How to build Expo APK local

user_5647005 0
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Is it possible to build the APK of an expo app locally?

The doc says:

If you haven’t used exp before, the first thing you’ll need to do is login with your Expo account using exp login.

I tried exp start, exp build:android but the commands require a login.

I don't want to build the APK using expo server. Is there a way to run this build locally? So no login and push of source code required?

If not, can I view the whole source code of the generated APK?

expo react-native android
4 Answers
user_3803160

I've straggled with similar issue, I managed to solve it following several steps found on the web, and tweaking a bit: https://forums.expo.io/t/expokit-full-local-build-without-publish-android/31400/2

  1. Run the https server your machine, note that the server must have a certificate since it is a HTTPS server (I used port 4443), but it does not need to be trusted by your machine - it works anyway
    (I found it easy to use: https://gist.github.com/dergachev/7028596 - Python 2.7, https://gist.github.com/dergachev/7028596#gistcomment-1989299 - Python 3.X)

  2. Go to your Expo project folder, make sure there is no dist folder in it; alternatively you can provide dist path with the --output-dir flag (the react-native bundle and assets will be generated to it).

  3. Open command line and run:
    expo export -t bare --dev --public-url https://localhost:4443/, once done you will have the android bundle and assets in the output-dir (default - dist)

  4. Copy the android bundle from dist/bundles/android-<bunch of numbers (MD5)>.js to <YourExpoProjectFolder>/android/app/src/main/assets/index.android.bundle and to <YourExpoProjectFolder>/android/app/build/generated/assets/react/release/index.android.bundle
    (note: the name of the bundle must be index.android.bundle)
    In /dist/bundles/assets you'll have your assets files, but they would be named as their MD5 value, copy each of them to <YourExpoProjectFolder>/android/app/src/main/assets/, but add the asset_ prefix and .<ext> for each.
    e.g. for a PNG image file with MD5 value of de57a0c7a3a23aabcaceaf1185b1e79e: copy <YourExpoProjectFolder>/dist/bundles/assets/de57a0c7a3a23aabcaceaf1185b1e79e <YourExpoProjectFolder>/android/app/src/main/assets/asset_de57a0c7a3a23aabcaceaf1185b1e79e.png

  5. cd android

  6. gradlew.bat assemble

    expo diagnostics output:

      Expo CLI 3.18.6 environment info:
        System:
          OS: Windows 10 10.0.18363
        Binaries:
          Node: 12.16.2
          Yarn: 1.22.0
          npm: 6.14.4
        npmPackages:
          expo: ~37.0.3 => 37.0.8
          react: ~16.9.0 => 16.9.0
          react-native: ~0.61.5 => 0.61.5
          react-navigation: ^4.3.9 => 4.3.9
user_5149490

If you want to build the app locally without using the turtle CLI of expo, you can build it just how you would build a normal react native app
But beware that you will have to touch some native android code (gradle only) But only one or two files....

Steps:

  1. Generate a release Keystore by keytool
  2. Link the keystore in build.gradle file
  3. Run cd android && ./gradlew assembleRelease to build the apk

Check out this post to follow these steps in detail

user_153736410
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