Genero Mobile for Android (GMA) 1.30 changes

Modifications to consider when using the Genero Mobile for Android™.

Note: This topic describes feature changes in the GMA 1.30 product. See also the Mobile section in Genero BDL 3.10 New Features page.

GMA 1.30 with FGLGWS 3.10

Important: The GMA version 1.30 is built on FGLGWS 3.10 and therefore, strongly tied to this Genero BDL version.

Desupport of GMA front-end application on Google Play

The GMA front-end app is no longer available for download on Google Play.

In order to install the GMA front-end on your device, use the gmabuiltool as described in Genero mobile development client for Android.

ANDROID_SDK_ROOT replaces ANDROID_HOME

When building apps with gmabuildtool, the ANDROID_HOME environment variable is deprecated.

To define the Android SDK installation directory, use ANDROID_SDK_ROOT instead.

If the --android-sdk option is not specified, the gmabuildtool will first use ANDROID_SDK_ROOT, then ANDROID_HOME as fallback.

Consider changing your environment settings to follow Android SDK specifications.

Default directory for localized strings in GMA apps

The .42s localized string files for the default language can be provided in the appdir/defaults directory.

Resource files such as .42s provided in pwd are always loaded by the runtime system. As GMA, pwd and appdir are the same, it was not possible to provide default strings files in appdir. It was required to provide localized string files for any language, in the corresponding appdir/locale-code directories.

For more details, see Localized string files on mobile devices and Deploying mobile apps.

New --no-install-extras option

By default, when updating the Android SDK with gmabuildtool updatesdk, the process installs also extra SDK modules.

The --no-install-extras option of gmabuildtool updatesdk can be used to skip installation of extra SDK modules when not needed.

Unique package for all architectures

The GMA bundle is now provided as a single package, supporting both ARM and x86 device architectures.

The --build-types option of gmabuildtool build is no longer available.

Unique scaffolding archive

Before GMA 1.30, two GMA binary archives where provided:
  • fjs-gma-*-android-scaffolding.zip
  • fjs-gma-*-android-extension-project.zip

Starting with GMA 1.30, the scaffolding and extension project have been merged in a single fjs-gma-*-android-scaffolding.zip archive.

For more details, see Executing Java code with GMA.

New scaffold command

The gmabuildtool scaffold command has been added to manage scaffold archives.

In its initial version, the scaffold command provides the --list-plugins option, to show available plugins, and the --install-plugins option, to install plugins in the scaffold archice (for Cordova support).

No more gma/temp directory

The Genero Mobile Android project directory does not longer need the gma/temp directory to build an app.

Since GMA 1.30, the --build-distribution option of gmabuildtool is no longer available.

gmabuildtool options use --build-app-genero-program as base directory by default

Starting with GMA 1.30, the gmabuildtool options listed below use the application program files directory (--build-app-genero-program option) as base directory for their default values.

In previous versions, the default base directory was the current working directory. Note however, that the default value for the --build-app-genero-program option is still the current working directory.
  • -bp / --build-project
  • -bih / --build-app-icon-hdpi
  • -bim / --build-app-icon-mdpi
  • -bixh / --build-app-icon-xhdpi
  • -bixxh / --build-app-icon-xxhdpi
  • -bsh / --build-status-icon-hdpi
  • -bsm / --build-status-icon-mdpi
  • -bsxh / --build-status-icon-xhdpi

GMA scaffolding archive usage (--build-force-scaffold-update option)

During the manual installation procedure (to build GMA apps from the command line without GST), it was required to unzip the scaffolding zip archive in a dedicated directory (gma-scaffold-project), which could be referenced with the --build-project option of the gmabuildtool build command.

Starting with GMA 1.30, if not yet done, the APK build process will automatically unzip the original GMA scaffold archive (gma-install-dir/artifacts) into the --build-project directory. If needed, you can force a cleanup and update these scaffold files with the --build-force-scaffold-update option.

New --build-quietly option

The --build-quietly option of gmabuildtool build allows to build the APK silently, by answered yes to all questions asked during the build process.

The IMAGE style attribute alignment is supported

GMA 1.30 now supports the alignment style attribute for IMAGE form items.

For the possible values of this attribute, see Image style attributes.

Dangerous permissions no longer set by default

Starting with GMA 1.30, the Android Dangerous Permissions such as android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE are no longer set by default when building an APK. Such permissions must be specified explicitly with the --build-app-permissions option of gmabuildtool, depending on the frontcalls used by the app.

For more details, see Android permissions.

Push Notification: Firebase Cloud Messaging replaces Google Cloud Messaging

Starting with GMA 1.30.18, the Firebase Cloud Messaging framework replaces Google Cloud Messaging to implement push notifications.

What you need to consider:
  1. A new Firebase Cloud Messaging project must be created from the FCM console.
  2. The package name of the FCM app must match the package name used to build your APK (with the --build-app-package-name option of gmabuildtool)
  3. You must download the google-services.json configuration file an put it in the appdir.
  4. The sender-id parameter of the registerForRemoteNotifications, getRemoteNotifications and unregisterFromRemoteNotifications frontcalls is no longer needed (all informations are in the google-services.json parameter file).
  5. In the server application sending push notifications, replace the Google API key by the Server Key found in the Firebase Cloud Message project parameters.
  6. Update your FCM server endpoint to send push requests: Replace the https://gcm-http.googleapis.com/gcm/send URL by https://fcm.googleapis.com/fcm/send.

For more details, see Push notifications.

Setting debug ports with adb

The debug ports 6400 and 6480 need to be forwarded with the adb command, the telnet/redir solution is no longer supported.

For more details, see Debugging on a mobile device.