androidify

android dev the simple way. take a set of html files, and turn them into an apk with one command. Proof of Concept.

motivation

dabbling occasionally in android dev... is a massive pain in the butt! why can't it just be easy? why do I have to install massive SDKs and all that crap? Since I only want to build my app with web tech, why isn't it as easy as creating a web site?

write some HTML and javascript, then hit deploy?

Then I had an idea: instead of recompiling the stupid java app from scratch every time (and requiring the enormous android sdk) just use a prebuilt apk, replace the text files, repack and resign.

Turns out, this was surprisingly easy.

installation

npm install androidify -g

Almost, you'll also need to have java, to get the jarsigner command, and adb command to deploy your app.

• ubuntu/debian: sudo apt-get install default-jre android-tools-adb
• archlinux: sudo pacman -S jre8-openjdk-headless android-tools
• osx: brew cask install java android-platform-tools

and put your phone into developer mode (depends on your phone)

usage

mkdir hello
echo '<h1> HELLO </h1>' > index.html
androidify #will output app.apk
adb install app.apk # will send it to your device.

A new app called "Hello World" will appear.

I havn't figured out how to change the name yet. So, it's called "Hello World" no matter what.

signing

The apps are selfsigned, which is basically meaningless, so I just checked the key it in. My phone doesn't complain about this, maybe because it's in developer mode?

thanks

This is made an old hello world.apk i found at

simplificator/phonegap-helloworld

License

MIT