Sunday, January 19, 2014

Installing app on External storage

Installing app on External storage(for ex,the device's SD card):

Beginning with API Level 8, you can allow your application to be installed on the external storage (for example, the device's SD card). This is an optional feature you can declare for your application with the android:installLocation manifest attribute. If you do not declare this attribute, your application will be installed on the internal storage only and it cannot be moved to the external storage.

To allow the system to install your application on the external storage, modify your manifest file to include the android:installLocation attribute in the <manifest> element, with a value of either "preferExternal" or "auto".

For example:
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:installLocation="preferExternal"
    ... >


If you declare "preferExternal", you request that your application be installed on the external storage, but the system does not guarantee that your application will be installed on the external storage. If the external storage is full, the system will install it on the internal storage. The user can also move your application between the two locations.

If you declare "auto", you indicate that your application may be installed on the external storage, but you don't have a preference of install location. The system will decide where to install your application based on several factors. The user can also move your application between the two locations.

Warning: When the user enables USB mass storage to share files with a computer or unmounts the SD card via the system settings, the external storage is unmounted from the device and all applications running on the external storage are immediately killed.

Applications That Should NOT Install on External Storage:

When the user enables USB mass storage to share files with their computer (or otherwise unmounts or removes the external storage), any application installed on the external storage and currently running is killed. The system effectively becomes unaware of the application until mass storage is disabled and the external storage is remounted on the device. Besides killing the application and making it unavailable to the user, this can break some types of applications in a more serious way. In order for your application to consistently behave as expected, you should not allow your application to be installed on the external storage if it uses any of the following features, due to the cited consequences when the external storage is unmounted:

Services
Your running Service will be killed and will not be restarted when external storage is remounted. You can, however, register for the ACTION_EXTERNAL_APPLICATIONS_AVAILABLE broadcast Intent, which will notify your application when applications installed on external storage have become available to the system again. At which time, you can restart your Service.

Alarm Services
Your alarms registered with AlarmManager will be cancelled. You must manually re-register any alarms when external storage is remounted.

Input Method Engines
Your IME will be replaced by the default IME. When external storage is remounted, the user can open system settings to enable your IME again.

Live Wallpapers
Your running Live Wallpaper will be replaced by the default Live Wallpaper. When external storage is remounted, the user can select your Live Wallpaper again.

App Widgets
Your App Widget will be removed from the home screen. When external storage is remounted, your App Widget will not be available for the user to select until the system resets the home application (usually not until a system reboot).

Account Managers
Your accounts created with AccountManager will disappear until external storage is remounted.

Sync Adapters
Your AbstractThreadedSyncAdapter and all its sync functionality will not work until external storage is remounted.

Device Administrators
Your DeviceAdminReceiver and all its admin capabilities will be disabled, which can have unforeseeable consequences for the device functionality, which may persist after external storage is remounted.

Broadcast Receivers listening for "boot completed"
The system delivers the ACTION_BOOT_COMPLETED broadcast before the external storage is mounted to the device. If your application is installed on the external storage, it can never receive this broadcast.

If your application uses any of the features listed above, you should not allow your application to install on external storage. By default, the system will not allow your application to install on the external storage, so you don't need to worry about your existing applications. However, if you're certain that your application should never be installed on the external storage, then you should make this clear by declaring android:installLocation with a value of "internalOnly". Though this does not change the default behavior, it explicitly states that your application should only be installed on the internal storage and serves as a reminder to you and other developers that this decision has been made.







Source :  http://developer.android.com/index.html


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