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CLI Command - serve android

The portals serve android command is a tool for web developers to debug and test their web code in different Portal configurations on an emulator or a device without having to go through the build process of a native application or even have access to its source code. The command allows web developers to run their web code from their local dev server and see the changes on the fly.

note

The serve command requires Ionic Portals 0.9.0 or higher and requires that the portal has devMode set to true.

Requirements​

The following environment variables must be set in order for the portals serve android command to function correctly:

  • Set the $ANDROID_HOME variable to the path of the Android SDK installation directory.
  • Set the $JAVA_HOME variable to the path of the Java SDK installation directory.

Usage​

portals serve android \
   --application /path/to/your/android-app.apk \
   --dev-server http://10.0.2.2:8100

This command will present an interactive list of eligible destinations since no specific device details were provided. When selected, the command will launch the Android app to the selected device and will override all portals with the content served from the development server URL by default. If a capacitor.config.{json, ts, js} file is located in the current working directory, it will use that, otherwise it will fallback to any configuration potentially shipped in the application.

note

If the local dev server is set to localhost the CLI will attempt to help you by correcting this host to 10.0.2.2 for running in an emulator. Android emulators are unable to reach the host machine through localhost as this is reserved as the loopback address for reaching the emulator itself. Make sure to set the dev server address correctly if you need to reach it via your local network from a real Android device.

Examples​

Specify capacitor configuration file​

portals serve android \
  --application /path/to/your/android-app.apk \
  --dev-server http://10.0.2.2:8100 \
  --capacitor-config /path/to/your/capacitor.config.ts

Specify device details​

If you know the specific device ID of the emulator or device you want to target, you can use the --device-id flag:

portals serve android \
  --application /path/to/your/android-app.apk \
  --dev-server http://10.0.2.2:8100 \
  --device-id "emulator-5554"
note

The ID of the emulator or device is the ID shown when running adb devices.

Specify portal name​

If you want to override only portals with a specific name, use the --portal-name flag:

portals serve android \
  --application /path/to/your/android-app.apk \
  --dev-server http://10.0.2.2:8100 \
  --portal-name "profile"

Flags:​

  • --device-id (string) The ID of the target device.
  • -h, --help help for android

Global Flags:​

  • --application (string) Path to the native application. (required)
  • --dev-server (string) URL of the development server. (required)
  • --capacitor-config (string) Path to the capacitor configuration file.
  • --portal-name (string) The name of the target Portal. (default "PORTAL")
  • --config (string) config file (default $PWD/.portals.yaml)

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