How to make the Companion App work?

[kees]

Hi all,

I am trying to develop a NativeScript app, using the Appbuilder windows client and a Genymotion emulator. So far, I've been able to install the Appbuilde Companion App on the emulator. But here the first problem arises as it says "Slide right from the edge with two fingers to access the menu", but how do I do this on the emulator?

After that I tried to build the project in Appbuilder (using the option to build for Nativescript companion app). I copied the generated link and pasted it in a browser on the emulator device. But this does not succeed. Using the standard browser, it says: Webpage not available.......net::ERR_UNNOWN_URL_SCHEME. Then I tried Firefox but that also resulted in an error: The address was't understood.

Does anyone has an idea what I could do to make this work?

Regards

 Kees

 

 

 

[Tina Stancheva]

Hi Kees,

The NativeScript companion app is a test utility for iOS and Android devices which allows you to quickly run and test a NativeScript application on a mobile device. Its main advantage is acting as a container that doesn't interfere with the look and feel of your app, which is why you can get a behavior that closely mimics the real behavior of the app when it runs directly on a device. It is mostly helpful if you want to quickly test your app and code sign it later on during your development process.

However, the NativeScript companion app is not designed to run on Android emulators. However, you should see the Genymotion Android emulator in the AppBuilder Devices tab. If that is indeed the case on your side, then you should be able to use the Build and Deploy option to directly run the app in the emulator. Please give this a try and let me know if it helps.

Another option you have is to go through the AppBuilder Command-Line Interface. Since you're developing your app in the Windows client of AppBuilder, you can set up your project for collaboration as described here. Once configured, the project can be opened from different AppBuilder clients.

In order to test a NativeScript app in a Genymotion emulator, you can run the following command in the AppBuilder CLI:

appbuilder emulate android --geny <Name>

You can find more info about the steps you can follow in this tutorial.

Regards,
Tina Stancheva
Telerik

 

 

[kees]

Hi Tina,

I was able to build and deploy the app to the emulator. But after a few more changes to my App it did not work anymore, so i was trying to figure out away to do some debugging. I thought for this the Companion App was necessary.

Can you explain how to debug the app while running on an emulator or point me to the right documentation ?

 

regards  

 

Kees

[Tina Stancheva]

Hi Kees,

AppBuilder doesn't expose a specific feature for debugging apps running in a device emulator and you don't need the companion app for debugging in the emulator.

I extracted your option for debugging both from AppBuilder and Google Chrome:

• Debug on Android device through AppBuilder
• Remote Debugging on Android with Google Chrome
• SOF - debug app running in Genymotion emulator

I hope this information will help you and I remain at your disposal for further questions.

Regards,
Tina Stancheva
Telerik