Who Need Help for Android

This module is a native Android WebView shell for the Phoenix application. It keeps authentication cookies, LiveView WebSockets, MapLibre, and chat in the same trusted origin. Live location is sent by a user-started native foreground service with a persistent notification and Stop action, so it can continue while the Activity is minimized without requesting Android's background-location permission.

The native tracking bridge uses WebViewCompat.addWebMessageListener with the exact configured origin and rejects messages outside the main frame. It does not expose a legacy addJavascriptInterface object to every frame.

Verified build configuration

Android Gradle Plugin 9.3.0
Gradle 9.6.1
Android SDK Command-line Tools 22.0
Android CLI 1.0.15857036 (embedded in the locked Command-line Tools archive)
AndroidX WebKit 1.16.0
compileSdk / targetSdk 37
Build Tools 37.0.0
Java source and bytecode level 17
minSdk 24 (project baseline, not an Android SDK requirement)

The debug origin is not stored in the Dockerfile or Gradle project. Set WNH_DEBUG_BASE_URL in the repository's ignored .env file. The supplied local configuration uses loopback together with adb reverse; debug builds allow cleartext traffic, while the WebView still restricts in-app navigation to that one configured origin.

The same ignored file supplies WNH_TRACKING_MIN_TIME_MS and WNH_TRACKING_HTTP_TIMEOUT_MS. The checked-in example preserves the original local client freshness and timeout behavior; these values are not claimed as measured production capacity settings.

Release builds do not have a default server. Supply the real HTTPS deployment:

./gradlew :app:assembleRelease \
  -PWNH_BASE_URL=https://help.your-domain.example \
  -PWNH_TRACKING_MIN_TIME_MS=5000 \
  -PWNH_TRACKING_HTTP_TIMEOUT_MS=15000

The build rejects a missing, HTTP, credentialed, query-bearing, or fragment-bearing release URL.

Public staging build

The installable staging build type uses the explicit public HTTPS WNH_BASE_URL, disables cleartext traffic, and has its own org.whoneedhelp.mobile.staging application ID. Configure a missing local value from the existing PHX_HOST, PHX_SCHEME, and PHX_URL_PORT, then build:

./scripts/ensure-local-public-origin.sh
./scripts/android-staging-build.sh
sha256sum android/dist-staging/who-need-help-staging.apk

This variant uses Android's generic debug signing key so it can be installed for staging verification. It is not a production-signed artifact and must not be published as a release. The manifest accepts same-origin HTTPS deep links, but verified Android App Links additionally require the final signing certificate fingerprint in the deployment's /.well-known/assetlinks.json.

With the temporary public origin reachable, run the API 37 emulator smoke test:

./scripts/android-staging-smoke.sh

The script installs the exported staging APK into a fresh project-scoped emulator container, loads the configured HTTPS home page, follows a same-origin /safety deep link, verifies that the package does not claim an external HTTPS origin, and retains UI dumps, screenshots, package metadata, and logcat diagnostics under ignored output/android-staging-smoke/. The one-run container and image are removed on success or failure.

Reproducible Docker build

From the repository root:

./scripts/android-build.sh
sha256sum android/dist/who-need-help-debug.apk

The Docker build runs JVM unit tests, Android lint, assembleDebug, and assembleDebugAndroidTest before it exports the application APK and lint report.

Automated device tests

Run the default API 37 suite or the complete API 24/30/34/37 matrix from the repository root:

./scripts/android-instrumentation-test.sh
./scripts/android-matrix-test.sh

The command requires /dev/kvm. It generates an ignored .env.android-test once with a randomized http://127.0.0.1:PORT origin and mode 0600; the application and its in-process fixture server both derive the origin from that file. It then builds both APKs, boots a fresh selected emulator container without external networking, injects emulator coordinates, and runs AndroidJUnitRunner. WNH_ANDROID_TEST_API selects one supported API, while WNH_ANDROID_TEST_API_MATRIX controls the matrix command.

The tests cover the missing-location-permission boundary, the WebView-triggered Android permission dialog, same-origin deep-link routing across Activity recreation, foreground location upload after Home and Activity destruction, the persistent notification Stop action, a disconnected Stop request with visible retry state, and externally forced process death for the non-sticky tracking service. Results are stored by API under ignored output/android-instrumentation/. On failure, logcat, service state, and emulator logs are retained; the exact container and one-run image are removed in either outcome.

Emulator verification

The optional emulator target contains the API 37.0 Google APIs x86_64 system image. Manual verification against the local Compose application requires KVM and host networking. Pass the same .env value as a build argument, then expose the Compose proxy to Android with adb reverse:

set -a
. ./.env
set +a
docker build \
  --build-arg "WNH_DEBUG_BASE_URL=$WNH_DEBUG_BASE_URL" \
  --build-arg "WNH_TRACKING_MIN_TIME_MS=$WNH_TRACKING_MIN_TIME_MS" \
  --build-arg "WNH_TRACKING_HTTP_TIMEOUT_MS=$WNH_TRACKING_HTTP_TIMEOUT_MS" \
  --target emulator \
  -t who-need-help-android:emulator \
  android
docker run --rm --name who-need-help-android-emulator \
  --device /dev/kvm \
  --network host \
  who-need-help-android:emulator
docker exec who-need-help-android-emulator adb reverse tcp:4010 tcp:4010
docker exec who-need-help-android-emulator adb install \
  /opt/who-need-help/who-need-help-debug.apk

The application ID org.whoneedhelp.mobile is provisional until the publishing identity and store listing are chosen. Changing it after publication creates a different Android application.

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