Displaying Badge count on Android app icon

The ABC SDK provides a seamless way to dynamically badge your Android application icon with notification counts (e.g., "1", "99", "10+"). It uses a sophisticated Activity Alias mechanism to swap launcher icons on the fly without breaking the user experience.

Unique to this SDK, badged icons are generated at build time using your app's actual launcher icon, ensuring a perfect visual match.

Features

• Build-Time Generation: Automatically generates badged PNGs from your app's existing icon during the build process.
• Dynamic Badging: Shows counts from 1 to ABC_MAX_VALUE.
• Overflow Handling: Automatically shows "MAX+" (e.g., "10+") if the count exceeds the configured limit.
• Adaptive Icon Support: Generated assets work seamlessly with standard launcher configurations.
• Robust Integration: Triple-injection strategy ensures compatibility with complex multi-module and multi-variant projects.
• Namespace Aware: Correctly resolves activities even when applicationId and namespace differ.

Integration Guide

1. Add the Gradle Plugin

The ABC Plugin handles the generation of badged icons and the necessary manifest aliases.

plugins {
    id 'com.android.application'
    id 'com.mathokkil.abc-plugin' version '1.1.44'
}

plugins {
    id("com.android.application")
    id("com.mathokkil.abc-plugin") version "1.1.44"
}

Note: The plugin provides full Adaptive Icon support. It preserves your layered XML structure (background and foreground) and adds the badge as a third layer on top. This ensures that launcher effects like parallax and scaling remain intact.

2. Add the SDK Dependency

dependencies {
    implementation 'com.mathokkil:android-badge-count:1.1.44'
}

dependencies {
    implementation("com.mathokkil:android-badge-count:1.1.44")
}

3. Configure Settings

In the defaultConfig block of your app's build file, add the required configuration using manifestPlaceholders.

Parameters:

• ABC_LAUNCH_ACTIVITY: The full class name of your main Launcher activity (e.g., com.example.MainActivity).
• ABC_MAX_VALUE: The maximum number to display before showing the "+" overflow (e.g., "10").
• ABC_ICON: The path to your base launcher icon (e.g., "@mipmap/ic_launcher").

android {
    defaultConfig {
        manifestPlaceholders = [
            ABC_LAUNCH_ACTIVITY: "com.yourpackagename.MainActivity",
            ABC_MAX_VALUE: "10",
            ABC_ICON: "@mipmap/ic_launcher"
        ]
    }
}

android {
    defaultConfig {
        manifestPlaceholders["ABC_LAUNCH_ACTIVITY"] = "com.yourpackagename.MainActivity"
        manifestPlaceholders["ABC_MAX_VALUE"] = "10"
        manifestPlaceholders["ABC_ICON"] = "@mipmap/ic_launcher"
        
        // Alternative syntax:
        // manifestPlaceholders += mapOf(
        //     "ABC_LAUNCH_ACTIVITY" to "com.yourpackagename.MainActivity",
        //     "ABC_MAX_VALUE" to "10",
        //     "ABC_ICON" to "@mipmap/ic_launcher"
        // )
    }
}

Usage

Call ABCManager.setBadgeCount(context, count) whenever you want to update the badge.

• count <= 0: Clears the badge (Restores original icon).
• count > 0 && count <= ABC_MAX_VALUE: Shows the number.
• count > ABC_MAX_VALUE: Shows ABC_MAX_VALUE + + (e.g., "10+").

import com.mathokkil.abc.ABCManager

// Set count to 5
ABCManager.setBadgeCount(this, 5)

// Clear badge
ABCManager.setBadgeCount(this, 0)

// Set badge after a delay (e.g., 5 seconds)
ABCManager.setBadgeCount(this, 8, 5000L)

// Set badge when app goes to background (UI Hidden)
ABCManager.setBadgeCount(this, 3, waitUntilAppStop = true)

Troubleshooting & Best Practices

"Component class does not exist" Error

If you see a java.lang.IllegalArgumentException stating that a component does not exist:

1. Force Clean: Run ./gradlew clean or Build > Clean Project in Android Studio. Manifest merge results are cached aggressively, and a clean build is often required after configuration changes.
2. Verify Activity Name: Ensure ABC_LAUNCH_ACTIVITY is the fully qualified class name.
3. Check Merged Manifest: Open your merged AndroidManifest.xml (in build/intermediates/merged_manifest/) and search for _Alias1. If they are missing, the plugin was not applied correctly or had a conflict.

Verification

You can verify the active ABC version in your merged manifest by looking for:
<meta-data android:name="com.mathokkil.abc.VERSION" android:value="1.1.44" />

How It Works

1. App Build Time: The com.mathokkil.abc-plugin scans your project for the icon and launcher configuration.
2. Asset Generation: It generates high-resolution badged PNGs for legacy support and creates layered Adaptive Icon XMLs for Android 8+.
3. Triple Injection: The plugin injects assets and aliases into your app through SourceSets, Task Metadata, and direct Overlay injection.
4. Run Time: ABCManager enables the specific alias corresponding to the requested count via PackageManager.

Technical Requirements

• Min SDK: 21
• Gradle: 8.0+
• Java: 17+ (for build process)
• Language: Kotlin / Java