Status Documentation

#Buidl Status Yourself and Participate in a Better Web

The easiest way

Prerequisites

  • Linux: git, curl and make
    • Run sudo apt install -y git curl make on the terminal
  • macOS: Make sure you have curl installed

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/status-im/status-react
cd status-react

2. Install the dependencies

We created a special script that leverages Nix to install everything Status needs with minimal impact to the user’s system. However, this script has only been tested on macOS (with XCode 10.1), Ubuntu Linux 18.04 and Manjaro. If it doesn’t work for you on another Linux distribution, please install all dependencies manually (you can find the list below).
In order to make things as practical as possible, the script will auto-accept the Android SDK license agreements.

If you’re on NixOS, please run the following to ensure you have the necessary prerequisites available:

nix-env --install git gnumake

In order to work with status-react, you need to be inside a Nix shell. The makefile targets will make sure you are in a Nix shell, or start one for you implicitly. However, if you’re going to be running multiple commands in a shell, you might want to start a dedicated Nix shell by running make shell.

The make shell script prepares and installs the following:

  • Java 8
  • Clojure and Leiningen
  • Node.js (see note below)
  • yarn
  • React Native CLI and Watchman
  • Android SDK
  • Android NDK
  • Maven
  • Cocoapods
  • CMake and extra-cmake-modules
  • Go
  • Python 2.7
  • Conan (Linux-only)
  • unzip
  • wget

Note 1: It can take up to 20 minutes depending on your machine and internet connection speed.

Note 2: Specific tool versions used are maintained in the .TOOLVERSIONS file.

Note 3: An environment variable called TARGET_OS controls the type of shell that is started. If you want to limit the amount of dependencies downloaded, you could run TARGET_OS=android make shell. Most of the makefile targets already include a sensible default.

Note 4: On macOS, the build environment is set up to rely on XCode 10.1. If you want to use an unsupported version, you’ll need to edit the version in the derivation.nix file (xcodewrapperArgs.version).

Running development processes

After you installed all the dependencies, you need to run two processes — the build process and React Native packager. Keep both processes running when you develop Status.

1. Build process

Just run one of these commands in the first terminal window:

make startdev-ios-simulator
make startdev-ios-real
make startdev-android-avd
make startdev-android-genymotion
make startdev-android-real

By doing this you will start the compilation of ClojureScript sources and run re-frisk (a tool for debugging). You should wait until it shows you Prompt will show when Figwheel connects to your application before running the React Native packager.

For additional information check the following:

2. React Native packager

Do this in the second terminal window:

make react-native-android # (ios and desktop are also available targets)

Build and run the application itself

iOS (macOS only)

Just execute

make run-ios

If you wish to specify the simulator, just run make run-ios SIMULATOR="iPhone 7".
You can check your available devices by running xcrun simctl list devices from the console.

You can also start XCode and run the application there. Execute open ios/StatusIm.xcworkspace, select a device/simulator and click Run.

Note: Of course, you need to install XCode first in both cases. Just go to Mac AppStore to do this.

Android

Installation script installs Android SDK and Android NDK.

  • Optional: If you want to use AVD (Android Virtual Device, emulator), please, check this documentation;
  • Optional: If you don’t like AVD, you can also use Genymotion;

Once Android SDK is set up, execute:

  make run-android

Check the following docs if you still have problems:

Optional: Advanced build notes

Building and using forks of status-go

If you need to use a branch of a status-go fork as a dependency of status-react, you can have the scripts build it by following this process:

  1. Change the contents of the STATUS_GO_OWNER file at the root of the project to contain the name of the owner of your GitHub status-go fork;
  2. From the root of the status-react repo, run scripts/update-status-go.sh <branch-name>, where branch-name is the name of the branch you want to build;
  3. If you are inside an Nix shell, make sure you exit it before starting a new build, so that the new dependency is taken into account.

Debugging tips

Inspecting app DB inside Clojure REPL

E.g. if you want to check existing accounts in the device, run this function in the REPL:

(get-in @re-frame.db.app-db [:accounts/accounts])

Inspecting current app state in re-frisk web UI

Assuming re-frisk is running in port 4567, you can just navigate to http://localhost:4567/ in a web browser to monitor app state and events.

Troubleshooting

I have issues compiling on Xcode 10

Some developers are experiencing errors compiling for iOS on Xcode 10 on macOS Mojave:

error: Build input file cannot be found:

'status-react/node_modules/react-native/third-party/double-conversion-1.1.6/src/cached-powers.cc'

To fix similar errors run the following commands:

cd ios
pod update
cd ..

cd node_modules/react-native/scripts && ./ios-install-third-party.sh && cd ../../../

cd node_modules/react-native/third-party/glog-0.3.4/ && ../../scripts/ios-configure-glog.sh && cd ../../../../

Now you should be able to compile again. The issue reference is here.

Last update: 2019-05-21
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