platforms.android.appName not working

[stephan-wolf-ais]

Environment

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System:
OS: macOS 10.15.4
CPU: (4) x64 Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-7267U CPU @ 3.10GHz
Memory: 63.35 MB / 8.00 GB
Shell: 3.2.57 - /bin/bash
Binaries:
Node: 12.16.1 - /usr/local/bin/node
Yarn: 1.22.4 - /usr/local/bin/yarn
npm: 6.13.4 - /usr/local/bin/npm
Watchman: 4.9.0 - /usr/local/bin/watchman
Managers:
CocoaPods: 1.9.1 - /usr/local/bin/pod
SDKs:
iOS SDK:
Platforms: iOS 13.4, DriverKit 19.0, macOS 10.15, tvOS 13.4, watchOS 6.2
Android SDK:
API Levels: 25, 26, 27, 28, 29
Build Tools: 27.0.2, 27.0.3, 28.0.0, 28.0.3, 29.0.2, 29.0.3
System Images: android-28 | Google APIs Intel x86 Atom_64
Android NDK: 20.0.5594570
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Android Studio: 3.5 AI-191.8026.42.35.6010548
Xcode: 11.4.1/11E503a - /usr/bin/xcodebuild
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Java: 1.8.0_131 - /usr/bin/javac
Python: 2.7.16 - /usr/bin/python
npmPackages:
@react-native-community/cli: Not Found
react: 16.11.0 => 16.11.0
react-native: ^0.62.2 => 0.62.2
npmGlobalPackages:
react-native: Not Found

Description

We are using the same code for different applicationId's. As of the parameter --appId is working but deprecated we want to switch to react-native.config.js.

When we implement the property paltforms.android.appName as suggested from the deprecation warning the cli ant never start and does not recognised the folder as a react-native project. Using the --verbose parameter the cli gives the following error message. This is the case in every cli call and not special for run-android

$ react-native info --verbose
debug Unknown option platforms.android.appName with value ""com.app.Name"" was found. This is either a typing error or a user mistake. Fixing it will remove this message.
debug Failed to load configuration of your project. Only a subset of commands will be available.
error Unrecognized command "info".
info Run "react-native --help" to see a list of all available commands.

Reproducible Demo

we use the following react-native.config.js

module.exports = {
assets: ["./app/theme/fonts/"],
platforms: {
android: {
appName: "com.app.Name"
}
}
}

[thymikee]

It should be projects.android.appName:

module.exports = {
  assets: ["./app/theme/fonts/"],
  project: {
    android: {
      appName: "com.app.Name"
    }
  }
}

Can you try it once again? :)

[stephan-wolf-ais]

The error message is gone but the property is ignored and it seems that the applicationId is taken from the package name.

[thymikee]

We failed at documenting this beetter. Here's what appName does:

A name of the app in the Android sourceDir, equivalent to Gradle project name. By default it's app.

What you're looking for is --appIdSuffix flag:

Specify an applicationIdSuffix to launch after build.

So in the case you provided it should be enough to run run-android --appIdSuffix Name

[stephan-wolf-ais]

Ok. but than the appName is an equivalent for the --appFolder parameter.

And of course we dont need an applicationidsuffix we require to set the whole applicationId. So for now the deprecation for --appId is wrong. there is no other way to set the applicationId to launch.

Regards,
Stephan

[thymikee]

The applicationId should be inferred from the sourceDir and appName (e.g. default android/app/**/AndroidManifest.xml), you don't need any flag for it.
Can you point me to a minimal repro and describe what exactly are you trying to achieve please, so we can understand your use case better?

[stephan-wolf-ais]

The applicationId is defined in build.gradle as described here https://developer.android.com/studio/build/application-id. AndroidManifest.xml contains the package name which is not the applicationId.

At the moment we got it to work setting the application display name and applicationId/product bundle identifier from environment variables during the build process. The last point is the launch on developer machines on different platforms.

From my point of view the right way is to create a new option project.android.appId and everything is fine or remove the deprecation from --appId because the parameter itself works.

I will setup a test repo.

[thymikee]

Thanks! It makes sense to rethink some stuff we do. Until then we'll remove the deprecation.