How to have different build environments for android?

Question

I have dozens of api keys to facebook and twitter and many other services, what is the standard way to have different values for the keys depending on if I am making a development build vs. a staging build vs. a production build?

Answer 1

You can use a static flag to use it in a switch block to define your keys. That works for a simple project with two or three alternative keys.

If you really have that many, to use in several projects, I suggest you to add them to a helper class, so you minimise the code changing in your classes. Something like:

public class BuildHelper {
    public static final int DEBUG=0;
    public static final int STAGING=1;
    public static final int PRODUCTION=2;

    public static int BUILD;

    public static String getFbKey() {
      switch(BUILD) {
        case DEBUG: return "xxx";
        case STAGING: return "yyy";
        case PRODUCTION: return "zzz"; 
      }
      return null;
    }
    public static String getTwitterKey() {
      switch(BUILD) {
        case DEBUG: return "xxx";
        case STAGING: return "yyy";
        case PRODUCTION: return "zzz"; 
      }
      return null;
    }
}

and use it as:

public class YourClass extends Activity {

    public static String FB_KEY;
    public static String TWITTER_KEY;
    //etc.

  @Override
  public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

    BuildHelper.BUILD=BuildHelper.DEBUG; // or STAGING or PRODUCTION
    FB_KEY = BuildHelper.getFbKey();
    TWITTER_KEY = BuildHelper.getTwitterKey();
    //etc.
  }
}