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commcare-android

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Offline First Android software client for CommCare, the world's largest platform for designing, managing, and deploying robust mobile applications to frontline workers worldwide

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# commcare-android

CommCare is an easily customizable, open source mobile platform that supports frontline workers in low-resource settings. By replacing paper-based forms, frontline workers can use CommCare to track and support their clients with registration forms, checklists, SMS reminders, and multimedia.

This repository represents the Android version of CommCare. It depends on the [CommCare Core](https://github.com/dimagi/commcare-core) repository, which contains the XForm engine and case/lookup table implementations.

## End-to-End Development

CommCare Android is a mobile CommCare Platform client runtime, and requires a backend environment for full end-to-end usage and to test platform development.

If you don't have an access to another backend, or if you will be doing full platform development, after completing this setup you can follow [the end-to-end development guide](https://github.com/dimagi/commcare-hq/blob/master/local_dev_guide.rst) which explains how to establish a local environment for CommCare's full client/server software.

## Setup

To set up an Android dev environment for commcare-android, do the following:

- Install [Android Studio](https://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html).
- Install Java 17 if you don't have it yet. For ease of test suite setup ([see below](#unit-tests)) OpenJDK is preferred over Oracle's version of Java.

Go ahead and open Android Studio if this is your first time using it;
it may take you through some sort of setup wizard, and it's nice to get that out of the way. If it's not the first time, ensure that there are no references to [removed Java options](https://docs.oracle.com/en/java/javase/17/docs/specs/man/java.html#removed-java-options) in your environment, most commonly found are *MaxPermSize* and *PermSize*

Android Studio's default project space is `~/AndroidStudioProjects` so I'm going to use that in the example.
CommCare Android depends on CommCare Core, and CommCare Android expects the core directory to live side by side
in your directory structure. You can acheive this with the following commands (in Bash):

```bash
cd ~/AndroidStudioProjects
mkdir CommCare
cd CommCare
git clone https://github.com/dimagi/commcare-android.git
git clone https://github.com/dimagi/commcare-core.git
```

- Open Android Studio
- If this is your first time using Android Studio, click "Config" and setup the Android SDK.
- Download the Android 15 (API 35) SDK Platform and the Google APIs for 35.
- Now go back to the Android Studio Welcome dashboard and click "Import project (Eclipse ADT, Gradle, etc.)"
- Select AndroidStudioProjects > CommCare > commcare-android and hit OK
- Click "OK" to use the Gradle wrapper
- Wait while Android Studio spins its wheels
- Download any build dependencies that the SDK Manager tells you you need.

Note: 
- Android Secrets should be placed in the `local.properties` -> global or project-level `gradle.properties`, 
in that order of priority. Failing to do so may result in build or runtime errors.
- If you are using any functionality that depends on the Google Cloud Project (like
[Google Integrity APIs](https://developer.android.com/google/play/integrity/standard)), you will need to
define `GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT_NUMBER` in your Android secrets otherwise relevant parts of the
application will crash for you with
`Caused by: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Google Cloud Project Number is not defined`.

You should be able to locate the project number in Google cloud console in the "settings" for "IAM and admin" menu.

Note: In order to test locally with the Google Integrity APIs, you will also need to add the SHA fingerprint for your development computer to the CommCare Debug Build project in Firebase.

## Building

Now you're basically ready to go. To build CommCare Android and get it running on your phone,
plug in an Android phone that

- is [in developer mode has USB debugging enabled](https://developer.android.com/tools/device.html#setting-up)
- doesn't have CommCare Android installed on it

In Android Studio, hit the build button (a green "play" symbol in the toolbar).
The first build will take a minute.
Then it'll ask you what device to run it on

- Make sure your screen is unlocked (or else you'll see [something like this](https://gist.github.com/dannyroberts/6d8d57ff4d5f9a1b70a5))
- select your device

Enjoy!

### Building from the command-line

CommCare has several different build variants. The normal build variant is `commcare` and can built built from the command-line with the following command:

```bash
cd commcare-android
./gradlew assembleCommcareDebug
# the apk can now be found in the build/outputs/apk/ directory
```

## Unit Tests

The commcare-android repository uses [Robolectric](http://robolectric.org/), which provides mocks, allowing you to run Android specific code on your local machine.

### Run unit-tests from the command-line

```bash
cd commcare-android
./gradlew testCommcareDebug
```

and view the results from the output file generated.

### Run unit-tests from Android Studio

Unit tests can be ran from Android Studio via an auto-configured Gradle task by right-clicking on the test folder in the file explorer and then clicking on "Run 'org.commcare.tests'".

You may also run individual unit tests, via auto-configured Gradle tasks, by clicking on the green play button in the editor gutter (on the left-hand side of the editor window) of the unit test class.

## Instrumentation Tests

The commcare-android repository uses [Espresso](https://developer.android.com/training/testing/espresso/) to write UI tests.
You need to have two keys in your Android secrets before being able to run any instrumentation tests. **But make sure you never commit these keys to GitHub.**
```properties
HQ_API_USERNAME=<ASK_ANOTHER_DEV_FOR_KEY>
HQ_API_PASSWORD=<ASK_ANOTHER_DEV_FOR_KEY>
```

### Run instrumentation-tests from the command-line

```bash
cd commcare-android
./gradlew connectedCommcareDebugAndroidTest
```

It's also a common requirement to run a particular test, such as when you're fixing a bug or developing a new test. You can achieve the same in command-line using:

```bash
./gradlew connectedCommcareDebugAndroidTest -Pandroid.testInstrumentationRunnerArguments.class=<FULLY_QUALIFIED_NAME_OF_YOUR_TEST>
```

You can view the results from the output file generated.

### Run instrumentation-tests from Android Studio

Before running tests from Android-Studio make sure you've disabled animations in your device. Note, this is only required when you're running tests from Android Studio
```text
Go to Setting -> Developer Options, and under the Drawing section, switch all of the following options:

Window animation scale -> off
Transition animation scale -> off
Animator duration scale -> off
```

Create a new Android Studio *Android Instrumented Test* Build configuration using the following steps.

- Click *Run -> Edit Configruations* and create a new *Android Instrumented Test* configuration by pressing the green plus button.
- Set *Name* to "commcare Android instrumentation tests"
- Set *Test kind* to "All in Package"
- set *Package* to `org.commcare.androidTests`
- Click `OK` to finish creating the configuration.
- Select the "commcare Android instrumentation tests" under the configuration drop down to the left of the green play button.
- Press the green play button to run the tests.

### Run instrumentation-tests skipped on BrowserStack

```bash
cd commcare-android
./gradlew connectedCommcareDebugAndroidTest -Pandroid.testInstrumentationRunnerArguments.notAnnotation=org.commcare.annotations.BrowserstackTests
```

### Code Style Settings

In order to comply with code style guidelines we follow, please use
[Commcare Coding Style file](https://github.com/dimagi/commcare-android/blob/master/.android_studio_settings/codestyles/CommCare%20Coding%20Style.xml)
and
[Commcare Inspection Profile](https://github.com/dimagi/commcare-android/blob/master/.android_studio_settings/inspection/CommCare%20Inpsection%20Profile.xml)
as your respective code style and inpection profile in Android Studio.

To do so follow these instructions

1. Copy the config files to your Android Studio installation as follows (Replace AndroidStudio3.0 with the
respective directory for the AS version you are using) -

```bash
cp .android_studio_settings/inspection/CommCare\ Inpsection\ Profile.xml ~/Library/Preferences/AndroidStudio3.0/inspection/.

cp .android_studio_settings/codestyles/CommCare\ Coding\ Style.xml ~/Library/Preferences/AndroidStudio3.0/codestyles/.
```

2. Restart Android Studio

3. Go to AS preferences -> Editor -> Code Style and select Scheme as 'Commcare Coding Style' and to AS preferences -> Editor -> Inspections and select Profile as 'Commcare Inspection Profile'

### Common Errors

#### If you experience the following exception when running individual tests from Android Studio Editor on Mac

```text
No such manifest file: build/intermediates/bundles/debug/AndroidManifest.xml
```
If you are on a Mac, you will probably need to configure the default JUnit test runner configuration in order to work around a bug where IntelliJ / Android Studio does not set the working directory to the module being tested. This can be accomplished by editing the run configurations, Defaults -> JUnit and changing the working directory value to $MODULE_DIR$

#### Error on attempt to install CommCare app on phone: *Unknown failure during app install*

Android Monitor in Android Studio shows the following exceptions:
```java
java.lang.RuntimeException: CommCare ran into an issue deserializing data while inflating type
    ...
Caused by: org.javarosa.core.util.externalizable.DeserializationException:
No datatype registered to serialization code [4b a9 e5 89]
```

Resolution:

- Disable *Instant Run* found in Settings > Build, Execution, Deployment > Instant Run.
- Maybe also edit ~/.gradle/gradle.properties (may not exist) and add a line like `org.gradle.jvmargs=-Xmx1536M` if the build fails due to OOM or you see a message like the following during the build:

```text
To run dex in process, the Gradle daemon needs a larger heap.
It currently has 1024 MB.
For faster builds, increase the maximum heap size for the Gradle daemon to at least 1536 MB.
To do this set org.gradle.jvmargs=-Xmx1536M in the project gradle.properties.
```

- Click *Run 'app'* to rebuid and run on phone.

## AI Development Guidelines

Guidelines for AI agents can be found in [AI Agent Development Guidelines](AGENTS.md). This document can be symlinked at the file path that your AI agent expects it to be at.

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