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Install the Android UI library for the customer app

The Android UI library helps you use the UI components of the modules and also to design your own custom UIs.

1. Prerequisites

  • The latest version of Android Studio

2. Register your Android app with Zoho

  1. Edit your Zoho Creator application.
  2. Navigate to its Settings page.
  3. Click Mobile SDK under Developer Tools.
  4. Under the For Customers section, click For Android. A pane will slide in from the right.
  5. Select the UI & Core library.
  6. Click the Generate Client Credentials. This will generate the client ID and client secret for the Android app that you want to integrate with your Creator application.
  7. Downloaded the zcapp_info.properties file, then add it to your project's raw folder: "<your_project_folder>/app/src/main/res/raw". (Create a folder named raw in this location if it doesn't exist)

3. Install the Android UI library for the customer app

Kotlin
Note:The Android app must have a minimum SDK version 22 or higher.
  1. Integrate SDK with your Android app:
    1. Add the Zoho maven repository URL in app/build.gradle:

      allprojects {
            repositories {
                  google()
                  mavenCentral()
                  maven {
                             url 'https://maven.zohodl.com'
                  }
            }
      }
      Note:While adding the repository URLs in build.gradle you may encounter Build was configured to prefer settings repositories over project repositories issue. To proceed further, you need to add the repository URLs in settings.grade.
    2. Integrate Zoho Creator UI Library & Authentication Library in app/build.gradle.

      dependencies {
         implementation 'com.zoho.creator:creator-ui:1.5'
         implementation 'com.zoho.accounts.android:zaccountsclientportalsdk:V2_0'
      }
    3. Click Sync Now in the bar that appears in the IDE.
  2. Configure your project with the following code:
    1. Add the below string in the strings.xml of your app:

      <string name="ui.label.appname" translatable="false"> YOUR APP NAME </string>
      <string name="iam_portal_url">https://accounts.zohoportal.com</string>  <!-- enter the accounts URL of your respective DC. For eg: EU users use https://accounts.zohoportal.eu-->
      <string name="c_id"> GENERATED CLIENT ID </string>
      <string name="c_secret"> GENERATED CLIENT SECRET ID </string>
      <string name="c_portal"> PORTAL ID </string>
      <string name="redir_url"> REGISTERED REDIRECTURI</string> <!--These parameters are retrieved from the URL mentioned in point 2-->
    2. In the oncreate method in your application / activity class, Initialize the Accounts SDK as follows:

      IAMClientSDK.getInstance(this).init(scopes)

      where scopes - "aaaserver.profile.READ,zohocontacts.userphoto.READ,ZohoContacts.contactapi.READ,
      ZohoCreator.meta.CREATE,ZohoCreator.meta.READ,ZohoCreator.meta.UPDATE,
      ZohoCreator.meta.DELETE,ZohoCreator.data.CREATE,ZohoCreator.data.READ,
      ZohoCreator.data.UPDATE,ZohoCreator.data.DELETE,Stratus.stratusop.READ,
      ZohoCRM.modules.READ,ZohoCRM.users.READ"

      Note: The scope list have been updated for version 1.4 and above.
    3. Create an Activity called HandleRedirectActivity and add the following code to its oncreate method:

      IAMClientSDK.getInstance(this).handleRedirection(this)
    4. Add the following code to the AndroidManifest.xml file:

      <activity android:name=".HandleRedirectActivity" android:exported="true">
      <intent-filter>
          <action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW" />
          <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
          <category android:name="android.intent.category.BROWSABLE" />
          <data android:scheme="<REDIRECTURI_WITHOUT_COLON_AND_SLASH>" />
      </intent-filter>
      </activity>
    5. To open the login screen, add the below code snippet:

      val sdk = IAMClientSDK.getInstance(applicationContext)
      if (!sdk.isUserSignedIn) {
          sdk.presentLoginScreen(this, object : IAMTokenCallback {
              override fun onTokenFetchInitiated() {
      
              }
      
              override fun onTokenFetchComplete(zohoToken: IAMToken) {
                  //<This method will be called after user logged-in successfully>
              }
      
              override fun onTokenFetchFailed(zohoErrorCodes: IAMErrorCodes) {
                  //<This method will be called if any error occurred in the login. You will receive the error code in this callback.>
              }
          }, null)
      } else {
          // start intent to your first activity
      }
    6. Implement the Creator Authentication interface ZCOauthHelper in your app as follows:

      class ZCAuthImpl(private val context: Context) : ZCOauthHelper {
      
          @Throws(ZCException::class)
          override suspend fun getAccessToken(): String? {
              return suspendCoroutine { continuation ->
                  IAMClientSDK.getInstance(context).getToken(object : IAMTokenCallback {
                      override fun onTokenFetchInitiated() {
                      }
      
                      override fun onTokenFetchComplete(token: IAMToken) {
                          continuation.resumeWith(Result.success(token.token))
                      }
      
                      override fun onTokenFetchFailed(errorCode: IAMErrorCodes) {
                          continuation.resumeWith(Result.success(null))
                      }
                  })
              }
          }
      
          override fun getInitialScopes(context: Context): String {
              return ""
          }
      
          override fun isUserSignedIn(): Boolean {
              return IAMClientSDK.getInstance(context).isUserSignedIn
          }
      
          override fun getUserData(): Any? {
              return null
          }
      
          override fun getTransformedUrl(url: String): String {
              return url
          }
      
          override fun checkAndLogout(): Boolean {
              return false
          }
          override fun isEnhanceTokenNeeded(newScopes: String): Boolean { 
              return false 
          }
          override fun enhanceToken(tokenHelper: ZCOauthHelper.ZCOAuthTokenHelper, newScopes: String) { 
          }
      }
    7. Add the below code snippet to your application's / activity's oncreate method to set the instance of Authentication interface to the Creator SDK:

      ZCAPIUtil.setOAuthHelper(ZCAuthImpl(applicationContext))
    8. Add the following to your AndroidManifest.xml file, under the application tag:

      android:name="com.zoho.creator.a.ZCreatorApplication"

FAQ

  1. I'm getting merge conflicts while generating a build. How to resolve them?
    Please add tools:replace="android:allowBackup,android:label,android:theme" under the application tag in the AndroidManifest.xml file and try again.
  2. I get the "Duplicate class android.support.v4.app" error. What should I do?
    To resolve this error, you'll need to add android.enableJetifier=true in gradle.properties file
  3. I get the "Duplicate class androidx.lifecycle.ViewModelLazy found in modules jetified" error. What should I do?
    To resolve this error, please add implementation 'androidx.lifecycle:lifecycle-viewmodel-ktx:2.4.0' to your dependency list

References

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Write to us: support@zohocreator.com