Outline app is not properly built after following instructions

[lachin888]

After following Android development instructions, at the end, when in the client folder, I ran the npx cordova requirements android command and encountered an error indicating that this directory is not Cordova-based. To solve this problem, I created another Cordova-based folder and copied the config.xml and package.json files, as well as the www folder, to the client folder. Everything went fine after this modification, but in the end, the app installed on Android is not outlined. It shows an app with the name "Hellocordova."

[emohandesi]

You have made the wrong changes. Restore to master and try again.
You should not copy these files from somewhere else, instead, you should use the files that are there when you cloned them. Here, you are not building the outline-apps; instead, you are building the Hellocordova app.

[lachin888]

Cloning the outline-app from git hub to build the application, used these instructions:

cd client
npx cordova requirements android
In order for the line npx cordova requirements android to run properly, it should be in a Cordova directory. It needs to have two files, config.xml and package.json, and a folder named www. The two files are located in the client folder, but the folder of www is inside the src folder, which is a subfolder of the client.
I tried moving the www folder inside the client folder to let the command run properly, but again, after that, the build process was not successful.

Does moving this folder create issues for these files?

[emohandesi]

No, moving the directories will not solve the issue. There are two www directories. One of them is inside client and the other is inside client/src. You are missing one of the build steps. You need to find out what is missing. The following shows how a working instance directories are.

$ ~/outline/client$ ls --color
build  config.md  config.xml  electron  go  node_modules  output  package.json  platforms  plugins  README.md  resources  src  tsconfig.json  www
$ ~/outline/client$ npx cordova requirements android

Requirements check results for android:
Java JDK: installed 17.0.14
Android SDK: installed true
Android target: installed android-35,android-34
Gradle: installed /opt/gradle-8.7/bin/gradle
$ ~/outline/client$ ls src/www
app               favicon.ico                     index_electron.html  model             style.css        TODO.spec.ts   ui_components     webpack_cordova.mjs         webpack_test.mjs
assets            get_browser_webpack_config.mjs  karma.conf.js        shared            test.action.mjs  tsconfig.json  views             webpack_css_rtl_loader.cjs
build.action.mjs  index_cordova.html              messages             start.action.mjs  testing          types          webpack_base.mjs  webpack_electron.mjs
$ ~/outline/client$ ls www
56d930e2067432535f65e21d4fe3814e.png    6a9a3c1460491e5495ea8899784fc0fe.png  8c59cf2168143c4cc938073f1a28650e.woff2  environment.json                      main.js
625d02e233319d3f0ae1896f54ce2a19.png    6ebdc13cde58406df711d4f9f2c8957c.png  a2e8449b8cae7d46b0c27bcbf226ce08.png    f5c9331042e31e1b7d6adc40533130a3.png  messages
6688e1d1cf2ec4f1a2fb380e859f00f5.woff2  8486596b0c037f3c756aef9811268440.png  assets                                  index_cordova.html                    webcomponentsjs
$ ~/outline/client$

[lachin888]

Which command, except the ones shown below, should I run to build the www folder? All I did was follow instructions, installing JDK 17 and Gradle 8.7 and setting variables, and downloading and installing command line tools!!
My question is, is the www folder created by a specific step or command? Or it is in the client folder in the outline-apps itself, which, even going through the GitHub code, I do not find the www folder inside the client folder.

echo $ANDROID_HOME                                                                                            
/home/lachin/Android/sdk
:~/outline-apps$ echo $ANDROID_NDK                                                                                      
   /home/lachin/Android/sdk/ndk
:~/outline-apps$ curl -o /tmp/commandlinetools.zip https://dl.google.com/android/repository/commandlinetools-linux-13114758_latest.zip                                                                                                                                                                                                                          :~/outline-apps$ unzip /tmp/commandlinetools.zip -d /tmp  
:~/outline-apps$ mv /tmp/cmdline-tools/* "$ANDROID_HOME/cmdline-tools/latest/"                                                 
:~/outline-apps$ export PATH="$PATH:$ANDROID_HOME/cmdline-tools/latest/bin/"                                                   
~/outline-apps$ echo $PATH 
/home/lachin/.nvm/versions/node/v22.15.1/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/home/lachin/Android/Sdk/cmdline-tools/latest/bin:/home/lachin/Android/Sdk/platform-tools:/home/lachin/Android/Sdk/emulator:/home/lachin/Android/sdk/cmdline-tools/latest/bin/
~/outline-apps$cd client   
~/outline-apps/client$ npx cordova requirements android 
          Current working directory is not a Cordova-based project.

[lachin888]

As this photo shows, there is no www and platforms folder in the client folder

[emohandesi]

The build instructions at https://github.com/Jigsaw-Code/outline-apps/tree/master/client/src/cordova/android are not accurate. The command npx cordova requirements android does not work before a successful build. Therefore, these instructions need to be fixed.
I guess the use of the command npx cordova requirements android is for when you have built a long time ago, then pull from master, and see that the build fails. Then you can run npx cordova requirements android to see if all the versions are correct, because they might have changed, for example, when you were installing another app/package.
By the way, as @jyyi1 had mentioned before, this command is not an essential part of the build. You can skip it and focus on the build instead.

~/www-outline-apps/client$ npx cordova requirements android
Current working directory is not a Cordova-based project.
~/www-outline-apps/client$ cd ..
~/www-outline-apps$ npm run action client/src/cordova/build android

> action
> node ./infrastructure/build/run_action.mjs client/src/cordova/build android

...
  BUILD SUCCESSFUL in 45s
  70 actionable tasks: 70 executed
▶ action(client/src/cordova/build): 🎉 Success! (245640ms)
~/www-outline-apps$ cd client/
~/www-outline-apps/client$ npx cordova requirements android

Requirements check results for android:
Java JDK: installed 17.0.14
Android SDK: installed true
Android target: installed android-34,android-32
Gradle: installed /opt/gradle-8.7/bin/gradle
~/www-outline-apps/client$

[jyyi1]

Thanks @emohandesi and @lachin888 for discovering this issue, a quick fix to the document: Jigsaw-Code/outline-apps#2500

[fortuna]

Please use outline-apps for discussions around the Outline apps: Jigsaw-Code/outline-apps#2501