Installation (Android)

alphaTab on Android renders and plays music notation in native apps built with Kotlin. It ships an AlphaTabView for classic Android layouts.

Install

alphaTab is published on Maven Central under the coordinates net.alphatab:alphaTab:

• Release versions: central.sonatype.com/artifact/net.alphatab/alphaTab
• Pre-release snapshots: central.sonatype.com/repository/maven-snapshots

Add the dependency to your build system:

Gradle (Kotlin)

repositories {
    google()
    mavenCentral()
    // Pre-release snapshots:
    // maven("https://central.sonatype.com/repository/maven-snapshots/")
}

dependencies {
    implementation("net.alphatab:alphaTab:1.6.1")
    // Pre-release snapshots:
    // implementation("net.alphatab:alphaTab:1.7.0-SNAPSHOT")
}

Gradle (Groovy)

repositories {
    google()
    mavenCentral()
    // Pre-release snapshots:
    // maven {
    //     url = "https://central.sonatype.com/repository/maven-snapshots/"
    // }
}

dependencies {
    implementation "net.alphatab:alphaTab:1.6.1"
    // Pre-release snapshots:
    // implementation "net.alphatab:alphaTab:1.7.0-SNAPSHOT"
}

Maven

<project>
    <dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>net.alphatab</groupId>
            <artifactId>alphaTab</artifactId>
            <version>1.6.1</version>
            <!-- Pre-release snapshots: -->
            <!-- <version>1.7.0-SNAPSHOT</version> -->
            <scope>runtime</scope>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>
</project>

Render your first score

Once alphaTab is on the classpath, add the AlphaTabView control to any layout. This example places it inside a ConstraintLayout that fills the activity:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    android:id="@+id/main_view"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    tools:context="net.alphatab.android.MainActivity">

    <alphaTab.AlphaTabView
        android:id="@+id/alphatab_view"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent" />

</androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout>

Get a reference to the view from your activity and use its api property to drive alphaTab:

import alphaTab.AlphaTabView

class MainActivity : ComponentActivity() {
    private lateinit var alphaTabView: AlphaTabView

    override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main)

        alphaTabView = findViewById(R.id.alphatab_view)
        val api = alphaTabView.api
        // load a score, subscribe to events, drive playback here
    }
}

More samples live at github.com/CoderLine/alphaTabSamplesAndroid.

Jetpack Compose

alphaTab does not currently ship a Compose control. Two options:

• Vote on the roadmap issue to signal demand.
• Wrap the classic AlphaTabView inside a Compose tree using AndroidView.

Dependencies

alphaTab on Android carries a small number of third-party dependencies:

• Rendering. Either the built-in Android Canvas or alphaSkia, which wraps the Skia engine used by Chrome. alphaSkia is the recommended engine and is significantly faster than the platform canvas.
• Async. org.jetbrains.kotlinx:kotlinx-coroutines-core powers alphaTab's asynchronous operations.

Reach out on GitHub if you need alphaTab wired to a different UI framework or audio backend.