Migrating an Android project with Gradle

Migrate your Android application with MobileFirst SDK using Gradle.

Before you begin

Ensure that your Android Studio and the Android SDK are set up properly. For more information about how to set up your system, see Android Studio Overview. Your project must conform to the Android Studio/Gradle setup and compile without errors before you upgrade to IBM MobileFirst™ Platform Foundation.

Note: This task assumes that the Android project is created with Android Studio and that the MobileFirst SDK is added with as described in Adding the IBM MobileFirst Platform Foundation SDK to a new or existing application with Android Studio (7.1). If you need to create a new project, see Methods of setting up your environment instead.

About this task

If your Android Studio project was set up to add a previous version of MobileFirst SDK, remove the compile group from the build.gradle dependencies enclosure. For example, if you are upgrading from 7.1, remove this group:

compile group: 'com.ibm.mobile.foundation', 
            name:'ibmmobilefirstplatformfoundation', 
            version:'7.1.0.0', 
            ext: 'aar', 
            transitive: true

You can now add the V8.0.0 SDK and configuration, by using local or remote SDK files. See Setting up Android Studio projects with Gradle.

Note: After you import the new SDK, you need to import the Javadoc files manually. See Registering Javadocs to an Android Studio Gradle project.

Results

You can now start developing your native Android application with the MobileFirst SDK. You might need to adapt your code to changes in the V8.0.0 API (see Updating the Android code).

What to do next

Replace the client-side APIs that are discontinued or not in V8.0.0. For more information about the changes in the client-side API, see Updating the Android code. For more information about the migration assistance tool, see Scanning existing MobileFirst native Android apps to prepare for MobileFirst version 8.0.
Before you can access server resources, you must register your app. See Registering Android applications to MobileFirst Server. For information about the mfpclient.plist file, see Android client properties file.