Building an Android app with Qmake on Windows

[aalex]

Hi,
Did anyone succeed in building an Android app with Qmake on Windows? I have been trying for a while, by now. It works well with Qt Creator 5.7, and I've copy-pasted the command lines it calls. Here they are: (DOS-like Windows shell)

set ANDROID_NDK_ROOT=C:\Users\aalex\src\SOFTEXT\Android\android-ndk\r12b
set JAVA_HOME="C:\Users\aalex\src\SOFTEXT\Android\jdk1.7.0_55"
set ANDROID_NDK_HOST="windows"
C:\Users\aalex\src\SOFTEXT\Qt\5.7\android_armv7\bin\qmake.exe -spec android-g++ "CONFIG+=qtquickcompiler" -o Makefile My_Project.pro
C:\Users\aalex\src\SOFTEXT\Android\mingw530_32\bin\mingw32-make.exe
"C:\Users\aalex\src\SOFTEXT\Android\Qt\5.7\android_armv7\bin\androiddeployqt.exe" --input C:\Users\aalex\src\softdev\Home\build-My_Project-Android_for_armeabi_v7a_GCC_4_9_Qt_5_7_0-Release\My_Project\android-libMy_Project.so-deployment-settings.json --output C:\Users\aalex\src\softdev\Home\build-My_Project-Android_for_armeabi_v7a_GCC_4_9_Qt_5_7_0-Release\android-build --deployment bundled --android-platform android-23 --jdk "C:\Users\aalex\src\SOFTEXT\Android\jdk1.7.0_55" --ant C:\Users\aalex\src\SOFTEXT\Android\apache-ant-1.9.7\bin\ant.bat

Now, at the first step, when calling qmake.exe, it complains:

Le chemin d`accès spécifié est introuvable.
Project ERROR: You need to set the ANDROID_NDK_ROOT environment variable to point to your Android NDK.
Could not read qmake configuration file C:/Users/aalex/src/SOFTEXT/Qt/5.7/android_armv7/mkspecs/android-g++/qmake.conf.
Error processing project file: My_Project.pro

By searching online, I found a bug ticket saying that this message about ANDROID_NDK_ROOT not being set could be due to another variable left unset: ANDROID_NDK_HOST, though both are set here.

How can I get rid of this error message and move forward with building the app? This error message could be more informative, for sure. Any help is much appreciated.
Thank you.

[aalex]

@aalex said:

Le chemin d`accès spécifié est introuvable.

Note: this means that the file is not found.

[mvuori]

I have no knowledge about this problem, but I notice the quotation marks in
set ANDROID_NDK_HOST="windows"
which have a "smell" of a problem. If the system doesn't expect and handle them, it could see the variable as unparsed and thus "unset"...

[aalex]

The quotation marks are fine.

[aalex]

I had to edit the variables in the Registry: no workaround worked so far.

Here are some configuration variables:

:: Variables. (please edit - match the paths to the SVN repositories)
SET SOFTEXT_PATH=C:\Users\aquessy\src\SOFTEXT
SET SOFTDEV_PATH=C:\Users\aquessy\src\softdev

Then, I set the environment in the Registry:

:: Set environment variables into the registry.
SETX ANDROID_NDK_ROOT %SOFTEXT_PATH%\Android\android-ndk-r12b

SETX JAVA_HOME %SOFTEXT_PATH%\Android\jdk1.7.0_55

SETX ANDROID_NDK_HOST "windows-x86_64"

:: Create a hard link, since the toolchain folder has been badly named, it seems
IF EXIST %SOFTEXT_PATH%\Android\android-ndk-r12b\toolchains\arm-linux-androideabi-4.9\prebuilt\windows (
    ECHO "No need to create a hard link"
) ELSE (
    ECHO "Creating a hard link"
    MKLINK /J %SOFTEXT_PATH%\Android\android-ndk-r12b\toolchains\arm-linux-androideabi-4.9\prebuilt\windows %SOFTEXT_PATH%\Android\android-ndk-r12b\toolchains\arm-linux-androideabi-4.9\prebuilt\windows-x86_64
)

ECHO "The environment variables are now set in the registry. Please start a new command prompt so that they take effect."

Next, launch a new command prompt, (a Windows terminal) and build the Android app:

:: Call qmake, make and androiddeployqt
PUSHD %SOFTDEV_PATH%\Home\HEMC_Control_App

%SOFTEXT_PATH%\Qt\5.7\android_armv7\bin\qmake.exe -spec android-g++ "CONFIG+=qtquickcompiler" -o Makefile HEMC_Control_App.pro

%SOFTEXT_PATH%\Android\mingw530_32\bin\mingw32-make.exe

%SOFTEXT_PATH%\Qt\5.7\android_armv7\bin\androiddeployqt.exe --input %SOFTDEV_PATH%\Home\build-HEMC_Control_App-Android_for_armeabi_v7a_GCC_4_9_Qt_5_7_0-Release\HEMC_Control_App\android-libHEMC_Control_App.so-deployment-settings.json --output %SOFTDEV_PATH%\Home\build-HEMC_Control_App-Android_for_armeabi_v7a_GCC_4_9_Qt_5_7_0-Release\android-build --deployment bundled --android-platform android-23 --jdk %SOFTEXT_PATH%\Android\jdk1.7.0_55 --ant %SOFTEXT_PATH%\Android\apache-ant-1.9.7\bin\ant.bat

POPD

Finally, we can cleanup the environment variables we set in the Registry:

:: Delete environment variables from the registry.
REG delete HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Environment /v ANDROID_NDK_ROOT

REG delete HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Environment /v JAVA_HOME

REG delete HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Environment /v ANDROID_NDK_HOST

It works!

Now, is there a more standard way - or simpler way - to do this?
Best,

[aalex]

Hi,
I've tried on another computer, and now, when make runs this command:

C:\Users\aalex\src\softdev\Home\My_Project>C:\Users\aalex\src\SOFTEXT\Qt\5.7\android_armv7\bin\androiddeployqt.exe --input C:\Users\aalex\src\softdev\Home\build-My_Project-Android_for_armeabi_v7a_GCC_4_9_Qt_5_7_0-Release\My_Project\android-libMy_Project.so-deployment-settings.json --output C:\Users\aalex\src\softdev\Home\build-My_Project-Android_for_armeabi_v7a_GCC_4_9_Qt_5_7_0-Release\android-build --deployment bundled --android-platform android-23 --jdk C:\Users\aalex\src\SOFTEXT\Android\jdk1.7.0_55 --ant C:\Users\aalex\src\SOFTEXT\Android\apache-ant-1.9.7\bin\ant.bat 

I get this error:

Cannot read from input file: C:\Users\aalex\src\softdev\Home\build-My_Project-Android_for_armeabi_v7a_GCC_4_9_Qt_5_7_0-Release\My_Project\android-libMy_Project.so-deployment-settings.json

Does someone knows why this file has maybe not been generated?

[aalex]

The Qt and Android utilities are not installed on a system-wide standard path on that computer. So, I thought I might want to add these directories to the PATH environment variable.

See https://forum.qt.io/topic/38255/solved-cannot-read-from-input-file-android-lib-so-deployment-settings-json/2

So, I set my PATH: (but it still doesn't work)

:: Check if our bin path is already in PATH
:: Add it if not. (permanently change it in the registry)
:: See HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Environment/PATH
SET PATH_ANDROID_BIN="%SOFTEXT_PATH%\Android\android-sdk\build-tools"
SET PATH_MINGW_BIN="%SOFTEXT_PATH%\Android\mingw530_32\bin"
SET PATH_QT_BIN="%SOFTEXT_PATH%\Qt\5.7\android_armv7\bin"
SET PATHTOADD="%PATH_MINGW_BIN%;%PATH_QT_BIN%;%PATH_ANDROID_BIN%"
ECHO "%PATH" | FIND /C:"%PATHTOADD%" >nul & IF ERRORLEVEL 1 (
    ECHO "The path to the Android utils is a already in PATH"
    ECHO "PATH: %PATH%"
) else (
    ECHO "Adding the path to the Android utils to PATH"
    ECHO "Beware that the PATH cannot have more than 1024 characters."
    :: Note that the separator is ";"
    SETX PATH "%PATH%;%PATHTOADD%"
    ECHO "New PATH: %PATH%"
)