# Kiwix Android Custom Apps Kiwix Android custom apps are Android apps running [Kiwix for Android](https://github.com/kiwix/kiwix-android) against a pre-configured ZIM file. Kiwix publishes more than [a dozen of such apps](https://play.google.com/store/apps/collection/cluster?clp=igM6ChkKEzkxMTYyMTU3Njc1NDE4NTc0OTIQCBgDEhsKFW9yZy5raXdpeC5raXdpeG1vYmlsZRABGAMYAQ%3D%3D:S:ANO1ljKl_Lw&gsr=Cj2KAzoKGQoTOTExNjIxNTc2NzU0MTg1NzQ5MhAIGAMSGwoVb3JnLmtpd2l4Lmtpd2l4bW9iaWxlEAEYAxgB:S:ANO1ljLrUVU). [Wikimed - Offline Medical Wikipedia](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.kiwix.kiwixcustomwikimed) and [Wikivoyage - Offline Travel Guide](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.kiwix.kiwixcustomwikivoyage) being the most famous ones. This project contains data and scripts needed to create specific custom Kiwix Android apps. _It does *not* create the app_, that's done separately by running the relevant Gradle command to build one or more custom apps. [![Publish Custom App](https://github.com/kiwix/kiwix-android-custom/actions/workflows/publish.yml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/kiwix/kiwix-android-custom/actions/workflows/publish.yml) [![License: GPL v3](https://img.shields.io/badge/License-GPLv3-blue.svg)](https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0) ## Disclaimer This document is for publishers who aim to publish new custom apps. If you are a developer and want to have an in-depth understanding about the custom apps, please read [CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md). ## Custom app folder [In the repository](https://github.com/kiwix/kiwix-android-custom), each custom configuration is isolated in a so called custom app folder. If you need to create a new one for a new custom app, you can do that easily using Github UI. Go to https://github.com/kiwix/kiwix-android-custom/new/master, put the name of your app (no space, lowercase only) and add a slash at the end. ## Description json file The configuration of the custom app is handled using the `info.json` file which is in the custom app folder. Take example on an already existing one if you need to create a new custom app. The most important fields are: - `app_name`, the title of the app - `zim_url`, the ZIM online URL (to download to create the app) - `enforced_lang`, the language code of the content (and the app UI) You can also create this new file using Github IO. Go to https://github.com/kiwix/kiwix-android-custom/new/master and type `info.json`. Remark: If you make a simple update, just replace the `zim_url` with the latest available zim from [download.kiwix.org/zim](https://download.kiwix.org/zim). Then comment your commit (e.g. "updated to YYYY-MM zim") and commit directly to `master` branch. You won't have to change anything more than this (just tagging the release, see below). ## Icon master The Icon master is file `icon.png` you find (or have to create) in the custom app folder. It is a square PNG file which is used as master to create the Icon set (see section below). This master has to match many constraints and you might even have to create an `icon_foreground.png` and `icon_baground.png` to achieve to do certain things. Look at the [Android documentation about adaptive icons](https://developer.android.com/guide/practices/ui_guidelines/icon_design_adaptive) to know more. ## Icon set The Android custom app needs an _Icon set_ to build properly. This Icon set is needed to properly show the app icon on user devices and is a list of bitmap pictures which are derivatives of an icon master. To create this Icon set, follow these steps: 1. Create a new empty project with Android Studio (add no activity > next > finish) 1. In the project view (top left) there should be a dropdown that says `Android` select that and choose `Project`, this will make the project view display accurately to the file system 1. Delete `MyApplication/app/src/main/res` 1. Right click `MyApplication/app` in android studio, click `New>Image Asset` to open Asset Studio (if this option is greyed out you will have to wait for indexing to finish, this shouldn't take longer than 2 minutes) 1. For `foreground layer` `Source Asset > Asset Type` choose `Image` 1. For `path` click the folder icon and browse to the output of `gen-std-icon.py` 1. For `background layer` `Source Asset > Asset Type` choose `Color` 1. Click on the color box 1. This should present the color chooser, the box in the top right with the label `#` should be auto selected. Type `FFFFFF` to supply white as the color, this is typically the color used 1. [Optional] go back to foreground layer and size the icon as appropriate with the slider 1. Next > Finish will generate a res folder with all the icons needed in the location where you previously deleted the res folder. 1. Cut and paste the res folder to `kiwix-android-custom/whatever-directory-this-icon-set-is-for` These instructions are for a first time setup, you can reuse this project in the future for icon generation so many steps can be omitted. ## Version name The custom app will have a version name displayed on the Google Play store. This version name has to be a date in the format YYYY-MM (for example `2018-10`. This version name should be the date of the content (neither the date of the Software nor the release date). The app version name is determined in that order: 1. The date can be hardcoded in the json file at the key `version_name`. Considering that this needs maintenance and that the publisher can easily create a discrepency with the ZIM content date, this should probably be avoided in most of the time. 1. If nothing is specified in the json, then it tries to extract it from the ZIM file name. If the file - specified in `zim_url` - is `wikipedia_en_all_maxi_2018-10.zim` then it will be `2018-10`. 1. Otherwise the current date will be put (should be avoided). ## Releasing Simply tag the repo in git with the name of a custom app, for example: ```bash git tag -f tunisie git push -f origin tunisie ``` then Go to the [release tab](https://github.com/kiwix/kiwix-android-custom/releases) and click on "Draft a new release". As "tag version" use the custom app folder name (e.g. `wikimedar`). Publish by adding for example "WikiMed FA 2021-06" as title, no description is needed. This triggers a [Github action](https://github.com/kiwix/kiwix-android-custom/actions) that will build an app using kiwix-android master branch and the icon set/json defined in this repository and then upload it to the Play Console in draft to alpha with an expansion file attached. Therefore, go to the [Google Play Store Admin dashboard](https://play.google.com/apps/publish) for the corresponding app and go to menu "Publication management" > "App version": under "Alpha", you can click on "Modify version". After a couple of hours the new version of the app should be listed in the public Play Store. Remark: This will only work with app updates. To create a new custom app an app must be built manually and submit to the Google Play store License ------- [GPLv3](https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0) or later, see [LICENSE](LICENSE) for more details.