Android Development - Warning

L.Jenkins

I've been working on a small project, nothing serious and just trying to get to grips with it all. I've got no errors in my code, but I'm getting a warning in the Manifest file:

"<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>"

The solution is simple, I'm sure. It's annoying slightly trying to figure it.

The warning itself is coming up as minSDKVersion(4) is lower than target 10. So something needs to be charged somewhere.

L.Jenkins

Finding a solution to the problem myself. A few updates and revisions required for ADT. Has working with Android always been this painful in some cases?

God be with the days when you could write some code and run it through a compiler, the old fashioned way. Now Development Environments cause more problems than poorly written code :P

The Corinthian

As you said yourself, it's a warning rather than an error and there are many warnings that have little or no impact to an app.

In the case of a warning that the minimum SDK is less than the target, this is presently an all too common sight ever since Admob enforced that we should all develop for SDK version 13 - in practical terms it really only means that you have to take greater care to develop code that is comparable with the minimum SDK, as it will not be caught automatically by Eclipse if it is not.

Development environments always caused more problems than the code itself in my experience; in many cases getting to the point where you're compiling Hello World is half the battle in learning a new language. It's one of the areas where I'll have to say that Microsoft have always been good at - they do produce bloody good and easy to use development environments compared to most.

L.Jenkins

Yeah I found the problem last night, but I'm still working through a solution to fix it. The error generated is a 'Debug Certificate Expiration 'date''. Other notes accompanying that is an Android Packaging Problem.

The solutions on the net seem endless with no clear explaination of the problem, so I'll hit up the Android forums and report back any solutions should anybody here encounter the same problems in the future.

L.Jenkins

I can't compile my app because the build tools generated an expired debug certificate

1. First, delete the debug keystore/key already generated by the Android build tools. Specifically, delete the debug.keystore file. On Linux/Mac OSX, the file is stored in ~/.android. On Windows XP, the file is stored in C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\.android. On Windows Vista, the file is stored in C:\Users\<user>\.android
2. Next, you can either Temporarily change your development machine's locale (date and time) to one that uses a Gregorian calendar, for example, United States. Once the locale is changed, use the Android build tools to compile and install your app. The build tools will regenerate a new keystore and debug key with valid dates. Once the new debug key is generated, you can reset your development machine to the original locale.

• Alternatively, if you do not want to change your machine's locale settings, you can generate the keystore/key on any machine using the Gregorian calendar, then copy the debug.keystore file from that computer to the proper location on your development machine.

Finally got it to work. See above solution.