bold</item>
    </style>
</resources>

And we will change the style of the header column and rows:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<TableLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content">

    <TableRow>
        
        <TextView
            style="@style/header"
            android:text=" "/>
        
        <TextView
            style="@style/header"
            android:text="C1"/>
        <TextView
            style="@style/header"
            android:text="C2"/>
        <TextView
            style="@style/header"
            android:text="C3"/>
    </TableRow>

    
    <TableRow>
        
        <TextView
            style="@style/header"
            android:text="R1"/>
        
        <TextView
            style="@style/cell"
            android:text="1x1"/>
        
        <TextView
            style="@style/cell"
            android:text="2x1"/>
        
        <TextView
            style="@style/cell"
            android:text="3x1"/>
    </TableRow>

    
    <TableRow>
        
        <TextView
            style="@style/header"
            android:text="R2"/>
        
        <TextView
            style="@style/cell"
            android:text="1x2"/>
        
        <TextView
            style="@style/cell"
            android:text="2x2"/>
        
        <TextView
            style="@style/cell"
            android:text="3x2"/>
    </TableRow>

    
    <TableRow>
        
        <TextView
            style="@style/header"
            android:text="R3"/>
        
        <TextView
            style="@style/cell"
            android:text="1x3"/>
        
        <TextView
            style="@style/cell"
            android:text="2x3"/>
        
        <TextView
            style="@style/cell"
            android:text="3x3"/>
    </TableRow>
</TableLayout>

Redeploy (mvn clean install).

That's all well and good... but what if we want to do spanning?

Change row 2:

<TableRow>
        
        <TextView
            style="@style/header"
            android:text="R2"/>
        
        <TextView
            style="@style/cell"
            android:layout_column="1"
            android:layout_span="2"
            android:text="1x2"/>
        

        
            
            
        
        <TextView
            style="@style/cell"
            android:text="3x2"/>
    </TableRow>

And let's make it a little easier to see where the data cells are. Add this to your @style/cell:

<item name="android:background">#333333</item>

Redeploy (mvn clean install).

Ok, this is starting to look really good.... but... what if I want more than 1 view added to a cell?

Let's replace "row 1, col 2":

<TableRow>
        
        <TextView
            style="@style/header"
            android:text="R1"/>
        
        <TextView
            style="@style/cell"
            android:text="1x1"/>

        
        <LinearLayout
                android:orientation="horizontal"
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content">
            <ImageView
                style="@style/cell"
                android:src="@drawable/icon"/>
            <ImageView
                style="@style/cell"
                android:src="@drawable/icon"/>
        </LinearLayout>
        
        <TextView
            style="@style/cell"
            android:text="3x1"/>
    </TableRow>

Redeploy (mvn clean install). You should now see two icons in one cell.

Last, but not least; what if we want the table to stretch across the screen?

Add this to the outside TableLayout:

android:stretchColumns="*"

Redeploy (mvn clean install) and it should now span width.

App Inventor for Android

2010-07-12T07:53:00.000-07:00

How cool is that?

Using the Barcode Scanner

2010-07-10T17:24:00.000-07:00

Let's start with a basic app:

F:\work> mvn archetype:generate -DarchetypeCatalog=http://kallisti.eoti.org:8081/content/repositories/snapshots/archetype-catalog.xml

2: http://kallisti.eoti.org:8081/content/repositories/snapshots/archetype-catalog.xml -> galatea-archetype (null)
Choose a number: : 2
groupId: org.eoti.android.barcode
artifactId: BarcodeTest
version: 1.0-SNAPSHOT
package: org.eoti.android.barcode

F:\work> cd BarcodeTest
F:\work\BarcodeTest> mvn clean install

Now, let's modify it.

Modify your main.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:orientation="vertical"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent"
    >
    <TextView
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:id="@+id/content"
    />
    <TextView
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:id="@+id/format"
    />
</LinearLayout>

Modify your activity:

package org.eoti.android.barcode;

import android.app.Activity;
import android.content.Intent;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.os.Handler;
import android.text.Html;
import android.util.Log;
import android.view.MotionEvent;
import android.view.View;
import android.widget.TextView;

public class BarcodeTestActivity extends Activity
{
    private static String TAG = "BarcodeTest";
    private static final String INTENT_SCAN = "com.google.zxing.client.android.SCAN";
    private static final String SCAN_MODE = "SCAN_MODE";
    private static final String QR_CODE_MODE = "QR_CODE_MODE";
    private static final String SCAN_RESULT = "SCAN_RESULT";
    private static final String SCAN_RESULT_FORMAT = "SCAN_RESULT_FORMAT";
    private static final int REQCODE_SCAN = 0;
    private Handler handler;

    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.main);
        handler = new Handler();
    }

    @Override
    public boolean onTouchEvent(MotionEvent event)
    {
        Intent intent = new Intent(INTENT_SCAN);
        intent.putExtra(SCAN_MODE, QR_CODE_MODE);
        startActivityForResult(intent, REQCODE_SCAN);
        return true;
    }

    @Override
    protected void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent data)
    {
        if(requestCode == REQCODE_SCAN)
        {
            set(R.id.content, "<b>Contents: </b>" + data.getStringExtra(SCAN_RESULT));
            set(R.id.format, "<b>Format: </b>" + data.getStringExtra(SCAN_RESULT_FORMAT));
        }else{
            super.onActivityResult(requestCode, resultCode, data);
        }
    }

    protected void set(final int id, final String text)
    {
        handler.post(new Runnable(){
            public void run() {
                ((TextView)findViewById(id)).setText(Html.fromHtml("<html><body>" + text + "</body></html>"));
            }
        });
    }
}

Unfortunately, we won't be able to test the rest of it in the emulator. You will need an actual device for that.

Install it on your phone (I do it by using a webserver, but you could use adb) and launch it.

When the screen comes up, click the screen. That will launch your Barcode Scanner.

Scan a QR CODE (I scanned this one )

It will go back to your test app.
"Contents" will be the data content (the market url in the above case) and the "Format" will be QR CODE.

Publishing to the Android Market

2010-07-10T10:38:00.000-07:00

I wanted to give publishing a shot, so I made a small tool to browse prime numbers and then started down the publishing notes...

After you finish cleaning up your code (remove debugging logging, etc) and make sure it still works....

Add versioning to your AndroidManifest.xml. I'm hoping that eventually this piece can be replaced with something that reads the pom.xml... but, in the meantime attach these to the top level manifest:

android:versionCode="1"
android:versionName="1.0"

Then let's add a uses-sdk element:

    <uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="7"
          android:targetSdkVersion="8"/>

Update your pom.xml:

<plugin>
                <groupId>com.jayway.maven.plugins.android.generation2</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-android-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>2.5.0</version>
                <configuration>
                    <androidManifestFile>${project.basedir}/src/AndroidManifest.xml</androidManifestFile>
                    <assetsDirectory>${project.basedir}/src/main/assets</assetsDirectory>
                    <resourceDirectory>${project.basedir}/src/main/android/res</resourceDirectory>
                    
                    <nativeLibrariesDirectory>${project.basedir}/src/main/native</nativeLibrariesDirectory>
                    <sdk><platform>7</platform></sdk>
                    <deleteConflictingFiles>true</deleteConflictingFiles>
                    <undeployBeforeDeploy>true</undeployBeforeDeploy>
                    <sign>
                        <debug>false</debug>
                    </sign>
                </configuration>
                <extensions>true</extensions>
                <executions>
                    <execution>
                        <id>android-undeploy</id>
                        <phase>pre-clean</phase>
                        <goals><goal>undeploy</goal></goals>
                    </execution>
                    <execution>
                        <id>alignApk</id>
                        <phase>install</phase>
                        <goals>
                            <goal>zipalign</goal>
                        </goals>
                    </execution>
                    <execution>
                        <id>android-deploy</id>
                        <phase>install</phase>
                        <goals><goal>deploy</goal></goals>
                    </execution>
                </executions>
            </plugin>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-jarsigner-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>1.2</version>
                <executions>
                    <execution>
                        <id>signing</id>
                        <goals>
                            <goal>sign</goal>
                        </goals>
                        <phase>package</phase>
                        <inherited>true</inherited>
                        <configuration>
                            <archiveDirectory></archiveDirectory>
                            <includes>
                                <include>target/*.apk</include>
                            </includes>
                            <keystore>android.keystore</keystore>
                            <storepass>{{YOUR_PASSWORD}}</storepass>
                            <keypass>{{YOUR_PASSWORD}}</keypass>
                            <alias>android</alias>
                        </configuration>
                    </execution>
                </executions>
            </plugin>

Now when you redeploy (mvn clean install) it will also create a target\YOURAPP-1.0-SNAPSHOT-aligned.apk... That will be the one we upload to Google.

Make sure you are registered with the Android Market.

Click on the "Upload Application".

Fill in the form... Here are a few notes/gotchas:

1. If your app's icon is not a 48x48 PNG, it will give you these error messages:

The icon for your application is not valid. Please use a 48x48 PNG.
Market requires versionCode to be set to a positive 32-bit integer in AndroidManifest.xml.
Market requires versionName to be set in AndroidManifest.xml.
Market requires the minSdkVersion to be set to a positive 32-bit integer in AndroidManifest.xml.

Fixing the icon resolves all of these.

2. You can't just browse and hit publish. You have to hit "Upload" on each item. The APK has to be uploaded before you can upload pictures. Make sure to choose the -aligned.apk one.

3. Screenshots vs Promo graphics... Screenshots are the ones that show up on the app description page. Promos are the tiny ones that scroll across the top (ie: Featured Apps). Note the commentary in the side. If you take a picture from the emulator, strip off the skin and resize it as suggested.

4. You can NOT have just 1 screenshot. You can have 0. You can have 2. You can not have 1. Weird, I know.

If you still have your app installed on your phone for testing, uninstall it now.

And for a little fluff....
Go to the QR-Code Generator and specify a market url using the package name (not class name) of your app. For example, for the Prime Browser, I used 'market://details?id=org.eoti.android.primebrowser'. Choose whatever size you want (I did small on mine) and generate a QR Code... as such:

Once you have the QR code, you can put it on your blog (as I did on the left side of this page) or email it, or whatever you like.

The real key is that now you can pull out your phone, scan it with your Barcode Scanner and whala - you can see your app in the market place.

Go ahead and install it. Enjoy =)

Error reporting via email

2010-07-07T10:00:00.000-07:00

Let's start with a basic app:

C:\work> mvn archetype:generate -DarchetypeCatalog=http://kallisti.eoti.org:8081/content/repositories/snapshots/archetype-catalog.xml

2: http://kallisti.eoti.org:8081/content/repositories/snapshots/archetype-catalog.xml -> galatea-archetype (null)
Choose a number: (1/2/3): 2
Confirm properties configuration:
groupId: org.eoti.android.errors
artifactId: ErrorTest
version: 1.0-SNAPSHOT
package: org.eoti.android.errors

C:\work> cd ErrorTest
C:\work\ErrorTest> mvn clean install

Insert this into the end of your onCreate method:
[* NOTE: Make sure to change to your email address if you want to see it actually work ]

        try{
            throw new IOException("This is an error");
        } catch (IOException e) {
            Log.e(TAG, "Standard Error Logging", e);

            // Derived from http://thinkandroid.wordpress.com/2010/01/25/debugging-applications-by-emailing-error-reports/
            StringWriter sw = new StringWriter();
            e.printStackTrace(new PrintWriter(sw));
            final Intent emailIntent = new Intent(android.content.Intent.ACTION_SEND);
            emailIntent.setType("plain/text");
            emailIntent.putExtra(android.content.Intent.EXTRA_EMAIL, new String[]{"malachid@gmail.com"});
            emailIntent.putExtra(android.content.Intent.EXTRA_SUBJECT, "[" + getClass().getSimpleName() + "] ERROR REPORT");
            emailIntent.putExtra(android.content.Intent.EXTRA_TEXT, sw.toString());
            startActivity(Intent.createChooser(emailIntent, "Send error report..."));
        }

Redeploy (mvn clean install).and run it. You should soon have an email show the stack trace.

Ardor3d for Android

2010-07-03T08:55:00.000-07:00

Ardor3d has done an alpha release for Android. Go check it out :) On this box example, I get a solid 60 fps on my NexusOne. I'm only getting about 12 fps on the emulator; but the emulator is always slow.

OTA FRF91

2010-07-03T08:46:00.000-07:00

The other day, I got tired of waiting and manually upgraded my NexusOne to FRF83. This morning I was greeted by an OTA update to FRF91. I have not seen any changes (as of yet) but hear it has to do with GMail security. Personally I am still waiting for the FM Transmit so that I can actually hear the handsfree on the car dock.

Content Provider and Live Folder

2010-07-01T12:24:00.000-07:00

We're going to create a basic ContentProvider example based on this tutorial.

Let's start with a multi-module project:

F:\work> mkdir ProviderTest
F:\work> cd ProviderTest

F:\work\ProviderTest> mvn archetype:generate -DarchetypeCatalog=http://kallisti.eoti.org:8081/content/repositories/snapshots/archetype-catalog.xml
2: http://kallisti.eoti.org:8081/content/repositories/snapshots/archetype-catalog.xml -> galatea-archetype (null)
Confirm properties configuration:
groupId: org.eoti.android.providertest.provider
artifactId: TestProvider
version: 1.0-SNAPSHOT
package: org.eoti.android.providertest.provider

F:\work\ProviderTest> mvn archetype:generate -DarchetypeCatalog=http://kallisti.eoti.org:8081/content/repositories/snapshots/archetype-catalog.xml
2: http://kallisti.eoti.org:8081/content/repositories/snapshots/archetype-catalog.xml -> galatea-archetype (null)
Confirm properties configuration:
groupId: org.eoti.android.providertest.consumer
artifactId: TestConsumer
version: 1.0-SNAPSHOT
package: org.eoti.android.providertest.consumer

F:\work\ProviderTest> mvn archetype:generate -DarchetypeCatalog=http://kallisti.eoti.org:8081/content/repositories/snapshots/archetype-catalog.xml
2: http://kallisti.eoti.org:8081/content/repositories/snapshots/archetype-catalog.xml -> galatea-archetype (null)
Confirm properties configuration:
groupId: org.eoti.android.providertest.generator
artifactId: TestGenerator
version: 1.0-SNAPSHOT
package: org.eoti.android.providertest.generator

Create a top-level pom.xml:

<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
     xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">

    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
    <groupId>org.eoti.android.providertest</groupId>
    <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
    <artifactId>ProviderTest</artifactId>
    <packaging>pom</packaging>
    <name>ProviderTest</name>
    <description>Testing a simple Content Provider and consumer</description>

    <modules>
        <module>TestProvider</module>
        <module>TestConsumer</module>
        <module>TestGenerator</module>
    </modules>
</project>

Open the TestProvider\pom.xml and TestConsumer\pom.xml and add a parent to the pom.xml:

    <parent>
        <groupId>org.eoti.android.providertest</groupId>
        <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
        <artifactId>ProviderTest</artifactId>
    </parent>

F:\work\ProviderTest> mvn clean install

Replace TestProviderActivity.java with TestProvider.java:

package org.eoti.android.providertest.provider;

import android.app.Activity;
import android.content.*;
import android.database.Cursor;
import android.database.SQLException;
import android.database.sqlite.SQLiteDatabase;
import android.database.sqlite.SQLiteOpenHelper;
import android.database.sqlite.SQLiteQueryBuilder;
import android.net.Uri;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.provider.BaseColumns;
import android.provider.LiveFolders;
import android.text.TextUtils;
import android.util.Log;

import java.util.HashMap;

public class TestProvider
extends ContentProvider
{
    // Derived from http://developer.android.com/resources/samples/NotePad/src/com/example/android/notepad/NotePadProvider.html

    public static final String AUTHORITY = "org.eoti.android.providertest";
    private static class Logs implements BaseColumns
    {
        public static final Uri CONTENT_URI = Uri.parse("content://" + AUTHORITY + "/logs");
        public static final String CONTENT_TYPE = "vnd.android.cursor.dir/vnd.eoti.logs";
        public static final String CONTENT_ITEM_TYPE = "vnd.android.cursor.item/vnd.eoti.log";
        public static final String DEFAULT_SORT_ORDER = "modified DESC";
        public static final String LOG = "log";
        public static final String TIMESTAMP = "timestamp";
    }

    private static String TAG = "TestProvider";
    private static final String DATABASE_NAME = "providertest.db";
    private static final int DATABASE_VERSION = 1;
    private static final String TABLE_NAME = "logs";
    private static final int LOGS = 1;
    private static final int LOG_ID = 2;
    private static final int LIVE_FOLDER_LOGS = 3;
    private static HashMap<String, String> logsProjectionMap;
    private static HashMap<String, String> folderProjectionMap;
    private static final UriMatcher uriMatcher;

    private static class DatabaseHelper extends SQLiteOpenHelper
    {
        public DatabaseHelper(Context context) {
            super(context, DATABASE_NAME, null, DATABASE_VERSION);

        }

        @Override
        public void onCreate(SQLiteDatabase db) {
            db.execSQL("CREATE TABLE " + TABLE_NAME + " ("
                + Logs._ID + " INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,"
                + Logs.LOG + " TEXT,"
                + Logs.TIMESTAMP + " INTEGER"
                + ");");
        }

        @Override
        public void onUpgrade(SQLiteDatabase db, int oldVersion, int newVersion) {
            Log.w(TAG, "Upgrading database from version " + oldVersion + " to " + newVersion + ", which will destroy all old data");
            db.execSQL("DROP TABLE IF EXISTS notes");
            onCreate(db);
        }
    }
    private DatabaseHelper dbHelper;


    @Override
    public boolean onCreate() {
        dbHelper = new DatabaseHelper(getContext());
        return true;
    }

    @Override
    public Cursor query(Uri uri, String[] projection, String selection, String[] selectionArgs, String sortOrder) {
        SQLiteQueryBuilder qb = new SQLiteQueryBuilder();
        qb.setTables(TABLE_NAME);

        switch (uriMatcher.match(uri)) {
            case LOGS:
                qb.setProjectionMap(logsProjectionMap);
                break;
            case LOG_ID:
                qb.setProjectionMap(logsProjectionMap);
                qb.appendWhere(Logs._ID + "=" + uri.getPathSegments().get(1));
                break;
            case LIVE_FOLDER_LOGS:
                qb.setProjectionMap(folderProjectionMap);
                break;
            default:
                throw new IllegalArgumentException("Unknown URI " + uri);
        }

        String orderBy = (TextUtils.isEmpty(sortOrder) ? Logs.DEFAULT_SORT_ORDER : sortOrder);

        SQLiteDatabase db = dbHelper.getReadableDatabase();
        Cursor c = qb.query(db, projection, selection, selectionArgs, null, null, orderBy);
        c.setNotificationUri(getContext().getContentResolver(), uri);
        return c;
    }

    @Override
    public String getType(Uri uri) {
        switch (uriMatcher.match(uri)) {
            case LOGS:
            case LIVE_FOLDER_LOGS:
                return Logs.CONTENT_TYPE;
            case LOG_ID:
                return Logs.CONTENT_ITEM_TYPE;
            default:
                throw new IllegalArgumentException("Unknown URI " + uri);
        }
    }

    @Override
    public Uri insert(Uri uri, ContentValues initialValues) {
        if (uriMatcher.match(uri) != LOGS)
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("Unknown URI " + uri);

        ContentValues values = (initialValues == null) ? new ContentValues() : new ContentValues(initialValues);

        if(!values.containsKey(Logs.TIMESTAMP))
            values.put(Logs.TIMESTAMP, System.currentTimeMillis());

        if(!values.containsKey(Logs.LOG))
            values.put(Logs.LOG, "");

        SQLiteDatabase db = dbHelper.getWritableDatabase();
        long rowId = db.insert(TABLE_NAME, Logs.LOG, values);
        if (rowId > 0) {
            Uri noteUri = ContentUris.withAppendedId(Logs.CONTENT_URI, rowId);
            getContext().getContentResolver().notifyChange(noteUri, null);
            return noteUri;
        }

        throw new SQLException("Failed to insert row into " + uri);
    }

    @Override
    public int delete(Uri uri, String where, String[] whereArgs) {
        SQLiteDatabase db = dbHelper.getWritableDatabase();
        int count;
        switch (uriMatcher.match(uri)) {
            case LOGS:
                count = db.delete(TABLE_NAME, where, whereArgs);
                break;
            case LOG_ID:
                String noteId = uri.getPathSegments().get(1);
                count = db.delete(TABLE_NAME, Logs._ID + "=" + noteId + (!TextUtils.isEmpty(where) ? " AND (" + where + ')' : ""), whereArgs);
                break;
            default:
                throw new IllegalArgumentException("Unknown URI " + uri);
        }

        getContext().getContentResolver().notifyChange(uri, null);
        return count;
    }

    @Override
    public int update(Uri uri, ContentValues values, String where, String[] whereArgs) {
        SQLiteDatabase db = dbHelper.getWritableDatabase();
        int count;
        switch (uriMatcher.match(uri)) {
            case LOGS:
                count = db.update(TABLE_NAME, values, where, whereArgs);
                break;
            case LOG_ID:
                String noteId = uri.getPathSegments().get(1);
                count = db.update(TABLE_NAME, values, Logs._ID + "=" + noteId + (!TextUtils.isEmpty(where) ? " AND (" + where + ')' : ""), whereArgs);
                break;
            default:
                throw new IllegalArgumentException("Unknown URI " + uri);
        }

        getContext().getContentResolver().notifyChange(uri, null);
        return count;
    }

    static{
        uriMatcher = new UriMatcher(UriMatcher.NO_MATCH);
        uriMatcher.addURI(AUTHORITY, "logs", LOGS);
        uriMatcher.addURI(AUTHORITY, "logs/#", LOG_ID);
        uriMatcher.addURI(AUTHORITY, "livefolders/logs", LIVE_FOLDER_LOGS);

        logsProjectionMap = new HashMap<String,String>();
        logsProjectionMap.put(Logs._ID, Logs._ID);
        logsProjectionMap.put(Logs.LOG, Logs.LOG);
        logsProjectionMap.put(Logs.TIMESTAMP, Logs.TIMESTAMP);

        folderProjectionMap = new HashMap<String, String>();
        folderProjectionMap.put(LiveFolders._ID, Logs._ID + " AS " + LiveFolders._ID);
        folderProjectionMap.put(LiveFolders.NAME, Logs.LOG + " AS " + LiveFolders.NAME);
    }
}

Change your TestProvider\AndroidManifest.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
          package="org.eoti.android.providertest.provider">
    <application android:icon="@drawable/icon" android:label="@string/app_name">
        <provider android:name="TestProvider" android:authorities="org.eoti.android.providertest"/>
    </application>
</manifest>

Replace TestConsumerActivity.java with TestConsumer.java:

package org.eoti.android.providertest.consumer;

import android.app.Activity;
import android.content.Intent;
import android.net.Uri;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.provider.LiveFolders;

public class TestConsumer extends Activity
{
    public static final String AUTHORITY = "org.eoti.android.providertest";

    private static String TAG = "TestConsumer";
    public static final Uri CONTENT_URI = Uri.parse("content://" + AUTHORITY + "/livefolders/logs");
    public static final Uri LOG_URI = Uri.parse("content://" + AUTHORITY + "/logs/#");

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState)
    {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

        final Intent intent = getIntent();
        final String action = intent.getAction();

        if (LiveFolders.ACTION_CREATE_LIVE_FOLDER.equals(action))
        {
            final Intent liveFolderIntent = new Intent();

            liveFolderIntent.setData(CONTENT_URI);
            liveFolderIntent.putExtra(LiveFolders.EXTRA_LIVE_FOLDER_NAME, getString(R.string.app_name));
            liveFolderIntent.putExtra(LiveFolders.EXTRA_LIVE_FOLDER_ICON, Intent.ShortcutIconResource.fromContext(this, R.drawable.icon));
            liveFolderIntent.putExtra(LiveFolders.EXTRA_LIVE_FOLDER_DISPLAY_MODE, LiveFolders.DISPLAY_MODE_LIST);
            liveFolderIntent.putExtra(LiveFolders.EXTRA_LIVE_FOLDER_BASE_INTENT, new Intent(Intent.ACTION_EDIT, LOG_URI));
            setResult(RESULT_OK, liveFolderIntent);
        } else {
            setResult(RESULT_CANCELED);
        }

        finish();
    }
}

Change your TestConsumer\AndroidManifest.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
          package="org.eoti.android.providertest.consumer">
    <application android:icon="@drawable/icon" android:label="@string/app_name">
        <activity android:name="TestConsumer" android:label="@string/app_name" android:icon="@drawable/icon">
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="android.intent.action.CREATE_LIVE_FOLDER" />
                <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
            </intent-filter>
        </activity>
    </application>
</manifest>

Update your TestGeneratorActivity:

package org.eoti.android.providertest.generator;

import android.app.Activity;
import android.content.ContentResolver;
import android.content.ContentValues;
import android.net.Uri;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.widget.Toast;

import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
import java.util.Date;

public class TestGeneratorActivity extends Activity {
    public static final String AUTHORITY = "org.eoti.android.providertest";
    private static String TAG = "TestGenerator";
    public static final Uri CONTENT_URI = Uri.parse("content://" + AUTHORITY + "/logs");
    private static final SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("HH:mm:ss");
    /**
     * Called when the activity is first created.
     */
    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.main);

        ContentValues values = new ContentValues();
        long time = System.currentTimeMillis();
        values.put("timestamp", time);
        values.put("log", sdf.format(new Date(time)));

        Uri uri = getContentResolver().insert(CONTENT_URI, values);
        Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(), (uri == null) ? " null " : uri.toString(), Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
        finish();
    }
}

Redeploy (mvn clean install). Launch the generator app. Add the live folder to your desktop. Launch it. Run the generator a few more times. Launch the folder again.

Manually installed FroYo

2010-06-27T01:23:00.000-07:00

Ok, I got impatient. I have been checking my System Updates window a few times a day, and still no sign of the update... so I decided to do it manually using these instructions (recapped here):

*Note: These instructions are apparently for the unlocked TMobile version of the NexusOne (which I happen to be using on the AT&T network).

Verify that you are on build ERE27 (under Settings | About Phone)
Download this file as 'update.zip' in the root of your microSD (which I did via the USB connection)
Not sure if it is necessary, but I unplugged the USB for the next few steps
Power off your phone
Hold down the trackball and press/release the power button
When the white screen with skateboarding robots show up, make sure Bootloader is selected (should be already) and hit the power button.
If you try to scroll down (using Volume buttons) the screen may flash to another message for a moment. When it comes back, scroll down to Recovery and hit the power button.
After it reboots, you'll see the exclamation screen.
Press the power and volume up buttons. I found PressPower->Press/Release Volume->Release Power seemed to work
Using the trackball, scroll down and select Apply sdcard:update.zip
It will take awhile, then reboots... then it takes a really long while. Go make a sandwich.
Once it is booted again, verify that FRF50 is installed.
In my case, it immediately started doing a synchronization. If it does, I'd recommend waiting until it finishes.
Delete update.zip from the microSD
Put this file as 'update.zip' in the root of your microSD.
Repeat steps #3 through #10.
This time, after applying the update, you'll have to select the reboot option.
It's going to take awhile. Go check your email.
Once it boots up, verify that FRF83 is installed.
Delete update.zip from the microSD.
Enjoy

Phone ID and Other Useful Tidbits

2010-06-18T07:43:00.000-07:00

Let's start with a basic project:

F:\work> mvn archetype:generate -DarchetypeCatalog=http://kallisti.eoti.org:8081/content/repositories/snapshots/archetype-catalog.xml

2: http://kallisti.eoti.org:8081/content/repositories/snapshots/archetype-catalog.xml -> galatea-archetype (null)
groupId: org.eoti.android.phone
artifactId: PhoneIDTest
version: 1.0-SNAPSHOT
package: org.eoti.android.phone

F:\work> cd PhoneIDTest
F:\work\PhoneIDTest> mvn clean install

Add this to your AndroidManifest.xml:

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_PHONE_STATE"/>

Add this convenience method to your PhoneIDTestActivity:

    private void showMessage(String msg)
    {
        Toast.makeText(this, msg, Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
    }

Insert this into the end of your onCreate method:

        TelephonyManager mgr = (TelephonyManager)getSystemService(Context.TELEPHONY_SERVICE);
        switch(mgr.getPhoneType())
        {
            case TelephonyManager.PHONE_TYPE_CDMA:
                showMessage("CDMA");
                break;
            case TelephonyManager.PHONE_TYPE_GSM:
                showMessage("GSM");
                break;
            case TelephonyManager.PHONE_TYPE_NONE:
                showMessage("NONE");
                break;
            default:
                showMessage("Unknown phone type");
        }

        showMessage("Device ID: " + mgr.getDeviceId());
        showMessage("Version: " + mgr.getDeviceSoftwareVersion());
        showMessage("Number: " + mgr.getLine1Number());
        showMessage("Country: " + mgr.getNetworkOperatorName());
        showMessage("Sim Serial#: " + mgr.getSimSerialNumber());
        showMessage("Subscriber ID: " + mgr.getSubscriberId());
        showMessage("Operator: " + mgr.getSimOperatorName());

Redeploy (mvn clean install) and run the app.