PAD (Play Asset Delivery) Integration

[dd913]

As an android app developer I am having some problems with the final size of the .aab and .apk files. If I import couple of libraries in pyprject.toml file the app becomes bigger than 200mb, a limit set by Google Play Console. Maybe we can find a way a way to install packages as separate .aab file, also compiling the assets as other .aab files.

I was avoiding the PAD, because it seemed such a complicated matter. As I understand it, you specify some parameters in the build.gradle and the gradle builds multiple .aab files. But Briefcase builds a single monolithic .apk/.aab, while PAD expects a modular .aab with asset packs declared at the gradle level.

When I follow the instructions in the following link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZ3xmG5iFDU I realized I couldn't do it. Because, it tells you to create a new build.gradle for the new asset. Not so sure if the new assets has to be an .aab file. Some directions weren't clear to me, newly created build.gradle is not used by the gradle. Briefcase compiled the app to an .aab but files weren't in it because I checked it's size.

1. add this to the settings.gradle

include ':app'
include ':asset_package'

2. newly created build.gradle has to have this in it

plugins {
    id 'com.android.asset-pack'
}

assetPack {
    packName = "largefiles"
    dynamicDelivery {
        deliveryType = "on-demand" // or install-time / fast-follow
    }
}

file structure is like this, I show the newly added files, didn't touched anything else.

├── LICENSE
├──build
│    └──<your app name>
│    │    └── android
│    │        └── gradle
│    │            ├── app
│    │            │   ├── src
│    │            │   │    └── main               	      
│    │            │   │        ├── java
│    │            │   │        ├── python
│    │            │   │        ├── res
│    │            │   │        └── AndroidManifest.xml
│    │            │   │ 	      
│    │            │   ├── build.gradle
│    │            │   ├── pip-options.txt
│    │            │   ├── proguard-rules.pro
│    │            │   └── requirements.txt
│    │            │    
│    │            ├── gradle
│    │            │ 	wrapper
│    │            │ 	 ├── gradle-wrapper.jar
│    │            │ 	 └── gradle-wrapper.properties
│    │            │ 	
│    │            ├── briefcase.toml
│    │            ├── build.gradle
│    │            ├── gradle.properties
│    │            ├── gradlew
│    │            ├── gradlew.bat
│    │            ├── settings.gradle
│    │            └── .gitignore
│    │
│    ├── src				 <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< NEW ADDITION
│    │   ├── main		 	 <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< NEW ADDITION
│    │   └── assets			 <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< NEW ADDITION
│    │	      └──asset-package <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< asset  (does it needs to be an .abb file?)
│    └── build.gradle			 <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< where assets are defined
│    
├── logs
├── pyproject.toml
├── README.rst
├── src
│   └── <your app name>
│      ├── app.py
│      ├── assets
│      ├── __init__.py
│      ├── __main__.py
│      └── resources
│          ├── __init__.py
│          ├── <your app name>.icns
│          ├── <your app name>.ico
│          └── <your app name>.png
└── tests
    ├── __init__.py
    ├── <your app name>.py
    └── test_app.py

[mhsmith]

I agree Play Asset Delivery is a complicated area which we want to avoid getting into. Let's try to make your app smaller first. The most effective way is probably to reduce the number of ABIs it contains:

• If your app uses Python 3.12 or later, it will no longer include armeabi-v7a. To change the Python version of your app, create a new virtual environment with the desired Python version, install Briefcase into it, then rerun briefcase create android.
• Or if you need to use Python 3.11 or older, you can configure the ABIs manually as shown here, then rerun briefcase create android. (Briefcase's android_abis setting has not yet been released.)
• If you're working on an ARM Mac, you can also remove the x86_64 ABI.

If that isn't enough, then please let us know exactly which libraries you're installing.

[dd913]

Thank you for the suggestions, I will definitely do these changes. I am actually trying to do couple of things. One of them is building AI models for some projects I can run locally then of course I have to manage its size to less than 200MB then there are games that I am trying to build and it has assets . I'm actually building my own game engine for briefcase because I can't use pygame or other game engines, even though it is a small library still have problems with the size.

[dd913]

Sorry I think my answer wasn't clear. I have problems with library sizes thats a different thing I asked if we can download these libraries as a package of PAD, and another thing I asked was a way to build the assets as PAD. I know that is a lot to ask. Currently I am also working on it myself. So library suggestions are awesome. Maybe I can avoid library related problems if I can build them from scratch myself. But the asset problem is the existing problem because I cannot find another solution to go around them other than maybe building APIs and making API calls or making my own website so that I can download the assets but I don't have any money to spend.

[mhsmith]

First I suggest you examine your app to make sure you know what's taking up the space. In Android Studio you can use Build > Analyze APK, or you can extract the APK with any ZIP tool. In the Chaquopy assets, the .imy files are also ZIPs. Check that there's nothing large which is unnecessary or duplicated

If your app really does need to be over 200 MB, then maybe you can add the Play Asset Delivery configuration via build_gradle_extra_content, or by using a custom template. But it would probably be simpler to download the large files from something like AWS or Cloudflare, which should be very cheap or even free for low usage.