Android Studio and Google Maps v2

Many of Android developers are struggling with Android Studio and Google Maps Android API v2 (or Google Play Services library in general). Well, there should be no problem when you import the project from Eclipse or from InteliJ IDEA. But try to create a new project – you will see nothing but errors.

I don’t like problems. I don’t like when I can’t progress because of problems. Noone does. That’s why I decided to solve the problem and I succeeded. I will show you how. We need:

– Android Studio
– API 17 installed
– Google Play Services installed
– Android Support Library installed (we will make the solution work with Android 2.3.3 – API 9)

Let’s run Android Studio and create a new project. You can call it as you want – doesn’t matter. I have called my – MapStudio. Minimum SDK set to API 9 (Gingerbread 2.3.3), Target and Compile SDK set to API 17 (if your project requires other values just set them – it should work). This tutorial assumes that you created empty project with blank activity. After you click Finish you should see following project structure:

This is standard structure of Android project using Gradle build system.

To use Maps API v2 we need to include Google Play Services library into the project. To do that with current version of Android Studio (0.1.3) we need to do some magic. Android Studio is not finished project yet. It is quite usable but it misses many features. One of them is UI for Gradle configuration. Any changes you make using F4 shortcut (Module Settings) won’t affect Gradle build system. To properly configure Android Studio project we have to do it manually. Fortunately we don’t have to do all the necessary job. The IDE will help us a little, we just need to know how to make it to help us. And the recipe is following.

Let’s create New Module, this time it should be Library Module. To do this we need to select New Module… item from File menu. On the first dialog please select Android Library from the list and press Next. Now we have to provide some data. Set the Application name and Module name to GooglePlayServices (or anything you want). Next one is very important and has to be set exactly as I say. Set the Package name to com.google.android.gms. I have set SDK values to exactly the same as I set for my MapStudio application. Then I have unchecked Create custom launcher icon and Create activity options – we don’t need them in this library project. Now we can finish. You probably get the error message like below but do not be afraid:

Click OK. Now your project structure should look like following:

Please remove android-support-v4.jar from libs folder in you library project (GooglePlayServices). The file has been added by new module wizard by default but we don’t need it here. Libs folder in GooglePlayServices library project should contain only two files like on the image below:

Opposite to that, libs folder in your application project should contain only android-support-v4.jar file.

Now we have project structure ready. We just need to populate our module with appropriate sources. We have to copy res folder located in <SDK location>/google/google_play_services/libproject/google-play-services_lib into MapStudioProject/GooglePlayServices/src/main. You will find res folder already there. Remove it before you copy the one from google-play-services_lib. Then copy AndroidManifest.xml file from <SDK location>/google/google_play_services/libproject/google-play-services_lib into MapStudioProject/GooglePlayServices/src/main (yes, the same location as before 🙂 ).

Now we have to face another part. We have to modify some source files. First let’s modify AndroidManifest.xml file located in MapStudioProject/MapStudio/src/main folder. All the necessary settings are described here.

When you have all the necessary manifest file settings done, let’s include the Map control into our layout file. Open layout XML definition file in text editor. If you have used default settings when creating project the file will be called activity_main.xml. Replace all the text in the file with following (taken from Android Developer tutorials and modified to handle Android 2.3 – MapFragment replaced with SupportMapFragment):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<fragment xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
          android:id="@+id/map"
          android:layout_width="match_parent"
          android:layout_height="match_parent"
          android:name="com.google.android.gms.maps.SupportMapFragment"/>

Now there is another very important part – Gradle configuration. To properly configure Gradle we HAVE TO understand how the configuration looks under Eclipse or InteliJ IDEA. In short words we have two projects/modules. One of them is our application which uses Compatibility Library and wants to use Google Play Services to handle Maps API v2. Another project/module is Google Play Services library itself. It contain some dummy source file as it has all the API included in JAR file in libs folder. So we may say that Google Play Services project/module depends on google-play-services.jar library. And that’s all. If we understand that we can do everything using Gradle without a problem! So let’s do it!

First let’s open build.gradle file which exists in our library project (GooglePlayServices). Add following dependency:

compile files('libs/google-play-services.jar')

Your file should look like the one below.

buildscript {
    repositories {
        maven { url 'http://repo1.maven.org/maven2' }
    }
    dependencies {
        classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:0.4'
    }
}

apply plugin: 'android-library'

dependencies {
    compile files('libs/google-play-services.jar')
}

android {
    compileSdkVersion 17
    buildToolsVersion "17.0.0"

    defaultConfig {
        minSdkVersion 9
        targetSdkVersion 17
    }
}

Now let’s open build.gradle file included in our application folder. Modify it using following dependencies:

compile files('libs/android-support-v4.jar')
compile project(':GooglePlayServices')

The file should look like the one below:

buildscript {
    repositories {
        maven { url 'http://repo1.maven.org/maven2' }
    }
    dependencies {
        classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:0.4'
    }
}

apply plugin: 'android'

dependencies {
    compile files('libs/android-support-v4.jar')
    compile project(':GooglePlayServices')
}

android {
    compileSdkVersion 17
    buildToolsVersion "17.0.0"

    defaultConfig {
        minSdkVersion 9
        targetSdkVersion 17
    }
}

Now please check if your settings.gradle file contains following line (if not, make it to have it):

include ':MyMaps', ':GooglePlayServices'

If you did everything correctly the project now should compile and run without problems.