Hello devs!
I am writing to gather feedback on the new feature to support building
the new android packaging format: android bundles. Below are the links
to the PRs, but I'll try to provide a brief summary below, then I'll
provide my personal opinion.
Feature PR: https://github.com/apache/cordova-android/pull/764
Documentation PR: https://github.com/apache/cordova-docs/pull/1009
What invoked moving the discussion here is the use of the packageType
property/command line argument. During the course of the PR, it was
decided to mimic the iOS platform use of the packageType build.json
property to decide whether to build an APK or a AAB (bundle) file. It
was then found that for iOS, the packageType build property is a
property mostly related to signing and therefore, the documentation for
this is under "Signing an App".
For android, building either the APK or a bundle has no relation to
signing, all other build.json properties available for android is a
"signing" property. Because of this, the android documentation for
build.json properties is also organized under a "Signing an App"
section. As you might have guess, the addition of a new packageType
property for android, a property that is more of a "building" property
rather than a "signing" property makes it a little awkward to simply add
to the current documentation without some major reorganizing.
So what requires discussion is:
1) Should android reuse packageType, even if the purpose is slightly
different for iOS?
2) If the answer to #1 is "yes", how should the android documentation be
reorganized as to not hide a "build" property under a "Signing an App"
section?
3) If #2 is answered yes, should this re-organizing be deferred to a
future PR to get app bundle support out as soon as possible?
Below now is how I would favour proceeding
The answer to #1, should be "yes" because the metaphor I think applies
just as well for Android as it does for iOS. While iOS as I understand,
all packageTypes builds an IPA file, they are just signed differently,
and to be consumed differenetly based on the selected packageType. As
for Android, a packageType will build their own different formats, but
they are still packages, just formatted to be differently to be
consumed differently, based on their packageType.
Thus leading to question #2, I think a "Building the app" section should
be added, which will mimic the format of the existing "Signing the app"
section, but will only include properties or flags related to building
the app. I have provided an example at
https://github.com/apache/cordova-docs/pull/1009#issuecomment-512227371
Leading to #3, another contributor have suggested to simply add the
documentation for app bundles in the current documentation format (under
"Signing the app" section) and defer adding the new build section to
another PR. The intention for this is to get the feature out as soon as
possible as the feature request is somewhat highly requested (Over 43
positive responses on the initial feature request ticket). I don't
really have a strong opinion one way or another therefore my action will
be largely what everybody else thinks I should do here.
Looking for everyones feedback,
Thanks
P.S. this is my first major contribution, I hope I didn't make this too
long and I hoped I explained myself clearly.
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