LiveCode Forums.

Thought I'd provide an update on this. The recent response from LC is that they're busy finishing the work to support .aab.

Despite being told that it'd be ready by the required date it is not a good sign that it wasn't.

I also suggested that they put some comms out abt this. Unless I missed it don't think that has happened.

Folks, we apologise for the delay. There are a variety of tricky associated parts to this update which are taking a bit longer than estimated. While a full release with AAB support is on its way, if you have an urgent need in the interim please contact us on support@livecode.com and we should be able to help.

Best Regards,

Heather

Hi,

Does 9.6.4 support app bundle ?

Steve

You can do it yourself via commandline:

https://developer.android.com/studio/bu ... ild_bundle

Hi Heather, about

Folks, we apologise for the delay. There are a variety of tricky associated parts to this update which are taking a bit longer than estimated. While a full release with AAB support is on its way, if you have an urgent need in the interim please contact us on support@livecode.com and we should be able to help.

Best Regards,

Heather

can you give some idea as when will it be available? One week, one moth, one quarter...

I'm about to start a new project and this info will be valuable for me.

Many thanks

You can do it yourself via commandline:
https://developer.android.com/studio/bu ... ild_bundle

@sphere could you please share a step by step tutorial as how to do it?

I did look at the link but since I'm neither familiar with Android Studio nor Gradle I wasn't able to move forward

I'm pretty sure many of us will appreciate your help.

Many thanks

I did not do that yet.
I just pointed to the information where it states clearly how to do it via commandline. I presume the tool the LC is building in will use the same commandline command and bundletool to do that.
Seems doable, as of this part https://developer.android.com/studio/bu ... ild_bundle although it is a bit of work.
Or here https://developer.android.com/studio/bu ... ng-cmdline
Just try it out with a few dummy files.

Thanks @spehre, i'd rather wait for the mothership to handle it, after all is quite overdue...

Best

Experienced the same problem yesterday as Neta in comment 18/19 of quality report under Bug 22251
I used this tools:
LiveCode 9-6-5 (rc 3)
Java 8
Android 11-0 - API 30
Android SDK Build tools 32 rc-1. (all with arcticFox)
The app crashed on my galaxy S5 Neo with aab-file however worked fine as apk-file created with the same tools.

Help!

The crash is normal, you can't run an aab file directly. Build an apk for testing or distribution outside the Play Store, and only build the aab when you're ready to submit to the Play Store. The store breaks down the aab to deliver only the architecture that matches the user's device. Without the store algorithms an aab file is useless.

I had some misgivings about submitting an aab without testing it myself but the app is in the store now and works fine.

jacque,
Thank you for you insightful answer.
I am not at all an expert but still built an app, tested it, had it pass the Google Review, it was available on Google Play and worked fin. Thereafter, starting from the same LiveCode code (which worked fine as apk) I built the aab, it passed the Review, was available at the Play Store and crashed on my smart phone. So, did I misunderstand you?
Jaui

The aab has to be processed by the Play Store before it will work, so you need to download your app from there. Did you try that? You'll also need to delete any current copy on your phone before downloading the one from the store, otherwise the new copy doesn't always install.

An aab file is a specially formatted package that only Google can process; your phone doesn't understand it. When a user requests a download from the Play Store, Google looks at the model and type of the user's phone and delivers only the parts of your app that will run on that specific phone. This makes apps much smaller for download and storage on the user's end, and reduces the load on Google's servers because there is no need to transmit all the code for an architecture (ARM 7, X86, etc.) the phone doesn't use. The reason your phone crashes when you install a local aab is because there is code in there that is incompatible; the Play Store needs to repackage the file for your specific device.

That's a generic explanation as I understand it.

Thank you again for your extremely informative answer.
"LiveCode 9 6 5 with Android App Bundle for Play Store" of Sept. 23 by P.M. says:
"All you have to do now is check the “Build App Bundle” checkbox in the Android Standalone Settings. This will produce a .aab file, together with the .apk file. You have to submit the .aab file to the Google Play Store:"
Might be this statement needs some update.
Rainer

The docs make sense to me, probably because I'd read about .aab files so I understood how they work. But to newcomers I can see it might need more explanation. Maybe it should say:

"All you have to do now is check the “Build App Bundle” checkbox in the Android Standalone Settings. This will produce a .aab file, together with the .apk file. You have to submit the .aab file to the Google Play Store. The .apk file is for distribution to other stores or for sideloading on personal devices."

This might be a good suggestion for a documentation change in the QCC so that others understand it better. http://quality.livecode.com