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Installation

Additional Developer Resources

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.
    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 (see next section).

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 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.
  2. Add your secret token your gradle.properties file:
MAPBOX_DOWNLOADS_TOKEN=YOUR_SECRET_MAPBOX_ACCESS_TOKEN

Configure your public token​

The preferred 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/developer-config.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>

If you ever need to rotate YOUR_MAPBOX_ACCESS_TOKEN, you will need to update the token value in your 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>

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 (starting from v2.8.0):

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.POST_NOTIFICATIONS" />

The notification contains some useful trip progress information and UI controls. For more information see the notification section. 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.

GUIDE
Access token best practices

Learn how to keep access tokens private in mobile apps.
Handle location permissions
The Navigation SDK makes use of the Android manifest merge feature. The Navigation SDK's manifest file already has both the course and fine location permission lines, which means you don't have to declare any location permissions inside your project's manifest file or in some other way.If your project targets Android API 23 or higher, make sure to check the user location permission in runtime using the Mapbox Core Library for Android's PermissionsManager interface.

Add the dependency​

Mapbox provides the Navigation SDK via Maven.

To add the Mapbox 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.

  1. Open your project in Android Studio.

  2. 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 a gradle.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. Where you make these declarations depend on the versions of Android Studio and Gradle 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 the repositories 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 the build.gradle process described above, then instead declare the Mapbox's Maven repository in your settings.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
          }
        }
    }
}

  3. Open up your module-level build.gradle file.

  4. 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"
	}
    ...
}

  5. Make sure that your project's minSdkVersion is at API 21 or higher.

    android {
    ...
    defaultConfig {
        minSdkVersion 21
    }
}

  6. Add the dependency under dependencies. Go to Choose an approach section to learn more about available integration paths.

  7. Because you've edited your Gradle files, Android Studio will ask you whether you want to sync the Gradle files. You can sync now.

Use nightly builds and beta versions
You can also use a SNAPSHOT version of the Navigation SDK if you want access to bug fixes or features that have not been packaged in an official release yet. Find more information about how to do this inside the Navigation SDK's GitHub repository.
Method limit
If you've added the Navigation SDK, finished all the installation steps above, and see an Android Studio error saying that you've reached maximum method count, try enabling Multidex following the official Android guides to using multidex and optimizing your code.

Display a navigation UI​

To simulate your first navigation experience using our UI components, use the Add a complete turn-by-turn experience example.

EXAMPLE
Add a complete turn-by-turn experience

Render a complete turn-by-turn experience using all relevant Navigation SDK APIs and pre-built UI components.

Additional Developer Resources
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