Altova MobileTogether Designer

When you complete the wizard, MobileTogether Designer creates an Android Studio project. You can use Android Studio to build this project into an Android app (which is a .apk file).

The Android Studio project

The Android Studio project is created in the directory you selected as the program code's destination folder (in Screen 6 of the Generate Program Code Wizard).

Given below are the locations of key project files. These files do not need to be changed before they are compiled in Android Studio. But you can customize their content should the need arise.

app\src\main\AndroidManifest.xml

This is the Android manifest. It contains app-related information—such as package name and app version—that you entered in the Generate Program Code Wizard.

app\src\main\java\<package-name>\MainActivity.java
app\src\main\java\<package-name>\<binary-name>.java

The values of <package-name> and <binary-name> are taken from the values you entered in Screen 6 and Screen 1, respectively, of the Generate Program Code Wizard.

The directory app\src\main\res\ contains resource files for the app icon, splashscreens, and miscellaneous resource strings. The app icon is available in various sizes in the appropriate subdirectories. The various sizes are created automatically by MobileTogether Designer from the icon file you specify in Screen 2 of the Generate Program Code Wizard.

Building the Android app

The app will be built with Android Studio. The steps described here apply to Android Studio 3.3, which is the version that is current at the time of writing (2019).

Open the project (the target directory) in Android Studio. The build will start automatically, and the result is shown in the Gradle Console. During the build process, you might receive the message: AAPT err […] libpng warning: iCCP: Not recognizing known sRGB profile that has been edited. This can be safely ignored. The APK file is not created immediately. You must run the app in order to create the APK file.

Running and debugging the app

When the build is complete, the app can be run by issuing one of the following Android Studio commands: Run <app> or Debug <app>. The APK file is created in: app\build\outputs\apk\debug\<app>-debug.apk.

Releasing the Android app

In order to publish the app, you will need to create a signed APK. Do this as follows:

1.In Android Studio, issue the command Build | Generate Signed APK. This starts the Generate Signed APK Wizard.

2.Type in the keystore path. You might need to create a new keystore first.

3.Go through the wizard's screens and fill in the information that is required.

4.Click Finish to start generating the signed APK.

The signed APK file will be placed in: app\release\<app>-release.apk. (If Debug was selected, the app will be placed in app\debug\<app>-debug.apk.)