Sunday, September 15, 2013

Building native android app with Sencha Cmd on linux

Recently I started to work on project with  Sencha Touch framework (client requirement) and my first task  was to build simple screen with some GUI components and make it run on android as native app.

I was required to use Sencha Architect for development and app building but since I use Linux  and Sencha Architect supports app packaging only on windows and Mac, I had to use Sencha Cmd utility for building native app.

Before I go any further let me throw some info on my development environment:

OS: Ubuntu 13.04
Java 1.7
Ruby 1.9.3
Sencha Arcitect 2.2.2 build 991
Sencha Cmd v3.1.3.372


After reading quick start docs it all looked easy, but as it often happens when using new tools, I quickly run into some frustrating problems.

I made simple app, tested it in browser, and I thought I was ready to package it for android. Before building native app, I configured packager file (which contains mobile app configuration, such as app name, package id, android API level, android sdk path etc...)

Fired up terminal, navigated to project folder, and as Sencha documantation instructs, I run build command : sencha app build native

And... after few seconds my apk is generated... NOOOT!



First bump, tool complained that it misses nimblekit.jar.

I haven't found anything about this in official Sencha documentation, but some people out there on the net  experienced same problem and found the solution: copy st-res folder from $sencha_cmd_install/stbuild to your project folder.
I am not sure why Sencha Cmd doesn't know where to find st-res folder, documentation doesn't says anything about it (AFAIK). Same problem happens on windows. However, copying st-res folder solves the problem both on linux and windows.




OK, problem solved, let's continue...

sencha app build native ...  and... after few seconds my apk is generated...  NOOOT!

Second problem caused me saying "WTF" quite a few times.

Command runs for a long time (minute or two) and then reports "Zip add failed" error on Icon.png file.
Since I haven't change icon configuration in packager component, I expected default icons to be used.
After unsuccessful googling for the problem and running the command few times, I noticed that Icon.png file in build/native/res/drawable-mdpi grows up to 2 G !!! Same goes for drawable-mdpi.
But in drawable-hdpi , Icon size is normal, about 3.5 K.  I checked packager icon config and realized that default icon config doesn't define low dpi and medium dpi at all.
On windows this problem doesn't appear event though icon config is same.
Obviously, there is some bug on linux version of Sencha Cmd that causes the problem.
I managed to solve the problem by defining low and medium dpi icons (36 and 48 px).


Since I 'm pretty new to Sencha, it's probably to early to judge, but my first impression is not very positive.
Besides the problems I described what's bothering me  the most is that Sencha Architect doesn't have code completion.

Feel free to throw a comment, especially if you had similar experiences with Sencha.