Adding external library in Android studio 0.3.6

Question

So I am fairly new to Java, and I am trying to add this library to my project. The problem is that Android studio 0.3.6 doesn\'t have a simple way of doing that and all the

Answer 1

I had the same issue. The new version of Android Studio (0.3.6) removed some necessary features to add an existing library to a project using the IDE. So you have to do this manually.

Adding the library into the build folder "\App\build\libs\" will break the project on "menu > build > clear project / rebuild project".

Updated solution
My solution is to generate a new folder inside "\\src\main\libs\" and add the library here. Now you have to change your "\\build.gradle" by adding the following (my example shows the value for android-support library:

   dependencies {
       compile 'com.android.support:support-v4:13.0.0'
       compile 'com.android.support:support-v13:13.0.0'
       compile files('libs/gson-2.2.4.jar')
   }

Now select the library in "project View" by right click and select "Add as library... > level > Global library". This will fix an import com.google.gson.Gson; issue.

Maybe you still cannot build. In this case you shall check you project module settings and see if there is an error for Gson dependency. I let Android Studio fix this issue by hitting a "small red bulb icon > add dependency" in the lower right corner of module settings dialog. Now it does not show me no errors anymore on build.

Now we have only one remaining problem: The project does lose the library reference on project close. So we have to add the library on open again. Maybe this is an issue of Android Studio 0.3.6. Mario filed a bug report.

BTW: I upvoted this question because I searched without success for a working solution in the internet. I think beginners will always fail to work with the Android developer tutorials of Google when they are forced to deal with the support library.

Update / Recommendation

Unfortunately I did not get AS 0.3.6 working properly. There are to many issues - at least when adding another module with different namespace. So I switched to the origin IDE: IntelliJ IDEA 12 community Edition. It's free and works for me. I did all the stuff in 2 hours which need days using broken Android Studio. I have no idea what forces Google to build its own IDE based on IntelliJ IDEA without additional benefits / noticeable features when the latter works like a charm.