Released: Mar 20, 2018

Updates in v8.0

Features

All apps will soon need to target sdk version 26 (Android 8). This is a new policy of Google and it has many consequences for app developers. Many of the improvements in B4A v8.0 help developers with this task.

• The process of starting the app from the background was rewritten to comply with targetSdkVersion 26 requirements.
• Push notifications and other features that cause apps to start from the background should be more reliable due to changes in the way services are started. A wake lock is automatically held when a receiver receives an intent. The wake lock is released when the service starts.
• Automatic foreground mode: When needed services automatically start in foreground mode.
• Notification object rewritten to work with targetSdkVersion 26.
• Notification.SetInfo / SetInfo2 accept CharSequences so it can work with CSBuilder.
• StartServiceAt / StartServiceAtExact rewritten to work with targetSdkVersion 26 and are now more reliable.
• Notification.Initialize2 - Allows setting the notification channel importance level.
• Better support for AAR libraries: jni folders (native libraries) are handled properly, assets and resources from internal jars are added to the project.
• #AdditionalJar with ReferenceOnly - Allows referencing jars that are only used as a reference during compilation. This is required for more complex libraries such as DJI library.
• Signing key size is explicitly set to avoid issues with newer versions of Java.
• Screenshot tool modified to work with latest versions of Android SDK.
• MediaPlayer.IsInitialzied method.
• Manifest editor macros - Macros can be added to libraries or zip files.
• Custom class templates - Class templates can be added to libraries.
• Libraries can include multiple templates and any library can include templates.
• #SignKeyAlias attribute - Allows overriding the default signing key alias.
• Firebase, xCustomListView and KeyValueStore (2) are internal libraries.
• Added Libraries deprecation messages in the IDE.
• BADoclet (tool to generate libraries XML) v1.07 - adds support for custom class templates.

Fixes

• B4A Sdk Manager v3.25 - Bug fixes and support for Google based AVDs.
• Fix for an issue where the activity code could have been executed while the activity is paused which leads to a hard to reproduce NullPointerException.
• Other bug fixes and minor improvements.