Setting up your Development Environment

This page contains the guidelines for setting up your development environment for Revolt on Android. These guidelines are important to ensure that your development environment is set up correctly and you can start contributing to the project.

If you want to compile the app yourself, you can follow these guidelines. You may not need Android Studio, as it’s possible to build the app from the command line. GitHub Codespaces automates most of the process for you if you want to go that route and this guide covers those steps, but won’t go into detail on other command-line methods.

Danger

It may be tempting to skip some of these steps, but make sure you follow them to ensure that your development environment is set up correctly.

Note: If you are doing this in Github Codespaces, steps 1-10 will be done for you. Also note that while small codespace instances can build this app, it’s recommend to use 8-core or above for best results.

1. Download the Git version control system.

   Windows

   winget install --id Git.Git -e --source winget

   macOS

   Using Homebrew:

   brew install git

   Linux

   Using your package manager. For example, on Ubuntu:

   sudo apt install git

2. Download Android Studio.

   Windows

   winget install --id Google.AndroidStudio -e --source winget

   macOS

   From the official website.

   Linux

   Look for Android Studio in your package manager.

   Alternatively, from Flathub or the official website.

3. Download Deno.

   Please see the Deno Runtime Manual for installation guidance.

4. Clone the repository.

   git clone --recursive https://github.com/revoltchat/android.git

   Specify --recursive to ensure that submodules are cloned as well.

5. Open the project in Android Studio.

6. Install the required dependencies.

   • Android SDK, latest version
   • Android NDK, latest version

   You can install these from the SDK Manager in Android Studio.

7. Download required additional, embedded dependencies using the provided script.

   deno run -A scripts/download_deps.ts

   Tip

   You can run this script with the -y flag to skip confirmation prompts.

   Note

   This script will query the Revolt version control server for the latest version of the final-markdown native library and download it. If you do not wish to use pre-built libraries, you can build final-markdown yourself from the source code at https://git.revolt.chat/android/final-markdown, and copy the files to the app/src/main/jniLibs folder. Note the files that are downloaded are exactly the same as the ones we use for the app on Google Play, so you can be sure they are safe to use.

8. Copy the revoltbuild.properties.example file to revoltbuild.properties and fill in the required values.

   cp revoltbuild.properties.example revoltbuild.properties

   The revoltbuild.properties file contains the following properties:

   Property	Description
   sentry.dsn	Sentry DSN for error reporting
   sentry.upload_mappings	Whether to upload obf. maps to Sentry
   build.debug.app_name	The name of the app in debug builds, arbitrary
   build.flavour_id	Leave as ZZUU

9. Copy the sentry.properties.example file to sentry.properties and fill in the required values.

   cp sentry.properties.example sentry.properties

   The sentry.properties file contains the following properties:

   Property	Description
   defaults.url	The URL of the Sentry instance
   defaults.project	The project ID in Sentry
   defaults.org	The organization ID in Sentry
   auth.token	The authentication token for Sentry, used to upload maps

   You can get these values from the Sentry dashboard.

10. Copy the google-services.json.example file within the app directory to google-services.json.

    Firebase services are integrated into the project, so we need a google-services.json file for the build to succeed. For development purposes, use the provided example file:

    cp app/google-services.json.example app/google-services.json

    Note

    This is a mock configuration file for development purposes only. In a production environment, you would use a real Firebase project configuration.

11. Build the project.

    You can build the project by clicking on the ‘Run’ button in Android Studio.
    If asked, build the :app module.

    If building within Github Codespaces, you can build a fresh debug apk by running ./gradlew assembledebug --no-daemon from the root of the project. Upon completion, the apk will be within app/build/outputs/apk/debug/

12. You’re all set! You can now start contributing to Revolt on Android.