Gdata API in the Android Opensource Project

[A.Grunewald]

Comparing the Gdata API in the android open source project platform/
external/gdata.git to the standard Java Gdata api
http://code.google.com/p/gdata-java-client/ shows vast differences.
Also the android version of the gdata API has not been updated since
march 2009.
My questions are now:
What and why are there differences between the two APIs?
Where is the Gdata API maintained, since it is external to the
platform?
Is the Gdata API code in the git repo also under an ASL license ? If
not which license applies and where can one get more information ?

Any help and pointers that could help me find out more about that
would be really helpfull.

Regards

Andreas

[Dianne Hackborn]

The one in the platform is the mobile GData API, which was used because the desktop one was (at the time) way too heavy-weight.  I believe there is some effort going on to make the desktop one lighter so it can be used in Android, but I don't know much more than that.  (This is why the API is not exposed in the SDK, because it probably won't remain in its current form.)

--
Dianne Hackborn
Android framework engineer
hac...@android.com

Note: please don't send private questions to me, as I don't have time to provide private support, and so won't reply to such e-mails.  All such questions should be posted on public forums, where I and others can see and answer them.

[A.Grunewald]

Hello Dianne,
that makes absolute sense. So you say a mobile GData API, is this a
public project? Are there people who are working on this right now who
would like the involvement of the community? I am sure there are a few
people interested in developing against a Gdata API that will at some
point be included in Android.
It could be developed in a different package allowing people to
include it in their applications at the moment and then later when the
GData API is part of Android they could use the part from the SDK.
I would love to contribute to developing a GData API that is SDK
compatible and that could be used by developers who want to write
against the Google services. If you say the desktop Gdata API is to
heavy weight it seems to make sense to develop one for Android and
have it as a Library that can be used well on Android.

With regards to Libraries, are there plans for modularising libraries
so that they can be deployed separate from the app or better only
once? Much like a maven repository as the central storage of all
dependencies.
What I am thinking of is the following scenario

APP-1 depends on API-A which is not part of the Android platform. The
App declares a dependency on API-A and when it is installed it also
downloads it's dependencies (or asks for them to be installed if the
Device is not connected to the net) after the dependency is loaded
APP-1 and API-A are on the device.
Now APP-2 comes along and also depends on API-A. Once the installation
process notices that the API is already there it just launches. I know
this has only remotely to do with the GData API but it is something
that would make evolving the overall development much simpler since
depencencies could be loaded automaticly and would not have to be
redistributed with each app.

Regards

Andreas

On Sep 30, 12:59 am, Dianne Hackborn <hack...@android.com> wrote:
> The one in the platform is the mobile GData API, which was used because the
> desktop one was (at the time) way too heavy-weight.  I believe there is some
> effort going on to make the desktop one lighter so it can be used in
> Android, but I don't know much more than that.  (This is why the API is not
> exposed in the SDK, because it probably won't remain in its current form.)
>

> On Tue, Sep 29, 2009 at 2:23 PM, A.Grunewald <andreas.grunew...@gmail.com>wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> > Comparing the Gdata API in the android open source project platform/
> > external/gdata.git to the standard Java Gdata api

> >http://code.google.com/p/gdata-java-client/shows vast differences.

> > Also the android version of the gdata API has not been updated since
> > march 2009.
> > My questions are now:
> > What and why are there differences between the two APIs?
> > Where is the Gdata API maintained, since it is external to the
> > platform?
> > Is the Gdata API code in the git repo also under an ASL license ? If
> > not which license applies and where can one get more information ?
>
> > Any help and pointers that could help me find out more about that
> > would be really helpfull.
>
> > Regards
>
> > Andreas
>
> --
> Dianne Hackborn
> Android framework engineer

> hack...@android.com

[Dianne Hackborn]

Hi,

I am pretty sure mobile GData was released publicly before Android.  Unfortunately I really don't know anything more about GData than I have already said.

As for shared libraries, there is no schedule at this point for supporting them.  To be honest, I would really prefer just not to, because of all of the nasty versioning, dependency, and security problems they introduce.  Device manufacturers can add their own libraries that are part of the firmware on the device, but at this point you can't write a library that users can download.

You can of course write an .apk with a service, activity, broadcast, or content API, that other developers can use.

hac...@android.com