Create and publish your Android Open-Source Library in Minutes

Creating and publishing an Android Open-Source Library is much easier than you think. I am going to demonstrate a step-by-step guide to creating and publishing your first Android Jetpack Compose Library with Github and Jitpack.

Prerequisites:

1. Android Studio

2. An Idea for your Open-Source Library

3. A GitHub Account

Steps:

1. Create a new library module:

• Either create a new Project OR use an existing project(not recommended btw).

• Go to Project View from the Left Panel.

• Right-Click and Create a new Android Library module.

2. Write your library code:

• Make sure to remove any unnecessary dependencies from your library module build.gradle file and add only what you need.

• In your library module, create composable functions or classes that you want to include in your library.

3. Configure your library module:

• Make sure the com.android.library plugin is there in your library module's build.gradle file.

• Configure the publishing settings by adding the maven-publish plugin.

// build.gradle of library
plugins {
    alias(libs.plugins.android.library)
    alias(libs.plugins.kotlin.android)
    id("maven-publish")
}

4. Optionally configure the Library publishing config:

// At the End fo build.gradle in library
publishing {
    publications {
        register<MavenPublication>("release") {
            afterEvaluate {
                from(components["release"])
                groupId = "com.github.sagar"
                artifactId = "neopop-compose"
                version = "1.0.0"
            }
        }
    }
}

5. Configure the Jitack Deployment:

• Go to Project’s top level and add a “jitpack.yml” file that looks like this:

jdk:
  - openjdk17 // Your JDK version
before_install:
  - sdk install java 17.0.7-open // Your JDK version
  - sdk use java 17.0.7-open // Your JDK version

The above step is important for a successful build in Jitpack.

6. Share your Project on Github:

• I am expecting you are already familiar with this step, either use CLI or Android studio for pushing your project to your Github.

• Make sure you are only adding the required files and not unwanted app module or Test files.

7. Create a Github Release:

• Select “Create a release” on the right-side in your repository home page.

• Add a new Tag/Version of your library, Title, Notes, etc.

• Create a release.

8. Get your Jitpack release:

• Go to “Jitpack.io”

• Paste your library repo link and look up.

• You’ll see all your Versions in the List, if you’re not getting make sure to add the proper config in app.

• Wait for Log to be successful(it will turn into green paper icon).

• If it is red, then you library have some build issue, first check if everything works locally. And check your Jitpack.yml file too.

• In case of an erorr, you can see the logs for debugging the issue by clicking on the red sheet icon.

9. Steps for using the library:

• Go to settings.gradle of the project where you want to use your library and paste this:

dependencyResolutionManagement {
    repositoriesMode.set(RepositoriesMode.FAIL_ON_PROJECT_REPOS)
    repositories {
        mavenCentral()
        maven { url 'https://jitpack.io' } // this line
    }
}

• Go to build.gradle of the app where you want to use your library and paste this:

dependencies {
      implementation 'com.github.Sagar0-0:compose-tutorial:1.0.0' // Your library dependency, you can get from Jitpack.io
}

All Set!

If you want to learn this from a video, don’t worry I got you!

I was inspired by my recently published library “neopop-compose” for writing this article. Make sure to check it out and give a star.

Also, if this article was easy to understand make sure to give a follow, it motivates me to invest my time and energy in publishing more content like this.