WeatherXM Android App

The Android app powering the people's weather network.

We use Github Flow as our branching model and Clean Architecture.

Android Studio Environment

All contributors must import our code style settings for Android Studio: android-studio-settings.zip

Steps to import them:

1. File
2. Manage IDE Settings
3. Import Settings

Building

To build the app from source, you need to pass the following environment variables, through gradle command line arguments, or by creating a production.env properties file in the root directory, according to the template file, that will be automatically read into env variables by the build script.

You would also need the google-services.json which can be downloaded from Firebase.

If you want to release on production, you would also need the correct keystore.

Different Flavors

We have 5 different app flavors (consider flavors as different “build variants”, read more here). For each flavor a different {flavor}.envfile can be created for different environment variables such as API_URL.

The 5 different app flavors are:

1. Local Mock: We use this to mock responses from the API using some local JSON files that can be found in root/app/src/local/assets/mock_files/* in order to test some edge cases and/or user reported bugs.
2. Remote Mock: This flavor communicates with our remote mock API. Powered by remotemock.env. Currently only for internal use.
3. Remote Dev: This flavor communicates with our dev API. Powered by development.env. Currently only for internal use.
4. Remote Staging: Initially used for communicating with our staging API. Powered by staging.env. Not currently used.
5. Remote Prod: This flavor communicates with our production API, found on app.weatherxm.com. Powered by production.env. The API_URL on that environment file should be https://api.weatherxm.com

One thing that needs to be mentioned is that for every flavor a different build type can be used, either a Debug or a Release build type.

Android Studio Code Style Settings

We use these code style settings on Android Studio: android-studio-settings.zip

JaCoCo - Code Coverage

We use JaCoCo tool in order to get code coverage reports on every PR and deploy the report on each push on main. Our Code Coverage Report can be found in GitHub Pages.

Detekt

We use Detekt as a code analysis tool for finding potential code optimizations. Our config file for Detekt can be found in detekt.yml.

GitHub Actions

We have 4 different GitHub Actions:

1. Code Analysis: An action that runs on every Pull Request, building the app and running ./gradlew :app:detekt in order to find potential code optimizations.
2. Build Development and Distribute on Firebase: An action that runs on **every push on ** main, building the app, and running ./gradlew :app:assembleDevDebugRelease :app:appDistributionUploadDevDebugRelease in order to distribute Dev Debug versions of the app through Firebase App Distribution in the Firebase Channels. Currently used for internal testing. Also deploys the Coverage Report in GitHub Pages.
3. Build Production & Google Play Internal Channel Distribution: An action that runs on every tag pushed, building the app, and running ./gradlew bundleRemoteProdRelease -PSKIP_PRODUCTION_ENV and uses: r0adkll/upload-google-play@v1.1.3 in order to distribute a Remote Prod version of the app bundled as AAB through in the Google Play Internal Testing Channel.
4. Build QA Release and Distribute on Firebase: An action that gets manually triggered and takes as input the environment, the build type and creates a release and distributes it through Firebase App Distribution in the QA Firebase Channels. Currently used for internal testing.

How to merge feature/ in Git?

When merging a feature/ PR on Git, we do squash merge with an explanatory and human-friendly commit message.

Firebase Releases

For releases to the tech team or to the QA team we are utilizing Firebase and more specifically Firebase App Distribution (can be found under the Release & Monitor tab in Firebase Console). All different Remote flavors are supported.

In order to upload a version up for testing, two different ways can be used:

1. Locally build an APK/AAB, upload it in Firebase Console → Release & Monitor → App Distribution ( mind the current flavor which can be changed at the top of the page) and distribute it to the testers you prefer.
2. Using a GitHub Action to automatically build, upload and distribute an AAB/APK through Firebase.

Internal Testing Releases (How To)

In order to create a new public beta release (called Open Testing release on Play Console) some mandatory steps should be followed that we will explain below:

1. Create and push a new tag in main which will be the version we want to release.
2. Create a new GitHub release out of main with the title being the version name (X.X.X). The same applies for the tag (use the tag you created in the previous step). On the description click Auto-generate release notes and format the text accordingly to remove authors and commit urls, and have just a human-readable list of release notes.
3. The Android App Bundle has been created automatically and deployed to "Internal Testing" in Google Play. When the deployment is completed, download the AAB file from App Bundle Explorer in Google Play Console" and attach it to that GitHub Release and then click Publish Release.
4. In Google Play Internal Testing release, edit the release notes and make them even more generic and human-friendly. For example, we don't want to mention 5 different UI fixes but just write " Numerous UI Fixes and Improvements". Also, the title of the release should contain the -internal suffix.
5. Send the new release for review by Google (we use Google Play Managed Publishing).

Usually, after some days if everything is OK, we move this internal release from Internal Testing → Open Testing on Play Console (using console’s “Promote Release” @ Internal Testing → Releases → Find your release → Promote Release) and we execute the steps 1-2 at the below guide “Public Beta Releases (How To)”.

Public Beta Releases (How To)

In order to create a new public beta release (called Open Testing release on Play Console) some mandatory steps should be followed after we have promoted our release from internal testing:

1. Send the new release for review by Google (we use Google Play Managed Publishing).
2. After the release passes Google’s review and you publish the app to the public, use this template, and after filling the correct date, app version and release notes, publish it on Discord's #announcements channel or have a community manager publish it.

Usually, after some days, we move this beta release from Open Testing → Production on Play Console (using console’s “Promote Release” @ Open Testing → Releases → Find your release → Promote Release) and we execute the steps 1-3 at the below guide “Production Releases (How To)”.

Production Releases (How To)

In order to create a new production release some mandatory steps should be followed after we have promoted our release from open testing:

1. Send the new release for review by Google (we use Google Play Managed Publishing).
2. After the release passes Google’s review and you publish the app to the public, use this template, and after filling the correct date, app version and release notes, publish it on Discord's #announcements channel or have a community manager publish it.
3. At Firebase's Console, go to remote config and edit the android_app_changelog, android_app_minimum_code , android_app_version_code as needed.