First things first. I've been having a lot of trouble getting a map to be displayed. By this I mean that I've followed multiple tutorials, including the Google Maps V2 intro here. I read somewhere that I cannot test maps on emulators (elsewhere that I need another kind of custom emulator) so my process has been continually to use dropbox to install the app on my own phone. This may be relevant because i've just read here that the only way a map will work is if it's signed and installed through Google Play Store.
More to the problem, what I see when I view the app is and empty map with zoom controls. I've read in several places that this seems to be signing trouble. I've reread the whole process and after trying almost every possibility, I know I must know exactly what i'm doing first.
As I understand it there are two ways to get an app to work: debug or testing and release. I've signed the app with both keystores, having added them to the Google API Console as described in the tutorials. Both attempts bring about the same result: the empty map with zoom controls.
I will say this: there is a fair amount of, if not contradicting, ambiguous information about this whole process.
UPDATE
It's working now and I have now idea why. I will share my relevant files just in case it can help anyone else. These files are exact copy paste (minus relevant package names) from here.
MainActivity.java
package com.taveras.androidmapsv2;
import com.google.android.gms.maps.GoogleMap;
import com.google.android.gms.maps.MapFragment;
import android.app.Activity;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.widget.Toast;
public class MainActivity extends Activity {
// Google Map
private GoogleMap googleMap;
@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
try {
// Loading map
initilizeMap();
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
/**
* function to load map. If map is not created it will create it for you
* */
private void initilizeMap() {
if (googleMap == null) {
googleMap = ((MapFragment) getFragmentManager().findFragmentById(
R.id.map)).getMap();
// check if map is created successfully or not
if (googleMap == null) {
Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(),
"Sorry! unable to create maps", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT)
.show();
}
}
}
@Override
protected void onResume() {
super.onResume();
initilizeMap();
}
}
activity_main.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent" >
<fragment
android:id="@+id/map"
android:name="com.google.android.gms.maps.MapFragment"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"/>
</RelativeLayout>
AndroidManifest
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
package="com.taveras.androidmapsv2"
android:versionCode="1"
android:versionName="1.0" >
<uses-sdk
android:minSdkVersion="11"
android:targetSdkVersion="18" />
<permission
android:name="com.taveras.androidmapsv2.permission.MAPS_RECEIVE"
android:protectionLevel="signature" />
<uses-permission android:name="com.taveras.androidmapsv2.permission.MAPS_RECEIVE" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET" />
<uses-permission android:name="com.google.android.providers.gsf.permission.READ_GSERVICES" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION" />
<uses-feature
android:glEsVersion="0x00020000"
android:required="true" />
<application
android:allowBackup="true"
android:icon="@drawable/ic_launcher"
android:label="@string/app_name"
android:theme="@style/AppTheme" >
<activity
android:name="com.taveras.androidmapsv2.MainActivity"
android:label="@string/app_name" >
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>
<meta-data
android:name="com.google.android.gms.version"
android:value="@integer/google_play_services_version"
/>
<meta-data
android:name="com.google.android.maps.v2.API_KEY"
android:value="AIzaSyDLKtTtTDxULNBvNLtGPvkEf6NNacs-42A" />
</application>
</manifest>
Thanks in advance for any leads. Ebichuhamster
