JavaFX on Android build (instructions)

[Sebastian Rheinnecker]

Hi again,

I just wanted to let you know that I solved the issue with the max 
method references in the dex files with using multiple dex files. To 
accomplish this I patched the classes FXActivity and DalvikLauncher to 
dynamically load the second dex file and its classes. I also patched the 
build process so that any application jar can be used for this. If 
anyone runs into the same issue, just contact me.

Kind regards,
Sebastian Rheinnecker

Am 26.11.2013 14:27, schrieb Sebastian Rheinnecker:
> Hi,
>
> I used your instructions with some tweaks to build a JavaFX 
> application for android on Windows. However, it turns out that 
> Android's dex format is putting a spoke into our wheel with the 65k 
> method reference limit. The JavaFX runtime itself already contains 51k 
> method references and because of that I was not yet able to bring our 
> full application showcase to android.
> So if some android expert could contribute to the project by showing 
> how to use multiple dex files, one containing the javafx runtime and 
> one for the application, that would be great. Any help on the mailing 
> list is appreciated as well.
>
> Kind regards,
> Sebastian Rheinnecker
>
> Am 16.11.2013 19:53, schrieb Johan Vos:
>> Hi,
>>
>> Since I (and others) think it is very important that we can have
>> JavaFX applications running on Android (and IOS, but in this mail I
>> limit myself to Android), I created a bitbucket project containing
>> code and build instructions to run JavaFX applications on Android.
>>
>> I didn't do much myself. Rather, this project is about providing easy
>> and consistent build instructions. I combined information from this
>> mailinglist with information I could find online, and with help from
>> the JavaFX team.
>>
>> The project is here: https://bitbucket.org/johanvos/jfx78
>>
>> After I gathered the information, it didn't cost me much time to get
>> HelloWorld running on my Samsung S3 mini. I never wrote an Android
>> project before, and I never used the Android SDK or NDK before I
>> started with this thing almost a week ago. Hence, it is not that hard
>> to create a JavaFX application on Android.
>>
>> This project is far from finished. There are a number of things that
>> have to be done:
>> * Improve build instructions
>> * Simplify build
>> * Fix bugs (e.g. touch-events are not processed yet)
>> * Manage the synchronization with the main JavaFX repo
>> * create plugins for IDE's or maven to automatically build the 
>> Android packages
>>
>> I want to open this project at this early stage, though, since I think
>> it is important to have more community input. Also, I want to give a
>> shout to the world that JavaFX on Android is not a dream.
>>
>> I hope many of you try out the instructions, improve them, correct
>> them, and test your applications on Android.
>>
>> Thanks a lot to all the people on this mailinglist for telling how
>> they were dealing with JavaFX on Android. Again, I didn't write much
>> code, but rather tried to combine the information and make it useful
>> for everybody.
>>
>> I know there is an intense debate about the role of Oracle on the
>> Android (and IOS) ports. Let me close with a similar situation. About
>> 17 years ago (sigh, time flies), I was involved with the port of Java
>> to Linux, as part of the Blackdown team. Initially, we didn't get much
>> help from Sun Microsystems (it was even not easy to get the latest
>> code). But once we showed that we could run the thing on Linux, and
>> that many developers were interested in it, Sun started to add
>> resources on this as well. Eventually, we became obsolete. I hope to
>> reach the obsolete stage on this project as well.
>>
>> Again, the project can be found 
>> here:https://bitbucket.org/johanvos/jfx78
>>
>> - Johan
>
>


-- 
Sebastian Rheinnecker
phone: +49 7071 9709050
fax: +49 7071 9709051

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