Android SDK

The Cloudinary Android SDK provides simple, yet comprehensive image and video upload, transformation, optimization, and delivery capabilities through the Cloudinary APIs, that you can implement using code that integrates seamlessly with your existing Android application.

How would you like to learn?

Resource	Description
Android quick start	Get up and running in five minutes with a walk through of installation, configuration, upload, management and transformations.
Sample projects	Explore sample projects to see how to implement Cloudinary functionality such as upload and delivery with transformations.
Cloudinary Android SDK GitHub repo	Explore the source code and see the CHANGELOG for details on all new features and fixes from previous versions.
	Try the free Introduction to Cloudinary's Android SDK online course, where you can learn how to upload, transform and optimize your assets, explore the native video player and integrate Image Loaders for seamless asset downloading.

Install

Cloudinary's Android SDK is available in modules. Select the modules to install based on the following table:

The following instructions detail the installation of the Cloudinary Android library. Note that there is no need for any ProGuard configuration. Use one of the following options:

Gradle installation

Add the module(s) within the dependencies section of your build.gradle file. For example:

Maven installation

Add the module(s) within the dependencies tag in your pom.xml file. For example

Manual installation

Download the following 2 files and put them in your libs folder:

• cloudinary-android-3.0.2.aar
• cloudinary-core-1.38.0.jar

Configure

To use the Cloudinary Android library you have to configure at least your cloud_name. You can additionally define a number of optional configuration parameters if relevant. You can find your Cloud name in the Dashboard of the Cloudinary Console, and you can find all of your credentials, including API Key and API Secret, on the API Keys page of the Cloudinary Console Settings.

The entry point of the library is the MediaManager object. The MediaManager.init() method must be called once per application lifecycle before using the Android library, preferably in Application.onCreate(). Setting the configuration parameters can be done either when initializing the library, or by using the CLOUDINARY_URL meta-data property in the AndroidManifest.xml file.

Config with init

To set the configuration parameters programmatically while initializing the MediaManager, pass a HashMap with parameters as the second argument of the init method. For example:

Config with meta-data

Alternatively, you can add the CLOUDINARY_URL meta-data property to the AndroidManifest.xml file, within the application tag. For example:

When using the meta-data property, no configuration is required when initializing the MediaManager:

Use

Once you've installed and configured the Android SDK, you can use it for:

• Upload: Upload images and videos from your mobile application directly to your Cloudinary product environment.
• Transform and optimize: Dynamically transform and optimize your media assets on-the-fly using powerful transformations.
• Deliver: Generate dynamic URLs for seamless delivery of transformed images and videos.

Quick example: File upload

The following Android code uses an unsigned upload preset to upload the dog.mp4 video to the specified sub-folder using the public_id, my_dog. When the video upload is complete, the specified notification URL will receive details about the uploaded media asset.

Quick example: Transform and optimize

Take a look at the following transformation code and the image it delivers:

This relatively simple code performs all of the following on the original front_face.jpg image before delivering it:

• Crop to a 150x150 thumbnail using face-detection gravity to automatically determine the location for the crop
• Round the corners with a 20 pixel radius
• Apply a sepia effect
• Overlay the Cloudinary logo on the southeast corner of the image (with a slight offset). Scale the logo overlay down to a 50 pixel width, with increased brightness and partial transparency (opacity = 60%).
• Rotate the resulting image (including the overlay) by 10 degrees
• Convert and deliver the image in PNG format (the originally uploaded image was a JPG)

And here's the URL that's automatically generated and included in an image tag from the above code:

In a similar way, you can transform a video.

Android SDK features

The Android SDK provides the following key features:

• Build dynamic URLs for delivering images and videos with on-the-fly transformations
• Implement direct file upload from your mobile application directly to your Cloudinary product environment
• Preprocess files before uploading
• Handle asynchronous upload callbacks
• Upload policy options (upload only on non-metered networks, only when charging, etc.) globally or per upload request
• Automatic error handling for network disconnections, timeouts, etc.

Sample projects

Explore sample projects to see how to implement Cloudinary functionality:

• Android sample project: Demonstrates a variety of features from the SDK including uploading, image delivery with advanced transformations, widgets and video playback.
• Cloudinary Demo - e-commerce App: Showcases some of Cloudinary's features, shows how to take advantage of existing open source libraries (e.g., Picasso, Glide, Fresco, Imageloader) and integrates them within a functional app. For more info, see Introducing the Cloudinary Demo Android App, Part 1.