who_need_help/android

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.

Verified build configuration

• Android Gradle Plugin 9.3.0
• Gradle 9.6.1
• 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.

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, and assembleDebug before it exports the APK and lint report.

Emulator verification

The optional emulator target contains the API 37.0 Google APIs x86_64 system image. It 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.