Kivy example for Android camera

I struggled quite a bit to get the Android camera to work with Kivy, so here is a repo that can be used as a starting point for that.

Setup

virtualenv -p python3 --no-site-packages venv
. venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt

You will need to clone python-for-android in order to add FileProvider declarations to the manifest. The version of python-for-android I cloned according to pythonforandroid/__init__.py was:

__version__ = '2019.08.09.1.dev0'

Then add the following to pythonforandroid/bootstraps/sdl2/build/templates/AndroidManifest.tmpl.xml:

<provider
	android:name="android.support.v4.content.FileProvider"
	android:authorities="org.test.takepicture.fileprovider"
	android:exported="false"
	android:grantUriPermissions="true">
  <meta-data
    android:name="android.support.FILE_PROVIDER_PATHS"
    android:resource="@xml/file_paths" />
</provider>

Note: In Android 10 the FileProvider library now sits at androidx.core.content.FileProvider.

Also, create the directory and file at pythonforandroid/bootstraps/sdl2/build/src/main/res/xml/file_paths.xml with the following contents:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<paths xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <external-path name="external_files" path="." />
</paths>

Implementation details

support-compat-28.0.0.aar is required to provide FileProvider, this is also why we have to target API version 28.

You will also need to specify where you cloned python-for-android in your buildozer.spec file, which, in this repo, is set to:

p4a.source_dir = ../python-for-android

Depending on - I believe - your version of buildozer, you might need to target Android NDK version 19b.

Deploy to device

buildozer android debug deploy run logcat