Java compilation

The main language in which you can write your Android app is Java*. The compilation will take the source files you've written, and the R.java class as its input.

To compile Java, the saker.java.compile() task can be used.

$aapt2 = saker.android.aapt2.link(### ... ###)
$javac = saker.java.compile(
	SourceDirectories: [ src ] + $aapt2[JavaSourceDirectories],
	BootClassPath: saker.android.classpath.platform(),
	SDKs: {
		AndroidPlatform: saker.android.sdk.platform(),
		AndroidBuildTools: saker.android.sdk.buildtools(),
	}
)

In the above, we compile all the .java sources from the src directory, and pass the output Java source directory from the aapt2 linker task. That directory contains the generated R class that can be used to reference the resources of your application.

The BootClassPath is set to be the classes that comes with the Android platform. This allows you to use classes such as android.app.Activity and others.

The SDKs argument contains the necessary SDK references that comes with the Android SDK. This lets the Java compiler task know where to look for the input files for Android Java compilation.

We're not done yet! In order to be able to run our code on Android devices, we need to convert the compiled classes to Dex Bytecode. Visit the Dexing page for more information.

* Kotlin is also a popular programming language for creating Android apps, but saker.build doesn't support it yet.

Android resources

Dexing