Build your own browser: A Maven repository for GeckoView

A Maven repository for GeckoView

A Jenkins job, running on ci.mozilla.org, builds a new AAR (Android ARchive) library file [2]. The new job runs every night at 5AM Pacific; Nightly builds are usually kicked off between 2 and 3AM Pacific, so the artifacts should usually be fresh.

The AAR files produced are versioned appropriately [3] and then published in the Maven repository hosted at https://ci.mozilla.org/job/mozilla-central-geckoview/mozilla-central_Maven_Repository The AAR artifacts are pushed with groupId=org.mozilla.geckoview and artifactId=library; to refer to the latest AAR in Gradle, use:

repositories {
    maven {
        url 'https://ci.mozilla.org/job/mozilla-central-geckoview/mozilla-central_Maven_Repository'
    }
}

dependencies {
    compile 'com.android.support:support-v4:19.+'
    compile 'org.mozilla.geckoview:library:+'
}

That’s it; that’s all you need to build against GeckoView [4] [5]. For a worked example, keep reading.

Example: an updated geckobrowser

You can follow along with the repository at https://github.com/ncalexan/geckobrowser-gradle.

As of Android 19, the android create project tool can create Gradle projects, so let’s use it:

~/Mozilla/geckobrowser-gradle $ android create project \
  -a MainActivity -k org.mozilla.geckobrowser -t android-19 -g -p . -v 0.12
Error: Project folder '.' is not empty. Please consider using 'android update' instead.
Created directory /Users/nalexander/Mozilla/geckobrowser-gradle/src/main/java
Created directory /Users/nalexander/Mozilla/geckobrowser-gradle/src/main/java/org/mozilla/geckobrowser
Added file ./src/main/java/org/mozilla/geckobrowser/MainActivity.java
Created directory /Users/nalexander/Mozilla/geckobrowser-gradle/src/instrumentTest/java
Created directory /Users/nalexander/Mozilla/geckobrowser-gradle/src/instrumentTest/java/org/mozilla/geckobrowser
Added file ./src/instrumentTest/java/org/mozilla/geckobrowser/MainActivityTest.java
Created directory /Users/nalexander/Mozilla/geckobrowser-gradle/src/main/res
Created directory /Users/nalexander/Mozilla/geckobrowser-gradle/src/main/res/values
Added file ./src/main/res/values/strings.xml
Created directory /Users/nalexander/Mozilla/geckobrowser-gradle/src/main/res/layout
Added file ./src/main/res/layout/main.xml
Created directory /Users/nalexander/Mozilla/geckobrowser-gradle/src/main/res/drawable-xhdpi
Created directory /Users/nalexander/Mozilla/geckobrowser-gradle/src/main/res/drawable-hdpi
Created directory /Users/nalexander/Mozilla/geckobrowser-gradle/src/main/res/drawable-mdpi
Created directory /Users/nalexander/Mozilla/geckobrowser-gradle/src/main/res/drawable-ldpi
Added file ./src/main/AndroidManifest.xml
Added file ./build.gradle
Created directory /Users/nalexander/Mozilla/geckobrowser-gradle/gradle/wrapper

My new project is in directory geckobrowser-gradle and the original is in directory geckobrowser. Copy the Android resources (res/ directory) verbatim, and take MainActivity.java from the original geckobrowser; it will need some light editing:

~/Mozilla/geckobrowser-gradle $ rm -rf src/main/res && cp -R ../geckobrowser/res src/main
~/Mozilla/geckobrowser-gradle $ cp ../geckobrowser/src/com/starkravingfinkle/geckobrowser/MainActivity.java \
  src/main/java/org/mozilla/geckobrowser/MainActivity.java

We’re almost there; we just need to rename the package. Update the Java package in MainActivity.java like so:

--- a/src/main/java/org/mozilla/geckobrowser/MainActivity.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/mozilla/geckobrowser/MainActivity.java
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-package com.starkravingfinkle.geckobrowser;
+package org.mozilla.geckobrowser;

 import org.mozilla.gecko.GeckoView;
 import org.mozilla.gecko.GeckoView.Browser;

After building and pushing to device using ./gradlew build installDebug, I took the following screen capture:

Conclusion

That’s a browser — minimal but functional — built around GeckoView! And it uses "Android standard" packaging techniques: no fussing with manually managed ZIP files. I’ve worked on improving packaging Fennec and GeckoView so that things like this were at least feasible, and now that I’ve done it, I’d like to congratulate the Android Tools team for steadily improving the Android packaging story. It’s still not perfect [6], but it handles most functional requirements and is a huge improvement over the frustrating limitations of earlier iterations.

Finally, a plea: GeckoView needs consumers to drive its development. The Fennec team tries to move the project forward when possible, but without guiding lights and community involvement (other than Fennec itself, and the Fennec team), making GeckoView more functional always plays a poor second fiddle to making Fennec more awesome than it already is. But we need to bring the Open Web to more places than those where Fennec can take it, and for that, we need GeckoView, and your help.

Notes