guide/publishing/preparing.jd

page.title=Preparing to Publish: A Checklist
@jd:body

<p>Publishing an application means testing it, packaging it appropriately, and
making it available to users of Android-powered mobile devices.</p>

<p>If you plan to publish your application for installation on
Android-powered devices, there are several things you need to do, to get
your application ready. This document highlights the significant
checkpoints for preparing your application for a successful release.
</p>

<p>If you will publish your application on Android Market, please also see <a
href="{@docRoot}guide/publishing/publishing.html#market">Publishing on Android Market</a>
for specific preparation requirements for your application. </p>

<p>For general information about the ways that you can publish an applications,
see the <a href="{@docRoot}guide/publishing/publishing.html">Publishing Your
Applications</a> document. </p>

<div class="special">

<p><a href="#releaseready">Before you consider your application ready for release</a>:</p>

<ol>
<li>Test your application extensively on an actual device </li>
<li>Consider adding an End User License Agreement in your application</li>
<li>Consider adding licensing support</li>
<li>Specify an icon and label in the application's manifest</li>
<li>Turn off logging and debugging and clean up data/files</li>
</ol>

<p><a href="#finalcompile">Before you do the final compile of your application</a>:</p>

<ol start="6">
<li>Version your application</li>
<li>Obtain a suitable cryptographic key</li>
<li>Register for a Maps API Key, if your application is using MapView elements</li>
</ol>

<p><a href="#compile">Compile your application</a></p>

<p><a href="#post-compile">After you compile your application</a>:</p>
<ol start="9">
<li>Sign your application</li>
<li>Test your compiled application</li>
</ol>
</div>

<h2 id="releaseready">Before you consider your application ready for release</h2>

<h3 id="test">1. Test your application extensively on an actual device</h3>

<p>It's important to test your application as extensively as possible, in as
many areas as possible. To help you do that, Android provides a variety of
testing classes and tools. You can use
{@link android.app.Instrumentation Instrumentation} to run JUnit and other
test cases, and you can use testing
tools such as the <a href="{@docRoot}guide/developing/tools/monkey.html">UI/Application
Exerciser Monkey</a>.  </p>

<ul>
<li>To ensure that your application will run properly for users, you should make
every effort to obtain one or more physical mobile device(s) of the type on
which you expect the application to run. You should then test your application
on the actual device, under realistic network conditions. Testing  your
application on a physical device is very important, because it enables you to
verify that your user interface elements are sized correctly (especially for
touch-screen UI) and that your application's performance and battery efficiency
are acceptable.</li>

<li>If you can not obtain a mobile device of the type you are targeting for your
application, you can use emulator options such as <code>-dpi</code>,
<code>-device</code>, <code>-scale</code>, <code>-netspeed</code>,
<code>-netdelay</code>, <code>-cpu-delay</code> and others to model the
emulator's screen, network performance, and other attributes to match the target
device to the greatest extent possible. You can then test your application's UI
and performance. However, we strongly recommend that you test your application
on an actual target device before publishing it. </li>

<li>If you are targeting the <a href="http://www.t-mobileg1.com/">T-Mobile
G1</a> device for your application, make sure that your UI handles screen
orientation changes. </li>
</ul>

<h3 id="eula">2. Consider adding an End User License Agreement in your
application</h3>

<p>To protect your person, organization, and intellectual property, you may want
to provide an End User License Agreement (EULA) with your application.

<h3>3. Consider adding support for Android Market Licensing</h3>

<p>If you are publishing a paid application through Android Market, consider
adding support for Android Market Licensing. Licensing lets you control access
to your application based on whether the current user has purchased it.
Using Android Market Licensing is optional.

<p>For complete information about Android Market Licensing Service and how to
use it in your application, see <a
href="{@docRoot}guide/publishing/licensing.html">Licensing Your
Applications</a>.</p>

<h3 id="iconlabel">4. Specify an icon and label in the application's manifest</h3>

<p>The icon and label that you specify in an application's manifest are
important because they are displayed to users as your application's icon and
name. They are displayed on the device's Home screen, as well as in Manage
Applications, My Downloads, and elsewhere. Additionally, publishing services may
display the icon and label to users. </p>

<p>To specify an icon and label, you define the attributes
<code>android:icon</code> and <code>android:label</code> in the
<code>&lt;application&gt;</code> element of the manifest. </p>

<p>As regards the design of your icon, you should try to make it match as much
as possible the style used by the built-in Android applications.</p>

<h3 id="logging">5. Turn off logging and debugging and clean up data/files</h3>

<p>For release, you should make sure that debug facilities are turned off and
that debug and other unnecessary data/files are removed from your application
project.</p>
<ul>
<li>Remove the <code>android:debuggable="true"</code> attribute from the
<code>&lt;application&gt;</code> element of the manifest.</li>
<li>Remove log files, backup files, and other unnecessary files from the
application project.</li>
<li>Check for private or proprietary data and remove it as necessary.</li>
<li>Deactivate any calls to {@link android.util.Log} methods in the source
code.</li>
</ul>

<h2 id="finalcompile">Before you do the final compile of your application</h2>

<h3 id="versionapp">6. Version your application</h3>

<p>Before you compile your application, you must make sure that you have defined
a version number for your application, specifying an appropriate value for both
the <code>android:versionCode</code> and <code>android:versionName</code>
attributes of the <code>&lt;manifest&gt;</code> element in the application's
manifest file. Carefully consider your version numbering plans in the context of
your overall application upgrade strategy. </p>

<p>If you have previously released a version of your application, you must make
sure to increment the version number of the current application. You must
increment both the <code>android:versionCode</code> and
<code>android:versionName</code> attributes of the <code>&lt;manifest&gt;</code>
element in the application's manifest file, using appropriate values. </p>

<p>For detailed information about how to define version information for your
application, see <a href="{@docRoot}guide/publishing/versioning.html">Versioning
Your Applications</a>.</p>

<h3 id="cryptokey">7. Obtain a suitable cryptographic key</h3>

<p>If you have read and followed all of the preparation steps up to this point,
your application is compiled and ready for signing. Inside the .apk, the
application is properly versioned, and you've cleaned out extra files and
private data, as described above. </p>

<p>Before you sign your application, you need to make sure that you have a
suitable private key. For complete information about how to obtain (or generate)
a private key, see <a href="{@docRoot}guide/publishing/app-signing.html#cert">
Obtaining a Suitable Private Key</a>.</p>

<p>Once you have obtained (or generated) a suitable private key, you will use it
to:</p>

<ul>
<li>Register for a Maps API Key (see below), if your application uses MapView
elements.</li>
<li>Sign your application for release, later in the preparation process</li>
</ul>

<h3 id="mapsApiKey">8. Register for a Maps API Key, if your application is using
MapView elements</h3>

<div class="sidebox-wrapper">
<div class="sidebox"><p>
For complete information about getting a Maps API Key, see <a
href="http://code.google.com/android/add-ons/google-apis/mapkey.html">
Obtaining a Maps API Key</a>.</p>
</div>
</div>

<p>If your application uses one or more Mapview elements, you will need to
register your application with the Google
Maps service and obtain a Maps API Key, before your MapView(s) will be able to
retrieve data from Google Maps. To do so, you supply an MD5 fingerprint of your
signer certificate to the Maps service. </p>

<p>During development, you can get a temporary Maps API Key by registering the
debug key generated by the SDK tools. However, before publishing your
application, you must register for a new Maps API Key that is based on your
private key. </p>

<p>If your application uses MapView elements, the important points to understand
are:</p>

<ol>
<li>You <em>must</em> obtain the Maps API Key before you compile your
application for release, because you must add the Key to a special attribute in
each MapView element &mdash; <code>android:apiKey</code> &mdash; in your
application's layout files. If you are instantiating MapView objects directly
from code, you must pass the Maps API Key as a parameter in the constructor.
</li>
<li>The Maps API Key referenced by your application's MapView elements must be
registered (in Google Maps) to the certificate used to sign the application.
This is particularly important when publishing your application &mdash; your
MapView elements must reference a Key that is registered to the release
certificate that you will use to sign your application.  </li>
<li>If you previously got a temporary Maps API Key by registering the debug
certificate generated by the SDK tools, you <em>must</em> remember to obtain a
new Maps API Key by registering your release certificate. You must then remember
to change the MapView elements to reference the new Key, rather than the Key
associated with the debug certificate. If you do not do so, your MapView
elements will not have permission to download Maps data. </li>
<li>If you change the private key that you will use to sign your application,
you <em>must</em> remember to obtain a new Maps API Key from the Google Maps
service. If you do not get a new Maps API Key and apply it to all MapView
elements, any MapView elements referencing the old Key will not have permission
to download Maps data. </li>
</ol>

<h2 id="compile">Compile your application</h2>

<p>When you've prepared your application as described in the previous sections,
you can compile your application for release.</p>


<h2 id="post-compile">After you compile your application</h2>

<h3 id="signapp">9. Sign your application</h3>

<p>Sign your application using your private key and then
align it with the {@code zipalign} tool. Signing your application
correctly is critically important. Please see
<a href="{@docRoot}guide/publishing/app-signing.html">Signing Your
Applications</a> for complete information. </p>

<h3 id="testapp">10. Test your compiled and signed application</h3>

<p>Before you release your compiled application, you should thoroughly test it
on the target mobile device (and target network, if possible). In particular,
you should make sure that any MapView elements in your UI are receiving maps
data properly. If they are not, go back to <a href="#mapsApiKey">Register for a
Maps API Key</a> and correct the problem. You should also ensure that the
application works correctly with any server-side services and data that you are
providing or are relying on and that the application handles any authentication
requirements correctly.  </p>

<p>After testing, you are now ready to publish your application to mobile device
users.</p>