Running Apache Flink on Android

[Alexander Borgschulze]

I was trying to run Apache Flink within an Android App. I just want to run a 
minimum working example, like this:


@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

    runFlinkExample();
}

private void runFlinkExample() {
    StreamExecutionEnvironment env = 
StreamExecutionEnvironment.getExecutionEnvironment();
    DataStream<Integer> stream = env.fromCollection(Arrays.asList(1, 2, 3, 4, 
5));
    stream.print();
    try {
        env.execute();
    } catch (Exception e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
} 
These are my two .gradle files:


build.gradle (Module)

 
plugins {
    id 'com.android.application'
}

android {
    compileSdkVersion 30
    buildToolsVersion "30.0.3"

    defaultConfig {
        applicationId "com.example.flink"
        minSdkVersion 26
        targetSdkVersion 30
        versionCode 1
        versionName "1.0"

        testInstrumentationRunner "androidx.test.runner.AndroidJUnitRunner"
    }

    buildTypes {
        release {
            minifyEnabled false
            proguardFiles 
getDefaultProguardFile('proguard-android-optimize.txt'), 'proguard-rules.pro'
        }
    }
    compileOptions {
        sourceCompatibility JavaVersion.VERSION_1_8
        targetCompatibility JavaVersion.VERSION_1_8
    }

    packagingOptions {
        exclude 'META-INF/DEPENDENCIES'
        exclude 'reference.conf'
    }
}

dependencies {

    implementation 'androidx.appcompat:appcompat:1.2.0'
    implementation 'com.google.android.material:material:1.3.0'
    implementation 'androidx.constraintlayout:constraintlayout:2.0.4'
    testImplementation 'junit:junit:4.+'
    androidTestImplementation 'androidx.test.ext:junit:1.1.2'
    androidTestImplementation 'androidx.test.espresso:espresso-core:3.3.0'

    // Flink
    implementation 'org.apache.flink:flink-streaming-java_2.12:1.12.1'
    implementation 'org.apache.flink:flink-clients_2.12:1.12.1'
} 
build.gradle (Project)

// Top-level build file where you can add configuration options common to all 
sub-projects/modules.
buildscript {
    repositories {
        google()
        jcenter()
    }
    dependencies {
        classpath "com.android.tools.build:gradle:4.1.2"

        // NOTE: Do not place your application dependencies here; they belong
        // in the individual module build.gradle files
    }
}

allprojects {
    repositories {
        google()
        jcenter()
    }
}

task clean(type: Delete) {
    delete rootProject.buildDir
}
 
The first problem is, that I get the following Error:

Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: Didn't find class 
"org.apache.flink.streaming.api.environment.StreamExecutionEnvironment" on 
path: DexPathList[[zip file "/data/app/~~DbT_CZ7AhLED2xZgLBk ....

 
In cases there this error doesn't appear, I get Akka-Actor errors, because I 
must exclude 'reference.conf', otherwise the code wouldn't compile. However, 
this leads to more exceptions, e.g. missing akka-version.
So my general question is: Is it possible to run Flink within an Android-App? 
Or is this not possible (recommended)? Perhaps someone knows how to modfiy my 
gradle files (or something else) to run my example. Or perhaps someone already 
has successfully used Flink in Android.