Tips For Building Cordova Apps On Android

I have a small Makefile that I use to automate signing, installing and running builds on an Android device.

It does the following:

• Deletes the old apk (if exists). The -f flag will remove the old file without confirmation and will not display an error if the file does not exist:

rm -f yourfilename.apk

• Runs the cordova build:

cordova build android --release

• Signs the apk using the keystore, and passes the alias and password as cli arguments so no manual entry is required:

jarsigner -sigalg MD5withRSA -digestalg SHA1 -keystore certs/certname.keystore -storepass yourkeypass platforms/android/build/outputs/apk/android-release-unsigned.apk youralias

zipalign -v 4 platforms/android/build/outputs/apk/android-release-unsigned.apk yourfilename.apk

• Installs the apk on the device. The -r flag overwrites the old apk so if the app is already installed you don't have to remove it manually each time:

adb install -r yourfilename.apk

• Executes the cordova app so you don't have to look for the icon and tap it each time:

adb shell am start -n com.yourcompany.yourapp/com.yourcompany.yourapp.MainActivity

• Prints out log events in the console and filters them to only see the events for the app you're currently running:

adb logcat | grep `adb shell ps | grep com.yourcompany.yourapp | cut -c10-15`

You can see the entire script in this gist. To use it, put it in your project's folder, update the variables on top and run make.