How to workaround Xamarin.Androids VersionCode limitation
We recently faced a problem that a customer published a version of his app that has a version code higher than 65.535 defined in the manifest file. All new builds have to have greater version codes. But building an Xamarin.Android app with that requirement will fail with the message: Error executing task Aapt: VersionCode is outside 0, 65535 interval. In this post I describe possible ways to work around this Xamarin.Android magic number when resetting the build-systems build number is not an option.
How can this happen
As we first heard about that issue we wondered how this could happen. We took a look at the build process and couldn't find anything that is obvious. It is counting up the build number and set that as the version code.
Yet, there are cases that can lead you into this trouble. One to mention is the case if you are using the entire build date as your version code. We have seen some configurations going that way. That is not a problem in general as the max value of an integer is big enough. Google Play accepts version codes up to 2.100.000.000 according to the documentation.
How to fix that - Option 1
Searching for a solution I came to this question at the Xamarin forums and this bug ticket. Both suggest to disable the "Generate one package (.apk) per selected ABI" option under the Android Build settings.
This suggested solution works. But it can lead in a bloated apk file depending on the selected ABIs configured under the "Advanced"-tab. If you distribute separate ABI-packages to Google Play, you need another way to go.
How to fix that - Option 2
If you do not want to end like this guy on stackoverflow, follow these steps to update your version code after Xamarin.Android builds your apk.
- Build your Xamarin Android project with any version code between 0 and 65000
- Open a command line and call
apktool d $APK_PATH -o $OUTPUT_FOLDER - Open the apktool.yml text file and alter the versionCode entries
- Rebuild with
apktool build $OUTPUT_FOLDER - The new apk needs to be re-signed with the original keystore file
jarsigner -verbose -keystore $KEYSTORE_PATH -storepass $KEYSTORE_PASSWORD -keypass $KEYSTORE_KEY_PASSWORD $APK_PATH $KEYSTORE_KEY_NAME ~/android-sdk/build-tools/25.0.2/zipalign -v 4 $APK_PATH $APK_OUT_PATH
A quick reminder to take a look at Xamarins documentation on how you should create version codes for abi specific apks, if you go that route.
Ich bin Mobile-Enthusiast mit großer Begeisterung für die Entwicklung von Cross-Plattform-Apps mit Xamarin, .NET MAUI und .NET. Mein Ziel sind glückliche Apps und zufriedene Anwender. Als Geschäftsführer der Cayas Software GmbH genieße ich die Freiheiten der neuen Plattform-Vielfalt und die sich daraus ergebenden Möglichkeiten.
During a current project we needed to evaluate possibilities to easily set up a Continuous Integration and Deployment system. For several reasons we normally would suggest an In-House solution with TeamCity, but the customer preferred a cloud solution to shorten the procurement and installation process. In this post I explain why and how we set up Bitrise.
As a developer we all know about that rumor of writing any kind of test is a costly task. In this post I would like to show you a better way for writing UI tests that even makes it fun when it comes to a very large mobile app.
Beim BeeWi Car handelt es sich um ein ferngesteuertes Auto der Firma BeeWi. Während meines Besuchs des gestrigen Workshops auf dem Developer Open Space in Leipzig zum Thema "Internet of Things", hatte ich den ersten Kontakt mit diesem kleinen Spielzeugauto.