= !PySide for Android = [[PageOutline]] This guide describes: * how to build Shiboken & !PySide for Android using the Necessitas SDK * how to use the resulting libraries * and how to bundle them with your Python program in a standalone APK '''NOTE:''' If you just wan't to run you Python & !PySide programs on Android, you can skip the ''Building !PySide'' section. ''' Do you see something incorrect or missing from the guide ? [http://modrana.org/trac#Contactthedeveloper Let me know], so I can fix it ! :)''' == Building !PySide == === Preparation === First install the prerequisites: * Necessitas SDK (make sure you have the Android SDK platform 14 installed in it) * system-wide installed Shiboken * system-wide installed Python 2.7 * Python 2.7 compiled for Android * cmake * git This command should probably fetch most of the prerequisites on Ubuntu: {{{ sudo apt-get install build-essential cmake git python2.7-minimal shiboken }}} If you find some are is missing or if you wan't to provide similar command for other distributions, let me know ! :) Then clone the ''Android-pyside-build-scripts'' project and ''cd'' to it's directory: {{{ git clone git@github.com:M4rtinK/android-pyside-build-scripts.git cd android-pyside-build-scripts }}} Now run the ''prepare.sh'' script: {{{ ./prepare.sh }}} It clones Android-modified Shiboken & !PySide and creates some folders needed for the build. And that's it, you are ready to start the build. :) === Build === To start the build, just run the main build script, called ''build.sh'': {{{ ./build.sh }}} It first builds Shiboken, followed by !PySide. The script is fully automatic, but waits for the user to ''press any key'': * after Shiboken is configured for build * after Pyside is configured for build Like this you can easily check for any errors during configuration. Also note, that when running the script, it clears any previous build results before building. You can also run the ''build_shiboken.sh'' and ''build_pyside.sh'' scripts manually, just always make sure to run the Shiboken one before running the !PySide one. === Results === The resulting !PySide libraries compiled for Android are located in the ''stage/lib'' folder. === !PySide for Android example application === This is an example, that demonstrates a fully functional standalone Android application that uses Python, !PySide and Qt Components. ==== Ready-to-install APK ==== A ready-to-install standalone APK is available here: http://modrana.org/platforms/android/pyside_example/PySideExample_1.1.apk Just install it and press the ''!PySideExample'' icon. ===== First start ===== If haven't yet installed any Ministro using Qt application on your Android device, you will be redirected to the Play store to install the Ministro application. Ministro is a manager & updater for the Qt libraries for Android. The example application requires to be installed to run. So just install Ministro and everything else will be handled automatically. You might need to press the ''!PySideExample'' icon again once Ministro is installed. Once Ministro is installed and does it's work, the example might still take some time to start, as it is unpacking Python, Qt Components, theme for Qt Components and the example program to it's working directory. Once the unpacking is finished, the example application will be started. The unpacking is done only once on the first application start, following starts are very fast, at least when tested on my device (HP Touchpad with CM9). ===== What the example application demonstrates ===== * sending data to Python and back * the content of the entry fild is sent to Python, where it is painted on the !PySide image and returned to QML using !ImageProvider * the date is retrived in Python and shown in QML * working text entry with the Android virtual keyboard * working screen rotation * correct !Portrait/Landscape orientation switching * in both normal & inverted orientations * working notifications (!InfoBanner) * working !ToolBar * working Menu * "tools" menu with rotation & opacity sliders for the !PySide image ===== Source code ===== Available from Github under BSD licence:[[BR]] https://github.com/M4rtinK/expyside/tree/android ===== Size of the APK ===== The example APK has about 16 MB. This is because it needs to bundle quite a lot of libraries and related files. Big part of it is actually not used by the example in any way. For normal applications it should be possible to make the resulting APK much smaller by: * includding only the !PySide libraries that are actually used * removing unused Python modules * cutting down the Qt Components theme from all grahics & icons that are not used === Example project for the Necessitas Qt Creator === This project has been used to generate the above mentioned application example APK. ==== Using the project ==== Using the project to build your own project is very easy. Just install the [http://necessitas.kde.org/necessitas/necessitas_sdk_installer.php Necessitass SDK] and clone the example project from git: {{{ git clone git://github.com/M4rtinK/android-pyside-example-project.git }}} Then just open the ''!PySideExample.pro'' with the Necessitas Qt Creator. To generate a new APK, just click the green "deploy" button - Qt Creator should rebuild the the APK and deploy it either to the simulator or to any connected Android device that has debugging enabled. ==== How does it work ? ==== The project contains various components, that together enable the creation of fully standalone Python & PySide application APK, while also allowing to bundle any arbitrary libraries and files needed by the application. The example project is called ''PySideExample'' and uses the ''org.modrana.PySideExample'' unique name. this means, that when it's APK is installed on and Android device, it gets installed to this directory: {{{ /data/data/org.modrana.PySide.Example/ }}} This is important to know, as it needs to set a couple of environmental variables pointing to libraries and themes, that reside in this directory. ===== ===== ==== Modifying the project ==== == Ideas for improvement == There is definitely still room for improvement, such as: * a script that renames & customizes Necessitas Qt Cretor PySide projects * building APKs from command line only without Qt Creator * show a progress bar when the bundled libs are unpacked on first start * modified bundling that doesn't unpack the files during startup bud during installation * this could speed up the first start quite a bit * compiling the many Qt Components files & images to a single resource file ? * documenting how to use Android specific APIs from Python * screenshots * videos == Links == === Source code listing === A convenient listing of sources for all the components used for the !PySide & co port to Android. :) Shiboken for Android[[BR]] https://github.com/M4rtinK/shiboken-android/tree/android !PySide for Android[[BR]] https://github.com/M4rtinK/pyside-android/tree/android !PySide for Android build scripts[[BR]] https://github.com/M4rtinK/android-pyside-build-scripts Qt Components[[BR]] https://qt.gitorious.org/~martink/qt-components/martinks-ineans-qt-components/commits/android Example program[[BR]] https://github.com/M4rtinK/expyside/tree/android Example project for Necessitas !QtCreator[[BR]] https://github.com/M4rtinK/android-pyside-example-project === Binary listing === List of relevant pre-build binaries !PySide libraries[[BR]] http://modrana.org/platforms/android/pyside/ !PyQt libraries[[BR]] http://modrana.org/platforms/android/pyqt4/ Python 2.7 compiled for android - libs, executables & headers[[BR]] http://www.modrana.org/platforms/android/python2.7/python2.7_for_android_v1.zip Qt Components for Android[[BR]] http://modrana.org/platforms/android/qt_components/qt_components_v1.zip Cut-down Qt Components theme[[BR]] http://modrana.org/platforms/android/qt_components/qt_components_theme_mini_v1.zip Example application APK[[BR]] http://modrana.org/platforms/android/pyside_example/PySideExample_1.1.apk == Acknowledgement == As usual with open source development, I haven't done all of this single handedly, but built on work done by others previously. So I'd like to both acknowledge on which work this is build upon and also provided links to the sources I've used: * THPs [http://thp.io/2011/pyside-android/ PySide for Android] - showing that this is possible * Ssortagem@Github - integrated & improved THPs patches for [https://github.com/ssorgatem/PySide/tree/android Shiboken] and [https://github.com/ssorgatem/PySide/tree/android PySide] * [http://code.google.com/p/android-python27/ android-python27] - solved the APK bundling issue, provides Android-buildable Python 2.7 * [http://hg.microcode.ca/blackberry-py/wiki/Building%20PySide the BlackBerry-Py Building PySide guide] - I've used this as a base when making the Android build scripts * [http://qt-project.org/ Qt ] - provides the GUI toolkit :) * [http://qt-project.org/wiki/PySide PySide] - for provides the Python-Qt bindings Thanks a lot - without you, this would not be possible! :)