I think we need a separate guide on building release versions of apps. "Using offline bundle" is only documented inside "Running On Device (iOS)" right now.

Yes, that'd be great. I could only find a short block of information about this topic on the Debugging page in the documentation (disabling developer mode for the app. And it doesn't include any information about the bundle command)

+1 on the documentation. Also see #2712

This works for me:

1. cd to the project directory
2. Start the react-native packager if not started
3. Download the bundle to the asset folder:
   curl "http://localhost:8081/index.android.bundle?platform=android" -o "android/app/src/main/assets/index.android.bundle"

Messed around with this for a while...seems like the only way (as of my writing this) to create a bundle for Android is to use the method that @krizpoon outlined above.

I tried:

react-native bundle --url src/index.android.js --out android/app/src/main/assets/index.android.bundle --root src

However it seems like the packager is excluding *.android.* files and throws the following error, despite /Users/hswolff/Sites/chartbeat/mobile_app/src/index.android.js existing:

➜  ~/Sites/chartbeat/mobile_app git:(phoenix) ✗ react-native bundle --url src/index.android.js --out android/app/src/main/assets/index.android.bundle --root src
Building package...

/Users/hswolff/Sites/chartbeat/mobile_app/node_modules/react-native/node_modules/promise/lib/done.js:10
      throw err;
      ^
NotFoundError: Cannot find entry file src/index.android.js in any of the roots: ["/Users/hswolff/Sites/chartbeat/mobile_app","/Users/hswolff/Sites/chartbeat/mobile_app/src"]
    at DependencyGraph._getAbsolutePath (/Users/hswolff/Sites/chartbeat/mobile_app/node_modules/react-native/packager/react-packager/src/DependencyResolver/DependencyGraph/index.js:186:11)
    at /Users/hswolff/Sites/chartbeat/mobile_app/node_modules/react-native/packager/react-packager/src/DependencyResolver/DependencyGraph/index.js:141:28
    at tryCallOne (/Users/hswolff/Sites/chartbeat/mobile_app/node_modules/react-native/node_modules/promise/lib/core.js:37:12)
    at /Users/hswolff/Sites/chartbeat/mobile_app/node_modules/react-native/node_modules/promise/lib/core.js:103:15
    at flush (/Users/hswolff/Sites/chartbeat/mobile_app/node_modules/react-native/node_modules/promise/node_modules/asap/raw.js:50:29)
    at doNTCallback0 (node.js:407:9)
    at process._tickCallback (node.js:336:13)

Even trying to do something clever like this:

react-native bundle --root src --url index.android.bundle?platform\=android\&dev=

Also throws the same error.

I imagine this will be looked at once the packager is in its own repo. For now I'm using the above outlined method.

@hswolff This is due to the hardcoded blacklist param that results in the index.android.js getting ignored. Looks like this has been fixed on 0.12-stable.

can someone document the complete steps, from bundling all the way to installing the release version apk to device?

I put together my steps here. Hopefully it will save people some time.

https://gist.github.com/marty-wang/5a71e9d0a6a2c6d6263c

+1

+1

I have a pull request open here - #3061

@marty-wang +1 for gist