Convert existing project into Android project in Eclipse?

Question

How do you convert an existing project into an Android project in Eclipse?

In particular, I want to convert a plain old Java project into an Android Library project.

Thanks.

Answer 1

You need to change the nature of the project (this has already been answered, but nobody gave the actual string you need for that.)

• Close eclipse
• Open the .project file in your project

• Make the natures section look like:

  <natures>     <nature>com.android.ide.eclipse.adt.AndroidNature</nature>     <nature>org.eclipse.jdt.core.javanature</nature> </natures> 

Start eclipse again, have fun.

Note: If you are using maven you can configure the project's nature in your pom, see the maven eclipse plugin doc

Answer 2

I had an app that was built with Eclipse 3.5 and used java projects instead of properly built Android Library projects. I'm not sure how it originally worked (the app was published and worked fined), but I couldn't get it to run when I tried setting up a dev environment on a different machine. I keep getting ClassNotFoundExceptions for references to the Java project.

Since I had a couple years of check-in history, I really didn't want to move projects as some answers stated. For me, converting the Java project into a proper Android Library made more sense.

Here are the steps I had to take to get it working:

Add AndroidNature to ".project" file

<natures> <nature>com.android.ide.eclipse.adt.AndroidNature</nature> <nature>org.eclipse.jdt.core.javanature</nature> </natures> 

Add a simple "AndroidManifest.xml"

<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" package="com.convertproject.test" android:versionCode="1" android:versionName="1.0"> <uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="7" android:targetSdkVersion="15" /> </manifest> 

Add a "project.properties" file

target=android-7 android.library=true 

• Create an empty folder off the root of the project for called: "res"
• Refresh in Eclipse
• Right click on project, select Android Tools, Fix Project Properties Rebuild

NOTE: when you add library to your main project, import using the Android / Libray tab (under project properties) instead of Java Build Path / Projects