Generating Keystore Certificate

Android requires that all APKs be digitally signed with a certificate before they are installed on a device or updated. In order to do that we need the following:

• Key Store file
• Key Store Password
• To enable Push notification for android, we need the following:
  • GCM Project
  • API Key

Generating Keystore file and Password

The Keystore and Password can be created in two ways:

• Using Android Studio
• Using Java Keytool Utility

Using Android Studio

Refer the steps in developer.android.com to generate the certificate.

Using Java Keytool Utility

Pre-requisite - Download and install Java Development Kit(JDK) in your system. You can create a Keystore with the Java Keytool utility that comes with any standard JDK distribution and can be located at %JAVA_HOME%\bin. On Windows, this would usually be in C:\Program Files\Java\jre7\bin. 

1. In Windows, open the command prompt(with admin rights) and switch to the \bin directory.

2. Enter the following command:

keytool -genkey -v -keystore my-release-key-tw.keystore -alias alias_name -keyalg RSA -keysize 2048 -validity 10000

 (where 'my-release-key-tw.keystore' is the name of the file')

3. Keytool prompts you to provide:

• Keystore password
• Distinguished Name fields

Now the Keytool generates the keystore as a file called my-release-key-tw.keystore in the \bin directory. The keystore and key are protected by the passwords you entered. The keystore contains a single key, valid for 10000 days. The alias_name is a name that you will use later, to refer to this keystore when signing your application.