JavaFX 8u40 EA for Android

[Johan Vos]

Hi Danno,

Is it possible to execute a gradle script as part of the (external)
bundler? We have a rather simple build.gradle file that uses the android
plugin and that has almost no metadata (if your application uses external
libraries, they have to be added in the dependency section). I added the
structure of the simple HelloAndroid demo in attachment.

The reason I want to use this gradle script is that it leverages the
android plugin which does all the work (convert to dex, build packages
etc). We used to do this with an ant build, but that is much more complex.

Before I write down the details, it would be nice to hear if this is
possible with the current hooks in the packager:
1. create a build.gradle file based on a template and on some metadata (the
application jar and external dependencies)
2. also create a AndroidManifest.xml file based on a template and some more
metadata (the name of the application, optionally the minimal android
version that is required, an icon,...)
3. download the android SDK and JavaFX-Dalvik SDK in case the user doesn't
have this yet. The locations of those 2 files are used by the build.gradle
file in step 1
4. run the gradle command to execute the gradle script. There are different
commands for creating packages (debug/release) and/or for installing them
on a device (to test).

If this approach is not feasable, I will try to break down the
functionality of the Android plugin into a number of steps.

Thanks,

- Johan



2014-11-26 20:02 GMT+01:00 Danno Ferrin <danno.ferrin at oracle.com>:

>
> On Nov 26, 2014, at 11:11 AM, Johan Vos <johan at lodgon.com> wrote:
>
> > Hi,
> >
> > Earlier today, I uploaded an early access build of the JavaFX 8u40 SDK
> for
> > Android (Dalvik). See
> >
> https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/javafxandroid/hOYMtMhl3HQ/GjwM-YPbUzQJ
> > for the announcement.
> >
> > The source code for this build is in
> > https://bitbucket.org/javafxports/8u40-rt and that repository started
> as a
> > mirror of the OpenJFX 8udev at November 15 (so we're not behind too
> much).
> > It is my intention to go over all changes that I had to apply, and to
> > propose them as patches for OpenJFX. However, I took some shortcuts in a
> > few issues that would pollute the OpenJFX tree, hence I need some time to
> > cleanup first.
> >
> > Apart from support for 8u40, the 2 major things in this EA release are:
> >
> > 1) we are now using Monocle instead of Lens. That is, we use the Monocle
> > Glass implementation, but still use the Prism eglfb implementation. Long
> > story on why this is the case, but eventually we will use monocle there
> as
> > well.
> >
> > 2) we have now support for the android gradle plugin. As a consequence, a
> > JavaFX project with a single build.gradle file can be used to generate an
> > Android Package and install it on a device.
> > This will make life of developers much easier.
> >
> > I think there are 2 more things that are needed in order to lower the
> > barrier for developers:
> > 1) IDE integration. With the single build.gradle file, this should be
> > possible, but I have zero experience in developing plugins.
> > 2) java(fx)packager integration. It would be so nice if we could just
> build
> > Android packages using the Java Packager. Would this be an option?
> >
> > - Johan
>
> This is (now) possible.  I don't think it would be distributed with the
> Oracle JDK but I put the hooks in for 8u20 to allow external bundlers to be
> used by the bundling engine.  so it can be distributed as a library to be
> used by the plugin.
>
> What I need is a list of instructions on what to do, including software
> that is assumed to be installed.  If the instructions would start from the
> user providing a set of jars for a JavaFX desktop application, and
> enumerating what metadata beyond that needs to be provided I could automate
> the rest.