mapbox-gl-native
Installing the Mapbox Android SDK on OS X
Install Oracle JDK 7+ and Android Studio:
brew tap caskroom/cask
brew install brew-cask
brew cask install java
brew cask install android-studio
You can download Android Studio instead of installing it with Homebrew, but you’ll still need to brew install java
for it to work.
Once Android Studio is installed, the first time it’s run it’ll ask to install the Android SDK which you should do. While doing so in the Android SDK Manager make sure to also select and install the latest versions of “Android Support Repository” and “Android Support Library” from “Extras”:
By default, the Android SDK will be installed to /Users/<user>/Library/Android/sdk/. For more information on how to configure Android Studio and how to set Project JDK vs IDE JDK please see Google’s documentation.
Setting Mapbox Access Token
The test application (used for development purposes) uses Mapbox vector tiles, which require a Mapbox account and API access token. Obtain a free access token on the Mapbox account page.
If you start Android Studio from your terminal, gradle will take the value of the MAPBOX_ACCESS_TOKEN environment variable and save it to MapboxGLAndroidSDKTestApp/src/main/res/values/developer-config.xml where the app will read it from. Otherwise,
you can edit developer-config.xml and add the value manually.
Developing In Android Studio
To work with the Mapbox Android SDK, you’ll first need to get it set up as a Project in Android Studio. To do so Open Android Studio and select “Import project (Eclipse ADT, Gradle, etc.)” from the Welcome to Android Studio dialog. From there select the platform/android directory from the local file system where mapbox-gl-native was cloned. For example:
/Users/<user>/development/mapbox-gl-native/platform/android
The Mapbox Android SDK is a multi-module Gradle based project. Specifically, the SDK itself is an Android Library module and it utilizes a companion test module (aka “the TestApp”) for daily development. When Android Studio finishes importing the project both MapboxGLAndroidSDK and MapboxGLAndroidSDKTestApp modules should be visible.
Setting ANDROID_HOME
For build android to work, you’ll need to set the ANDROID_HOME environment
to point to your Android SDK installation:
export ANDROID_HOME=/<installation location>/android-sdk-macosx
This environment variable configuration should go into a file that’s read on
your shell’s startup, like ~/.profile.
Running The TestApp
In order to run the TestApp on an emulator or device the Core GL portion needs to built first. Core GL is the common C++ based OpenGL engine that powers the maps for iOS, Android, and Qt in the project. To build it, open Terminal and run the following commands from the root of the mapbox-gl-native source code
Run:
// From /Users/<user>/development/mapbox-gl-native
// Makes arm7 ABI version of Core GL
// Can be run on most Android phones and arm emulator
make android
// Make x86 version of Core GL
// Useful for running faster Anroid x86 emulator on Macs
make android-lib-x86
Once Core GL has been built, the TestApp can be run by selecting MapboxGLAndroidSDKTestApp from the Run menu or toolbar in Android Studio.
Next: get your app running on a hardware Android Device or simulator