Documentation

Setup Guide Android

Project Setup Android Studio

This guide uses Android Studio, if for some reason you can't use Android Studio yet, please refer to the guide below on how to setup an Eclipse project. Please note that Eclipse support is deprecated with Wikitude SDK 5.0 release and won't be supported in future versions.

  • Create a new Android Application Project (There is also a working SampleProject bundled in this SDK, where all these steps are already made)

  • Copy the file libs/wikitudesdk.aar into the libs folder of your module. (project root/app/libs)

  • Open build.gradle from your module, add the wikitudesdk.aar as a dependency and tell gradle to search the libs folder, like in the code below.

android {
    ...
}

dependencies {
    compile fileTree(dir: 'libs', include: ['*.jar'])
    compile (name: 'wikitudesdk', ext:'aar')
    compile 'com.android.support:appcompat-v7:21.0.3'
}

repositories {
    flatDir{
        dirs 'libs'
    }
}
  • If you already purchased a license, please set the applicationId to the package name you provided us with.
    defaultConfig {
        applicationId "xxxx"
    }
  • Add the following permissions to your AndroidManifest.xml
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_WIFI_STATE" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_GPS" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.CAMERA" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />
<uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.camera" android:required="true" />
<uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.location" android:required="true" />
<uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.sensor.accelerometer" android:required="true" />
<uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.sensor.compass" android:required="true" />
<uses-feature android:glEsVersion="0x00020000" android:required="true" />
<uses-sdk android:targetSdkVersion="19" android:minSdkVersion="9"/>
  • The activity holding the AR-View (called architectView in the following) must have set android:configChanges="screenSize|orientation" in the AndroidManifest.xml, for example this could look like:
<activity android:name="com.yourcompany.yourapp.YourArActivity"
   android:configChanges="screenSize|orientation"/>

Project Setup Eclipse

Please note that Eclipse support is deprecated with Wikitude SDK 5.0 release and won't be supported in future versions.

  • Create a new Android Application Project (There is also a working SampleProject bundled in this SDK, where all these steps are already made)
  • Create a libs folders in your project root directory and copy libs/wikitudesdk.jar
  • In Eclipse enter Preferences -> Android -> Build and ensure the option Force error when external jars contain native libraries is unchecked

    External jar contains native libraries

  • Add the following permissions to your Manifest.xml

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_WIFI_STATE" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_GPS" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.CAMERA" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />
<uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.camera" android:required="true" />
<uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.location" android:required="true" />
<uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.sensor.accelerometer" android:required="true" />
<uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.sensor.compass" android:required="true" />
<uses-feature android:glEsVersion="0x00020000" android:required="true" />
<uses-sdk android:targetSdkVersion="19" android:minSdkVersion="9"/>
  • The activity holding the AR-View (called architectView in the following) must have set android:configChanges="screenSize|orientation" in the AndroidManifest.xml, for example this could look like:
<activity android:name="com.yourcompany.yourapp.YourArActivity"
   android:configChanges="screenSize|orientation"/>

AR View in Activity

Keep in mind that the Wikitude SDK is not a native Android SDK as you know from other SDK's. The basic concept is to add an architectView to your project and notify it about lifecycle events. The architectView creates a camera surface and handles sensor events. The experience itself, sometime referred to as ARchitect World, is implemented in JavaScript and packaged in your application's asset-folder (as in this project) or on your own server. The experiences are written in HTML and JavaScript and call methods in Wikitude's AR-namespace (e.g. AR.GeoObject).

You have to include

 <script src="https://wikitude.com/libs/architect.js"></script>

in your HTML files to use the AR namespace and the architectView will handle them properly. To test an ARchitect World on a desktop browser, you must include ade.js tool instead to avoid JavaScript errors and see a development console.

It is recommended to handle your augmented reality experience in a separate Activity. Declare the architectView inside a layout XML. E.g. Add this within FrameLayout's parent tags.

<com.wikitude.architect.ArchitectView android:id="@+id/architectView"
   android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="fill_parent"/>

ArchitectView is creating a camera surface so ensure to properly release the camera in case you're using it somewhere else in your application. Besides a camera (front or back-facing) the ArchitectView also makes use of compass and accelerometer values, requires OpenGL 2.0 and at least Android 4.0. ArchitectView.isDeviceSupported(Context context) checks whether the current device has all required hard- and software in place or not.

Note: Make AR-View only accessible to supported devices

It is very important to notify the ArchitectView about life-cycle events of the Activity. Call architectView's onCreate(), onPostCreate(), onPause(), onResume(), onDestroy() inside your Activity's lifecycle methods. Best practice is to define a member variable for the architectView in your Activity. Set it right after setContentViewin Activity's onCreate(), and then access architectView via member-variable later on.

this.architectView = (ArchitectView)this.findViewById( R.id.architectView );
final ArchitectStartupConfiguration config = new ArchitectStartupConfiguration();
config.setLicenseKey( * license key */ );
this.architectView.onCreate( config );
Note: Since Android 6.0+ you need to make sure your app has the camera runtime permission before calling architectView.onCreate( config ).

Activity's onPostCreate() is the best place to load the AR experience.

this.architectView.onPostCreate();
this.architectView.load( "YOUR-AR-URL" );

The architectView.load() argument is the path to the html file that defines your AR experience. It can be relative to the asset folder root or a web-url (starting with http:// or https://). e.g. architectView.load('arexperience.html') opens the html in your project's assets-folder, whereat architectView.load('http://your-server.com/arexperience.html') loads the file from a server.

Note: You can only pass arguments to the html file when loading it via url. The following will not work:

architectView.load('arexperience.html?myarg=1')