docs/html/guide/developing/projects/projects-cmdline.jd

page.title=Creating and Managing Projects on the Command Line
@jd:body

  <div id="qv-wrapper">
    <div id="qv">
      <h2>In this document</h2>

      <ol>
        <li><a href="#CreatingAProject">Creating an Android Project</a></li>

        <li><a href="#UpdatingAProject">Updating a Project</a></li>

        <li><a href="#SettingUpLibraryProject">Setting up a Library Project</a></li>

        <li><a href="#ReferencingLibraryProject">Referencing a Library Project from an
        Application</a></li>
      </ol>

      <h2>See also</h2>

      <ol>
        <li><a href=
        "{@docRoot}guide/developing/testing/testing_otheride.html#CreateTestProjectCommand">Testing
        in Other IDEs</a></li>
      </ol>
    </div>
  </div>

  <p>The <code>android</code> tool provides you with commands to create all three types of
  projects. An Android project contains all of the files and resources that are needed to build a
  project into an .apk file for installation. 
  
  <ul>
    <li>An Android project contains all of the files and resources that are needed to build a project into
  an .apk file for installation. You need to create an Android project for any application that you
  want to eventually install on a device.</li>

  <li>You can also designate an Android project as a library project, which allows it to be shared
  with other projects that depend on it. Once an Android project is designated as a library
  project, it cannot be installed onto a device.</li>

  <li>Test projects extend JUnit test functionality to include Android specific functionality. For
  more information on creating a test project, see <a href=
  "{@docRoot}guide/developing/testing/testing_otheride.html">Testing in other IDEs</a>.</li>
  </ul>


  <h2 id="CreatingAProject">Creating an Android Project</h2>

  <p>To create an Android project, you must use the <code>android</code> tool. When you create a
  new project with <code>android</code>, it will generate a project directory with some default
  application files, stub files, configuration files and a build file.</p>

  <p>To create a new Android project, open a command-line, navigate to the <code>tools/</code>
  directory of your SDK and run:</p>
  <pre>
android create project \
--target &lt;target_ID&gt; \
--name &lt;your_project_name&gt; \
--path path/to/your/project \
--activity &lt;your_activity_name&gt; \
--package &lt;your_package_namespace&gt;
</pre>

  <ul>
    <li><code>target</code> is the "build target" for your application. It corresponds to an
    Android platform library (including any add-ons, such as Google APIs) that you would like to
    build your project against. To see a list of available targets and their corresponding IDs,
    execute: <code>android list targets</code>.</li>

    <li><code>name</code> is the name for your project. This is optional. If provided, this name
    will be used for your .apk filename when you build your application.</li>

    <li><code>path</code> is the location of your project directory. If the directory does not
    exist, it will be created for you.</li>

    <li><code>activity</code> is the name for your default {@link android.app.Activity} class. This
    class file will be created for you inside
    <code><em>&lt;path_to_your_project&gt;</em>/src/<em>&lt;your_package_namespace_path&gt;</em>/</code>
    . This will also be used for your .apk filename unless you provide a <code>name</code>.</li>

    <li><code>package</code> is the package namespace for your project, following the same rules as
    for packages in the Java programming language.</li>
  </ul>

  <p>Here's an example:</p>
  <pre>
android create project \
--target 1 \
--name MyAndroidApp \
--path ./MyAndroidAppProject \
--activity MyAndroidAppActivity \
--package com.example.myandroid
</pre>

  <p>Once you've created your project, you're ready to begin development. You can move your project
  folder wherever you want for development, but keep in mind that you must use the <a href=
  "{@docRoot}guide/developing/tools/adb.html">Android Debug Bridge</a> (adb) &mdash; located in the
  SDK <code>platform-tools/</code> directory &mdash; to send your application to the emulator (discussed
  later). So you need access between your project solution and the <code>platform-tools/</code> folder.</p>
 
  <p class="note"><strong>Tip:</strong> Add the <code>platform-tools/</code> as well as the <code>tools/</code> directory
  to your <code>PATH</code> environment variable.</p>
  
  <p class="caution"><strong>Caution:</strong> You should refrain from moving the location of the
  SDK directory, because this will break the build scripts. (They will need to be manually updated
  to reflect the new SDK location before they will work again.)</p>

  <h2 id="UpdatingAProject">Updating a project</h2>

  <p>If you're upgrading a project from an older version of the Android SDK or want to create a new
  project from existing code, use the <code>android update project</code> command to update the
  project to the new development environment. You can also use this command to revise the build
  target of an existing project (with the <code>--target</code> option) and the project name (with
  the <code>--name</code> option). The <code>android</code> tool will generate any files and
  folders (listed in the previous section) that are either missing or need to be updated, as needed
  for the Android project.</p>

  <p>To update an existing Android project, open a command-line and navigate to the
  <code>tools/</code> directory of your SDK. Now run:</p>
  <pre>
android update project --name &lt;project_name&gt; --target &lt;target_ID&gt;
--path &lt;path_to_your_project&gt;
</pre>

  <ul>
    <li><code>target</code> is the "build target" for your application. It corresponds to an
    Android platform library (including any add-ons, such as Google APIs) that you would like to
    build your project against. To see a list of available targets and their corresponding IDs,
    execute: <code>android list targets</code>.</li>

    <li><code>path</code> is the location of your project directory.</li>

    <li><code>name</code> is the name for the project. This is optional&mdash;if you're not
    changing the project name, you don't need this.</li>
  </ul>

  <p>Here's an example:</p>
  <pre>
android update project --name MyApp --target 2 --path ./MyAppProject
</pre>

  <h2 id="SettingUpLibraryProject">Setting up a library project</h2>

  <p>A library project is a standard Android project, so you can create a new one in the same way
  as you would a new application project. Specifically, you can use the <code>android</code> tool
  to generate a new library project with all of the necessary files and folders.</p>

  <p>To create a new library project, navigate to the <code>&lt;sdk&gt;/tools/</code> directory and
  use this command:</p>
  <pre class="no-pretty-print">
android create lib-project --name &lt;your_project_name&gt; \
--target &lt;target_ID&gt; \
--path path/to/your/project \
--package &lt;your_library_package_namespace&gt;
</pre>

  <p>The <code>create lib-project</code> command creates a standard project structure that includes
  preset property that indicates to the build system that the project is a library. It does this by
  adding this line to the project's <code>default.properties</code> file:</p>
  <pre class="no-pretty-print">
android.library=true
</pre>

  <p>Once the command completes, the library project is created and you can begin moving source
  code and resources into it, as described in the sections below.</p>

  <p>If you want to convert an existing application project to a library project, so that other
  applications can use it, you can do so by adding a the <code>android.library=true</code> property
  to the application's <code>default.properties</code> file.</p>

  <h4>Creating the manifest file</h4>

  <p>A library project's manifest file must declare all of the shared components that it includes,
  just as would a standard Android application. For more information, see the documentation for
  <a href="{@docRoot}guide/topics/manifest/manifest-intro.html">AndroidManifest.xml</a>.</p>

  <p>For example, the <a href=
  "{@docRoot}resources/samples/TicTacToeLib/AndroidManifest.html">TicTacToeLib</a> example library
  project declares the Activity <code>GameActivity</code>:</p>
  <pre>
&lt;manifest&gt;
  ...
  &lt;application&gt;
    ...
    &lt;activity android:name="GameActivity" /&gt;
    ...
  &lt;/application&gt;
&lt;/manifest&gt;
</pre>

  <h4>Updating a library project</h4>

  <p>If you want to update the build properties (build target, location) of the library project,
  use this command:</p>
  <pre>
android update lib-project \
--target <em>&lt;target_ID&gt;</em> \
--path <em>path/to/your/project</em>
</pre>

  <h2 id="ReferencingLibraryProject">Referencing a Library Project</h2>

  <p>If you are developing an application and want to include the shared code or resources from a
  library project, you can do so easily by adding a reference to the library project in the
  application project's build properties.</p>

  <p>To add a reference to a library project, navigate to the <code>&lt;sdk&gt;/tools/</code>
  directory and use this command:</p>
  <pre>
android update lib-project \
--target <em>&lt;target_ID&gt;</em> \
--path <em>path/to/your/project</em>
--library <em>path/to/library_projectA</em>
</pre>

  <p>This command updates the application project's build properties to include a reference to the
  library project. Specifically, it adds an <code>android.library.reference.<em>n</em></code>
  property to the project's <code>default.properties</code> file. For example:</p>
  <pre class="no-pretty-print">
android.library.reference.1=path/to/library_projectA
</pre>

  <p>If you are adding references to multiple libraries, note that you can set their relative
  priority (and merge order) by manually editing the <code>default.properties</code> file and
  adjusting the each reference's <code>.<em>n</em></code> index as appropriate. For example, assume
  these references:</p>
  <pre class="no-pretty-print">
android.library.reference.1=path/to/library_projectA
android.library.reference.2=path/to/library_projectB
android.library.reference.3=path/to/library_projectC
</pre>

  <p>You can reorder the references to give highest priority to <code>library_projectC</code> in
  this way:</p>
  <pre class="no-pretty-print">
android.library.reference.2=path/to/library_projectA
android.library.reference.3=path/to/library_projectB
android.library.reference.1=path/to/library_projectC
</pre>

  <p>Note that the <code>.<em>n</em></code> index in the references must begin at "1" and increase
  uniformly without "holes". References appearing in the index after a hole are ignored.</p>

  <p>At build time, the libraries are merged with the application one at a time, starting from the
  lowest priority to the highest. Note that a library cannot itself reference another library and
  that, at build time, libraries are not merged with each other before being merged with the
  application.</p>

  <h3>Declaring library components in the the manifest file</h3>

  <p>In the manifest file of the application project, you must add declarations of all components
  that the application will use that are imported from a library project. For example, you must
  declare any <code>&lt;activity&gt;</code>, <code>&lt;service&gt;</code>,
  <code>&lt;receiver&gt;</code>, <code>&lt;provider&gt;</code>, and so on, as well as
  <code>&lt;permission&gt;</code>, <code>&lt;uses-library&gt;</code>, and similar elements.</p>

  <p>Declarations should reference the library components by their fully-qualified package names,
  where appropriate.</p>

  <p>For example, the <a href=
  "{@docRoot}resources/samples/TicTacToeMain/AndroidManifest.html">TicTacToeMain</a> example
  application declares the library Activity <code>GameActivity</code> like this:</p>
  <pre>
&lt;manifest&gt;
  ...
  &lt;application&gt;
    ...
    &lt;activity android:name="com.example.android.tictactoe.library.GameActivity" /&gt;
    ...
  &lt;/application&gt;
&lt;/manifest&gt;
</pre>

  <p>For more information about the manifest file, see the documentation for
  <a href="{@docRoot}guide/topics/manifest/manifest-intro.html">AndroidManifest.xml</a>.</p>

  <h3 id="depAppBuild">Building a dependent application</h3>

  <p>To build an application project that depends on one or more library projects, you can use the
  standard Ant build commands and compile modes, as described in <a href=
  "{@docRoot}guide/developing/building/index.html">Building Your Application</a>, earlier in this
  document. The tools compile and merge all libraries referenced by the application as part of
  compiling the dependent application project. No additional commands or steps are necessary.</p>