BARACUS Maven archetype released

Today I am very happy to announce the release of a maven archetype to create Android applications using the BARACUS framework. It can be accessed via maven central and allows you to create application skeletons with the BARACUS framework fully integrated (no additional config needed).

Prerequisites

• a suitable Java JDK (I still use 1.7.x atm)
• Apache Maven Version 3 (I tend to use the latest maven distro)
• Android SDK containing app level 14 minimum (I build my apps against level 18 atm, but that fits), since I am using linux my path is /usr/java/adt-bundle-linux-x86_64/sdk. 

Steps to perform

• use mvn archetype:generate, ensuring that your internet connectivity is up. Then, you will get a list with 1000+ elements containing various application types. 
• Enter the term "baracus" and press enter. You now should see one element containing the BARACUS archetype
• Enter "1" and press enter. 
• Then you will be prompted for coordinates of your app
• Finally the maven based baracus application is created and you can open it with your favourite IDE

After creating the application

One parameter MUST be modified : You have to check the pom.xml, where a property android.sdk.path. It must point to your local android sdk. Since I am developing wih Linux, my path is /usr/java/adt-bundle-linux-x86_64/sdk. Simply modify the path your pom.xml to point to your Android SDK. If you want to develop with multiple environments, you can take advantage of maven's profiles feature. Take a look on the Baracus framework pom.xml for an example.

That's it, now you can build and deploy the application on your mobile device.

Features of the archetype app

* context creation (ApplicationContext)
* database initialization (OpenHelper)
* simple data structure plus mapping (Customer+CustomerDao)
* Data initialization (ApplicationInitializer Hook)
* Example form validation

Every release of the Baracus framework bring an update on the archetype in time.

Have fun!