Flock - Android Tutorial

Setting up a new project

This is a step-by-step tutorial for getting started connecting users with a new Activity. In case of problems the library will print (hopefully useful) logs to the console which you can capture with 'adb logcat'.

Download flock-sdk-android.zip and extract it
Create a new Android project in Eclipse
Include flock.jar into the project (screenshots):
- Right click on your project in the Package Explorer and select "Properties"
- Choose "Java Build Path", select the tab "Libraries", click on "Add External JARs"
- Select flock.jar from the extracted sdk
Enable inline documentation for Eclipse (useful for syntax recommendations and hovering over methods):
- Expand flock.jar in the "Libraries" tab of step 3
- Double click on "Javadoc location" and point to the directory "javadoc" from the extracted sdk

Add your developer-id to AndroidManifest.xml, just before </application>

<meta-data android:name="FLOCK_DEVELOPER_ID" android:value="your-developer-id" />

Add the background-service to AndroidManifest.xml, just before </application>. If the project's package name is com.example.dice, the tag would be this:

<service android:name="com.flockengine.BackgroundService">
    <intent-filter>
        <action android:name="com.mycompany.mygame.BackgroundService" />
    </intent-filter>
</service>

Add permission INTERNET to AndroidManifest.xml, just before </manifest>:

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET"></uses-permission>

In YourActivity.java, extend FlockActivity instead of Activity, and to receive events from the engine add an FlockEventCallback at onCreate()

public class YourActivity extends FlockActivity implements FlockEventCallback {
    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        Flock.setOnEventListener(this);
    }
    
    public void onFlockEvent(FlockEvent event, int sender_id, String msg) {
        Log.v("", "new event: " + event + ", sender=" + sender_id + ", msg=" + msg);
    
        switch (event) {
        case SESSION_STARTS:
            Toast.makeText(this, "Game Starts", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();;
            startActivity(new Intent(YourActivity.this, Game.class));
            break;
        }
    }
}

That's the basic setup! Now you can connect authenticate users, configure the engine and connect to the servers. You will need to start multiple emulators for testing.

Have a look at the examples to see how it works in action!

Setting up a new project

See also