android-kit

The build and deploy scaffolding shared by Volv-G's Android apps (VME's streamer, VWTF's weather widget, and whatever comes next), so each app carries its code and nothing else. It is used as a git submodule at android/kit and gives every app:

• A private toolchain. JDK 17 and the Android SDK, installed by bootstrap.ps1 under one folder in %LOCALAPPDATA%. No admin rights, no Android Studio, nothing on PATH or in the registry, and one install for every app.
• One Gradle and one set of versions. The kit's Gradle wrapper builds every app. versions.toml is a version catalog that pins AGP, Kotlin, the SDK levels and the common AndroidX libraries; each app reads it as kit.
• build.cmd and deploy.cmd. These build, install over wireless debugging, launch and tail logcat. Phone addresses are found over mDNS, and each usual mistake comes with an explanation.
• new-app.ps1 to start another app.

An app on the kit

android/
  kit/                  this repo, as a submodule
  build.cmd             one-line hand-over to kit\build.cmd
  deploy.cmd            one-line hand-over to kit\deploy.cmd
  kit.properties        appId and the logcat tags deploy.cmd follows
  settings.gradle.kts   reads kit/versions.toml as the "kit" catalog
  build.gradle.kts      plugins at the kit's versions
  gradle.properties
  local.properties      gitignored: sdk.dir, and the app's own secrets
  app/                  the app

Clone with --recursive, or after a plain clone run git submodule update --init. Then, once per app and machine:

powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File android\kit\bootstrap.ps1
android\build.cmd                    REM debug APK
android\build.cmd testDebugUnitTest  REM any Gradle task
android\deploy.cmd                   REM build, install, launch, tail logcat
android\deploy.cmd pair CODE         REM wireless debugging, once per phone
android\deploy.cmd connect           REM after each phone reboot
android\deploy.cmd apk               REM the APK's path, to sideload by hand
android\deploy.cmd find | log | devices

For a second app on the same machine, bootstrap.ps1 skips everything up to writing that app's local.properties. A phone paired for one app is paired for all of them, because pairing belongs to the PC's adb key.

A new app

From a checkout of this repo:

powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File new-app.ps1 -Repo ..\Tides -Name "Tides" -AppId works.tides

This writes ..\Tides\android from template\: one activity that shows the app's name and logs started under the log tag. If ..\Tides is a git repo, it also adds the kit as android\kit; otherwise it prints the two commands that do. The result builds as it is.

Changing the kit

• Versions are in versions.toml, and the reasons for each pin are there too. Raising compileSdk also changes what bootstrap.ps1 installs, so run it again in each app.

• Gradle is set in gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties. bootstrap.ps1 -Force regenerates the wrapper jar, which is not committed.

• An app takes a new kit on purpose:

  git submodule update --remote android/kit
  

  then build, and commit the moved submodule. Until then each app keeps the kit commit it was built and tested with.

The toolchain folder

The toolchain lives in ANDROID_KIT_TOOLCHAIN if that is set, else in %LOCALAPPDATA%\android-kit. A machine set up before the kit existed has it in %LOCALAPPDATA%\vme-android; the kit uses that folder as long as android-kit doesn't exist, and still honours the old VME_ANDROID_TOOLCHAIN variable. Deleting the folder removes everything.