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Running zmNinja from Source

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Pliable Pixels edited this page Oct 2, 2018 · 63 revisions

NOTE If you want to run it on your desktop, you can directly download desktop binaries here and if you want it for Android/iOS you can get from the play/appstore. This is only for those who want to run from source.

Note: If you are building from source, you are mostly on your own. I have very limited time to debug environment differences/package differences between what I have and what you may have. I'm not a nodejs/grunt etc expert and stuff seems to change all the time.

Version note: The code is compiled using the following versions of tools. If you are using newer versions of ionic the code may not compile - I don't have the time to upgrade yet. Finally, if you choose to go the source route, I expect you to spend a lot of time yourself debugging first before you create an issue. Even if you do create an issue, I have very limited bandwidth to debug source compilation issues for you. Thanks.

cli packages: (/usr/local/lib/node_modules)

    @ionic/cli-utils  : 1.19.2
    ionic (Ionic CLI) : 3.20.0

global packages:

    cordova (Cordova CLI) : 8.0.0 
    Gulp CLI              : CLI version 3.9.1 Local version 3.9.1

local packages:

    Cordova Platforms : android 6.3.0 ios 4.5.4
    Ionic Framework   : ionic1 1.3.5

System:

    Android SDK Tools : 26.1.1
    ios-deploy        : 1.9.2 
    Node              : v6.11.2
    npm               : 3.10.10
    OS                : macOS High Sierra
    Xcode             : Xcode 9.4 Build version 9F1027a 

Environment Variables:

    ANDROID_HOME : /Users/pp/Library/Android/sdk/

Misc:

    backend : legacy

Install Dependencies - needed for all platforms

Install NodeJS

Install NodeJS from here. As of Dec 2017, I'm using Node v6.11.2 (ionic-v1 projects seem to cause errors with newer versions of node. I use n to manage node versions and switch between them)

Install cordova, ionic, and bower

npm install -g cordova ionic bower

And some more:

npm install -g gulp
npm install node-sass
npm install async
npm install jshint

(Note you may need to do sudo depending on how your system is set up. It's better you don't, but if you must, well, you must)

If you get a newer version, you should adjust your cordova version to the mentioned version above in order to be able to successfully compile zmNinja. To change the version you can follow these instructions: change cordova version

Download zmNinja

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/pliablepixels/zmNinja.git

Configure build configure zmNinja and get all required plugins

cd zmNinja
npm install
bower install
cordova prepare

Making an iOS build

Note: You need to be doing this on a mac, with Xcode and the SDK installed. You also need to have your developer certificates/etc. (I am not going to detail this out - there are many internet resources on this)

There are a few steps you need to take to get the iOS build working for the first time. If you don't do this, you may get a compilation error that says ld: library not found for -lGoogleToolboxForMac

cd platforms/ios
pod install

This does not produce an iOS ready ipa. What you need to do then is to open platforms/ios/zmNinja.xcworkspace in Xcode, and run.

To compile a debug build for iOS from command line, from zmNinja project root: First edit ./build-auto.json and change the developmentTeam id to yours. Then:

 ./build_ios.sh

To compile using XCode, open platforms/ios/zmNinja.xcworkspace - You need to use "Legacy Build" system if you are on XCode 10+. You can change this in XCode File->Workspace Settings and then build usual. Also switch to the Capabilities tab and make sure "Remote Notifications" is on in Background Modes and in iCloud section, Key-Value storage is enabled. If you see a "Fix issue" there, clicking on that button resolves everything.

Making an Android build

Note that you need the Android SDK installed and configured properly for this to work.

From the zmNinja project root:

 ionic cordova build android

If this complains of missing SDKs, you need to install the SDK version it requests This should produce an APK file. To install it on your phone over adb, you'd do something like

adb install -r platforms/android/build/outputs/apk/android-armv7-debug.apk

Making a desktop build

I use electron to build the desktop app.

For versions 1.3.018 and beyond

I've migrated to using electron-builder to automate the build process better.

Make sure you have all the dependencies

Typically, just running

npm install

Should have installed everything. Validate by checking you have electron installed by invoking it on the command line

You now have the following options:

npm run dist-all # builds linux, mac and windows packages
npm run dist-mac # only builds mac packages
npm run dist-lin # only builds linux packages (32bit, 64bit, arm)
npm run dist-win # only builds win packages (32bit, 64bit)

Your packages will be created in the dist folder

For versions older than 1.3.018 (will not work in 1.3.018 and beyond)

Click to see details

Set up desktop dependencies

 npm install -g electron
 npm install -g asar

Make sure electron is installed. You should be able to do a which electron

Also make sure unzip and wget tools are installed in your system.

First time setup

If this is the first time you are building a desktop version, you need to download electron images for various platforms. There is a helper script called prepare_desktop.sh that you can run. This creates a directory called desktop inside your zmNinja directory. It currently downloads all supported platforms.

./prepare_desktop.sh

This will download a bunch of files. If completed successfully, you can proceed to the next step.

Make the desktop build

Once you are done with prepare_desktop.sh, you can do a ./make_desktop.sh. This will actually build images for all platforms.

Running desktop builds

cd into the desktop directory and run whichever port you want

Subsequent builds

You need to ./make_desktop.sh each time you make changes.

Troubleshooting

Lots of things can go wrong.

  • Please make sure you don't post issues about why your own build is not working - please figure it out
  • Look carefully at error messages
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