Using the new Android Advertiser id inside an SDK

Question

It makes a lot of sense that Android ad SDKs will use Android\'s the new advertiser id.

It seems that you can only get the id by using the google services sdk, as me

Answer 1

NOTE: My answer is outdated for Gradle since now you can choose which parts of the GooglePlayServices library you want to include in your project

I ran into the same problem lately when the project I was working on reached the 65k dex limit.

Here's how i solved it:

• Go to https://code.google.com/p/jarjar/downloads/list and download the latest Jar jar Links in .jar format. Put the file in a work folder. For this example I'll use the desktop.

• Go to [Android SDK Path]\extras\google\google_play_services\libproject\google-play-services_lib\libs and copy google-play-services.jar to the same work folder.

• In the same folder make a text file named rules.txt (the name doesn't really matter).

• Inside the rules.txt paste the text (without the quotes):

"keep com.google.android.gms.ads.identifier.AdvertisingIdClient"

• If you want other classes you want to keep, you can add them here.

• Open a command prompt file and change the path to your working folder. On Windows use the [cd] command.

• Write the following command:

java -jar [jarjar archive] process [rulesFile] [inJar] [outJar]

• You can find more details about the JarJar Links commands and rules here: https://code.google.com/p/jarjar/wiki/CommandLineDocs

• Just to give an example, the command I had to write looked like this (change yours according to your file names):

java -jar jarjar-1.4.jar process rules.txt google-play-services.jar google-play-services-lite.jar

• Execute the command.

WHAT IT DOES:

• The command will generate a new java archive (*.jar) in the working folder that will contain only the class needed to get your advertiser id and its dependencies. So, the google-play-services.jar will go down from 2.2 Mb to ~50kb

HOW TO USE IT:

• Import google play services from the sdk into your project as usual, make sure to copy it into your workspace. In the libs folder, replace the google-play-services.jar with the jar you generated earlier.

• If you're there, you can delete the resources too to free another 0.5 mb. Make sure to keep values/common_strings.xml and values/version.xml.

• Don't forget to add manifest metadata for google play services.

This helped me to reduce the project size with more than 2.5 mb and to stay under the 65k dex classes and methods limit while being able to access the Google advertiser id.

Hope it'll help you too.