Getting Started
A note on the new SDK version
Anyline Android SDK version 43.0.0 is rewritten from the ground up, and features a wide range of performance and quality-of-life improvements. |
Requirements
In order to be able to use the Anyline SDK, only two requirements have to be met:
-
An Android device with Android SDK Level >= 21
-
An Android device with decent camera functionality (recommended: 720p and adequate auto focus)
If you are migrating from an Anyline version lower than 43, please also see Migrating to Anyline 43.0.0.
The Anyline SDK Examples Bundle
If you rather like to jump into some code than to walk through a Quick Start Guide, a good starting point for development with the Anyline SDK, is to download the Android SDK Bundle.
It includes the following:
-
The Anyline SDK in version 48.0.0 for offline integration
-
A build version of the Anyline OCR Examples App
-
The source code of the Anyline OCR Examples App
-
The Javadoc for the Anyline SDK
-
This documentation
-
The third party licenses
-
A Readme
-
The current Release Notes
Not included in the bundle are the Example Sheets with testing material. |br| They can be downloaded here: Anyline Example Sheets
Quick Start Guide
This guide is going to lead you through the first steps when implementing the Anyline SDK on Android.
Generate an Anyline License
In order to run the Anyline SDK in your app, you require a license key.
In order to create a license key for your application, you have to identify the applicationId
of your Android app.
|
How to identify the Application ID
In your build.gradle file
On Android, the applicationId
can be found in the build.gradle
file of your app.
It is listed there under android > defaultConfig > applicationId
plugins {
id 'com.android.application'
}
android {
compileSdk 32
defaultConfig {
applicationId "io.anyline.examples.snapshot"
minSdk 21
targetSdk 32
versionCode 200
versionName "3.0"
}
}
In your AndroidManifest.xml
If the applicationId
is not used in the build.gradle file, you may use the package name of your application that is defined in the AndroidManifest.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
package="com.anyline.examples">
</manifest>
With the applicationId you are now able to Generate a License.
|
Add AnylineSDK as dependency
The Anyline SDK for Android is provided as an .aar
library.
You can integrate the Anyline SDK into your app in two ways.
From maven
You can simply add the Anyline SDK as a dependency in your build.gradle
. This way you can easily change versions, without having to download the new SDK version yourself. Replace LATEST_SDK_VERSION
in the code block below with 48.0.0
(latest version).
//root section of the file
repositories {
//add the anyline maven repo
maven { url 'https://anylinesdk.blob.core.windows.net/maven/'}
}
dependencies {
//load Anyline dependency
implementation 'io.anyline:anylinesdk:LATEST_SDK_VERSION'
//... your other dependencies
}
Locally
If you rather add the Anyline SDK locally as a lib, you can do so as well. To do so, you have to copy the .aar
file to the libs directory of your Android project. This is usually located under app/libs.
You can download an offline version of the Anyline SDK from the Android SDK Bundle
. Replace LATEST_SDK_VERSION
in the code block below with 48.0.0
(latest version).
//root section of the file
repositories {
flatDir {
dirs 'libs'
}
}
dependencies {
//load Anyline dependency
implementation(name:'anylinesdk-LATEST_SDK_VERSION', ext:'aar')
implementation("com.google.guava:guava:29.0-android")
//... your other dependencies
}
Integrate the License Key
Add the License Key as a Resource
You can add your License Key to a string resource file, or put it hard-coded into your Java file. However, we recommend to add a separate resource file (e.g. anyline_license_key.xml
) to your res/values
folder.
This should look like the following:
<resources>
<string name="anyline_license_key" translatable="false">YOUR_LICENSE_KEY</string>
</resources>
Initialize the Android SDK with the License Key
Initialise the Anyline SDK before you do anything related to Anyline and handle the exception:
// This must be called before doing anything Anyline-related!
// Try/Catch this to check whether or not your license key is valid!
try {
io.anyline2.AnylineSDK.init(getString(licenseKey), this);
} catch (LicenseException e) {
// handle exception
}
Reduce App size
By default, the Anyline SDK ships trained models for all of our supported use cases. This will increase your app size significantly, but there is a simple way to remove the assets you do not need.
For a guide on how to do so, please follow Reduce SDK Size.
Load a Plugin and start scanning
Now you are all set to load one of the Anyline SDK Plugins and start scanning.
Do not forget: The Anyline SDK uses the camera for scanning - your application must request permission to use the camera! |
The plugins on Android are described in detail at Plugins in the next section.