loftywaif002/api_keys_android.md

## api_keys_android.md

      
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              api_keys_android.md
            
          
    Hiding API keys in local.properties


Make sure your build directory is gitignored. It should be, by default, in a new Android Studio project -- you can double check by making sure that your .gitignore file contains the line:

/build


In your project root directory, add the API key to local.properties file like this:

apiKey="hgjfkhg5764317698315768549027nfdsngadf"

Where hgjfkhg5764317698315768549027nfdsngadf would be your API key.

Add the following lines at the root level of your app-level build.gradle file:

def localPropertiesFile = rootProject.file("local.properties")
def localProperties = new Properties()
localProperties.load(new FileInputStream(localPropertiesFile))


Pull the API into your project as a build config value by adding the following line to your app level build.gradle file in the android { defaultConfig { } } block:


def localPropertiesFile = rootProject.file("local.properties")
def localProperties = new Properties()
localProperties.load(new FileInputStream(localPropertiesFile))


android {
    // ...
    
    defaultConfig {
        // ...
        buildConfigField "String", "API_KEY", localProperties['apiKey']

    }
    
    // ...
    
}


Sync Gradle and build the project. You can now access the key in your Java code with BuildConfig.API_KEY, for example:

String myApiKey = BuildConfig.API_KEY;

You can add as many secret values as you'd like to your local.properties by following these steps. Give each one a unique reference, i.e. myApiKey2, BuildConfig.API_KEY_2