Configuring the Xamarin Android Toolchain

What

I’m probably going to wipe my computer when I upgrade some bits soon.

There are some niggles in setting up Xamarin (VS2015 Win10) to produce publishable APKs with the latest build tools.

This is a run down of the bits.

Visual Studio

• Start installing Visual Studio with all the Xamarin related options ticked.
• Take a nap.

If you already have Android SDK installed, Visual Studio might not detect it so beware. Either google a solution or just delete it afterwards.

Android SDK

Visual Studio will install Android SDK inside of “Program Files (x86)”. Unfortunately this can upset Proguard so move the SDK folder somewhere else.

In Visual Studio go to the Options>Xamarin and set the new location of the Android SDK.

Build Tools 25 and Java 8

In order to use the latest build tools (25.x.x) Java 8 SDK (1.8) is needed. Visual Studio most probably installed Java 7 SDK with build tools 24.x.x. The Proguard installed with the Android SDK will probably also be out of date, not compatible with JDK 1.8.

• Install Java 8 SDK
• In Visual Studio update Options>Xamarin to use JDK 8.
• Open Android SDK manager and install:
  • Any updates
  • Latest 25.x.x Tools, Build Tools and Platform Tools
  • API 25 SDK Platform
  • If available (not yet available at time of writing) API 25 (Android 7) Intel x86 Atom system image.
  • API 21 (Android 6) Intel x86 Atom system image.
  • API 19 (Android 4.4.2) Intel x86 Atom system image (assuming this is lowest API you support).
• Download the latest Proguard from SourceForge.
  • Replace android-sdk\tools\proguard with the new version.

Test It

• Make a new Single View App (Android) project in Visual Studio.
• Switch to Release Build.
• Open project properties:
  • Application tab: Set Minimum Android version to 19 (or whatever you want).
  • Android Options Tab:
    • Untick Use Shared Runtime
    • Untick Enable developer instrumentation
    • Tick Enable Proguard
• Save
• Rebuild Solution
• Celebrate