doc22940 / memex-mobile

Mobile app for Memex

Setting up

0. git clone [email protected]:WorldBrain/Memex-Mobile --recursive
1. Set up and connect a device via XCode or adb
2. Go to the app/ directory
3. Run yarn

additional required steps if intending to run on iOS:

1. Go to the app/ios directory
2. Install Cocoapods if not already installed: https://cocoapods.org/
3. Run pod install

Running on Android

0. Add Firebase credentials in app/android/app/google-services.json
1. In one terminal, run yarn start
2. In another terminal, run yarn react-native run-android

Note: If your Android SDK or AVDs are not configured properly, you may have to manually start an emulator instance for the above commands to work.

Running on iOS (requires macOS)

0. Add Firebase credentials:

   0.1. for main app: app/ios/app/GoogleService-Info.plist

   0.2. for share extension: app/ios/MemexShare/GoogleService-Info.plist

1. In one terminal, run yarn start

2. In another terminal, run open app/ios/app.xcworkspace to open the XCode workspace (important that you don't open app/ios/app.xcodeproj)

3. In the menu bar, go to Product > Destination

   3.1. Choose a connected iPhone or one of the simulators

4. Press the "Play" button in the top left

Set up app reload on source code change

Assumes the above steps have been followed and app is currently running in iOS simulator while yarn start is running in a terminal.

1. In the iOS simulator, press cmd + D, or cmd/ctrl + M on Android emulator, to open the developer menu
2. Press "Enable Live Reload"
3. Change anything in the source code and save and the app should quickly reload with those new changes.

Troubleshooting

Build issues citing missing deps or libraries

Often I've encountered issues where things either crash on build or at runtime citing missing dependencies, mainly on iOS. If this happens, I would advise trying to re-install all the needed deps and trying again. You can copy and paste the following snippets, running them from the repo root:

Clean and reset your git repo + submodules

git clean -xfd
git submodule foreach --recursive git clean -xfd
git reset --hard
git submodule foreach --recursive git reset --hard
git submodule update --init --recursive

Note: Running the above should automatically remove your NPM deps and CocoaPods.

Clean and re-install your NPM deps

rm -rf node_modules/
yarn

Re-install all CocoaPods

cd ios/
pod install
cd ..

Clean XCode build caches

Choose Product > Clean in the XCode menu bar.

Haste module naming collision error throwing from yarn start

Sometimes you may see an error output from yarn start similar to the following, possibly with different submodules:

Loading dependency graph...jest-haste-map: Haste module naming collision: @worldbrain/storex-pattern-modules
  The following files share their name; please adjust your hasteImpl:
    * <rootDir>/external/@worldbrain/storex-pattern-modules/package.json
    * <rootDir>/external/@worldbrain/memex-storage/external/@worldbrain/storex-pattern-modules/package.json

If this happens, run the following to rmeove the duplicated submodules:

rm -rf app/external/@worldbrain/memex-storage/external

This indicates an issue with how that repo is currently set up with its own submodules, which needs to be fixed.

NOTE: If you run git submodule update again at any time, you may need to re-run the above command to re-remove the duplicated submodules

Share extension stops working on iOS after new package added

Sometimes, after adding and setting up a new package, the share extension will no longer work on iOS. Often this is because the yarn react-native link $PACKAGE_NAME command to auto-link needed libs does not perform the needed steps for the share ext's project. The linked libs are treated separately on both the main app and the share extension.

To fix this, after running the relevant react-native link command:

1. open ios/app.xcodeproj in Xcode
2. go to the MemexShare target
3. go to Build Phases
4. go to Link Binary With Libraries
5. press the add button and find the relevant lib$PACKAGE_NAME.a library

For example, the @react-native-community/async-storage package did not get its needed libs automatically linked with the share extension. Read through their docs on how to manually link (most RN packages with such a requirement seem to contain these instructions) to get the relevant lib and follow the above steps.

Android build errors complaining about missing android.support.v4.util packages

Running yarn react-native run-android will sometimes result in errors during compilation, such as error: package android.support.v4.util does not exist. If this occurs, run node_modules/.bin/jetify to migrate all node_modules to AndroidX then try to run again.

Note: This should now automatically be run on postinstall when running yarn while setting up the repo.

The reason this happens (from my limited understanding) is because certain deps will be using native Java code that isn't updated to AndroidX yet while the main app assumes AndroidX. Running jetify updates those deps. This may need to be run each time you refresh your deps by running yarn. More info in the jetifier NPM package: https://www.npmjs.com/package/jetifier

No online devices found

If you get an error about no online devices found, the emulator is running too slowly. (Which it was even for me running 4 fast cores and 16GB RAM and a GPU beast with 8GB of video memory.) For me, enabling GPU accelleration worked, which can only be done on images NOT including the Play Store.

If the emulator somehow doesn't receive input from your physical keyboard, you can open the React developer menu with this command:

adb shell input keyevent 82