docs/html/guide/topics/manifest/manifest.jd

page.title=The Manifest File (AndroidManifest.xml)
@jd:body

<p>Every Android application has a <em>manifest file</em> that declares global values for the application.
For example, the manifest file declares the appliication's fully qualified package name, as well as the application components (activities, services, etc) it exposes, the implementation classes for each, the kinds of data each can handle, 
and where they can be launched. </p>

<p>The manifest is an XML file that is always stored under the name <code>AndroidManifest.xml</code> in the root folder of the application. Only one manifest file is allowed per application package. As part of developing your android application, you will be creating the application's manifest file using the XML vocabulary described in this document. </p>

<p>An important aspect of this file is the <em>intent filters</em> that it includes.
    These filters describe where and when that activity can be started. When an activity
    (or the operating system) wants to perform an action such as open a Web page
    or open a contact picker screen, it creates an {@link android.content.Intent
    Intent} object. This object can hold several descriptors describing what you
    want to do, what data you want to do it to, the type of data, and other bits
    of information. Android compares the information in an Intent object with the
    intent filter exposed by every application and finds the activity most appropriate
    to handle the data or action specified by the caller. More details
    on intents is given in the {@link android.content.Intent
    Intent} reference page.</p>
    
<p>Besides declaring your application's activities, content providers, services,
and intent receivers, you can also specify permissions and instrumentation
(security control and testing) in AndroidManifest.xml. For a reference of the tags and
their attributes, please see {@link android.R.styleable#AndroidManifest}.</p>

<p>A simple AndroidManifest.xml looks like this:</p>

<pre>
&lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?&gt;

&lt;manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
        package="com.my_domain.app.helloactivity"&gt;
        
    &lt;application android:label="@string/app_name"&gt;
    
        &lt;activity android:name=".HelloActivity"&gt;
            &lt;intent-filter&gt;
                &lt;action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN"/&gt;
                &lt;category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER"/&gt;
            &lt;/intent-filter&gt;
        &lt;/activity&gt;
        
    &lt;/application&gt;
    
&lt;/manifest&gt;
</pre>

<p>Some general items to note:</p>

<ul>
<li> <p>Almost every AndroidManifest.xml (as well as many other Android
XML files) will include the namespace declaration
<code>xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"</code> in
its first element.  This makes a variety of standard Android attributes
available in the file, which will be used to supply most of the data for
elements in that file.</code>
<li> <p>Most manifests include a single <code>&lt;application&gt;</code>
element, which defines all of the application-level components and
properties that are available in the package.</p>
<li> <p>Any package that will be presented to the user as a top-level
application available from the program launcher will need to include at
least one {@link android.app.Activity} component that supports the
{@link android.content.Intent#ACTION_MAIN MAIN} action and
{@link android.content.Intent#CATEGORY_LAUNCHER LAUNCHER} category as
shown here.</p>
</ul>

<p>Here is a detailed outline of the structure of an AndroidManifest.xml file,
describing all tags that are available.</p>

<dl>
  <dt>{@link android.R.styleable#AndroidManifest &lt;manifest&gt;}</dt>
  <dd>The root node of the file, describing the complete contents of
	   the package.  Under it you can place:
    <dl>
      <dt>{@link android.R.styleable#AndroidManifestUsesPermission &lt;uses-permission&gt;}</dt>
      <dd>Requests a security permission that your package must be granted in
           order for it to operate correctly.  See the
           <a href="{@docRoot}devel/security.html">Security Model</a>
           document for more information on permissions.  A manifest can
           contain zero or more of these elements.</dd>
      <dt>{@link android.R.styleable#AndroidManifestPermission &lt;permission&gt;}</dt>
      <dd>Declares a security permission that can be used to restrict which
           applications can access components or features in your (or
           another) package.  See the
           <a href="{@docRoot}devel/security.html">Security Model</a>
           document for more information on permissions.  A manifest can
           contain zero or more of these elements.</dd>
      <dt>{@link android.R.styleable#AndroidManifestInstrumentation &lt;instrumentation&gt;}</dt>
      <dd>Declares the code of an instrumentation component that is available
           to test the functionality of this <em>or another</em> package.
           See {@link android.app.Instrumentation} for more details.  A manifest can
           contain zero or more of these elements.</dd>
      <dt>{@link android.R.styleable#AndroidManifestApplication &lt;application&gt;}</dt>
      <dd>Root element containing declarations of the application-level
           components contained in the package.  This element can also
           include global and/or default attributes for the application,
           such as a label, icon, theme, required permission, etc.  A manifest
           can contain zero or one of these elements (more than one application
           tag is not allowed).  Under it you can place zero or more of
           each of the following component declarations:
        <dl>
          <dt>{@link android.R.styleable#AndroidManifestActivity &lt;activity&gt;}</dt>
          <dd>An {@link android.app.Activity} is the primary facility for
               an application to interact with the user.  The initial screen
               the user sees when launching an application is an activity,
               and most other screens they use will be implemented as
               separate activities declared with additional activity tags.
               
               <p><em><strong>Note:</strong></em> Every
               Activity must have an &lt;activity&gt; tag in the manifest whether it is exposed
               to the world or intended for use only within its own package. If an Activity
               has no matching tag in the manifest, you won't be able to launch it.
            
               <p>Optionally, to support late runtime lookup of your
               activity, you can include one or more &lt;intent-filter&gt;
               elements to describe the actions the activity supports.
            <dl>
              <dt><a name="intent-filter">
                   {@link android.R.styleable#AndroidManifestIntentFilter &lt;intent-filter&gt;}</a></dt>
              <dd>Declares a specific set of {@link android.content.Intent} values
                   that a component supports, in the form of an
                   {@link android.content.IntentFilter}.  In addition to the
                   various kinds of values
                   that can be specified under this element, attributes
                   can be given here to supply a unique label, icon, and
                   other information for the action being described.
                <dl>
                  <dt>{@link android.R.styleable#AndroidManifestAction &lt;action&gt;}</dt>
                  <dd>An {@link android.content.IntentFilter#addAction Intent action}
                       that the component supports.</dd>
                  <dt>{@link android.R.styleable#AndroidManifestCategory &lt;category&gt;}</dt>
                  <dd>An {@link android.content.IntentFilter#addCategory Intent category}
                       that the component supports.</dd>
                  <dt>{@link android.R.styleable#AndroidManifestData &lt;data&gt;}</dt>
                  <dd>An {@link android.content.IntentFilter#addDataType Intent data MIME type},
                       {@link android.content.IntentFilter#addDataScheme Intent data URI scheme},
                       {@link android.content.IntentFilter#addDataAuthority Intent data URI authority}, or
                       {@link android.content.IntentFilter#addDataPath Intent data URI path}
                       that the component supports.</dd>
                </dl>
            </dl>
            
               <p>You can also optionally associate one or more pieces of meta-data
               with your activity that other clients can retrieve to find
               additional arbitrary information about it:</p>
            <dl>
              <dt><a name="meta-data">
                   {@link android.R.styleable#AndroidManifestMetaData &lt;meta-data&gt;}</a></dt>
              <dd>Adds a new piece of meta data to the activity, which clients
                   can retrieve through
                   {@link android.content.pm.ComponentInfo#metaData
                   ComponentInfo.metaData}.
            </dl>
          <dt>{@link android.R.styleable#AndroidManifestReceiver &lt;receiver&gt;}</dt>
          <dd>An {@link android.content.BroadcastReceiver} allows an application
               to be told about changes to data or actions that happen,
               even if it is not currently running.  As with the activity
               tag, you can optionally include one or more &lt;intent-filter&gt;
               elements that the receiver supports or &lt;meta-data&gt; values;
               see the activity's
               <a href="#intent-filter">&lt;intent-filter&gt;</a> and
               <a href="#meta-data">&lt;meta-data&gt;</a> descriptions
               for more information.</dd>
          <dt>{@link android.R.styleable#AndroidManifestService &lt;service&gt;}</dt>
          <dd>A {@link android.app.Service} is a component that can run in
               the background for an arbitrary amount of time.  As with the activity
               tag, you can optionally include one or more &lt;intent-filter&gt;
               elements that the service supports or &lt;meta-data&gt; values;
               see the activity's
               <a href="#intent-filter">&lt;intent-filter&gt;</a> and
               <a href="#meta-data">&lt;meta-data&gt;</a> descriptions
               for more information.</dd>
          <dt>{@link android.R.styleable#AndroidManifestProvider &lt;provider&gt;}</dt>
          <dd>A {@link android.content.ContentProvider} is a component that
               manages persistent data and publishes it for access by other
               applications.  You can also optionally attach one or more
               &lt;meta-data&gt; values, as described in the activity's
               <a href="#meta-data">&lt;meta-data&gt;</a> description.</dd>
        </dl>
    </dl>
</dl>