While there are no options for modifying the manifest in Studio, there are a few things that you can change that I think are somewhat useful. The first is permissions.
The template manifest file that Studio uses is set to require full internet access. Even if your game never uses any code that would require internet access, when a user tries to install your game it would tell them it needs full access to the internet. Many users just accept willy-nilly, but there are others who may be a bit suspicious wondering why your game would need access if you aren't serving up ads, don't have an online high score list, etc. By modifying the mainfest, we can remove this permission.
First, you need to find the manifest file. It is located in:
%appdata%\GameMaker-Studio\Android\runner\
Before modifying it, you might want to back it up first. If you open it up, you will find the following line
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET"/>
If you remove that line, save your changes, and compile your apk, it will no longer require internet access. If you are calling a method such as http_get or http_post_string, you don't want to remove this permission, as your game will no longer have access to the internet. As time passes and more features get added to Studio (expecially when users can write native extensions), being able to modify permissions will probably be a lot more important. I posted a bug report about the permission always being there even if no internet access is required.
Today, thanks to an article I just read, I found a second item that I think is worth modifying. Phone manufacturers are starting to release devices without dedicated menu buttons. For example, the Galaxy Nexus has software buttons as opposed to hardware buttons, and the HTC One X only has back, home, and app switching hardware buttons. When an application says it needs access to a menu button, the device needs to provide one. On the Nexus this isn't so bad, as it just draws one next to the existing software buttons. But what happens when a device with only hardware buttons needs a menu button?
The answer? It takes up some screen real estate to draw one as seen in the article I mentioned earlier, linked here.
http://www.droid-lif...ction-overflow/
The article links to a blog article from an Android team member explaining the new way to handle things. By just changing a single digit in the manifest, you can ensure that the menu button isn't being drawn on these newer devices, using up some valuable real estate.
You simply need to bump up the targetSdkVersion from 11 to 14. By leaving the minSdkVersion at 7, your game will continue to run just fine on older devices. Note: If you haven't already installed SDK 14 from the SDK manager, you may need to do so before making the change.
<uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="7" android:targetSdkVersion="14"/>
Some things to keep in mind:
There is only a single AndroidManifest.xml template. If you are going to be compiling multiple applications and one needs internet access, while the other doesn't, you're going to need to swap out your mainfest files between builds.
When upgrading Studio, it will replace the current AndroidManifest.xml. So if you make some changes, make sure to back up your file so you can swap it out later. Of course, changes could be coming the the template manifest with new builds of Studio, so you might not want to overwrite the new one so much as updating it with the changes you had made.
Edited by scurvycapn, 31 May 2012 - 01:29 AM.
