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Running Skolplattformen Android app on Windows

Installing dependencies

You will need Node, the React Native command line interface, a JDK, and Android Studio.

While you can use any editor of your choice to develop your app, you will need to install Android Studio in order to set up the necessary tooling to build your React Native app for Android.

Node, JDK

We recommend installing Node via Chocolatey, a popular package manager for Windows.

If you want to be able to switch between different Node versions, you might want to install Node via nvm-windows, a Node version manager for Windows.

React Native also requires Java SE Development Kit (JDK), which can be installed using Chocolatey as well.

Open an Administrator Command Prompt (right click Command Prompt and select "Run as Administrator"), then run the following command:

choco install -y nodejs.install openjdk8

If you have already installed Node on your system, make sure it is Node 12 or newer. If you already have a JDK on your system, make sure it is version 8 or newer.

You can find additional installation options on Node's Downloads page.

If you're using the latest version of Java Development Kit, you'll need to change the Gradle version of your project so it can recognize the JDK. You can do that by going to apps\skolplattformen-app\android\gradle\wrapper\gradle-wrapper.properties and changing the distributionUrl value to upgrade the Gradle version. You can check out here the lastest releases of Gradle.

Android development environment

Setting up your development environment can be somewhat tedious if you're new to Android development. If you're already familiar with Android development, there are a few things you may need to configure. In either case, please make sure to carefully follow the next few steps.

1. Install Android Studio

Download and install Android Studio. While on Android Studio installation wizard, make sure the boxes next to all of the following items are checked:

  • Android SDK
  • Android SDK Platform
  • Android Virtual Device
  • If you are not already using Hyper-V: Performance (Intel ® HAXM) (See here for AMD or Hyper-V)

Then, click "Next" to install all of these components.

If the checkboxes are grayed out, you will have a chance to install these components later on.

Once setup has finalized and you're presented with the Welcome screen, proceed to the next step.

2. Install the Android SDK

Android Studio installs the latest Android SDK by default. Building a React Native app with native code, however, requires the Android 10 (Q) SDK in particular. Additional Android SDKs can be installed through the SDK Manager in Android Studio.

To do that, open Android Studio, click on "Configure" button and select "SDK Manager".

Android Studio Welcome

The SDK Manager can also be found within the Android Studio "Preferences" dialog, under Appearance & Behavior → System Settings → Android SDK.

Select the "SDK Platforms" tab from within the SDK Manager, then check the box next to "Show Package Details" in the bottom right corner. Look for and expand the Android 10 (Q) entry, then make sure the following items are checked:

  • Android SDK Platform 29
  • Intel x86 Atom_64 System Image or Google APIs Intel x86 Atom System Image

Next, select the "SDK Tools" tab and check the box next to "Show Package Details" here as well. Look for and expand the "Android SDK Build-Tools" entry, then make sure that 29.0.2 is selected.

Finally, click "Apply" to download and install the Android SDK and related build tools.

3. Configure the ANDROID_HOME environment variable

The React Native tools require some environment variables to be set up in order to build apps with native code.

  1. Open the Windows Control Panel.
  2. Click on User Accounts, then click User Accounts again
  3. Click on Change my environment variables
  4. Click on New... to create a new ANDROID_HOME user variable that points to the path to your Android SDK:

ANDROID_HOME Environment Variable

The SDK is installed, by default, at the following location:

%LOCALAPPDATA%\Android\Sdk

You can find the actual location of the SDK in the Android Studio "Settings" dialog, under Appearance & Behavior → System Settings → Android SDK.

Open a new Command Prompt window to ensure the new environment variable is loaded before proceeding to the next step.

  1. Open powershell
  2. Copy and paste Get-ChildItem -Path Env:\ into powershell
  3. Verify ANDROID_HOME has been added

4. Add platform-tools to Path

  1. Open the Windows Control Panel.
  2. Click on User Accounts, then click User Accounts again
  3. Click on Change my environment variables
  4. Select the Path variable.
  5. Click Edit.
  6. Click New and add the path to platform-tools to the list.

The default location for this folder is:

%LOCALAPPDATA%\Android\Sdk\platform-tools

Preparing the Android device

You will need an Android device to run your React Native Android app. This can be either a physical Android device, or more commonly, you can use an Android Virtual Device which allows you to emulate an Android device on your computer.

Either way, you will need to prepare the device to run Android apps for development.

Using a physical device

If you have a physical Android device, you can use it for development in place of an AVD by plugging it in to your computer using a USB cable and following the instructions here.

Using a virtual device

If you use Android Studio to open ./apps/skolplattformen-app/android, you can see the list of available Android Virtual Devices (AVDs) by opening the "AVD Manager" from within Android Studio. Look for an icon that looks like this:

Android Studio AVD Manager

If you have recently installed Android Studio, you will likely need to create a new AVD. Select "Create Virtual Device...", then pick any Phone from the list and click "Next", then select the Q API Level 29 image.

If you don't have HAXM installed, click on "Install HAXM" or follow these instructions to set it up, then go back to the AVD Manager.

Click "Next" then "Finish" to create your AVD. At this point you should be able to click on the green triangle button next to your AVD to launch it, then proceed to the next step.

Running the app

Go to the root of the project and run the following command

yarn run start:android