Building the NewsBlur Android App

The NewsBlur Android application should build with virtually any supported Android build tool or environement. The file structure found in this repo has been chosen for maximum compatibility with various development setups. Several examples of how to build can be found below.

It is the goal of this repository to stay agnostic to build environments or tools. Please consider augmenting the .gitignore file to catch any developer-specific build artifacts or environment configuration you may discover while building.

How to Build from the Command Line with Ant

TODO: this section may be out of date, as GOOG no longer support ant builds

an abridged version of the official guide found here

this type of build will use the vendored dependencies in clients/android/NewsBlur/libs

install java and ant (prefer official JDK over OpenJDK)
download the Android SDK from android.com
get the tools/ and/or platform-tools/ directories ifrom the SDK on your path
android update sdk --no-ui (this could take a while; you can use the --filter option to just get the SDK, platform tools, and support libs)
go to the clients/android/ NewsBlur directory and run android update project --name NewsBlur --path .
build a test APK with ant clean && ant debug (.apk will be in /bin under the working directory)

How to Build from the Command Line with Gradle

this type of build will pull dependencies as prescribed in the gradle configuration

install gradle v3.3 or better
ensure that all Android license agreements have been accepted via $ANDROID_HOME/tools/bin/sdkmanager tools or similar
build a test APK with gradle build (.apk will be in /build/outputs/apk/ under the working directory)

How to Build from Android Studio

TODO: this section may be out of date, as GOOG regularly update the Android Studio UI

this type of build will pull dependencies as prescribed in the gradle configuration

install and fully update Android Studio
run AS and choose import project
within your local copy of this repo, select the directory/path where this file is located
select OK to let AS manage Gradle for your project
select Build -> Make Project from the menu
select Build -> Build APK from the menu

Building Releases

tip: a debug-compatible release key is usually located at ~/.android/debug.keystore with the alias androiddebugkey and the passwords android.

Ant Builds

Create a local.properties file with the following values:

has.keystore=true
key.store=<path to your keystore file>
key.alias=<alias of the key with which you would like to sign the APK>

run ant clean && ant release

Gradle Builds

Add the following lines to the android section of the build.gradle file:

signingConfigs {
    release {
        storeFile file('<absolute path to your keystore file>')
        keyAlias '<alias of the key with which you would like to sign the APK>'
        storePassword '<keystore password>'
        keyPassword '<key password>'
    }
}
buildTypes.release.signingConfig = signingConfigs.release

run gradle assembleRelease

Android Studio Builds

See the AS documentation on signing release builds

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