Android + Go Service

This is a proof-of-concept to have a Go service running in background on Android.

Prerequisites

GoMobile go get golang.org/x/mobile/cmd/gomobile
Android NDK https://developer.android.com/studio/projects/install-ndk#default-version

Note: installing the gomobile is painful and I had to try multiple times. In the end, I installed Android Studio from sources in /opt/. I had ANDROID_HOME pointing to ~/Android/Sdk. This was added in my .bash_rc. Then, in Android Studio, using the SDK manager, I downloaded NDK (side by side) and cmake and other binutils tools.

I made sure all licenses were accepted and that the SDK was up-to-date with: ~/Android/Sdk/tools/bin ❯ ./sdkmanager --update and: ~/Android/Sdk/tools/bin ❯ ./sdkmanager --licenses

Finally, the magic trick: I needed to to do the following: ~/Android/Sdk ❯ ln -s ndk/21.3.6528147 ndk-bundle

Compile Go service as an Android lib

gomobile bind -o service-go/servicego.aar -target android github.com/lbarman/android-grpc-tests/service-go

To be made in the appropriate folder in GOPATH as always.

This creates an .aar file that can be imported by Java.

Put it in JAVA_APP/app/libs

Importing the .aar in Java

Project-level build.grade:

allprojects {
  repositories {
    flatDir {
        dirs 'libs'
    }
  }
}

App-level build.gradle:

dependencies{
  implementation(name: 'servicego', ext: 'aar')
}

Since this is already done, you can simply open app-java/ with Android studio and run it.