How can I develop apps efficiently without deploying each modification?

marc_aurel

I use to develop apps in small interation of coding and testing, that includes showing a UI in an emulator. This is a common approach in Xcode, Android Studio and Qt Creator of the Sailfish SDK. Do I have to deploy an app to the developer device each time, if I develop for UBports? What is the best practice?

lduboeuf

Hi, did you already checked UBports documentation ? https://docs.ubports.com/en/latest/appdev/index.html

Clickable allows you to test your app on your desktop before submitting on your device

marc_aurel

@lduboeuf This would be great. I couldn't find a note about testing the app on the development system, just a documentation about deploying the app on the phone with clickable. Maybe you can help me with a link to the documentation. Anyway I'm struggling with setting up clickable:

hummlbach

@marc_aurel just run clickable --desktop to compile the app for x86 and execute it on the desktop/laptop. As soon as it runs well on the desktop, deploy it to the device an start testing it there. (Some thing may behave a bit different (other screensize for example) and some things may not be testable on the desktop)

myii

When it comes to testing on the device itself, the one thing I'd add is taking advantage of clickable --dirty.

http://clickable.bhdouglass.com/en/latest/commands.html?highlight=dirty:

A dirty build without cleaning the build dir can be achieved by running clickable --dirty.

This saves a lot of time at that stage of testing.

CiberSheep

just run clickable --desktop to compile [...]
It is clickable desktop also can be combined from second time, with the flag @myii mentioned clickable desktop --dirty

marc_aurel

@cibersheep Thanks. Very precise and helpful answer! I appreciate the lively UBports community.

marc_aurel

Unfortunately I need additional help. I have created a simple hello world project with clickable init and a template for a python and QML app.

clickable desktop
Asking for root to start docker
[sudo] password for marc: 
Asking for root to start docker
Command '[b'docker', b'ps']' returned non-zero exit status 1.

I had installed docker with sudo apt-get install docker.io after sudo apt-get install dockerfailed. Maybe docker was not correctly installed or setup. However I can use the docker command:

docker --version
Docker version 18.06.1-ce, build e68fc7a

I know from professional projects, that docker is an own science. Therefore I hoped, that clickable manages the required docker container.

bhdouglass

@marc_aurel sounds like docker might not be running, what's the output from docker ps ?

marc_aurel

@bhdouglass Thanks. For any reasons. It works now. Maybe my vm had lost the network connection. The job started with a download:

clickable desktop
Using docker container "clickable/ubuntu-sdk:16.04-amd64"
Unable to find image 'clickable/ubuntu-sdk:16.04-amd64' locally
16.04-amd64: Pulling from clickable/ubuntu-sdk

Thanks for your help!!

bhdouglass

@marc_aurel sounds like you are good to go then! Feel free to ask any questions you might have!