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Can somebody tell me if there is a simple way to build system apps for Android?

Since ICS 4.0.3 is out and open source, severals alternative launchers start rolling out like Trebuchet or Nova Launcher. It's obviously based on the system launcher and I wonder how they did this.

If you clone the launcher:

git clone https://android.googlesource.com/platform/packages/apps/Launcher2.git

and try to open it in Eclipse, it won't work because it use some classes and variable not present in the SDK, only present in the entire framework.

Is there a way to build or get it and add it into Eclipse (like android.jar for the SDK) and build the Launcher using eclipse? If no, can somebody indicates me a good tutorial to do this usong command line?

Willi Mentzel
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vieux
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  • I think only linux and mac can download the whole source which OS you are using . http://source.android.com/source/downloading.html – Padma Kumar Dec 29 '11 at 10:28
  • I've got limited experience with 3rd party soft keyboards on Android. The one I tinkered with was based on AOSP code too. Keyboard code as it comes from AOSP wouldn't build as normal Eclipse project, because it accesses internal APIs. So the 3rd party keyboard had these APIs copied/reimplemented too, and I imagine that's what the various Launcher apps do too. – Pēteris Caune Dec 29 '11 at 10:31
  • The sample app "HOME" provided in the sdk seems to work fine do check out if you think thats all you wanted – Lalith B Feb 01 '13 at 04:04

3 Answers3

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Is there a way to build or get it and add it into Eclipse (like android.jar for the SDK) and build the Launcher using eclipse ?

No.

If no, can somebody indicates me a good tutorial to do this usong command line ?

You cannot do that from the command line, either.

To convert an AOSP application into a standalone SDK application, you will need to find all the "classes and variable not present in the SDK" and remove/replace the references to them. The simplest is to remove the references to them, if the app will still run with reduced functionality. For references to internal resources, you can simply copy those to your project and modify the R values to point to your local copy. You are welcome to examine the "classes and variable not present in the SDK" and determine that you can copy those as well (refactoring them into a new package), in which case you would update your project to refer to the copied and refactored classes.

CommonsWare
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  • Could you please give me an advice on this question? http://stackoverflow.com/q/34171505/3020568 – Deniz Dec 09 '15 at 08:27
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See here: http://devmaze.wordpress.com/2011/01/18/using-com-android-internal-part-1-introduction/

It shows you how to restore all the classes into android.jar

Radu C
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The theory that we need to root our devices in order to copy or install an application as a System application has been overcome.There are some applications on the internet(not on the play store) that act as spy applications that can install themselves inside System/app. We can do this but need permissions from Google directly(that is what I understood actually after referring to several forums).

rskdoubts
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