How to Host Maven Repository for Android AAR File on IIS

Jun 25, 2018

 Miscellaneous

•  ANDROID
•  AAR
•  MAVEN
•  IIS

If you have a .jar or a .aar file for distribution, you can publish it to Maven central or jcenter. But the premise is your package has to be open source. If you want to distribute a commercial library, you’d better host a Maven repository yourself. Inspired by STEFFENWELLNER’s article, I have successfully set up a Maven repository on IIS. The post includes how to create an AAR project, how to configure IIS and URL, as well as how to create a testing project.

Uploading Android AAR to Local Maven Repository

Create an empty project without any activity.

Create an AAR module.

Create maven-publish.gradle:

apply plugin: 'maven'

group = "com.dynamsoft"
version = "1.0"

afterEvaluate { project ->
    uploadArchives {
        repositories {
            mavenDeployer {
                repository(url: 'file:\\\\DESKTOP-3PCHU10\\site\\')

                pom.project {
                    name 'dcs'
                    packaging 'aar'
                    description 'Document scanning API for Android'
                    url 'https://www.dynamsoft.com/Products/mobile-imaging-sdk.aspx'

                    developers {
                        developer {
                            id 'Dynamsoft'
                            name 'Dynamsoft'
                            email 'support@dynamsoft.com'
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

buildscript {
    repositories {
        jcenter()
    }
    dependencies {
        classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:2.3.3'
        classpath 'com.github.dcendents:android-maven-plugin:1.2'
    }
}

The URL file:\\DESKTOP-3PCHU10\site\ is a shared folder.

Add “apply from: ‘maven-publish.gradle’“ to the end of dcs\build.gradle.

Write some Java classes and methods.

Build and upload the AAR file to file:\\DESKTOP-3PCHU10\site\ by running the Gradle command.

Hosting Maven Repository on IIS

Create a website on IIS.

Add MIME types to web.config.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<configuration>
    <system.webServer>
        <staticContent>
            <mimeMap fileExtension=".aar" mimeType="application/java-archive" />
            <mimeMap fileExtension=".pom" mimeType="text/xml" />
            <mimeMap fileExtension=".md5" mimeType="text/plain" />
            <mimeMap fileExtension=".sha1" mimeType="text/plain" />
        </staticContent>
    </system.webServer>
</configuration>

You may see the unauthorized error when browsing the website.

To fix the error, right-click the site folder and select security > edit to add everyone as a username.

Refresh your page. It should work now.

Download and run ngrok:

ngrok http 80

I got the randomly generated URL https://727eb58a.ngrok.io. When you restart ngrok, the URL will change.

Adding Dependency from Hosted Maven Repository in Android Project

Create an Android project maventest.

Configure my Maven repository in MavenTest\build.gradle.

// Top-level build file where you can add configuration options common to all sub-projects/modules.

buildscript {
    
    repositories {
        google()
        jcenter()
    }
    dependencies {
        classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:3.1.1'
        

        // NOTE: Do not place your application dependencies here; they belong
        // in the individual module build.gradle files
    }
}

allprojects {
    repositories {
        google()
        jcenter()
        maven{
            url 'https://727eb58a.ngrok.io'
        }
    }
}

task clean(type: Delete) {
    delete rootProject.buildDir
}

Open app\build.gradle to add the dependency com.dynamsoft:dcs:1.0 (groupid:artifactid:version).

apply plugin: 'com.android.application'

android {
    compileSdkVersion 27
    defaultConfig {
        applicationId "com.dynamsoft.maventest"
        minSdkVersion 15
        targetSdkVersion 27
        versionCode 1
        versionName "1.0"
        testInstrumentationRunner "android.support.test.runner.AndroidJUnitRunner"
    }
    buildTypes {
        release {
            minifyEnabled false
            proguardFiles getDefaultProguardFile('proguard-android.txt'), 'proguard-rules.pro'
        }
    }
}

dependencies {
    implementation fileTree(dir: 'libs', include: \['\*.jar'\])
    implementation 'com.android.support:appcompat-v7:27.1.1'
    implementation 'com.android.support.constraint:constraint-layout:1.1.1'
    testImplementation 'junit:junit:4.12'
    androidTestImplementation 'com.android.support.test:runner:1.0.2'
    androidTestImplementation 'com.android.support.test.espresso:espresso-core:3.0.2'
    implementation 'com.dynamsoft:dcs:1.0'
}

The library is now available.

package com.dynamsoft.maventest;

import android.support.v7.app.AppCompatActivity;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.widget.TextView;

import com.dynamsoft.dcs.Camera;

public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        TextView tv = new TextView(this);
        Camera camera = new Camera();
        tv.setText(camera.getName());
        setContentView(tv);
    }
}

Source Code

https://github.com/yushulx/iis-maven-repository