Setup Your Environment

This document provides an outline of the steps required to set up a development environment for mobile application development. It should be ensured that development machines are properly configured for mobile development before proceeding. All necessary tools needed for the development process will be installed by following the steps in this guide.

Appmaker CLI Setup​

The Appmaker CLI is a command-line interface tool required for mobile app development.

• Visit the App maker CLI documentation.

• Follow the installation instructions provided there.

• Verify the installation by running the following command in your terminal:

appmaker -h

• If the installation is successful, this command will display help information for the CLI.

Android Development Setup​

Install Watchman and JDK​

macOS​

Use a package manager like Homebrew to install the following dependencies:

• Install Watchman Use Homebrew to install Watchman:

brew install watchman

• Install OpenJDK Install the Zulu OpenJDK distribution, compatible with both Apple Silicon and Intel Macs:

brew install --cask zulu@17

• Set JAVA_HOME Environment Variable Add the following to your shell profile file (~/.bash_profile or ~/.zshrc):

export JAVA_HOME=/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/zulu-17.jdk/Contents/Home

• Reload the shell configuration:

source ~/.bash_profile  # or source ~/.zshrc

Linux​

• Follow instructions from the Watchman documentation to compile and install from the source.

• Install Java SE Development Kit (JDK).

• Use your system package manager to install OpenJDK.

Install Android Studio​

• Download and install Android Studio from the official website:Download Android Studio.

• After installation, launch the Android Studio application. Click on the "More Actions" (three dots) and select SDK Manager.

  
• Navigate to Settings > Languages & Frameworks > Android SDK.

  
• Then, click on the SDK Tools tab and ensure that at least one version of Android SDK Build-Tools and Android Emulator is installed.

  
• Copy the Android SDK Location path. This path should be added as the ANDROID_HOME environment variable.

  
• Click OK to install the Android SDK and the related build tools.

• If you are using macOS or Linux, add the following environment variables in your ~/.bash_profile or ~/.zshrc file, pointing to the Android SDK location:

export ANDROID_HOME=$HOME/Library/Android/sdk
export PATH=$PATH:$ANDROID_HOME/emulator
export PATH=$PATH:$ANDROID_HOME/platform-tools

• Reload shell by running one of the following commands:

source ~/.bash_profile  # or source ~/.zshrc

• Verify the adb command works in the terminal.

iOS Development Setup​

Install Xcode and Watchman​

Install Xcode​

• Launch the App Store, search for Xcode, and install (or update) it.

Install Xcode Command Line Tools​

• Open Xcode. Go to Settings (⌘ + ,) > Locations.

• Select the latest version under Command Line Tools.

  

Install Watchman​

• Use a package manager like Homebrew to install the following dependency.

• To install Watchman, run the following command in a terminal:

brew install watchman