The Older Maps API V1
is officially deprecated as of December 3rd 2012. Starting from
March 3rd you will no longer able to apply maps api key obtained
using Maps API V1. This Tutorial is about how to use Google Maps API V2 for
Android application development. This
Tutorial have described on both Android Studio and Eclipse IDEs.
Android Studio
It is easy to get the eclipse folder structure to avoid
gradle errors on Android Studio. So lets create a project using eclipse and
later import it to Android Studio
Create new Project using eclipse IDE
Go to File à
New à
Other
You don’t want to consider the build and compile sdk
versions bcoz we will change them later.
Then click next,,, next,,, next,,, and finally “finish”
Then open Android Studio and go to Fileà
Import Project and browse and open your previously created eclipse project
Make shure to select Google API as Build target (shown in
following image)
Click next and Finish import.
Initially you should
manually download and install the Google Play Services using SDK Manager .
Open the SDK manager by
going Tools à
Android à
SDK Manager
Then SDK Manager will
be open , then scroll to bottom of the window and you will find “Extras” section.
There is “Google Play Services” check box and on default it will not installed
initially. If so you should check it and Click on Install Package Button.(Note:
in the following image it is already installed for me.)
After you
installed it, you should import the Google Play Services Library to your work
space. To do this
Go to File à
Project Structure or press “Ctrl + Alt + Shift + S” and Open the Project
Structure Dialog.
Then Select the
Module and click on the green plus
button appear in the left top of the middle section as shown on following
image. Then select the Import Module from drop down list.
Open the following url by browsing
~\android-sdk\extras\google\google_play_services\libproject\google-play-services_lib
You can find
this for the SDK comes with Android Studio in
C:\Users\<UserName>\AppData\Local\Android\android-studio\sdk\extras\google\google_play_services\libproject\google-play-services_lib
Note: If you
cant see the “AppData” folder in browse window just click on “show hidden
folders” button
Click OK button
Click on Next button for next few
dialog boxes and finally click Finish. Now you can See “google play services
lib” project has imported.
Now Select on your
Project name, under module section and click on the green plus button appears
in right side under the “dependencies” tab and click on “Module Dependency”
Then Select “google-play-services-lib”
on the dialog box
Again click on the
green plus button and click “jars or directory” and import the
google-play-services.jar file located under C:\Users\<UserName>\AppData\Local\Android\android-studio \sdk\extras\google\google_play_services\libproject\google-play-services_lib\libs\google-play-services.jar
Use the up/down arrows
to move <Module source> to the bottom
of the list.
Then our next step is to
Display the Google Map on Android device. In Map V2 your android version api
level must be greater than or equal to 11. Otherwise it will not support.
Your next step is to
take a Maps API key to uniquely identify your project, before having Maps API
key you must have sign your certificate. This is based on SHA-1 fingerprint. The fingerprint is a unique text string generated from the
commonly-used SHA-1 hashing algorithm. Because the fingerprint is itself unique.
There are two types of
certificates
1.Debug Certificate
This certificate only allow you to test your
application, you can’t publish it to google play store. It will
have an expiration date of 365 days from its creation date.
2.Release Certificate
In this tutorial I only use Debug
certificate to demonstrate the tutorial.
How
to obtain a Debug Certificate from Command Line
Debug keystore
can be found at <userhome/.android/debug.keystore>
To generate SHA-1 of debug keystore use below
command by changing current directory to “.android” directory in Command line.
keytool -list -v -keystore <debug keystore path>/debug.keystore –alias
androiddebugkey
-storepass android -keypass android
To access the Google Maps with the Maps API, you
have to add a Maps API key to your google application project. You can get this
key via Google API
Console .
Create your project in Google API Console. Go to following link.
if this
is the first time you enter to the google api console, you will prompt to
asking for create new project. Click on “Create Project” then you will get All
Services window.
Scroll to down and find “Google Maps Android API
v2” and toggle on the button appears in front of the text by accepting google terms
of services agreement.
Then go
to “API Access” tab and click on “Create new Android key” button.
Type your
obtained debug key and android project package name with separated by a comma.
Click on “Create”
button.
Note: In
this example I have used “com.example.myapplication” as my package name, if you
have different one, use your own package name.
Copy and
Save the “API Key” somewhere on your local computer, you will need this later.
Now you
are ready for Display your Map. Go to Android Studio Project and add the
following code to your layout.
<fragment
android:id="@+id/map"
android:name="com.google.android.gms.maps.MapFragment"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent" />
In Order
to Display Your map using “MapFragment” class, you must have some permissions
add on your “AndroidManifest.xml” file
and you also add your google map api key
as meta deta.
Note:
1. <metadata> element must be
place as a child of <application> element and before the closing tab of
application element
2. <uses-permission> elements must place as child of <manifest>
element
·
com.google.android.providers.gsf.permission.READ_GSERVICES Allows the API to access Google
web-based services.
The following permissions are recommended, but
can be ignored if your application does not access the user's current location,
either programmatically, or by enabling the My Location layer.
3. version 2 of the Google Maps Android API
requires OpenGL ES version 2, you must add a <uses-feature> element as a child of the <manifest>
<uses-feature
android:glEsVersion="0x00020000"
android:required="true"/>
4. add following permissions with your package name instead of red text.
<permission
android:name="com.example.myapplication.permission.MAPS_RECEIVE"
android:protectionLevel="signature" />
<uses-permission android:name="com.example.myapplication.permission.MAPS_RECEIVE"/>
Now your
AndroidManifest.xml file must appear like this..
<?xml
version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
package="com.example.myapplication"
android:versionCode="1"
android:versionName="1.0" >
<uses-sdk
android:minSdkVersion="8"
android:targetSdkVersion="17"
/>
<uses-feature
android:glEsVersion="0x00020000"
android:required="true"/>
<uses-permission
android:name="android.permission.INTERNET"/>
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE"/>
<uses-permission
android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE"/>
<uses-permission
android:name="com.google.android.providers.gsf.permission.READ_GSERVICES"/>
<!-- The following two permissions are
not required to use
Google Maps Android API v2, but are
recommended. -->
<uses-permission
android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION"/>
<uses-permission
android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION"/>
<permission
android:name="com.example.myapplication.permission.MAPS_RECEIVE"
android:protectionLevel="signature" />
<uses-permission
android:name="com.example.myapplication.permission.MAPS_RECEIVE"/>
<application
android:allowBackup="true"
android:icon="@drawable/ic_launcher"
android:label="@string/app_name"
android:theme="@style/AppTheme" >
<activity
android:name="com.example.myapplication.MainActivity"
android:label="@string/app_name"
>
<intent-filter>
<action
android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
<category
android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>
<meta-data
android:name="com.google.android.maps.v2.API_KEY"
android:value="your api
key put here"/>
</application>
</manifest>
Then put the
following code in your activity_main.xml file
Now Run
your project. it will make you smile
We can do
lot with maps.. Lets learn them one by one in future tutorials.
For next
tutorial I’ll show you how to create this app on eclipse with google map api.
