Tutorial on creating Gideros plugin for Android

ar2rsawseen

Hello all,
here is a little tutorial on creating Android plugins for Gideros using new extended plugin system.
Provided with plugin template for Android make file, plugin C++ code and Java class.
http://appcodingeasy.com/Gideros-Mobile/Creating-plugins-for-Android-in-Gideros

Now go and make those plugins you always wanted, just don't forget to share them

@alexzheng if you have problems, PM me I'll email you files and details.

GregBUG

thanks @ar2rsawseen you are a master as always!
>-

evs

Great stuff!


Cheers

evs

paul_k_clark

Thanks for that, most appreciated

alexzheng

@ar2rsawseen
Thanks, I can access it in my workplace.

BJG

Thanks for this great tutorial @ar2rsawseen. The Gideros website says that "A plugin consists of a C, C++, Obj-C or Java code compiled for the target platform." Why these particular languages? Is there something special about them...? And would the process of writing a function in C++ be very similar to this explanation for Java...?

ar2rsawseen

@BJG Java and Objective-C are based on their platform. Basically Java is used if you want to wrap something from additional Android functionalities, and Objective-C is same for IOS plugins.

But you could also create plugins in plain C or C++ as TNT Collision engine, that does something inside their own environment and has nothing to do with platform specifics. And this C or C++ code can be compiled as both Android and IOS plugins (additionally also as Desktop plugins).

So basically:
Java + C = to wrap something from Android SDK
Objective-C + C = to wrap something from IOS SDK
plain C to usually perform some huge calculations and can work on both platforms.

dominikusdp

Hi Artur, nice tutorial, you can explain the complex thing in a simple way, I don't have any experience in Android / C++ development before

I am following your example with my own simple library, but, i still get errors when building .so :

error: undefined reference to 'luaL_register'
error: undefined reference to 'lua_getfield'
error: undefined reference to 'lua_pushcclosure'

and so on as if i haven't included the lua/luasocket library.

have been trying for hours and I still don't have any clue, please help me. any clue ?

Thanks

ar2rsawseen

Hello @dominikusdp
for latest version, you need to link couple more binaries, not only libgideros.so

including zlib also depends on the version, I think the latest one did not need to include it separately

# # Gideros Shared Library #   ###   include $(CLEAR_VARS)   LOCAL_MODULE := lua LOCAL_SRC_FILES := ../../libs/$(TARGET_ARCH_ABI)/liblua.so   include $(PREBUILT_SHARED_LIBRARY)   ###   include $(CLEAR_VARS)   LOCAL_MODULE := gideros LOCAL_SRC_FILES := ../../libs/$(TARGET_ARCH_ABI)/libgideros.so   include $(PREBUILT_SHARED_LIBRARY)   ###   include $(CLEAR_VARS)   LOCAL_MODULE := gvfs LOCAL_SRC_FILES := ../../libs/$(TARGET_ARCH_ABI)/libgvfs.so   include $(PREBUILT_SHARED_LIBRARY)   ###   include $(CLEAR_VARS)   LOCAL_MODULE := zlib LOCAL_SRC_FILES := ../../libs/$(TARGET_ARCH_ABI)/libzlib.so   include $(PREBUILT_SHARED_LIBRARY)

dominikusdp

@ar2rsawseen ah got it,

there is no

#
# Lua
#
include $(CLEAR_VARS)

LOCAL_MODULE := lua
LOCAL_SRC_FILES := ../../libs/$(TARGET_ARCH_ABI)/liblua.so

include $(PREBUILT_SHARED_LIBRARY)

In my Android.mk, no wonder it always miss reference to lua function, I am stupid didn't realize it earlier

thanks Artur !

note: it will be nice if you update your tutorial to the latest version, because it helps so much especially for beginner like me >-

ar2rsawseen

Updated