/************************************************************************** ** ** Copyright (c) 2013 Digia Plc and/or its subsidiary(-ies). ** Contact: http://www.qt-project.org/legal ** ** This file is part of Qt Creator ** ** ** GNU Free Documentation License ** ** Alternatively, this file may be used under the terms of the GNU Free ** Documentation License version 1.3 as published by the Free Software ** Foundation and appearing in the file included in the packaging of this ** file. ** ** **************************************************************************/ /*! \contentspage index.html \previouspage creator-deployment.html \page creator-deploying-android.html \nextpage creator-deployment-bb10.html \title Deploying Applications to Android Devices When you select a \gui {Qt for Android Kit} for a project, \QC creates and maintains a set of files that are required to make your application run on Android devices. \QC adds the following files to your project: \list \li Java files, which serve as the entry point into your application and that automatically load Qt and execute the native code in your application. \li AndroidManifest.xml, which provides meta-information about your application. \li Other XML files, which specify the dependencies of your application. \li Resource files. \li Libraries and QML files, which can be included in the project depending on the deployment method that you select. \endlist \QC adds the files to the project to a subdirectory called \c android. The contents of the \c android folder are used to create a distributable application package. \QC supports the following methods of deployment for Android applications: \list \li As a stand-alone, distributable application package (APK). \li As a minimal APK that contains a dependency to the Ministro tool. The Ministro tool downloads the necessary Qt libraries from a repository of your choice. \li As an incomplete APK that is suitable for testing and debugging applications on a device connected to the development host. The APK relies on the device containing the Qt libraries in the correct location. \QC copies the libraries to that location the first time you deploy the application. \endlist The default option depends on whether you are developing with Qt 4 or Qt 5. The Necessitas SDK does not support bundling Qt libraries with applications, so you must use Ministro when developing with Qt 4. \section1 Specifying Settings for Application Packages On Android, applications are distributed in packages called APK. \QC creates the APK for you. If you want to do this manually, you must first make sure that the appropriate packaging and build files are in place. \QC places the files in the \c android subfolder of the project. \include android/creator-projects-settings-run-android.qdocinc \section1 Deploying Application Packages To specify settings for deploying applications to Android devices, select \gui Projects > \gui Run > \gui {Deploy configurations} > \gui Details. \image qtcreator-deploy-android.png "Deploy configurations" To copy Qt libraries and files to the project directory and to bundle them as part of the APK, select the \gui {Use Qt libraries from device} option and the \gui {Use local Qt libraries} check box. This is the default option when developing with Qt 5. \section1 Using Ministro to Install Qt Libraries To minimize the size of your APK, you can package the application with an external dependency called Ministro. If a user downloads your application, and it is the first application on their device to depend on Ministro, they are asked to install Ministro before they can run your application. Ministro serves as a central repository for Qt libraries. This enables several applications to share the libraries, which only need to be installed once. To use this deployment method, you must set up a repository for the libraries that you want to distribute. To specify the repository URL, edit the file \c {android/res/values/libs.xml}, which is created by \QC. To use Ministro to install the Qt libraries, select the \gui {Use Qt libraries from device} option (without any other options). This is the default option when developing with Qt 4. \section1 Deploying Qt Libraries for Debugging To test your application on a device that is physically connected to the development host (or on an emulator), you can copy the Qt libraries into a temporary directory on your device and run the application against them. An APK built in this way is not distributable, since it relies on the device containing the Qt libraries in the correct location. However, as the Qt libraries are only copied into the device once, this method provides a fast turn-around time, and is therefore convenient for testing the application during development. Select \gui Projects > \gui Run > \gui {Deploy configurations} > \gui Details, and then select the \gui {Deploy local Qt libraries} option and the \gui {Use local Qt libraries} check box to deploy Qt libraries to the \c{/data/local/tmp/qt} folder on the device and to run the application against them. \section1 Installing Ministro The easiest way to install Ministro is to do it on the device via Google Play. When you run the application for the first time, a dialog pops up and guides you through the installation. To use \QC to install Ministro, you must first download the Ministro .apk from the Google Market or from the \l{http://necessitas.kde.org/necessitas/ministro.php}{Ministro} home page. Then select the \gui {Install Ministro, system-wide Qt shared libraries installer} option in \gui Projects > \gui Run > \gui {Deploy configurations} > \gui Details. You can use this option also to install any Android package (.apk). You can use this option to install applications on an Android Virtual Device (AVD). */