Phone and DefenseCoding.com : Apache Cordova - Run Android app with VisuaStudio on Mac

Saturday, March 21, 2015

Apache Cordova - Run Android app with VisuaStudio on Mac

Hello all,

Today I am going to show you how to develop for Android using Apache Cordova on my MAC. I will also follow here all pre-requirements as well as providing the most common errors in order to help you to reach your goal - launch your Android app on Mac.

So, the first thing is install the dependencies for it:
1-Node.JS

1.1-Download and Install Node.JS for Mac: https://nodejs.org/en/download/

1.2- Follow the steps and complete successfully your NodeJS installation.

1.3- Make sure you add the npm as well as the node paths over your .bash_profile to avoid issues.

2- Install Apache Cordova using npm.

3-Hit Command +P on your Visual Studio IDE code and run Cordova:Prepare .

4-Now the common issues you might have:

4.1- FIRST COMMON ERROR: ANDROID_HOME not defined:

The fix is make sure you have your Android-sdk installed and set as environment variable, check the next picture.

4.2- SECOND COMMON ERROR: Another very common issue is when you are developing for multiple emulators, sometime you are testing android and your environment platform is set for IOS as below - during cordova prepare command:

Error: The provided path "/blablabla/" is not a Cordova iOS project.

Fix:
The fix for this is just go to your project home folder and run these commands:
- cordova platform rm ios (to remove IOS)
- cordova platform android(to add Android)

Now your Error: THe provided path "blablabla" is not a Cordova iOS project is fixed.

4.3- THIRD COMMON ERROR:

Running command: /Users/ThiagoGuimaraes/workspace/myapp/platforms/android/cordova/build 
[Error: Please install Android target: "android-22".

Hint: Open the SDK manager by running: /Users/ThiagoGuimaraes/adt-bundle-mac/sdk/tools/android
You will require:
1. "SDK Platform" for android-22
2. "Android SDK Platform-tools (latest)
3. "Android SDK Build-tools" (latest)]
ERROR building one of the platforms: Error: /Users/ThiagoGuimaraes/workspace/myapp/platforms/android/cordova/build: Command failed with exit code 2
You may not have the required environment or OS to build this project
Error: /Users/ThiagoGuimaraes/workspace/myapp/platforms/android/cordova/build: Command failed with exit code 2"
F

Fix:

Make sure you have all required Android packages installed on your MAC running the command:

- [ANDROID-SDK-HOME]/tools/android as below:

Command +P : Cordova Build should work fine now as below:

4.4- FOURTH COMMON ERROR:
During the cordova run command you hit error related of emulator such as:

/tguimaraesMacpro/platforms/android/cordova/node_modules/q/q.js:126
                throw e;
                      ^
ERROR : No emulator images (avds) found.