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Installation

Additional Developer Resources
A newer version of the Maps SDK is available
This page uses v9.7.1 of the Mapbox Maps SDK. A newer version of the SDK is available. Learn about the latest version, v11.8.0, in the Maps SDK documentation.

Before starting to develop your application with the Maps SDK, you'll need to configure your credentials and add the SDK as a dependency. This document describes the steps to install the stable version of the Maps SDK, but you can also use the nightly build (as in SNAPSHOT) or the beta version, if one is available. Find more information about how to do this inside the project’s GitHub repository.

Android's 64K method count limit
If your application is over the 64K method limit, you can shrink, obfuscate, and optimize your code with R8 or ProGuard. If those steps do not lower your method count below 64K, you can also enable multidex.

Configure credentials​

Step 1: Log in/Sign up for a Mapbox account​

If you haven't done so already, sign up for a Mapbox account and log into it.

You can sign up or sign in by clicking the buttons in the top right corner of your browser or going to https://account.mapbox.com/sign-up.

This account will allow you to create tokens and will create a default public token for you upon creation.

Step 2: Configure your public token​

Next let's provide an access token to the SDK by adding the token as an Android string resource.

To do this, follow these steps:

  1. Open your project folder or create a new project in Android Studio.
  • If creating a new project, we recommend using the Empty Activity project type.
  1. Go to the folder structure in the left side of Android Studio and open your resource folder located at app/res/values.
  2. Create a new resource file, by left clicking on the folder, selecting New > Values Resource File
  3. Name the file mapbox_access_token.xml and click the Ok button.
  4. In the new file, copy and paste the code snippet below. If you are signed in, this snippet will already contain your default public token (a long string that starts with pk.). If you are not signed in, you will need to replace the placeholder YOUR_MAPBOX_ACCESS_TOKEN with a token from your account's tokens page.
<?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>
Advanced Topics: Best Practices, Rotating Tokens & Adding Tokens at Runtime
GUIDE
Access token best practices

Learn how to keep access tokens private in mobile apps.

Adding Tokens at Runtime

You can also implement tokens at runtime, but this requires you to have a separate server to store your tokens. This is helpful if you want to rotate your tokens or add additional security by storing your tokens outside of the APK, but is a much more complex method of implementation.

If you do choose to follow this method, we recommend calling MapboxOptions.accessToken = YOUR_PUBLIC_MAPBOX_ACCESS_TOKEN before inflating the MapView, otherwise the app will crash.

Rotating Tokens

For more information on access token rotation, consult the Access Tokens Information page.

Step 3: Configure permissions​

If you need to access user's location on the map or get the user's location information you will need to do the following:

  1. Open app > manifests > AndroidManifest.mxl
  2. Determine the permissions you need. If you only need general user location access, add the ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION permission. If also need access to a more precise location you will need to also call ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION.
  • Note: You must call ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION to access location at all, while ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION is only needed for more specific access.
  1. Add the permissions you need as seen in the code snippet to the AndroidManifest.xml.
  • This should be added at the top of the manifest, below the opening manifest tag and above the opening <application> tag.
 
<!-- Include this permission to grab user's general location -->
 
<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" />

You can check whether the user has granted location permission and request permissions if the user hasn't granted them yet using the PermissionsManager.

GUIDE
Access token best practices

Learn how to keep access tokens private in mobile apps.

Add the dependency​

Mapbox provides the Maps SDK via Maven.

To add the Mapbox Maps SDK as a dependency, you will need to configure your build to download the Maps SDK from Mapbox directly. This requires a valid username and password.

  1. Open your project in Android Studio.
  2. Open up your module-level build.gradle file.
  3. Make sure that your project's minSdkVersion is at API 14 or higher.
android {
  ...
  defaultConfig {
      minSdkVersion 14
  }
}
  1. Under dependencies, add a new build rule for the latest mapbox-android-sdk.
dependencies {
  implementation 'com.mapbox.mapboxsdk:mapbox-android-sdk:9.7.1'
}
  1. Open up your project-level build.gradle file. Declare the Mapbox Downloads API's v2/releases/maven endpoint in the repositories block. To download the Maps SDK dependency, you must authenticate your request with a valid username and password. In the previous section, you added these to a gradle.properties file in your Gradle user home folder.
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'] ?: ""
      }
    }
  }
}
  1. Because you've edited your Gradle files, Android Studio will ask you whether you want to sync the Gradle files. You can sync now.

Note: You might have mismatching Gradle dependencies once you add the Mapbox Maps SDK for Android. If necessary, you can use exclude group to remove certain dependencies:

implementation ('com.mapbox.mapboxsdk:mapbox-android-sdk:9.7.1'){
    exclude group: 'group_name', module: 'module_name'
}

Additionally, running gradle app_module_name_here:dependencies in your command line will print a list of dependencies. ./gradlew app:dependencies works if you have a Gradle wrapper. They are helpful for troubleshooting nimble Gradle configurations when various libraries are included in a single project. You can see the dependencies that specific libraries are bringing and where conflicts might be happening.

Add a map​

Open the activity you’d like to add a map to and use the code below.

private MapView mapView;

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
  super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

  Mapbox.getInstance(this, getString(R.string.mapbox_access_token));

  setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

  mapView = (MapView) findViewById(R.id.mapView);
  mapView.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
  mapView.getMapAsync(new OnMapReadyCallback() {
    @Override
    public void onMapReady(@NonNull MapboxMap mapboxMap) {

    	mapboxMap.setStyle(Style.MAPBOX_STREETS, new Style.OnStyleLoaded() {
      	@Override
      	public void onStyleLoaded(@NonNull Style style) {

        	// Map is set up and the style has loaded. Now you can add data or make other map adjustments


      	}
      });

    }
  });
}

Open the activity’s XML layout file and add the following:

<com.mapbox.mapboxsdk.maps.MapView
  android:id="@+id/mapView"
  android:layout_width="match_parent"
  android:layout_height="match_parent"
  />

The MapView contains its own lifecycle methods for managing Android's OpenGL lifecycle, which must be called directly from the containing Activity. For your app to correctly call the MapView's lifecycle methods, you must override the following lifecycle methods in the Activity that contains the MapView and call the respective MapView method. The following lifecycle methods must be overridden and include the matching MapView method. If you're using a fragment, call mapview.onDestroy() inside the fragment's onDestroyView() method rather than inside onDestroy().

@Override
protected void onStart() {
	super.onStart();
	mapView.onStart();
}

@Override
protected void onResume() {
	super.onResume();
	mapView.onResume();
}

@Override
protected void onPause() {
	super.onPause();
	mapView.onPause();
}

@Override
protected void onStop() {
	super.onStop();
	mapView.onStop();
}

@Override
protected void onSaveInstanceState(Bundle outState) {
	super.onSaveInstanceState(outState);
	mapView.onSaveInstanceState(outState);
}

@Override
public void onLowMemory() {
    super.onLowMemory();
    mapView.onLowMemory();
}

@Override
protected void onDestroy() {
	super.onDestroy();
	mapView.onDestroy();
}
Note
To override a fragment's onDestroyView() method:
override fun onDestroyView() {
	super.onDestroyView()
	mapView?.onDestroy()
}
Additional Developer Resources