build android project from command line with different urls/ Environment

Question

I want to build the android project from command line. Usually, I build the project for two environments(merchant and production) and I want to do that for Merchant and Production URL automatically from command line, without me specifying in the project manually everytime. For example Say, Build a project for Production environment or say, build a project for merchant environment by specifying the environment in command itself. Can it be done? Please help.

Answer 1

You can build your project with Maven, Ant and Gradle. All of them will do what you want.
I use Maven therefore I'll focus on Maven configuration. It might be a complex task if you don't know how Maven works.

Configure Maven

First prerequisites described here:
https://code.google.com/p/maven-android-plugin/wiki/GettingStarted

Configure your project to build with android maven plugin:
https://code.google.com/p/maven-android-plugin/

Sample configuration for Eclipse:
https://code.google.com/p/maven-android-plugin/wiki/QuickStartForEclipseProject

You can also generate sample project with the command below:

mvn archetype:generate \
  -DarchetypeArtifactId=android-quickstart \
  -DarchetypeGroupId=de.akquinet.android.archetypes \
  -DarchetypeVersion=1.0.8 \
  -DgroupId=com.myproject \
  -DartifactId=my-android-application

Create profile

Second step is create build profiles for production.

IMPORTANT: the following profile snippet bases works pom.xml generated with command mvn archetype:generate command above.

The profile listed below replaces string in file located in res/values/strings.xml

form:

<string name="hello">Whatever text</string>

to:

 <string name="hello">productionURL</string>

The profile (include it in pom.xml above </project>):

<profiles>
    <profile>
        <id>production</id>
        <build>
            <plugins>
                <plugin>
                    <groupId>com.google.code.maven-replacer-plugin</groupId>
                    <artifactId>replacer</artifactId>
                    <version>1.5.2</version>
                    <executions>
                        <execution>
                            <phase>process-sources</phase>
                            <goals>
                                <goal>replace</goal>
                            </goals>
                        </execution>
                    </executions>
                    <configuration>
                        <file>${project.basedir}/res/values/strings.xml</file>
                        <regex>true</regex>
                        <replacements>
                            <replacement>
                                <token><![CDATA[(<string name="hello">)(.+)(</string>)]]></token>
                                <value><![CDATA[$1productionURL$3]]></value>
                            </replacement>         
                        </replacements>
                    </configuration>
                </plugin>
                <plugin>
                    <groupId>com.jayway.maven.plugins.android.generation2</groupId>
                    <artifactId>android-maven-plugin</artifactId>
                    <inherited>true</inherited>
                    <configuration>
                        <sign>
                            <debug>true</debug>
                        </sign>
                    </configuration>
                </plugin>
            </plugins>
        </build>
    </profile>
</profiles>

It uses https://code.google.com/p/maven-replacer-plugin/ to replace string.

For Merchant just copy-paste <profile> listed above, change <id>production</id> to <id>merchant</id> and in <value> update url.

Build

mvn install -Pproduction

or

mvn install -Pmerchant