Installation

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 (i.e. SNAPSHOT) or the beta version, if one is available.

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. If you don't have a Mapbox account: sign up and navigate to your Account page. You'll need:

• 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.
  1. From your account's tokens page, click the Create a token button.
  2. From the token creation page, give your token a name and make sure the box next to the Downloads:Read scope is checked.
  3. Click the Create token button at the bottom of the page to create your token.
  4. 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. Once this configuration step has been completed, you will be able to reference your credentials in other parts of your app.

Configure your secret token

To avoid exposing your secret token, add it as an environment variable:

1. Find or create a gradle.properties file in your Gradle user home folder. The folder can be found at «USER_HOME»/.gradle. Once you have found or created the file, its path should be «USER_HOME»/.gradle/gradle.properties. You can read more about Gradle properties in the official Gradle documentation.
2. Add your secret token your gradle.properties file:

MAPBOX_DOWNLOADS_TOKEN=YOUR_SECRET_MAPBOX_ACCESS_TOKEN

Configure your public token

There are many ways to configure your public access token. Many of the examples and code snippets on this site assume your token is stored in a file in your project with other string values. If you would like to manage your public access token this way, open your project's R.strings.xml file and add the following string resource, replacing YOUR_MAPBOX_ACCESS_TOKEN with your public Mapbox API token:

<string name="mapbox_access_token">YOUR_MAPBOX_ACCESS_TOKEN</string>

If you ever need to rotate your access token, you will need to update the token value in your R.strings.xml file.

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>

Add the dependency

Mapbox provides the Maps SDK via Maven.

implementation ('com.mapbox.maps:android:10.16.1'){
    exclude group: 'group_name', module: 'module_name'
}

Add a map

import android.os.Bundle
import androidx.appcompat.app.AppCompatActivity
import com.mapbox.maps.MapView
import com.mapbox.maps.Style
 
var mapView: MapView? = null
 
class MainActivity : AppCompatActivity() {
 
override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
setContentView(R.layout.activity_main)
mapView = findViewById(R.id.mapView)
mapView?.getMapboxMap()?.loadStyleUri(Style.MAPBOX_STREETS)
}
}

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

<com.mapbox.maps.MapView xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
xmlns:mapbox="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
android:id="@+id/mapView"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
mapbox:mapbox_cameraTargetLat="40.7128"
mapbox:mapbox_cameraTargetLng="-74.0060"
mapbox:mapbox_cameraZoom="9.0"
/>

The MapView contains its own lifecycle methods for managing Android's OpenGL lifecycle, which must be called directly from the containing Activity. In order 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 fun onStart() {
super.onStart()
mapView?.onStart()
}
 
override fun onStop() {
super.onStop()
mapView?.onStop()
}
 
override fun onLowMemory() {
super.onLowMemory()
mapView?.onLowMemory()
}
 
override fun onDestroy() {
super.onDestroy()
mapView?.onDestroy()
}