How to use my custom library apk file in other applications

Question

I have my own custom library apk file (say lib.apk) & i want make it available to other applications. How to provide the uses-library in the android manifest.xml file in other apps so as to use my custom library.

Answer 1

The <uses-library> element is for add-ons supplied as extensions to the firmware. AFAIK, it will not be usable for your scenario.

Most likely, you will need to implement a service that exposes an API via AIDL, or uses a set of documented Intent actions to exchange data with other applications, or exposes a ContentProvider.

Otherwise, package your code as a JAR, not an APK. You can see many examples of this in my github repositories (all of the cwac- ones follow this pattern).

Answer 2

When converting from a jar library to and apk library make sure that the reference to the jar is removed from "Java Build Path" -> "Projects" and the library is added to "Android" -> "Library".