cloud-test: Tutorial: Adding a cloud backend to your application with Android Studio

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Tutorial: Adding a cloud backend to your application with Android Studio

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Google Cloud Messaging for AndroidGoogle App Engine

Preliminary setup

Download Android Studio if you haven’t done so already and set it up.

Make sure you have an application project set up in Android Studio. You can use any working app that you want to integrate with your backend, even a sample app.

If you'll be running the app on an emulator, download the Google APIs Addon from the SDK Manager and run your app on that image.

Create a Google Cloud Platform project: In the Cloud Console, create a new project (or reuse an old one) and make note of the Project ID. Click on the words “Project ID” on the top left to toggle to the Project Number. Copy this as well.

Enable GCM and obtain API Key: In the Cloud Console, click on APIs and turn on the Google Cloud Messaging for Android API. Then, click on the “Register App” button on the top left, enter a name for the app, then select “Android” and “Accessing APIs via a web server”. In the resulting screen, expand the “Server Key” box and copy the API key.

1. Generate an App Engine projectAndroid app moduleToolsGoogle Cloud EndpointsCreate App Engine Backend

An App Engine project which contains the backend application source

An endpoints module with a RegisterActivity class, related resources, and client libraries for the Android app to communicate with the backend

A Google Cloud Endpoint (DeviceInfoEndpoint.java, auto-generated from DeviceInfo.java) that your Android app will “register” itself through. Your backend will use that registration info to send a push notification to the device.

A sample endpoint, MessageEndpoint.java, to list previously sent GCM messages and send new ones.

A starter web frontend application (index.html in webapp directory) that will show all the devices that have registered with your service, and a form to send them a GCM notification.

endpoints module

A RegisterActivity.java class that, when invoked, will go through the GCM registration flow and also register itself with the recently created backend through DeviceInfoEndpoint.

Client libraries, so that the application can talk to the backend using an object rather than directly using raw REST calls.

XML files related to the newly created activity.

2. Add GCM registration to your appRegisterActivityonCreate()...
import android.content.Intent;
...

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
...
Intent intent = new Intent(this, RegisterActivity.class);
startActivity(intent);
}

3. Deploy the sample backend serverPluginsApp Engineappengine:update

http://<project-id>.appspot.com/_ah/api/explorer
LOCAL_ANDROID_RUNtrueCloudEndpointUtils.java

4. Build and run the Android appRegisterActivityGoogle APIs Addonhttp://<project-id>.appspot.com
Extending the basic setupcustom endpointsSachin Kotwani