Ionic CLI not generating release build for Android

Question

When I use the command: cordova build --release android the CLI throws the following error:

Error: Cannot find module 'minimatch'
    at Function.Module._resolveFilename (module.js:336:15)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:286:25)
    at Module.require (module.js:365:17)
    at require (module.js:384:17)
    at Object.<anonymous> (C:\Users\sologic\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\cordova\node_modules\cordova-lib\node_modules\glob\glob.js:44:17)
    at Module._compile (module.js:434:26)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:452:10)
    at Module.load (module.js:355:32)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:310:12)
    at Module.require (module.js:365:17)
    at require (module.js:384:17)

But when I use Ionic Lab (Windows Installer) and using the Build option - it generates 'android-debug.apk' & 'android-debug-unaligned.apk' in the android\build\outputs\apk folder.

Note that it is not generating android-release-unsigned.apk

My questions are:

1: What is wrong with the CLI ??

2: can I use the android-debug-unaligned.apk for Signing (with jarsigner) and Aligning (with zipalign ) for submitting on Google Play ??

Please advice.

Answer 1

1. Nothing went wrong with IONIC CLI at this time (v1.7.6), because I'm using it every day.

   • Check your CLI version by this command ionic --version and see if your version is lower than 1.7.6.
   • If your CLI is old, run npm install -g ionic again to install the lasted version of Ionic CLI.
   • If not, try to re-create all new project, and try to build again with, if it OK, just because of your project:
     • ionic start appName blank
     • ionic platform add android
     • ionic build android --release

2. You can't use the debug apk for Google Play because they can read your APK and check if is is debug or release version. But I think you can set the debug mode in your AndroidManifest.xml to false and try like this:

   • Add android:debuggable="false" to the <application> element.
   • More info : Using Hardware Devices.

3. Ionic also provide a package cloud service very helpful for non-plugin project inside the Ionic CLI. It can build all your project in the cloud in a minute and you can download the apk anytime.

   • cd to your ionic project folder by Ionic CLI.
   • Run ionic package build android an wait for the progress to done.
   • Run ionic package list to get the list and see the status if it has been done the building progress.
   • Run ionic package download [id] to download your apk to your project folder. id is the number you see in the list.
   • These commands will help you build the debug apk, for the release version, check this ionic.io package documents to build with profile (keystore).