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Building and distributing APKs

André Pedersen edited this page Jan 24, 2023 · 3 revisions

What are APKs?

APK stands for Android Package Kit (APK) and is one of the most commonly used packages for Android.

APKs enable users to download, install, and run an app on their own phone, like any other app.

APKs are also useful for developers, as we are able to distribute mobile apps extremely easily.

How to create an APK?

Right now, we have setup a GitHub Actions workflow, that enables us to build the APK on the cloud!

This can be easily done, by going to Actions tab in the DSS github repo:

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Then, if you select the Build APK workflow on the left hand side, you should see a button which says Run workflow.

Clicking it should open this small pop-up, where you can click the green Run workflow button, which should launch the task.

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After launching, a new Build APK task should be added to the list, with yellow circle indicating that it is in progress.

Note that it might take some time for the task to start!

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When it has started, it might take some time for it to finish, as building APKs can take some time!

If you are interested in knowing how the workflow is going, you can click the active Build APK task from the list, which should redirect you here:

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To see the actual progress, you have to click on the Build task, which should show you the steps:

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When finished, be sure to click on the Summary button on the left hand side, which should send you here:

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If you are signed into GitHub, you should then be able to see that a new Artifact has been generated.

That is the APK! This can then be downloaded on any mobile device for further testing :]