Develop Reference

How to install a downloaded .apk with React Native Expo?

I need to install downloaded .apk file from within the Expo app (it's for update functionality). This is my code:
import React from "react";
import { Button, View } from "react-native";
import * as FileSystem from "expo-file-system";
import { startActivityAsync } from "expo-intent-launcher";
export function Updater() {
async function updateApk() {
const uri = "https://expo.dev/artifacts/eas/my_apk_name.apk";
const localUri = FileSystem.documentDirectory + "test.apk";
try {
await FileSystem.downloadAsync(uri, localUri);
await startActivityAsync("android.intent.action.INSTALL_PACKAGE", {
data: localUri,
flags: 1,
});
} catch (error) {
alert(`Error during installing APK: ${error}`);
}
}
return (
<View>
<Button title="Reset APK" onPress={updateApk} />
</View>
);
}
It downloads the file, stores it, but then there is an error during startActivityAsync:
Encountered an exception while calling native method:
Exception occurred while executing exported method startActivity on module ExpoIntentLauncher:
file://data/user/0/com.my.app.id/files/test.apk exposed beyond app through Intent.getData()
I tried passing uri first to FileSystem.getContentUriAsync() but then there is no error, the intent result is 0 but nothing happens.
My permissions in app.json:
"permissions": [
"READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE",
"WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE",
"CAMERA"
]
Do I need any additional permissions to get it to work? Or is it completely impossible with Expo? Maybe I should save the file to different location to be able to use this intent?
I also tried android.intent.action.VIEW with no luck.
I test it on Android 13, on physical device. App is built with EAS.

Maybe you can use this command to build release build.
expo:build android
For that you have to signup in Expo's website.
After that you can get apk in Expo's server.

I finally got it to work. The funny part is that I got the answer from the AI that is now banned here. But I just tested this solution on a real android device and it works. Anyway there are two changes needed:
REQUEST_INSTALL_PACKAGES must be added to app.json file.
Uri for intent must be a content uri so: localUri = await FileSystem.getContentUriAsync(localUri)

How to add values to app.json for android in expo managed workflow?

I need to add those to Android files:
android:usesCleartextTraffic="true" and <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE" />
But I'm using managed workflow and I don't know how to add those lines to app.json file.

I did this plugin which seems to work:
const { createRunOncePlugin, withAndroidManifest } = require('#expo/config-plugins');
const withAndroidManifestHavingBetterSecuritySettings = config => {
return withAndroidManifest(config, config => {
const androidManifest = config.modResults.manifest;
const mainApplication = androidManifest.application[0];
if(process.env.CHANNEL !== 'dev') {
androidManifest.$ = {
...androidManifest.$,
'xmlns:tools': 'http://schemas.android.com/tools',
};
mainApplication.$['tools:replace'] = 'android:usesCleartextTraffic';
mainApplication.$['android:usesCleartextTraffic'] = 'false';
}
return config;
});
};
module.exports = createRunOncePlugin(
withAndroidManifestHavingBetterSecuritySettings,
'withAndroidManifestHavingBetterSecuritySettings',
'1.0.0'
);
I had many issues related to merging of AndroidManifest files when "developmentClient": true in my eas.json file (related to me dev eas profile). I believe that it's related to the fact that the debug/AndroidManifest is a higher priority manifest than main/AndroidManifest (not sure though). So my solution was not to ignore the changes when building the dev profile. Hardening security settings in development builds do not seem useful anyhow.

So I struggled with this problem for a while now and the only solution I could come up with was setting the minimum sdk version of the android app from 21 to 28. This is not ideal as my application now does not support old android devices, but doing this defaults the usesClearTextTraffic flag to false.

If your app works fine while developing in expo, but after generating the APK some functions don't work, try this. In my case the APK crashed on login, but building in development with expo was working fine. The problem was that traffic is encrypted so that's why I ended up here trying to set clear text traffic. The problem in my case was with expoPushToken, in the APK it throws an exception I wasn't catching (building with expo worked fine as I said before, no exception). So, if the exception happens just catch it and set the token to empty string.
So, I had this:
import * as Notifications from "expo-notifications";
export async function getDevicePushTokenForAPP() {
const pushToken = await Notifications.getExpoPushTokenAsync();
return pushToken.data;
}
So then, I added the try and catch:
export async function getDevicePushTokenForAPP() {
try {
const pushToken = await Notifications.getExpoPushTokenAsync();
return pushToken.data;
} catch (e) {
return "";
}
}
Now if you build the APK again (expo build:android) it should work fine, in my case login worked. But please note this is for testing purposes only, I needed the APK to quickly show it to the client. (Note that you will need the bundle, not the apk, when uploading to the Playstore). This is a quick fix for you to test the APK; but with no token, push notifications won't work. The final fix is to add firebase to your project, it's mandatory now, so add firebase and with the firebase unique ID, your push notification will work in your APK.
My conclusion is that expo uses its own ID to communicate with firebase, that's why it works while developing but the APK doesn't go through expo and tries to connect to firebase directly, but crashes because there's no ID.

You should update your app.json like that:
"android": {
"usesCleartextTraffic": true,
uses-permission android:name
},

React Native Firebase gives error on device but works on emulator

I'm new to React Native/Firebase. I followed these instructions to setup #react-native-firebase/auth for Android.
I have enabled Email/Password based login from my Firebase web console and have created a user for testing. I am calling Firebase auth using the following code snippet.
auth()
.signInWithEmailAndPassword(userNameText, passwordText)
.then(() => {
navigation.navigate("ClientMainScreen");
})
.catch((error) => {
setSnackBarVisible(true);
});
The thing is that this seems to be running without errors on my Android emulator on my Mac but when testing this out on a physical android device using expo publish, the app crashes when trying to execute this code snippet with the following error log in the Expo Client. What am I missing ?
For context, my index.js looks like this
import { registerRootComponent } from "expo";
import App from "./App";
registerRootComponent(App);
and I'm using react-native": "~0.62.2"

Firebase 3 with ionic 2 google authentication

I am new to mobile app development and ionic 2. I get the google authentication working fine for a web app using angularfire2 but that doesn't work on a mobile device (yet?).
I am using ionic 2 version 2.0.0-beta.35 and firebase 3.2.1
Searching led me to the understanding that for the time being I need to use the google+ plugin for cordova, which I have installed.
I am trying this method in my ts code:
loginWithGooglePlugin()
{
return Observable.create(observer =>
{
// note for iOS the googleplus plugin requires ENABLE_BITCODE to be turned off in the Xcode
window.plugins.googleplus.login(
{
'scopes': 'profile email', // optional, space-separated list of scopes, If not included or empty, defaults to `profile` and `email`.
'webClientId': '_google_client_app_id_.apps.googleusercontent.com',
'offline': true, // optional, but requires the webClientId - if set to true the plugin will also return a serverAuthCode, which can be used to grant offline access to a non-Google server
},
function (authData)
{
console.log('got google auth data:', JSON.stringify(authData, null, 2));
let provider = firebase.auth.GoogleAuthProvider.credential(authData.idToken, authData.accessToken);
firebase.auth().signInWithCredential(provider).then((success) =>
{
console.log('success!', JSON.stringify(success, null, 2));
observer.next(success);
}, (error) =>
{
console.log('error', JSON.stringify(error, null, 2))
});
},
function (msg)
{
this.error = msg;
}
);
});
}
But the compiler keeps complaining about two things:
1. window.plugins is unknown. How can I convince ts that it's there?
There is no credential on the GoogleAuthProvider object. Searching yielded this link: firebase docs which says there was a method getCredential, which is not recognized either.
My typings seem to be fine. GoogleAuthProvider itself is recognized.
How can I fix this?

Actually, this is a bug in the typescript definitions. The Firebase team has been notified and is working on a fix. In the meantime use the following workaround:
(<any> firebase.auth.GoogleAuthProvider).credential

In my Ionic2 RC1 + Firebase3.5 + AngularFire2.beta5 project I had the same problem... Google Auth with Popup worked in Browser but not in my Android .APK
Firstly, I add 192.168.1.172 to my Firebase Console authorized domain list and <allow-navigation href="http://192.168.1.172:8100"/> to my config.xml.
After this, I found that installing Cordova InAppBrowser plugin solves my problem definitively.
I didn't need to modify my code, only plug and play, exactly like David East says in his Social login with Ionic blog.

Phonegap build - Facebook connect plugin - Invalid android_key parameter error

I'm running example code (found below) through phonegap build to produce an android apk.
https://github.com/phonegap-build/FacebookConnect/blob/master/example/Simple/index.html
When I try to log into facebook through the app on an android device (with the facebook app installed), I get this error:
Invalid android_key parameter J4INwYsuTyQ_LJc1d3WZ2HReg7M does not match any allowed android key. Configure your app key hashes at http://developers.facebook.com/apps/'app id'
I have copy-pasted this key into the key hashes section of my app's android settings but it still throws the same error when I try to log in using the app.
How can I get this app to log into facebook successfully?
OR: What is another way to enable an android app to log into facebook using phonegap?
Here are some things I have done:
In my facebook app's settings:
Set 'Package name' to the 'widget id' found in my phonegap config.xml.
Set 'Class name' to the Package name with '.ProjectActivity' appended to it.
Enabled 'Single Sign on' and disabled 'Deep linking'.
Made the app open to the public (through the 'Status & Review' section.
In my phonegap config.xml (found in the /www directory in phonegap project):
Entered APP_ID as the ID found in my facebook app dashboard
Entered APP_NAME as the 'Namespace' found in my facebook app settings
In my phonegap build app settings:
Made a keystore (using this answer: https://stackoverflow.com/a/19315975/1696114) and used it to generate a release apk.

I think you should use facebook phonegap plugin as your authentication.
Download and install into your cordova project.
https://github.com/phonegap/phonegap-facebook-plugin
Use this command to install it.
cordova plugin add https://github.com/phonegap/phonegap-facebook-plugin.git --variable APP_ID="xxxxxxxxxxxxx" --variable APP_NAME=“xxxxxxxx”
Then setup your facebook app here:
http://developers.facebook.com/apps/
Then make sure you have this script in your project.
cdv-plugin-fb-connect.js
facebook-js-sdk.js
After that, paste this code into your main script
if ((typeof cordova == 'undefined') && (typeof Cordova == 'undefined')) alert('Cordova variable does not exist. Check that you have included cordova.js correctly');
if (typeof CDV == 'undefined') alert('CDV variable does not exist. Check that you have included cdv-plugin-fb-connect.js correctly');
if (typeof FB == 'undefined') alert('FB variable does not exist. Check that you have included the Facebook JS SDK file.');
FB.Event.subscribe('auth.login', function(response) {
//alert('auth.login event');
});
FB.Event.subscribe('auth.logout', function(response) {
//alert('auth.logout event');
});
FB.Event.subscribe('auth.sessionChange', function(response) {
//alert('auth.sessionChange event');
});
FB.Event.subscribe('auth.statusChange', function(response) {
//alert('auth.statusChange event');
});
function getSession() {
alert("session: " + JSON.stringify(FB.getSession()));
}
function getLoginStatus() {
FB.getLoginStatus(function(response) {
if (response.status == 'connected') {
alert('logged in');
} else {
alert('not logged in');
}
});
}
var friendIDs = [];
var fdata;
function logout() {
FB.logout(function(response) {
alert('logged out');
window.location.replace("#login");
});
}
function login() {
FB.login(
function(response) {
if (response.authResponse) {
alert('logged in');
FB.api('/me', function(me) {
if (me.id) {
localStorage.id = me.id;
localStorage.email = me.email;
localStorage.name = me.name;
window.location.replace("#home");
}
else {
alert('No Internet Connection. Click OK to exit app');
navigator.app.exitApp();
}
});
} else {
alert('not logged in');
}
}, {
scope: "email"
});
}
document.addEventListener('deviceready', function() {
try {
//alert('Device is ready! Make sure you set your app_id below this alert.');
FB.init({
appId: "appid",
nativeInterface: CDV.FB,
useCachedDialogs: false
});
document.getElementById('data').innerHTML = "";
} catch (e) {
alert(e);
}
}, false);
use login() to login . Enjoy!!

I successfully made an app which can log into facebook by using the phonegap-facebook-plugin and by building my cordova/phonegap project locally.
I made a new cordova project and added the android platform for this project, following the instructions here: http://docs.phonegap.com/en/3.4.0/guide_overview_index.md.html#Overview
In doing this I discovered I had made my previous project using an older cordova version (3.1) un-intentionally and that I hadn't installed the cordova command line interface. There may have been other issues with the way I made my first project.
I then added the phonegap-facebook-plugin found here: https://github.com/phonegap/phonegap-facebook-plugin using this command (from my project location):
cordova plugin add https://github.com/phonegap/phonegap-facebook-plugin.git --variable APP_ID="xxxxxxxxxxxxx" --variable APP_NAME=“xxxxxxxx”
(replacing APP_ID value with my facebook app id and APP_NAME value with my app's namespace).
I then replaced my index.html with the example index file found at the phonegap-facebook-plugin github page + /blob/master/example/Simple/index.html (replacing the app_id value with my app id).
I then ran the app straight to my android device using:
cordova run android
In this app, I'm able to use the interface provided by the example to login, post to my own or friends' walls etc. Using this new project (with updated cordova version) I may be able to use phonegap build but I haven't tried yet.
Thanks to Dato' Mohammad Nurdin for the suggestion to use this plugin.