How can I hide my Google Maps API Key when sharing my code on github?

Question

My Android application is OpenSource, and I am a little bit afraid to share the code on Github, because my API keys were also shared.

I can git ignore my strings.xml file, but I really hope there is an alternative and I will be able to do something clever, so I wont have to worry about it.

Any idea or suggestion?

Answer 1

Customize the ant build script of your project to generate a mapskey.xml (strings) from local.properties (which you add to git ignore). Those who fork just create their own local.properties with debug and release keys for Google Maps.

Answer 2

Put the key in a separate file and read it from there, and only commit a placeholder file to the repository.

Answer 3

If strings.xml is required by the program, then it should be included in the source, but strings specific to each user of the source should be left out. In their place, provide documentation on where the specific strings should be included.