live and dev environment on android studio

In Android Studio, managing Live (Production) and Dev (Development) Environments is crucial for application development. The best practices to achieve this include:

1. Using Build Variants (Flavors)

Android Studio allows you to define different build variants using product flavors in build.gradle.

Step 1: Define Product Flavors in build.gradle (Module: app)

Modify your android block to include different flavors:

gradleCopyEditandroid {
    ...
    buildTypes {
        debug {
            applicationIdSuffix ".dev"
            resValue "string", "app_name", "MyApp Dev"
        }
        release {
            minifyEnabled true
            proguardFiles getDefaultProguardFile('proguard-android-optimize.txt'), 'proguard-rules.pro'
        }
    }

    flavorDimensions "default"
    productFlavors {
        dev {
            dimension "default"
            applicationIdSuffix ".dev"
            versionNameSuffix "-dev"
            buildConfigField "String", "BASE_URL", "\"https://dev.api.example.com/\""
        }
        live {
            dimension "default"
            buildConfigField "String", "BASE_URL", "\"https://api.example.com/\""
        }
    }
}

Step 2: Use Flavors in Code

Access the BuildConfig fields in your code:

javaCopyEditString apiUrl = BuildConfig.BASE_URL;
Log.d("API URL", apiUrl);

2. Creating Separate Configuration Files

Instead of hardcoding API URLs, you can use different res/values XML files.

Step 1: Create Folders

Inside res/values, create:

  • res/values/live/strings.xml

  • res/values/dev/strings.xml

Step 2: Define API URLs in XML

Example for dev environment (res/values/dev/strings.xml):

xmlCopyEdit<resources>
    <string name="api_url">https://dev.api.example.com/</string>
</resources>

Example for live environment (res/values/live/strings.xml):

xmlCopyEdit<resources>
    <string name="api_url">https://api.example.com/</string>
</resources>

Step 3: Access in Java/Kotlin

javaCopyEditString apiUrl = getString(R.string.api_url);

3. Setting Up Environment-based App Icons & Names

Customize the app icon and name based on the environment.

Step 1: Create Different AndroidManifest.xml Entries

In AndroidManifest.xml, modify android:label dynamically:

xmlCopyEdit<application
    android:label="@string/app_name">
</application>

Then define different app_name values in strings.xml:

  • Dev (res/values/dev/strings.xml): "MyApp Dev"

  • Live (res/values/live/strings.xml): "MyApp"

4. Switching Between Environments in Android Studio

You can switch environments using Build Variants:

  1. Go to: View → Tool Windows → Build Variants

  2. Select the variant (devDebug, liveRelease)

5. Using Environment-based Firebase Configurations

If you're using Firebase, you can have separate google-services.json files:

  • app/src/dev/google-services.json

  • app/src/live/google-services.json

Then configure build.gradle:

gradleCopyEditandroid.applicationVariants.all { variant ->
    def fileName = variant.name.contains("dev") ? "google-services-dev.json" : "google-services-live.json"
    def filePath = "$projectDir/app/src/${variant.flavorName}/$fileName"
    variant.mergeResources.doLast {
        copy {
            from filePath
            into "$buildDir/intermediates/merged_res/${variant.dirName}/google-services.json"
        }
    }
}

6. CI/CD and Environment Automation

If you're using GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, or Jenkins, you can automate builds for different environments:

yamlCopyEdit- name: Build Dev APK
  run: ./gradlew assembleDevDebug

- name: Build Live APK
  run: ./gradlew assembleLiveRelease

Final Thoughts

Using product flavors, environment-based resource files, and build variants, you can easily manage different environments (Dev & Live) in Android Studio. Let me know if you need further clarifications! 🚀

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