Android CI tutorial for Docker and GitLab

The projects presents Android CI tutorial covering Docker and GitLab

• Android CI tutorial for Docker and GitLab
  • Scripts
  • Docker
  • GitLab
    • Tutorials
    • References to Dockerfiles

Scripts

Gitlab scripts - .gitlab-ci.yml All the scripts are stored in the folder GitLabCIScripts

Docker

Goal: To create a Docker image that contains the Android SDK command line tools installed in it.

• Create a account in Docker. Then go to Docker hub.

• Next, link your Github or Bitbucket account to your Docker account.

• Then, go to Github or Bitbucket to create a new repository that contains Docker file. Because, Docker currently supports only Github and Bitbucket for creating automation builds.

• After creating a repository in Github or Bitbucket. Create a new file. Name the file as

    Dockerfile
  

  without any extensions.

Here is the code for Dockerfile

#
# GitLab CI: Android
# Version: 1.0.0
#
# https://hub.docker.com/r/sakarsh/gitlab-ci-android-akarsh-seggemu/
#

FROM ubuntu:18.04
MAINTAINER Akarsh Seggemu <sakarshkumar@gmail.com>

ENV VERSION_SDK_TOOLS "3859397"

ENV ANDROID_HOME "/sdk"
ENV PATH "$PATH:${ANDROID_HOME}/tools"
ENV DEBIAN_FRONTEND noninteractive

RUN apt-get -qq update && \
    apt-get install -qqy --no-install-recommends \
      bzip2 \
      curl \
      git-core \
      html2text \
      openjdk-8-jdk \
      libc6-i386 \
      lib32stdc++6 \
      lib32gcc1 \
      lib32ncurses5 \
      lib32z1 \
      unzip \
    && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/* /tmp/* /var/tmp/*

RUN rm -f /etc/ssl/certs/java/cacerts; \
    /var/lib/dpkg/info/ca-certificates-java.postinst configure

RUN curl -s https://dl.google.com/android/repository/sdk-tools-linux-${VERSION_SDK_TOOLS}.zip > /sdk.zip && \
    unzip /sdk.zip -d /sdk && \
    rm -v /sdk.zip

RUN mkdir -p $ANDROID_HOME/licenses/ \
  && echo "8933bad161af4178b1185d1a37fbf41ea5269c55\nd56f5187479451eabf01fb78af6dfcb131a6481e" > $ANDROID_HOME/licenses/android-sdk-license \
  && echo "84831b9409646a918e30573bab4c9c91346d8abd" > $ANDROID_HOME/licenses/android-sdk-preview-license

ADD packages.txt /sdk
RUN mkdir -p /root/.android && \
  touch /root/.android/repositories.cfg && \
  ${ANDROID_HOME}/tools/bin/sdkmanager --update 

RUN while read -r package; do PACKAGES="${PACKAGES}${package} "; done < /sdk/packages.txt && \
    ${ANDROID_HOME}/tools/bin/sdkmanager ${PACKAGES}

The Dockerfile code contains the following,

• The base OS image is defined in FROM

• The maintainer of the docker in MAINTAINER

• The Android SDK tools is update after evey new release. With every new update the version number in the download link is updated. Having a variable ENV VERSION_SDK_TOOLS for the version number reduces the effort in long run for maintaining the Dockerfile.

• ENV ANDROID_HOME is used for storing sdk folder name.

• ENV PATH is used for storing the android sdk tools path.

• DEBIAN_FRONTEND is used for installing the packages in Docker.

• RUN apt-get -qq update and the consecutive commands are used to update the packages and install packages.

• RUN rm -f /etc/ssl/certs/java/cacerts; is used for java ceritifcate.

• RUN curl -s https://dl.google.com/android/repository/sdk-tools-linux-${VERSION_SDK_TOOLS}.zip for downloading the Android SDK tools

• RUN mkdir -p $ANDROID_HOME/licenses/ is used for creating a directory to accept Android SDK license during installation of Android SDK Tools.

• ADD packages.txt /sdk this command adds the file packages.txt ti the sdk folder.

  • The packages.txt contains the additional packages such as Google play services to be installed.

  • Create a new file in the repository and name it as

      packages.txt
    

    and add the following code,

        add-ons;addon-google_apis-google-24
        build-tools;26.0.2
        extras;android;m2repository
        extras;google;m2repository
        extras;google;google_play_services
        extras;m2repository;com;android;support;constraint; constraint-layout;1.0.2
        extras;m2repository;com;android;support;constraint; constraint-layout-solver;1.0.2
        platform-tools
        platforms;android-26
    

• RUN mkdir -p /root/.android && is used to create a folder and the subsequent commands are used to update the Android SDK.

• RUN while read -r package; do PACKAGES="${PACKAGES}${package} is used to run the packages.txt file. Next, the packages are downloaded and installed.

• After the creating the Dockerfile and adding the mentioned code above. Next, go to Docker hub and click on create a automated build

• Select the linked Github or bitbucket account to access the Github or Bitbucket repository.

• Select the Github or Bitbucket repository.

• Add a short description for the automated build and click on create.

• Build page will be shown after completing the creation of automated build.

• Next, click on Build Settings tab and click on trigger to trigger a build job.

• When the build job is completed. Click on Build Details to see the status of the build. Success indicated the build is successfully built the docker image. Now, the Docker image is ready.

GitLab

Follow the instructions on GitLab Documentation about Creatin .gitlab-ci.yml file.

A standard template file for Android application development provided by GitLab as follows,

# This file is a template, and might need editing before it works on your project.
# Read more about this script on this blog post https://about.gitlab.com/2016/11/30/setting-up-gitlab-ci-for-android-projects/, by Greyson Parrelli
image: openjdk:8-jdk

variables:
  ANDROID_COMPILE_SDK: "25"
  ANDROID_BUILD_TOOLS: "24.0.0"
  ANDROID_SDK_TOOLS: "24.4.1"

before_script:
  - apt-get --quiet update --yes
  - apt-get --quiet install --yes wget tar unzip lib32stdc++6 lib32z1
  - wget --quiet --output-document=android-sdk.tgz https://dl.google.com/android/android-sdk_r${ANDROID_SDK_TOOLS}-linux.tgz
  - tar --extract --gzip --file=android-sdk.tgz
  - echo y | android-sdk-linux/tools/android --silent update sdk --no-ui --all --filter android-${ANDROID_COMPILE_SDK}
  - echo y | android-sdk-linux/tools/android --silent update sdk --no-ui --all --filter platform-tools
  - echo y | android-sdk-linux/tools/android --silent update sdk --no-ui --all --filter build-tools-${ANDROID_BUILD_TOOLS}
  - echo y | android-sdk-linux/tools/android --silent update sdk --no-ui --all --filter extra-android-m2repository
  - echo y | android-sdk-linux/tools/android --silent update sdk --no-ui --all --filter extra-google-google_play_services
  - echo y | android-sdk-linux/tools/android --silent update sdk --no-ui --all --filter extra-google-m2repository
  - export ANDROID_HOME=$PWD/android-sdk-linux
  - export PATH=$PATH:$PWD/android-sdk-linux/platform-tools/
  - chmod +x ./gradlew

stages:
  - build
  - test

build:
  stage: build
  script:
    - ./gradlew assembleDebug
  artifacts:
    paths:
    - app/build/outputs/

unitTests:
  stage: test
  script:
    - ./gradlew test

functionalTests:
  stage: test
  script:
    - wget --quiet --output-document=android-wait-for-emulator https://raw.githubusercontent.com/travis-ci/travis-cookbooks/0f497eb71291b52a703143c5cd63a217c8766dc9/community-cookbooks/android-sdk/files/default/android-wait-for-emulator
    - chmod +x android-wait-for-emulator
    - echo y | android-sdk-linux/tools/android --silent update sdk --no-ui --all --filter sys-img-x86-google_apis-${ANDROID_COMPILE_SDK}
    - echo no | android-sdk-linux/tools/android create avd -n test -t android-${ANDROID_COMPILE_SDK} --abi google_apis/x86
    - android-sdk-linux/tools/emulator64-x86 -avd test -no-window -no-audio &
    - ./android-wait-for-emulator
    - adb shell input keyevent 82
    - ./gradlew cAT

In the template, openjdk:8-jdk Docker image is used and all the Android SDK tools and packages are installed during the build job. They are listed in before_script.

Instead of downloading and installing Android SDK tools and packages every time during the build job. We can use the Docker image built above in the .gitLab-ci.yml file.

The Docker image created above can be used as follows,

    sakarsh/gitlab-ci-android-akarsh-seggemu:latest

By specifying the Docker hub username/Docker image. The :latest is used to get the latest build from Docker.

Using the Docker image mentioned above in .gitlab-ci.yml as follows,

image: sakarsh/gitlab-ci-android-akarsh-seggemu:latest

before_script:
  - export GRADLE_USER_HOME=`pwd`/.gradle
  - mkdir -p $GRADLE_USER_HOME
  - chmod +x ./gradlew

stages:
  - build
  - test

build:
  stage: build
  script:
    - ./gradlew assembleDebug
  artifacts:
    paths:
    - app/build/outputs/

unitTests:
  stage: test
  script:
    - ./gradlew test

functionalTests:
  stage: test
  script:
    - wget --quiet --output-document=android-wait-for-emulator https://raw.githubusercontent.com/travis-ci/travis-cookbooks/0f497eb71291b52a703143c5cd63a217c8766dc9/community-cookbooks/android-sdk/files/default/android-wait-for-emulator
    - chmod +x android-wait-for-emulator
    - echo y | android-sdk-linux/tools/android --silent update sdk --no-ui --all --filter sys-img-x86-google_apis-${ANDROID_COMPILE_SDK}
    - echo no | android-sdk-linux/tools/android create avd -n test -t android-${ANDROID_COMPILE_SDK} --abi google_apis/x86
    - android-sdk-linux/tools/emulator64-x86 -avd test -no-window -no-audio &
    - ./android-wait-for-emulator
    - adb shell input keyevent 82
    - ./gradlew cAT

Using an already configured Docker image with Android SDK tools and packages decreases the total build time.

Tutorials

• Dockerfile project

• GitLab CI

References to Dockerfiles

• dockerfiles - contains various Dockerfiles.