Get Started

Thank you for using the HERE SDK for Android. The HERE SDK is tailored to bring the best and freshest assets from the HERE platform to your mobile applications. It supports a broad range of devices allowing you to reach millions of users worldwide. Below you can find more details:

• Minimum Requirements
• Supported Devices

Get Your Credentials

The HERE SDK for Android requires two strings - one unique ID and a secret key - to operate. No other credentials or tokens are needed to use the HERE SDK. To obtain your personal access_key_id and access_key_secret, do the following:

1. Register or sign in at developer.here.com.
2. After creating your project, generate an app to obtain an access key ID and access key secret.

You can either choose an existing project or Select a plan for a new project. Then scroll down to the HERE SDK product family and click Create a Key. You can create two sets of keys. Below this button you can download the HERE SDK artifacts which consist of the Android library (the HERE SDK binary to include in your app(s)) and selected documentation files.

See also the below section Authenticating Applications to learn more details on how to set the credentials for your app.

Try the Example Apps

The easiest way to get started, is to try one of the many example projects that are available for the HERE SDK.

Choose an example of your choice, then:

1. Add the HERE SDK framework to the app's libs folder.
2. Add your HERE credentials (access_key_id and access_key_secret) to the AndroidManifest.xml file.

Now you are ready to open the project with Android Studio and you can instantly execute the app on your device or simulator.

Did you know that almost every topic of this Developer's Guide is available as executable app?

Feel free to experiment with the code of the examples. You can also follow the below guide to get a more thorough introduction on how to develop apps with the HERE SDK.

Create a New Android Project

As a very first step-by-step example, we will develop a "Hello Map" Android application that shows - yes! - a map. If you want to integrate the SDK into an existing application, you can skip this step. No specific SDK code is involved here. We recommend using Android Studio as the IDE. If you are new to Android development, please follow the guides on developer.android.com to help you get started with the first steps.

Note: The example code for "HelloMap" is available from here.

Start Android Studio (for this guide, we have used version 3.5) and create a new project by selecting:

• Start a new Android Studio Project.
• Choose Phone and Tablet, select Empty Activity and click Next.
• Provide a project name, e.g. "HelloMap" and select Java or Kotlin as the language. For the example below, we have chosen Java.
• Next to "Minimum API level", set API 21 as the minimum Android SDK.
• Make sure an appropriate directory is chosen in "Save location" and click Finish to continue.

Once the wizard finishes, make sure to build the plain project and execute it on an emulator (or on a device). If all goes well, you should see the "Hello World" text.

Say Hello Map!

Once we have a working Android application, it's time to include the HERE SDK and to show a map on your emulator or device. Here's an overview of the next steps:

1. Adapt your gradle script to integrate the HERE SDK.
2. Set required credentials and permissions to your manifest file.
3. Add a map view to your main activity's layout file.
4. Add the code to load your first map scene.

Note: While all of the functionalities of the HERE SDK are accessible from the emulator, usage of a real device is strongly recommended. The overall performance will be better, and some features like gestures are just easier to use on multi-touch enabled hardware. The rendering of the map view is optimized for mobile device GPUs.

Let's begin with the first step to see how we can add the HERE SDK to our project.

Integrate the HERE SDK

On developer.here.com you can find the latest release artifacts including the HERE SDK framework archive to include in your application (named xx.yy.zz.release_date).

Copy the HERE SDK AAR file (*.aar) to your application's app/libs folder.

Since the HERE SDK encourages the use of Lambda expressions, Java 8 is required. Add the following inside the android closure of the app level's build.gradle file to desugar the output of the javac compiler:

    compileOptions {
        sourceCompatibility JavaVersion.VERSION_1_8
        targetCompatibility JavaVersion.VERSION_1_8
    }

Then extend the dependencies closure in the same build.gradle file to make sure *.aar files are included, by adding the following:

implementation fileTree(dir: 'libs', include: ['*.jar', '*.aar'])

Note that this guide is based on HERE SDK version 4.3.0.0. If your AAR version is different from the version used for this guide, the steps may vary and you may need to adapt the source code of your app.

Now it's time to click the Sync button ("Sync Project with Gradle Files") to integrate the SDK.

Set Your HERE Credentials

When using the HERE SDK, your application must be authenticated with a set of credentials you add to the AndroidManifest.xml file of your project. For this, you need to acquire a set of credentials by registering yourself on developer.here.com - or ask your HERE representative.

Once you have your credentials at hand, add your set of credentials inside the application element in AndroidManifest.xml:

<meta-data android:name="com.here.sdk.access_key_id" android:value="YOUR_ACCESS_KEY_ID" />
<meta-data android:name="com.here.sdk.access_key_secret" android:value="YOUR_ACCESS_KEY_SECRET" />

Note: The credentials are not tied to the package name or the application id of your app, but to the account used to obtain the credentials. This makes it possible to use the same set of credentials for multiple apps.

Tip: Alternatively, you can set your credentials programmatically, for example, if you don't want to hardcode your credentials in the manifest for security reasons.

Handle Android Permissions

The HERE SDK automatically adds all required permissions to the manifest:

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />

Optionally, in AndroidManifest.xml, you can add inside the top-level manifest element the above permissions to be explicit about the requirements. Either way, you must need to take care to ask the user to grant the Android permissions.

We have added a convenience class called PermissionsRequestor to the example apps, to keep you away from the boiler plate code. You may want to handle the permissions for your own application in a different way.

Note: There are no HERE SDK specific requirements on how to handle permissions.

The INTERNET and ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE are immediately granted upon installation by the system - they are always needed, as the HERE SDK needs to have a working internet connection. The other two permissions are not granted by default and need to be explicitly granted by the user. As the SDK's map data is downloaded from the internet, READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE and WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE are needed in order to cache and to read that data. As is the practice on Android, writing and reading to and from the external storage requires the user to accept a one-time permission prompt, where the application asks to access photos, media and files on the device.

If you plan to use the HERE SDK without a map view, the above two storage permissions are not needed and the permission handling may be left out - if no other critical permissions are required for your app. However, please be aware that a user can deny any permission after installation via the device's app settings. In such a case, you may consider it useful to still add permission handling to notify the user upon app launch. You can read more on how to remove unnecessary permissions here.

Add the Map View

Now that we have the SDK integrated into the project and added the required permissions and credentials, we can add a new MapView instance.

The map view of the Explore Edition is rendered with a 3D Premium engine. A special light-weighted rendering architecture that is optimized for resource-constrained devices is available as part of the Lite Edition.

Open the layout file of the MainActivity (usually named activity_main.xml) and remove the "Hello World" TextView (assuming you followed Android Studio's wizard). By default, it created a ConstraintLayout where we can place the map view. Any other layout parent will suit too. Add the following piece of code:

<com.here.sdk.mapview.MapView
   android:id="@+id/map_view"
   android:layout_width="match_parent"
   android:layout_height="match_parent">
</com.here.sdk.mapview.MapView>

A ConstraintLayout has the advantage that it offers a flat view hierarchy and it works well with Android Studio's Layout Editor, but this is all up to you. The SDK's MapView behaves exactly as you would expect from any other Android View.

Apparently, we create the map view from our layout file. We need to also initialize it; to do this, update the onCreate() method in your MainActivity (or any other Activity where you want to show a map view) so that it looks like the following:

private MapView mapView;

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

    // Get a MapView instance from the layout.
    mapView = findViewById(R.id.map_view);
    mapView.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
}

You will get an error about MapView being an unresolved symbol, so use the auto completion hotkey to add com.here.sdk.mapview.MapView to your imports list, or add it manually.

Note: It is important to call mapView.onCreate() to perform additional initialization tasks. Otherwise the map will not be rendered. Note that multiple MapView instances can be created and rendered together on one screen as part of the same layout.

Load a Map Scene

Before we can see any map on the device's screen, we need to decide how the map data should be rendered. Therefore, we need to asynchronously load a scene that allows us to customize the look of the map. When we load a scene, it will use one of the default map styles the SDK is shipped with.

Loading a map scene can be done from your MainActivity class by adding few lines of code. For example, add the following method and call it when the activity has been created and all requested Android permissions are granted:

private void loadMapScene() {
    // Load a scene from the HERE SDK to render the map with a map scheme.
    mapView.getMapScene().loadScene(MapScheme.NORMAL_DAY, new MapScene.LoadSceneCallback() {
        @Override
        public void onLoadScene(@Nullable MapError mapError) {
            if (mapError == null) {
                double distanceInMeters = 1000 * 10;
                mapView.getCamera().lookAt(
                        new GeoCoordinates(52.530932, 13.384915), distanceInMeters);
            } else {
                Log.d(TAG, "Loading map failed: mapError: " + mapError.name());
            }
        }
    });
}

Again, as in onCreate(), you will have to resolve the unresolved packages after adding the above code.

Make sure to call loadMapScene() after the required Android permissions have been handled. In the example's source code, you can find a convenience class called PermissionsRequestor to keep you away from the boiler plate code that is needed for this. As already mentioned above, you may want to handle the permissions for your own application in a different way. There are no HERE SDK specific requirements on how to handle permissions.

As for most callbacks available in the HERE SDK, onLoadScene() is called on the main thread when loading the scene is done. If MapError is not null, it will indicate what went wrong.

Since loading a scene is done asynchronously, you may get an OPERATION_IN_PROGRESS error for a second call. Depending on your implementation, this may happen after quick screen orientation changes. In such a case, you do not need to call onLoadScene() again - once a map scene is loaded, the existing map scheme can continue to be used, even if the Activity is recreated due to a device rotation.

From the MapView, we can then access the Camera to set some custom map parameters like the location we want the map centered on, and a zoom level which is specified by the camera's distance to earth. You can configure the Camera as soon as you have a MapView instance available. However, you will see the changes only taking effect after onLoadScene() has finished.

As an exercise, you can try to replace the above map style with the following: MapScheme.SATELLITE. What do you get? Try out also other map schemes, like the normal night scheme.

Lastly, make sure to clean up when the activity lifetime ends: The HERE SDK for Android provides the mapView.onDestroy() method to safely release all of its remaining resources. Additionally, it is recommended to pause rendering the map view when the Activity is paused:

@Override
protected void onPause() {
    super.onPause();
    mapView.onPause();
}

@Override
protected void onResume() {
    super.onResume();
    mapView.onResume();
}

@Override
protected void onDestroy() {
    super.onDestroy();
    mapView.onDestroy();
}

Now it's time to build and run the app. If all goes well, you should see a HERE map covering the whole area of the view. Congratulations, you have just mastered your first steps in using the HERE SDK for Android. Thank you!

Troubleshooting

If you run into trouble, please make sure to first check the minimum requirements and the supported devices.

• I see only a blank white map: Make sure that your HERE credentials are valid and set as described in the Get Started section above. Also, make sure that your device is able to make an internet connection. With slower internet connections, it may take a while until you see the first map tiles loaded.
• I am unable to resolve dependency for ':app@debug/compileClasspath': Could not find :heresdk-YOUR_SDK_VERSION: Make sure that your HERE SDK AAR matches the name in your application's build gradle file.

Need Help?

If you need assistance with this or any other HERE product, select one of the following options.

• If you have a HERE representative, contact them when you have questions/issues.
• If you manage your applications and accounts through developer.here.com, log into your account and check the pages on the SLA report or API Health.
• If you have more questions, please check stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/here-api.
• If you have questions about billing or your account, Contact Us.
• If you have purchased your plan/product from a HERE reseller, contact your reseller.