When I build flutter for windows with flutter build windows it generates a .exe file with its .dll files etc. However, running that file (.exe) gives me a white screen and my app is not running normally.
Running flutter run --release -d windows however builds my app normally and I can use it.
What is wrong here that running the .exe file is not starting my app properly?
This is my release folder structure when running flutter build windows:
Running the .exe file:
I was using sqflite_common_ffi on Windows and this was causing the issue. Initializing it was only valid for debug thus I had to add the sqlite3.dll to the release build folder. Then it worked fine like before when starting the .exe file.
Detailed description can be found here: https://github.com/tekartik/sqflite/issues/574
Goal
I've read many Electron tutorials about app bootstrapping and build pipeline and had assumed that you could have a single project to handle a cross-platform action.
But after numerous failures in the packaging and build process, I finally realized that maybe my assumption is wrong.
Problem
Here is my desired workflow based on electron-forge:
1. Create app skeleton on Windows
yarn create electron-app my-app
cd my-app
yarn add my-dependency
yarn start
yarn make
This all went well. Now onto macOS
2. Transfer project to macOS for a ride
On macOS, running the app will lead to an error
cd my-app
yarn start
The error looks like this
$ yarn start
yarn run v1.22.4
$ electron-forge start
✔ Checking your system
✔ Locating Application
✔ Preparing native dependencies: 1 / 1
✔ Launching Application
/path/to/my-app/node_modules/electron/dist/electron.exe: /path/to/my-app/node_modules/electron/dist/electron.exe: cannot execute binary file
error Command failed with exit code 126.
info Visit https://yarnpkg.com/en/docs/cli/run for documentation about this command.
So I blindly reinstall electron on macOS
yarn add electron
yarn start
yarn make
Things work fine on macOS.
Now back to Windows.
3. Travel back to Windows to double-check
This time. I got the similar problem as in Step #2. The Windows distribution now has the wrong Electron binary.
Findings
I found this file constantly getting overwritten even if I merge carefully when transferring project files between Windows and macOS.
my-app/node_modules/electron/path.txt
It contains a hardcoded path to Electron executable:
macOS
Electron.app/Contents/MacOS/Electron
Windows:
electron.exe
Workarounds
I could add pre-build steps against this by copying predefined metadata to the project folder depending on the current platform. But a hack like this sounds lame for a framework like Electron.
Question
So to me this metadata arrangement makes it difficult to share the same project between Windows and macOS. I can't imagine Electron developers working like this.
So What am I missing?
Basically, you shouldn't commit node_modules at all. Some post installation scripts may compile packages for a specific OS and the folder is usually huge.
Also, you shouldn't commit any result of a build, package or compile command. Typically, dist folders should be ignored.
Your repository should only contains code and configuration files.
The idea is that it makes no sense to commit these files and folders as you have all the required steps in order to reproduce the result on any machine: your windows computer, your macOS computer, your CI environment, etc. For example (these are pseudo-commands):
npm i or npm ci
npm run build
electron package
etc
So you should add all these folders to you .gitignore file:
# compiled output
/dist
/tmp
/out-tsc
/packages
# dependencies
/node_modules
I have a project that builds and works on Windows but when I've brought it over to MacOS (Sierra) and set up Resin, Ant, and the rest of my project in IntelliJ the build is failing with a fairly ambiguous error:
build.xml:24: Directory /java/ant-build/classes creation was not successful for an unknown reason
at org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.Mkdir.execute(Mkdir.java:70)
Image of the full error message
At first I thought it was a permissions issue but I ran chmod 755 on the two directories and still am getting this error. I also tried updating to a newer version of Ant to replace IntelliJ's built in one with brew install ant#1.9 but that didn't help either.
Does anyone know of any changes that need to be made to projects when migrating from Windows to Mac? I'm the first one at the company to migrate this project to Mac so unfortunately the others don't know much about this.
Both are using:
IntelliJ IDE 2017.1.2
Built in IntelliJ Ant (1.9.4)
Resin 4.0.51
As the comments on the main post point out, this was a permissions issue where the ant was trying to build in the root directory
I had to change my build.properties file so the paths were point towards my $HOME directory.
Until now, all of my experience compiling PhoneGap apps has been via the excellent PhoneGap:Build service. However, I now find myself in a situation where I need to compile locally, because I need to use a plugin that includes a binary file, which precludes it from being included for use with PG:B.
So for these reasons, I need to compile locally. "Great!" I thought, I'll just use the new CLI...
I have developed my app, and I can test it on-device via deploy over USB from Xcode, but trying to get a release build, and sign it, with the provisioning profile embedded, has been a nightmare.
For completeness, this is the basic outline of everything I've done, aside from the app development itself.
$ pwd
/users/adam/dev/myapp/mobile/
$ cordova create build_local com.foo.bar MyApp
Creating a new cordova project with name "MyApp" and id "com.foo.bar" at location "/Users/adam/DEV/myapp/build_local"
$ cd build_local
$ cordova platform add ios
Creating ios project...
$ cordova platform add android
Creating android project...
Creating Cordova project for the Android platform:
Path: platforms/android
Package: com.foo.bar
Name: MyApp
Android target: android-19
Copying template files...
<snip>
Project successfully created.
$ cordova plugin add https://github.com/hazemhagrass/BackgroundJS
Fetching plugin "https://github.com/hazemhagrass/BackgroundJS" via git clone
Installing com.badrit.BackgroundJS (android)
Fetching plugin "https://github.com/apache/cordova-plugin-device.git" via git clone
Installing org.apache.cordova.device (android)
Installing com.badrit.BackgroundJS (ios)
Installing org.apache.cordova.device (ios)
$ cordova plugin add de.appplant.cordova.plugin.local-notification
Fetching plugin "de.appplant.cordova.plugin.local-notification" via plugin registry
Installing de.appplant.cordova.plugin.local-notification (android)
Installing de.appplant.cordova.plugin.local-notification (ios)
$ cordova plugin add https://github.com/kdzwinel/phonegap-estimotebeacons
Fetching plugin "https://github.com/kdzwinel/phonegap-estimotebeacons" via git clone
Installing pl.makingwaves.estimotebeacons (android)
Installing pl.makingwaves.estimotebeacons (ios)
For what it's worth, this last plugin is the reason that I have to compile locally.
Now, here's one other potential monkey wrench: This app is actually two apps. It's the same core codebase, merged into two different deployment branches of the repo, one for each client. So each app will have its own id, name, and config stuff. Because of this, I actually have more than one cordova project folder (1 for each final app) and after creating each project through the steps above, I remove the generated www folder and replace it with a symlink to the shared www folder that exists outside of these phonegap project directories.
This is supported behavior; the CLI allows you to generate your app with a symlink via the --link-to flag (see cordova help create for details). However, doing so seems to have issues; so I've resorted to doing all of the app config up front and then replacing the generated www folder with a symlink after everything is ready to compile.
At this point, I can deploy to either the iOS simulator or Android emulator, and I can deploy to devices over USB, and everything works just fine; all of my plugins are available and function as expected. So I'm ready to compile a release build. Android is easy. iOS, not so much.
$ cordova build ios
<snip>
** BUILD SUCCEEDED **
However, this is a DEV build. The generated file is in the build/emulator/ folder, and when I attempt to sign it, I'm told that it's not signed because of the I386 architecture (which indicates that it's a development build).
$ xcrun -sdk iphoneos PackageApplication -v "platforms/ios/build/emulator/MyApp.app" -o "/users/adam/dev/myapp/MyApp.ipa" --sign "iPhone Distribution: {our cert name} ({our cert id})"
<snip>
Codesign check fails : platforms/ios/build/emulator/MyApp.app: code object is not signed at all
In architecture: i386
<snip>
I've attempted to generate a release build from the cordova CLI. I haven't been able to find the --release flag documented anywhere, but the CLI doesn't complain, and it usually does if it doesn't recognize a flag.
$ cordova build ios --release
<same result as previously>
Attempting to sign this build results in the same problem.
At this point, I started attempting to work directly in Xcode. I've set the .mobileprovision file and the signing credentials up appropriately, to the best of my knowledge:
With these values set, Xcode no longer allows me to build:
So I'm stuck: I have no choice but to build locally, and I can't figure out how to get it to build for release and sign! Please help!
Additionally, if I attempt to embed a provisioning profile, that fails because of an issue with entitlements. I'm not exactly sure what this means, but I'm hopeful that it's a result of working with a dev build, and resolving that will resolve this as well.
$ test -e ~/.ios/DEV.mobileprovision && echo exists
exists
$ xcrun -sdk iphoneos PackageApplication -v "platforms/ios/build/emulator/MyApp.app" -o "/users/adam/dev/myapp/MyApp.ipa" --embed "~/.ios/DEV.mobileprovision"
<snip>
error: Failed to read entitlements from '/var/folders/zs/j2hmt69n12sbjm6gyn0m_q4c0000gn/T/tyYvYPQKf3/Payload/MyApp.app'
Update 1:
This SO question helped in one regard. I don't know how the active scheme (I'm not really sure what that means, but that's the tooltip when I hover over the control) got changed as part of specifying keys/etc, but clearly it did. Changing this back to an iOS Device, like iPhone, allows me to build my project, and even Archive (which, to the best of my understanding, means it's creating the .ipa file I need to submit to the app store), but I can't find the archived file. Where should it be? Can I define this in a setting somewhere in Xcode?
Update 2:
By fiddling with certificates and provisioning profiles I've finally been able to create an archive from Xcode, which I've been told is a release build (is it?). Ideally I would like to be able to build from the command line so that I can automate it as much as possible, so that's where I'll be picking up in the morning. Any advice on that front would be quite welcome!
If you managed to create an archive in Xcode, then your signing certificate and provisioning profiles are known to Xcode, so cordova build ios --release --device should make it.
The steps are:
1) Import your iOS developer certificate for production to the keychain by downloading and double clicking on it in Finder (or get it via Xcode)
2) Download your provisioning profile (with the App ID set to the id attribute of the widget element in config.xml) and double click it on Finder so it goes to the Xcode provisioning profile store
3) cordova build ios --release --device
it looks like you're trying to sign the app with a wildcard provisioning profile (the XCode screenshot). Can you try creating and downloading a distribution certificate and provprofile to your Mac? Then import the .cer file in the keychain access app (doubleclicking should suffice) and doubleclick the provprofile as well.
Now you should be able to select the appropriate values from the release dropdowns in the XCode build settings.
Hope this helps somewhat...
Eddy
One other issue I am seeing from your screenshot is I don't think you can Build an Archive (Release) version using the Developer Signing Idenetity, you would need to create a Distribution certificate and use that one for the Release (Archive) version.
I am trying to configure Eclipse for Windows to meet my workplace's requirements, and in doing so the program ran out of memory and crashed. I am trying again with a fresh install (deleted all files I could find related to Eclipse and recopied).
I have a Git perspective available, but it is completely blank. Git is not listed in my current plugins, and not present in my plugins folder that I can find. If I try to install it, however, I am told it already exists.
Eclipse Version: 3.6.2
EGit Version: 1.1.0.201109151100-r
You can usually fix a lot of problems like this by doing a
$ eclipse -clean
You may have to add this to your eclipse.ini file.
If this doesn't work, start from a clean install (the eclipse directory & the workspace).