Setting up the project with Bazel

[adhiamboperes]

Operating System

MacOs

Android Studio Version

Giraffe

RAM size

16GB

Free disk space

24GB

Which step are you stuck on?

This is a general log of the issues I encountered while setting up the project with the Bazel Plugin and how I fixed them.

Error Log

ERROR 1: /Users/adhiambooyier/Developer/AndroidStudioProjects/opensource/oppia-android/WORKSPACE:13:23: fetching android_sdk_repository rule //external:androidsdk: Android SDK api level 34 was requested but it is not installed in the Android SDK at /Users/adhiambooyier/Library/Android/Sdk. The api levels found were [33, 32, 31, 30, 29, 28]. Please choose an available api level or install api level 34 from the Android SDK Manager.
ERROR: Analysis of target '//:oppia' failed; build aborted: Android SDK api level 34 was requested but it is not installed in the Android SDK at /Users/adhiambooyier/Library/Android/Sdk. The api levels found were [33, 32, 31, 30, 29, 28]. Please choose an available api level or install api level 34 from the Android SDK Manager.

<------------------------------------------------------>

ERROR 2: FATAL EXCEPTION: main        
 Process: org.oppia.android, PID: 9508
    java.lang.RuntimeException: Unable to instantiate application com.google.devtools.build.android.incrementaldeployment.StubApplication package org.oppia.android: java.lang.SecurityException: Writable dex file '/data/local/tmp/incrementaldeployment/org.oppia.android/dex/incremental_classes4.dex' is not allowed.
     at android.app.LoadedApk.makeApplicationInner(LoadedApk.java:1466)
     at android.app.LoadedApk.makeApplicationInner(LoadedApk.java:1395)
     at android.app.ActivityThread.handleBindApplication(ActivityThread.java:6959)
     at android.app.ActivityThread.-$$Nest$mhandleBindApplication(Unknown Source:0)
     at android.app.ActivityThread$H.handleMessage(ActivityThread.java:2236)
     at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:106)
     at android.os.Looper.loopOnce(Looper.java:205)
     at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:294)
     at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:8177)
     at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Native Method)
     at com.android.internal.os.RuntimeInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(RuntimeInit.java:552)
     at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:971)
    Caused by: java.lang.SecurityException: Writable dex file '/data/local/tmp/incrementaldeployment/org.oppia.android/dex/incremental_classes4.dex' is not allowed.

Approaches already used to resolve the issue

For ERROR 1:, I installed API 34 by selecting Android Studio > Settings > Language & Frameworks > Android SDK > Android API 34 > Apply > Ok

ERROR 2: was caused when I tried to use the deploy icon (green arrow) in Android Studio to deploy on an emulator running on API 34. For Bazel, this button triggers incremental builds(as opposed to building the apk from scratch). This is prohibited in API 34. I solved this by switching to an emulator using API 29.

Additional information

Here is how I actually set up the project to work with Bazel on Android Studio.

1. Used a newer version of AS. I have Giraffe installed, but please feel free to update up to LadyBug(Yaay!).

2. On the welcome screen, I selected plugins and installed the Bazel for Android Studio plugin, and restarted AS.

3. On next open, I clicked the options button next to the new project/open project to find the "Import Bazel Project" option.

4. For Workspace, I clicked (...) to open file manager and selected /opensource/oppia-android as the location since this is where we have our project's WORKSPACE file.

5. On next, to Select Project View, I selected the option to Generate from BUILD file, and selected (...) to open file manager again. In the same project root, /opensource/oppia-android, I scrolled down and selected the BUILD.bazel file.

6. On pressing next, the below file was generated:
   

7. In the above file, under "targets: # If source code isn't resolving, add additional targets that compile it here" I added the following:

      ```
   
       //:oppia
       //app
       //app/src/main/...
       //domain/...
       //model/...
       //testing/...
       //utility/...
       //data/...
       //scripts/...
      ```
   

This is a list of build targets that can be used to build the various packages/modules that we have in the project.

8. Under the section "# Please uncomment an android-SDK platform. Available SDKs are:", I uncommented all the APIs that I have installed. This list will be the same as what is seen on Android Studio > Settings > Language & Frameworks > Android SDK.
9. At the bottom of the file, I added the following, as suggested by @BenHenning in this gist:

    
      android_sdk_platform: android-34

      shard_sync: true
      sync_flags:
        --local_ram_resources=HOST_RAM*.5
        --discard_analysis_cache
      
      java_language_level: 11

10. Click Create.
11. To build and install the app, use the deploy arrow as usual, and ensure the build target is //:oppia

My first sync took 35 minutes, so you can expect longer based on your RAM and Processor.

Please feel free to add below any issues you encounter, and solutions that you found, or ask for support.