Understanding Your (Android) Builds

Gradle is the official build tool for Android Apps. This talk covers some basics on Gradle build scripts and shows some sample tasks you can have in your project build.

Transcript

1. Understanding your
   builds
   twitter.com
   
   github.com
   @charlesmuchene
   

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2. Understanding your
   builds
   twitter.com
   
   github.com
   @charlesmuchene
   • Introduction
   
   • AS & Gradle
   
   • Groovy basics
   
   • Android Build Process
   
   • Sample tasks
   Agenda
   

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3. @SafeBoda | @SafeBoda_Kenya
   

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4. Gradle
   • Highly customisable - custom build configs, plugins etc
   
   • Fast - employs caching, incremental, *parallel builds etc
   
   • Powerful - supports popular languages and technologies
   open-source build and automation tool
   

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5. AS & Gradle
   AS delegates the entire build process to Gradle
   Building Android apps
   ADB
   :assemble artifact
   Install using
   adb
   

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6. The basics
   Gradle scripts are written using *Groovy (and now Kotlin)
   

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7. Groovy
   def age = 23
   String name = "SenseiDev"
   def someFunction(a, b) {
   // Does awesome stuff
   }
   class Session {
   String title = "Understanding your builds"
   def printTitle() {
   println "Session title: $title"
   }
   }
   variables, functions, classes
   

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8. Groovy cntd.
   def event = “Droidcon"
   def country = "KE"
   def posterPrinter = {
   println "Attending ${event}${country}"
   }
   posterPrinter()
   def adder = {a, b -> a + b}
   def result = adder 7, 3
   println result
   closures
   

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9. Groovy cntd.
   def builderTask(Closure configClosure) {
   // All good stuff using configClosure
   }
   def closureImpl = {
   // Does awesome work
   }
   builderTask(closureImpl)
   closures
   Definition:
   Invocation:
   

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10. Groovy cntd.
    def builderTask(Closure configClosure) {
    // All good stuff using configClosure
    }
    builderTask({
    // Does awesome work
    })
    closures
    Definition:
    Invocation:
    

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11. Groovy cntd.
    def builderTask(Closure configClosure) {
    // All good stuff using configClosure
    }
    builderTask() {
    // Does awesome work
    }
    closures
    Definition:
    Invocation:
    

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12. Groovy cntd.
    def builderTask(Closure configClosure) {
    // All good stuff using configClosure
    }
    builderTask {
    // Does awesome work
    }
    closures
    Definition:
    Invocation:
    

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13. Groovy cntd.
    class AppBuilder {
    String platform = "Unknown"
    def build() {
    println "Building for $platform..."
    }
    }
    def appBuilder = new AppBuilder()
    def buildApp = {
    platform = "Android"
    build()
    }
    buildApp.delegate = appBuilder
    buildApp()
    delegates
    

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14. Gradle-Wrapper
    

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15. Gradle-Wrapper
    Micro-library for downloading distribution
    List dist. url, version and other options
    Gradle executable for *nix systems
    Gradle executable for Windows systems
    
    ~150Kb
    

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16. Tasks
    Self-contained unit of work
    task [(configs.)] {
    // actions
    }
    gradle
    Executing a task:
    Task syntax:
    gradle tasks
    Show all tasks:
    

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17. • Initialization Phase
    Configure environment (init.gradle, gradle.properties)
    
    Find projects and build scripts (settings.gradle)
    
    • Configuration Phase
    Evaluate all build scripts
    
    Build task execution graph
    
    • Execution Phase
    Execute tasks
    Gradle Build lifecycle
    

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18. Android Build Process
    android.com
    

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19. App module structure
    • settings.gradle - what modules should be
    included
    
    • build.gradle (project-level) - configurations for
    all modules in the project e.g.
    
    • build.gradle (module-level) - configures build
    settings for the module
    • *gradle.properties - project-wide Gradle
    settings e.g. caching, daemon max heap size
    etc
    • **local.properties - local environment properties
    for the build system e.g. local sdk, ndk paths
    

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20. settings.gradle
    specifies modules to be included when building your app
    include ‘:app’
    include ‘:app’, ‘:common’
    

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21. build.gradle (project-level)
    configurations for all modules in project
    buildscript {
    repositories {
    google()
    jcenter()
    }
    dependencies {
    classpath ‘com.android.tools.build:gradle:3.2.0’
    classpath ‘org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-gradle-plugin:1.2.71’
    }
    }
    allprojects {
    repositories {
    google()
    jcenter()
    }
    }
    

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22. build.gradle (module-level)
    configurations for a module
    apply plugin: ‘com.android.application’
    apply plugin: ‘kotlin-android’
    apply plugin: ‘kotlin-android-extensions’
    apply plugin: ‘kotlin-kapt’
    android {
    ... // additional configurations
    }
    dependencies {
    ... // dependencies list
    }
    

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23. build.gradle (module-level)
    configurations for a module (contd.)
    android {
    compileSdkVersion 28
    defaultConfig {
    versionCode 87
    minSdkVersion 21
    targetSdkVersion 28
    versionName "3.2.10-alpha.1"
    applicationId “com.charlesmuchene.app"
    buildConfigField "String", “INSTABUG_TOKEN", “ab12cd34"
    ... // additional configurations
    }
    }
    

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24. build.gradle (module-level)
    configurations for a module (contd.)
    android {
    defaultConfig {
    ... // other configurations
    buildTypes {
    beta {
    minifyEnabled true
    shrinkResources true
    proguardFiles getDefaultProguardFile(‘proguard-android.txt'), 'proguard-rules.pro'
    }
    release {
    minifyEnabled true
    shrinkResources true
    buildConfigField "String", "INSTABUG_TOKEN", ‘"zz98yy76"'
    proguardFiles getDefaultProguardFile(‘proguard-android.txt'), 'proguard-rules.pro'
    }
    }
    }
    }
    

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25. Sample task
    task clean(type: Delete) {
    delete rootProject.buildDir
    }
    remove build dir.
    

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26. Sample task
    task exportArtifacts(type: Copy) {
    description "Copy artifacts for distribution to project root”
    group "Installer Automator”
    dependsOn assemble, assembleAndroidTest
    from("$buildDir/outputs/apk/debug") {
    exclude "*.json"
    rename "(.*)\\.apk", "install-checker.apk"
    }
    from("$buildDir/outputs/apk/androidTest/debug") {
    exclude "*.json"
    rename "(.*)\\.apk", "install-automator.apk"
    }
    into("$rootDir/artifacts")
    }
    export artifacts to a custom directory
    

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27. Sample configuration
    read signing configs from excluded properties file
    def keystorePropertiesFile = rootProject.file("keystore.properties")
    if (keystorePropertiesFile.exists()) {
    def key = new Properties()
    key.load(new FileInputStream(keystorePropertiesFile))
    android {
    signingConfigs {
    debug {
    storeFile rootProject.file('debug.keystore')
    }
    config {
    keyAlias key['alias']
    keyPassword key['key']
    storePassword key['store']
    storeFile file(key['file'])
    }
    }
    ..
    

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28. References
    • http://groovy-lang.org
    
    • https://docs.gradle.org/current/dsl/
    
    • https://developer.android.com/studio/build/
    
    • https://google.github.io/android-gradle-dsl/current/
    Happy building
    

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