Installation Guide
Before starting to develop your application with the Navigation SDK, you'll need to configure your credentials and add the SDK as a dependency.
Configure credentials
Before installing the SDK, you will need to gather the appropriate credentials.
The SDK requires two pieces of sensitive information from your Mapbox account (or sign up to create one):
- A public access token: From your account's tokens page, you can either copy your default public token or click the Create a token button to create a new public token.
- A secret access token with the
Downloads:Read
scope.- From your account's tokens page, click the Create a token button.
- From the token creation page, give your token a name and make sure the box next to the
Downloads:Read
scope is checked. - Click the Create token button at the bottom of the page to create your token.
- The token you've created is a secret token, which means you will only have one opportunity to copy it somewhere secure.
You should not expose these access tokens in publicly-accessible source code where unauthorized users might find them. Instead, you should store them somewhere safe on your computer and take advantage of Gradle properties to make sure they're only added when your app is compiled (see next section).
Configure your secret token
To avoid exposing your secret token, add it as an environment variable:
- Find or create a
gradle.properties
file in your Gradle user home folder. The folder is located at«USER_HOME»/.gradle
. Once you have found or created the file, its path should be«USER_HOME»/.gradle/gradle.properties
. More details about Gradle properties in the official Gradle documentation. - Add your secret token your
gradle.properties
file:
MAPBOX_DOWNLOADS_TOKEN=YOUR_SECRET_MAPBOX_ACCESS_TOKEN
Configure your public token
The SDK supports multiple ways of providing an access token: through app resources or by setting it at runtime.
Resources
One way to provide your public token to Mapbox SDK is by adding it as an Android string resource.
To do so create a new string resource file in your app module (for example app/src/main/res/values/mapbox_access_token.xml
) with your public Mapbox API token:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools">
<string name="mapbox_access_token" translatable="false" tools:ignore="UnusedResources">YOUR_MAPBOX_ACCESS_TOKEN</string>
</resources>
In this case, if you want to rotate an access token, you'll need to re-release your app. For more information on access token rotation, consult the Access Tokens Information page.
Runtime
Another way to provide a token is to do it at runtime with this code:
MapboxOptions.accessToken = YOUR_MAPBOX_ACCESS_TOKEN
You will find this option helpful in case you want to rotate your tokens at runtime or want to receive the token from your backend instead of storing it in your apk.
Note that you must set a valid token before any interaction with the SDK, including its initialization, otherwise the SDK will not be able to use your token.
For example, in case of Navigation SDK, first set the token and only then initialize it.
In case of Maps SDK, set the token before inflating the MapView (may be a setContentView
invocation in your Activity#onCreate
).
But once you change the token at runtime, the new one will be used by all the SDKs from that point on.
For example, if you have a long-living app and want to rotate the token every 48 hours, here is a possible approach you might want to consider:
- On the first app start make a network request to your backend for a token.
- When you receive a token, load the Navigation component in your app that will instantiate the Navigation SDK, inflate the MapView, etc.
- Store the token in your app files.
- On the next app launch you can read the token from file.
- If it's not available (for example, app data was cleared), make another request to your backend and delay loading the Navigation component.
- Every 48 hours make a request to your backend to check the token.
- If the token changed, at any point in your app's lifecycle invoke:
MapboxOptions.accessToken = YOUR_NEW_PUBLIC_MAPBOX_ACCESS_TOKEN
From this moment on it will be used by all the Mapbox SDKs.
- Store the new token in your app's directory.
For information on how you can create a new value for your token, consult the Access Tokens Information Page.
Configure permissions
If you plan to display the user's location on the map or get the user's location information you will need to add the ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION
permission in your application's AndroidManifest.xml
. You also need to add ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION
permissions if you need access to precise location. You can check whether the user has granted location permission and request permissions if the user hasn't granted them yet using the PermissionsManager
.
<manifest ... >
<!-- Always include this permission -->
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION" />
<!-- Include only if your app benefits from precise location access. -->
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION" />
</manifest>
If your app targets Android 13 or higher, POST_NOTIFICATIONS
permission is required to show notifications to the user. Navigation SDK shows the notification during both Free Drive and Active Guidance, if you don't explicitly disable the foreground service launch by calling MapboxNavigation#startTripSession(false)
. That's why the Navigation SDK declares this permission in its AndroidManifest.xml
:
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.POST_NOTIFICATIONS" />
The notification contains some useful trip progress information and UI controls. So it's highly recommended that you request the permission in runtime. The Navigation SDK will continue working and receiving location updates when minimized even if the permission is not granted, but there will be no trip notification displayed.
PermissionsManager
.Add Mapbox Repository
Mapbox provides the Navigation SDK via Maven.
To add the Navigation SDK as a dependency, you will need to configure your build to download the Navigation SDK from Mapbox directly. This requires a valid username and password.
-
Open your project in Android Studio.
-
Declare the Mapbox Downloads API's
releases/maven
endpoint. To download the Navigation SDK dependency, you must authenticate your request with a valid username and password. In the previous section, you added the password to agradle.properties
file in your Gradle user home folder. The username field should always be"mapbox"
. It should not be your personal username used to create the secret token. The placement of these declarations depends on the versions of Android Studio and Gradle that your project is using:-
Android Studio less than Arctic Fox (2020.3.1) and Gradle less than v6.0: Open up your project-level
build.gradle
file, and add the code below to declare the endpoint in therepositories
block:allprojects {
repositories {
maven {
url 'https://api.mapbox.com/downloads/v2/releases/maven'
authentication {
basic(BasicAuthentication)
}
credentials {
// Do not change the username below.
// This should always be `mapbox` (not your username).
username = "mapbox"
// Use the secret token you stored in gradle.properties as the password
password = project.properties['MAPBOX_DOWNLOADS_TOKEN'] ?: ""
}
}
}
} -
Android Studio Arctic Fox (2020.3.1) or later and Gradle v6.0 or later: You may need to make these declarations in your
settings.gradle
file instead. If you see build errors with thebuild.gradle
process described above, then instead declare the Mapbox's Maven repository in yoursettings.gradle
file like below:dependencyResolutionManagement {
repositoriesMode.set(RepositoriesMode.FAIL_ON_PROJECT_REPOS)
repositories {
google()
mavenCentral()
maven {
url 'https://api.mapbox.com/downloads/v2/releases/maven'
authentication {
basic(BasicAuthentication)
}
credentials {
// Do not change the username below.
// This should always be `mapbox` (not your username).
username = "mapbox"
// Use the secret token you stored in gradle.properties as the password
password = MAPBOX_DOWNLOADS_TOKEN
}
}
}
}
-
-
Open up your module-level
build.gradle
file. -
The Navigation SDK uses Java 8 features. To enable Java 8 in your project, add the following
compileOptions
.android {
compileOptions {
sourceCompatibility JavaVersion.VERSION_1_8
targetCompatibility JavaVersion.VERSION_1_8
}
// Add the block below if you're using Kotlin
kotlinOptions {
jvmTarget = "1.8"
}
...
} -
Make sure that your project's
minSdkVersion
is at API 21 or higher.android {
...
defaultConfig {
minSdkVersion 21
}
}
Add dependency
-
Add the dependency under dependencies. The Navigation SDK offers a range of components, each with its own dependency name:
- Navigation component allows you to access the primary interface for engaging with the Navigation SDK
dependencies {
implementation "com.mapbox.navigationcore:navigation:3.4.0"
}- Mapbox Copilot is a component that collects detailed trace files of navigation sessions together with search analytics data
dependencies {
implementation "com.mapbox.navigationcore:copilot:3.4.0"
}- Maps component provides a set of classes that can enhance the navigation experience for your users, for example,
Navigation Camera
to simplify management of the map's camera object, orRoute Line
to render a route line on a map
dependencies {
implementation "com.mapbox.navigationcore:ui-maps:3.4.0"
}- Voice component allows users to access Voice API
dependencies {
implementation "com.mapbox.navigationcore:voice:3.4.0"
}- Trip Data component provides convenient API to request maneuver instructions, route shields, speed limit, and trip progress data.
dependencies {
implementation "com.mapbox.navigationcore:tripdata:3.4.0"
}- Android component provides all the listed above components
dependencies {
implementation "com.mapbox.navigationcore:android:3.4.0"
}- UI components module provides pre-built UI widgets
dependencies {
implementation "com.mapbox.navigationcore:ui-components:3.4.0"
}The detailed documentation about all the Navigation SDK components is coming soon.
-
Because you've edited your Gradle files, Android Studio will ask you whether you want to sync the Gradle files. You can sync now.