Fenix

It is sometimes useful to test AMO with a Fenix build pointing to -dev or -stage given the tight integration between these two components. We describe how to construct a custom Fenix build below.

The first step is to get a working Android development environment. The easiest way is to install Android Studio. Follow the Fenix build instructions to get the Fenix code and construct a debug build (which will download the dependencies and compile the code).

Android Studio provides virtual devices via the AVD Manager in case you do not have a real Android-compatible device. In order to run the Fenix debug build created before, either configure a new virtual device or use your own device, then run the following command in the Fenix directory (inside the firefox-android repository):

$ cd /path/to/firefox-android/fenix/
$ ./gradlew installFenixDebug

For more information, you can find more information on this page: https://developer.android.com/studio/build/building-cmdline#RunningOnDevice

Custom build for AMO

Once you ensured that you can compile, install and run a debug Fenix build, let's update the build configuration for AMO -stage. Only a few values have to be changed in the /path/to/firefox-android/fenix/app/build.gradle file as shown below:

diff --git a/fenix/app/build.gradle b/fenix/app/build.gradle
index 81d60db1fc..f3c4d53ebd 100644
--- a/fenix/app/build.gradle
+++ b/fenix/app/build.gradle
@@ -45,9 +45,9 @@ android {
         buildConfigField "boolean", "USE_RELEASE_VERSIONING", "false"
         buildConfigField "String", "GIT_HASH", "\"\"" // see override in release builds for why it's blank.
         // This should be the "public" base URL of AMO.
-        buildConfigField "String", "AMO_BASE_URL", "\"https://addons.mozilla.org\""
-        buildConfigField "String", "AMO_COLLECTION_NAME", "\"Extensions-for-Android\""
-        buildConfigField "String", "AMO_COLLECTION_USER", "\"mozilla\""
+        buildConfigField "String", "AMO_BASE_URL", "\"https://addons.allizom.org\""
+        buildConfigField "String", "AMO_COLLECTION_NAME", "\"fenix\""
+        buildConfigField "String", "AMO_COLLECTION_USER", "\"11686491\""
         // These add-ons should be excluded for Mozilla Online builds.
         buildConfigField "String[]", "MOZILLA_ONLINE_ADDON_EXCLUSIONS",
                 "{" +
@@ -62,7 +62,7 @@ android {
                         "\"adnauseam@rednoise.org\"" +
                 "}"
         // This should be the base URL used to call the AMO API.
-        buildConfigField "String", "AMO_SERVER_URL", "\"https://services.addons.mozilla.org\""
+        buildConfigField "String", "AMO_SERVER_URL", "\"https://services.addons.allizom.org\""

         def deepLinkSchemeValue = "fenix-dev"
         buildConfigField "String", "DEEP_LINK_SCHEME", "\"$deepLinkSchemeValue\""

You may want to use your own values for AMO_COLLECTION_USER and AMO_COLLECTION_NAME. These values are used to determine which add-ons can be installed in Fenix based on an AMO collection. In this diff above, the "fenix" collection is owned by willdurand.

Recompile and install the custom build with the following command:

$ cd /path/to/firefox-android/fenix/
$ ./gradlew installFenixDebug

The last step is to configure some prefs to be able to install -dev/-stage add-ons. Open about:config in your Fenix custom build and create/update the following prefs:

• extensions.webapi.testing set to true
• xpinstall.signatures.dev-root set to true

You should now be able to install add-ons from https://addons.allizom.org/ based on the list specified above.

Note: the commands above usually output different APKs for different architectures. All generated APKs can be found in fenix/app/build/outputs/apk/fenix/debug in case you need to share them.