Changing the Android Version Code for the Goole Play App Store

My problem: The Android version code needs to be incremented to publish a new version of an APK file to the Google Play App Store.
This problem: NME hardcodes the version code and version name into AndroidManifest.xml

Prereqs: Signing your APK file
http://www.gigglingcorpse.com/2012/03/15/nme-signing-for-android-re...
(Thanks for this great post, I had to downgrade to JDK 1.6_r30 after my APKs failed to sign correctly, just as you said.) - Solves issue with missing Certificate File after NME signing process completes.

Changing version code:
NME already does a fantastic job compiling and signing APK files for distribution, but one problem I faced over the last few nights was changing the version code to replace an APK file with an erronous certificate file. The problem is that the NME build tool hardcodes the version code and version name into the AndroidManifest.xml file before building and signing. The default values are 1 and 1.0. The code is an incremental value, while the name is a descriptive version string.

I have found two solutions to this problem:

Solution 1: Import generated code into Eclipse, and build yourself
Thanks to mi6_x3m for helping me set this up, I've never used Eclipse for Android builds before.
In the {nme project}\bin\android\bin directory are all the files for the Android build, which are compatible with Eclipse for Java developers, with Android Development Tools installed.
I had to use File -> New Android Project -> Create project from Existing Source to import the files, and there were a few errors about @Override functions, which I fixed by removing the overrides... but this enabled me to build the project.
I then edited the AndroidManifest.xml file through Eclipse, and built and signed a working APK file.

Solution 2: Modify NME command-line tools
Truth be told, I don't like booting up eclipse, when NME does almost everything already.
So, by building NME from source I was able to figure out how to pull values from my application.nmml file through the AndroidManifest.xml file.

I'll just quickly overview the changes I made to the code base to create an automated process:

The template for AndroidManifest.xml already contains some template variables, namely: ::ANDROID_INSTALL_LOCATION::. I added two new variables: ::ANDROID_VERSION_CODE:: and ::ANDROID_VERSION_NAME:: to this file.

I added default values for these in InstallerBase.hx:
setDefault ("ANDROID_VERSION_CODE", "1");
setDefault ("ANDROID_VERSION_NAME", "1.0");

In the same file, I added a switch case in parseXML:
case "android":
parseAndroidElement (element);

And a new function:

private function parseAndroidElement(element:Fast):Void {
for (attribute in element.x.attributes ()) {
switch (attribute) {
case "version-code":
defines.set ("ANDROID_VERSION_CODE", substitute (element.att.resolve ("version-code")));

case "version-name":
defines.set ("ANDROID_VERSION_NAME", substitute (element.att.resolve ("version-name")));

default:
defines.set ("ANDROID_" + attribute.toUpperCase (), substitute (element.att.resolve (attribute)));
}
}
}


These are all the code changes that bring XML values from the NMML file through to the build system, to make values available in AndroidManifest.xml. From here I built the command line tools again (haxe CommandLine.hxml from nme/tools/command-line/).

The final step was to add an XML tag to my application.nmml file, e.g.:
<android version-code="4" version-name="1.0.2 R2" />

Publishing an APK file:
I have trouble finding site, so here's the link-
http://play.google.com/apps/publish/
Sign in with a google account and follow google's instructions:

A new APK file with an updated version code can be uploaded to replace an existing one.

I hope that helps people! I'm off to publish some more mini-projects to google play : )

- Markavian