How to Preparing application for Release and Compile and sign with Eclipse ADT

Compile and sign with Eclipse ADT

If you are using Eclipse with the ADT plugin, you can use the Export Wizard to export a signed .apk (and even create a new keystore, if necessary). The Export Wizard performs all the interaction with the Keytool and Jarsigner for you, which allows you to sign the package using a GUI instead of performing the manual procedures to compile, sign, and align, as discussed above. Once the wizard has compiled and signed your package, it will also perfom package alignment with zipalign. Because the Export Wizard uses both Keytool and Jarsigner, you should ensure that they are accessible on your computer, as described above in the Basic Setup for Signing.

To create a signed and aligned .apk in Eclipse:

Select the project in the Package Explorer and select File > Export.
Open the Android folder, select Export Android Application, and click Next.

The Export Android Application wizard now starts, which will guide you through the process of signing your application, including steps for selecting the private key with which to sign the .apk (or creating a new keystore and private key).
Complete the Export Wizard and your application will be compiled, signed, aligned, and ready for distribution.

Configuring Your Application for Release

After you gather all of your supporting materials you can start configuring your application for release. This section provides a summary of the configuration changes we recommend that you make to your source code, resource files, and application manifest prior to releasing your application. Although most of the configuration changes listed in this section are optional, they are considered good coding practices and we encourage you to implement them. In some cases, you may have already made these configuration changes as part of your development process.
Choose a good package name

Make sure you choose a package name that is suitable over the life of your application. You cannot change the package name after you distribute your application to users. You can set the package name in application's manifest file. For more information, see the package attribute documentation.
Turn off logging and debugging

Make sure you deactivate logging and disable the debugging option before you build your application for release. You can deactivate logging by removing calls to Log methods in your source files. You can disable debugging by removing the android:debuggable attribute from the tag in your manifest file, or by setting the android:debuggable attribute to false in your manifest file. Also, remove any log files or static test files that were created in your project.

Also, you should remove all Debug tracing calls that you added to your code, such as startMethodTracing() and stopMethodTracing() method calls.
Clean up your project directories

Clean up your project and make sure it conforms to the directory structure described in Android Projects. Leaving stray or orphaned files in your project can prevent your application from compiling and cause your application to behave unpredictably. At a minimum you should do the following cleanup tasks:

Review the contents of your jni/, lib/, and src/ directories. The jni/ directory should contain only source files associated with the Android NDK, such as .c, .cpp, .h, and .mk files. The lib/ directory should contain only third-party library files or private library files, including prebuilt shared and static libraries (for example, .so files). The src/ directory should contain only the source files for your application (.java and .aidl files). The src/ directory should not contain any .jar files.
Check your project for private or proprietary data files that your application does not use and remove them. For example, look in your project's res/ directory for old drawable files, layout files, and values files that you are no longer using and delete them.
Check your lib/ directory for test libraries and remove them if they are no longer being used by your application.
Review the contents of your assets/ directory and your res/raw/ directory for raw asset files and static files that you need to update or remove prior to release.

Review and update your manifest settings

Verify that the following manifest items are set correctly:

element

You should specify only those permissions that are relevant and required for your application.
android:icon and android:label attributes

You must specify values for these attributes, which are located in the element.
android:versionCode and android:versionName attributes.

We recommend that you specify values for these attributes, which are located in the element. For more information see Versioning your Application.

There are several additional manifest elements that you can set if you are releasing your application on Google Play. For example, the android:minSdkVersion and android:targetSdkVersion attributes, which are located in the element. For more information about these and other Google Play settings, see Filters on Google Play.