Protocol buffers

Introduction Recently I have been trying to figure out nice and effective approaches for serializing my data across different nodes. Sitting back in the rocking chair, I can recall how CORBA once upon time was supposed to be cool (it was binary and generated code I believe) but somehow was always oh so broken (only […]

Sending SOAP messages in Java without any libraries

Needed to send some SOAP requests in Android. There was no nice library available to do it all. Not that I would care for them much, SOAP is bloated, Java libraries are typically bloated, and combining the two probably gets obese. Anyway, how can I send SOAP messages with only the most basic methods? After […]

Find my lost Android app signing key from IntelliJ

Over time I seemed to have lost my keystore password, that I needed to sign some Android app. Still had the keystore file though. IntelliJ also had the keystore password stored. So how do I get the password from IntelliJ? There is a handy utility on github for this https://github.com/corneliudascalu/intellij-decrypt. If you have the master password […]

Android updating preloaded database

So.. to use a preloaded database in our app, we have to put it in our assets (or similar) and copy it over to the correct directory. But how do we update it when the contents change and we do an update of the app for someone who has the old version? There is the […]

Android Google+ sign in and Game services

Wanted to try out the Google Game Services for Android. Well, I guess there are more than just Game Services since they include Google+ in general, Google Drive, etc… So to use them I need to get the user to sign in to their Google+ account. Can’t be too hard, can it? I mean basically […]

Accessing Android databases from device

(I thought I wrote this down..) Problem: how to access database on my Android device? solution: open command prompt cd to ANDROID_SDK_HOME cd platform-tools ./adb shell run-as applicantion.package.from.androidmanifest.xml cd databases ls ##and here is the list of your databases now, if we want to copy this to development computer, we do cp mydatabasefile.db .. cd […]

setting up robotium rc for an apk in google play

goal: want to test an app available as apk from google play. install app to test on the device install android sdk and configure it to connect to your device (which is in usb debug mode etc) install apk extractor from google play open apk extractor have it extract the apk for you app of […]

setting up android uiautomator

create the ant build file: C:\>android create uitest-project -n myprojectname -t 1 -p c:\code\myproject build the test code: cd c:\code\myproject ant build push (upload) it to the device: C:\code\myproject>adb push c:\code\myproject\uitest\bin\myprojectname.jar /data/local/tmp/ run the test: C:\code\myproject>adb shell uiautomator runtest myproject.jar -c example.Test have to have junit3 jar file to write the code. not sure if […]

installing jelly beans on galaxy tab2 7

needed to use the latest android to get access to some developer tools. only had a development tablet galaxy tab2 7.0 (3110 model). as usual, official updates from samsung are hopeless. so off to try cyanogenmod that everyone says is so easy, nice, great and everyone should root their stuff cause of all the nonsense […]

android onclick xml and onclicklistener

well, the xml definition does not work if in the code you also set an onclicklistener. remove the code version as it replaces the xml version if you prefer just one. thats all folks.