727183 - Document mobile support in SDK 1.5

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Add-on SDK Graveyard :: Documentation, defect)

Description

[Will Bamberg [:wbamberg]]

Attachment: added mobile.md

Comment 1

[Matteo Ferretti [:zer0] [:matteo]]

Comment on attachment 597127 [details] [diff] [review]
added mobile.md

>diff --git a/doc/dev-guide-source/addon-development/mobile.md b/doc/dev-guide-source/addon-development/mobile.md
>new file mode 100644

>+We're working on adding support for the other modules.

To be fair, these are actually the modules where the test are passed 100% or we're sure they works. There are other modules that mostly works, like notification (that module works in everything but to me there is a small issue related to the notification's image); in the blog post we wrote "There are additional modules that mostly work;" because in that way developers that are trying to use other modules than the listed ones are not surprised that "apparently" they worked, and they don't think that maybe we forgot to add them to the list.

It's just a suggestion, I'm fine also if you keep as is, it's up to you.

>+It's possible to use the
>+[Android emulator](http://developer.android.com/guide/developing/tools/emulator.html)
>+to develop add-ons for Android without access to a device, but it's slow,
>+so for the time being it's much easier to use the technique described
>+below.

The technique described for the real device it should be the same for the emulator, because `adb` see the emulator mostly as a real device.

>+When you need to run the add-on, first ensure that Firefox is not running
>+on the device. Then execute `cfx run` with some extra options:
[..]
>+In the command shell, you should see something like:
[..]
>+Warning: Activity not started, its current task has been brought to the front

Ok, that's actually the message you received when a Firefox instance is already running in the device. So it's good to show to the reader what happened if they run the command when Firefox Mobile is running, but in this context I guess you want show to the reader the output when Firefox Mobile is *not* running.

>+    <p>This is the name of the <a href="http://developer.android.com/reference/android/content/Intent.html">
>+    Android intent</a>. Its value depends on the version of Firefox Mobile

Maybe we should mention that is optional if the developer has just one Firefox application on the device.

>+    that you're running on the device:</p>
>+    <ul>
>+      <li><code>fennec</code>: if you're running Nightly</li>
>+      <li><code>fennec_aurora</code>: if you're running Aurora</li>
>+      <li><code>fennec_beta</code>: if you're running Beta</li>
>+      <li><code>firefox</code>: if you're running Release</li>

If they mobile team didn't change it again, it should be "firefox_beta" not "fennec_beta".

>+Actually installing the XPI on the device is a little tricky. The easiest way is
>+probably to copy the XPI somewhere on the device, then navigate to it in Firefox
>+using the `file://` scheme: the browser should open the XPI and ask if you
>+want to install it.

Should we give an example? Something like:

adb push my-addon.xpi /mnt/sdcard/

and then, open Firefox Mobile, and type in the address bar:

file:///mnt/sdcard/my-addon.xpi

Of course then they should delete the xpi from the sdcard after installation (it doesn't hurt and I'm pretty sure they are capable of, but just in case):

adb shell
cd /mnt/sdcard
rm my-addon.xpi

Again, it's up to you.

Great job!

Comment 2

[[github robot]]

Commit pushed to master at https://github.com/mozilla/addon-sdk

https://github.com/mozilla/addon-sdk/commit/9dfd176af97fb7b2fa1c246564bfaaaa314413d4
Bug 727183 - Document mobile support in SDK 1.5;r=@ZER0

Comment 3

[[github robot]]

Commit pushed to stabilization at https://github.com/mozilla/addon-sdk

https://github.com/mozilla/addon-sdk/commit/28749058b4a71637f663ef8074a6ea3fe98da77d
Bug 727183 - Document mobile support in SDK 1.5;r=@ZER0
(cherry picked from commit 9dfd176af97fb7b2fa1c246564bfaaaa314413d4)

Comment 4

[Wes Kocher (:KWierso) (Not reading bugmail; email directly if needed)]

Hrm. Would've thought gitbot would close the bug out for us...

Comment 5

[[github robot]]

Commit pushed to release at https://github.com/mozilla/addon-sdk

https://github.com/mozilla/addon-sdk/commit/28749058b4a71637f663ef8074a6ea3fe98da77d
Bug 727183 - Document mobile support in SDK 1.5;r=@ZER0