How to compile APK from command line?

Question

I am interested in making Android apps on demand. Depending on the clients request, my web site would send me a JSON file direct to a Windows application that I have created

Answer 1

Create build.xml at project creation time

If you start a new project with:

android create project \
    --target 1 \
    --name MyName \
    --path . \
    --activity MyActivity \
    --package com.yourdomain.yourproject

the build.xml file used by ant will be generated.

The android tool is present in the tools/ directory of the SDK which you downloaded.

Create debug releases

Besides:

ant release

for final releases, you can also create debug releases with:

ant debug

Location of generated apk

Generated apk are placed under bin/.

The most important outputs are:

MyName-debug.apk
MyName-release.apk

but some intermediate apks are also generated, in particular unaligned and unsigned versions.

But most of the time you can forget where they were created and just run:

ant debug install
ant release install

to get them installed. But make sure it is working with adb first: adb devices command not working

Tested on Ubuntu 15.10, Android 23.