Android AAR / Maven packaging for projectM

[protyposis]

Please confirm the following points:

• This question is NOT about the Android apps in the Play Store
• I have searched the project page to check if the question was already asked elsewhere

Topic

Development and Contributing

Your Request

Hi everybody, I wanted to let you know that I created an automated Android build and publishing setup for projectM:
https://github.com/protyposis/projectm-android-builds
Usage docs: https://protyposis.github.io/projectm-android-builds/

It tracks projectM releases/branches, builds Android AAR packages (by reusing the upstream build workflow), and publishes them to a custom Maven repository (hosted on GitHub Pages), all fully automatic via GitHub Actions. The AAR uses Prefab so Android projects can consume the native projectM libraries very easily through Gradle/CMake.

I did not publish the artifacts to an official Maven repository because I think that should either be done by, or at least endorsed by, the projectM maintainers. I am also not fully sure about the artifact setup: it currently includes both debug and release builds, and the Android build tools automatically select the debug libraries for debug app builds.

Anyway I thought this could be useful for other Android developers using projectM. I'm open to suggestions and would also be happy to contribute the setup upstream.

Background: I created this for idiomatic dependency management in an Android projectM app I built. I regularly enjoy projectM on my Android TV, and actually just wanted the existing Android app from the Play Store to display now-playing title/artist information, so I modded it to make it work, and offered the author help with updating his app. He declined, and since I was unhappy with the overall UX I built this new app based on the latest projectM version :) Happy to get feedback on it as well.

[kblaschke]

Hi and thanks for the heads-up!

At least from my side, I don't see any issue whatsoever with publishing your packages/artifacts to Maven. We as the projectM maintainers are busy enough developing the library itself, and thus, generally don't engage in publishing packages in Linux distros, Homebrew and other repos/package managers.

Instead, we endorse the community to build and publish packages as they see fit, which effectively spreads the work over a larger number of people. Additionally, we're not as deep into some development platforms like Android.

It's probably a good idea to set up some page or document listing where projectM is available as a development package, so feel free to create a new Wiki page and add the Maven repo URL.

[protyposis]

Thanks, I added this page: https://github.com/projectM-visualizer/projectm/wiki/Prebuilt-Packages

If you don't mind, it would be nice to keep this issue open for a bit to collect feedback or improvement suggestions from other developers. Since Maven packages published to an official repository cannot be changed later, I'd like to have more confidence in the package structure before moving them out of the temporary custom repository.

[kblaschke]

Sure, just add an update from time to time so this issue doesn't look abandoned!