Cordova Android 13.0.0 Released
Announced a couple months back https://cordova.apache.org/announcements/2024/05/23/cordova-android-13.0.0.html
Category: Android
Samsung Galaxy Store suspending apps because of “Blocked by Play Protect” popup
I have multiple apps published in Samsung Galaxy Store and all those apps were also published in Google Play Store. All my apps in Samsung Galaxy store and Google Play Store were using different APKs since I was using Galaxy Store specific features in APKs published in Samsung Galaxy Store. Recently the issue started with app reviews when app review team started suspending my apps from the Galaxy Store because those apps were giving “Blocked by Play Protect” popup when installing from Galaxy Store. Some APKs were using same key for signing and some were using different keys so keeping the same signing key on both stores did not help. After looking for a couple days and trying different things, I finally found the solution which was also suggsted by the Galaxy Store app review team as well as some other developers to go and file an appeal using “Play[…]
How to use LogCat to capture debug logs from an Android device
In order to capture logs from an Android device, the first step is to download and install Android Studio on your computer. Once Android Studio has been downloaded and installed, launch it. You need to create a new project in the Android Studio. Select the most basic template while creating the project. Once the project is created, it will be opened as following Notice the “Logcat” tab at the bottom. This is where we will be seeing logs from our Android device. The next step is to connect the Android device with your computer. Before you connect your Android device with the computer, make sure to enable developer options on your mobile device. In order to enable developer options on your mobile device, you need to go to the settings on your mobile phone and go to the “About phone” screen. You will see the phone’s build number. Tap it[…]
The submitted icon is not shown AND/OR does not match the branding currently shown on the homepage.
I recently submitted a Google Play Games Services project for an Android game in order to add leaderboard/achievements capability in the game and my submission for OAuth Consent Screen was rejected for the following issue My app was using the same icon which was uploaded for the Android game in the developer console. I uploaded the same icon a few times thinking that probbaly it’s the issue with icon format and kept getting rejected wih the same message. Finally I asked what do they mean by home page and in reply I received the ico file form my authorized domain website which did not match with the icon uploaded in the OAuth screen. I uploded the same icon image in the OAuth screen which was used in my authorized domain website (also hosting privacy policy) and finally OAuth consent screen was approved by Google.
Steps to add Play Games Services to HTML5/Cordova App
If you have made an HTML5 game and have compiled the game to an APK using Cordova and now want to add Play Games Services to your app to use Leaderboard and Achievements from Play Games Services, you need to follow a set of steps to make it work. If you want to learn how to use cordova to compile HTML5 game to an APK and publish to the Google Play Store, follow the steps @ https://www.netexl.com/blog/use-cordova-to-compile-html5-games-to-android-app/ Assuming that we have installed all tools for cordova on our system and can compile the game to the APK, we will follow next steps for the Play Games Services integration. First we need to find a cordova plugin which integrates the Play Game Services API and add it to our project. Go to NPM and search for the latest plugin for the Play Game Services integration. If you have not already created[…]
Cordova App Error: The connection to the server was unsuccessful
After migrating to cordova 11 when I created a new app with android-targetSdkVersion set to 32, some of the mobiles were giving this error The connection to the server was unsuccessful. (https://localhost/index.html). Following entries in config.xml helped fix this problem.
Migrate to cordova 11.0.0
Google Play Store has updated the target API level requirements. All app submissions are required to target Android 12 (API level 31) or higher. Cordova developers also need to upgrade to cordova-android 11.0.0. Check out following link for cordova update instructions. https://www.netexl.com/blog/use-cordova-to-compile-html5-games-to-android-app/ Once we update to cordova version 11 there are a few dependencies which also need to be updated. Android SDK Build Tool version should be updated to min 32.0.0. Go to SDK Manager -> Android SDK -> SDK Tools (select show package details checkbox) and make sure 32.0.0 is installed. If not, select and install it. We also need to update java version to java 11 otherwise you will see an error as following when compiling the APK. Android Gradle plugin requires Java 11 to run. If its an old project, delete previous platform and add new by specifically specifying the version For new projects simply add the[…]
How to fill “Data Safety” section in Google Play App Console for Google Play Services?
According to this article from Google, they don’t collect any data https://developers.google.com/android/guides/play-data-disclosure
How to add AdMob Reward Ads to Phaser 3 Game
We will be using corodva to compile a Phaser 3 Game to Android App. We are going to go over step by step description of how to implement Admob Reward Ads to our game. Let us start by creating a Phaser Game. For simplicity we will not have any game code in it but only a butoon to launch reward ads. Create the cordova project by using the following command in Node.js console. Refer to this blog to go over basic steps to compile an HTML5 game to Android app. We are going to use Admob Plus cordova plugin for implementing Admob ads in our game. Add plugin by using the command below. Make sure to replace App ID with your App ID in AdMob console. You need to create an App for your Android app and then create a Reward ad for that app which will be used here.[…]
Configure to use Adaptive Icons in Cordova
Adaptive icons require API 26 or above. We use a combination of legacy icons as well as adaptive icons to serve users who are using Android versions below 26 as well as those using 26 or above. Android will use Adaptive icons for API 26 or above and fallback to use legacy icons for devices with API below 26. For this tutorial we will create icon set using an online service https://easyappicon.com/. Create icon set using the service and download the set. You should see the icons in two folders; Android and iOS. For his tutorial we will use Android icon set. Go inside the folder and you would see folders as following Let us also create an Android app using Cordova as described in the previous article https://www.netexl.com/blog/use-cordova-to-compile-html5-games-to-android-app/ Create a new app by using the command as following A basic skeleton cordova project is created This is the bare[…]