Bulk Publishing of Android Apps

Question

We have several apps that will be very similar in layout and code. The only difference is we will be switching out graphical elements, and making changes to a single constants file and strings file. Of course, theres several problems with this -- the first being namespace. Having an app with the same namespace will overwrite any other apps.

What are some suggestions to doing this? Currently our namesapce is: com.company.appname I figured I could do: com.company.appname.appversion

I've seen post about ant scripts that helps with this, but I'm wondering if theres more fluid solutions now.

Answer 1

I would suggest looking into Android Library Projects to help with this.

I use this approach for a Lite vs. Free edtions of one of my apps. I have a Library project that contains all of the source and most of the resources for the apps and then 2 projects that use the 1st as a library project, one for Lite and one for Full edition.

The two dependent projects each have their own resources and manifest, allowing the namespace to be different and for me to swap in different strings, drawables, etc. depending on the edition.

I tried the Ant approach but it seemed to be much more of a hassle than the Library project approach. Hope that helps.