worklight hybrid application multiple envirnoments

Question

We are working on a mobile first hybrid application , we have multiple environments DEV, QA , STAGING and PROD. While this application is being tested on Android/iPhone devices, our testers some times needs to install apks/ipa files for multiple environments (DEV/QA for example) at the same time . Now What we are doing is we uninstall the DEV version before installing the QA version.

What is the best option to install both DEV/QA applications on the same device at a time.

One option is to rename the application for different environments as say app-DEV , app-QA as a part of the build process. Is this the best option . If yes what are the files we need to make this name change. Any better option

Answer 1

To have multiple versions of one app installed on one device they all need to have different package name. Check this question to learn how to change it

Answer 2

We use the ant builds to rename the package depending on environment: ex. using ant and xmltask. env is environment(dev, test,qa) we are updating the manifest package, and the application title.. ucFirst is a javascript task that uCases the first letter of the String

Android

<target name="updateAndroidPackage" depends="checkProd" unless="isProd">
  <echo>In Update Android Package:${env}:</echo>
  <xmltask source="${appPath}/${appName}/android/native/AndroidManifest.xml" dest="${appPath}/${appName}/android/native/AndroidManifest.xml">
    <copy path="/manifest/@package" property="origPackageName"/>
  </xmltask>
  <echo>Existing Package:${origPackageName}</echo>
  <xmltask source="${appPath}/${appName}/android/native/AndroidManifest.xml" dest="${appPath}/${appName}/android/native/AndroidManifest.xml">
    <replace path="/manifest/@package" withText="${origPackageName}${env}"/>
  </xmltask>

  <ucfirst string="${env}" to="envFirst" />
  <xmltask source="${appPath}/${appName}/android/native/res/values/strings.xml" dest="${appPath}/${appName}/android/native/res/values/strings.xml">
    <replace path="/resources/string[@name='app_name']/text()" withText="${appName} ${envFirst}"/>
  </xmltask>
</target>

IOS:

<target name="renamePackage" depends="checkProd" unless="isProd">
        <ucfirst string="${env}" to="envFirst" />
        <exec executable="/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy">
            <arg value="-c" />
            <arg value="Set :CFBundleIdentifier com.client.${env}.${appName}" />
            <arg value="${appPath}/${appName}/${iosPath}/${appName}${appName}Iphone-Info.plist" />
        </exec>
        <exec executable="/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy">
            <arg value="-c" />
            <arg value="Set :CFBundleDisplayName ${appName} ${envFirst}" />
            <arg value="${appPath}/${appName}/${iosPath}/${appName}${appName}Iphone-Info.plist" />
        </exec>

    </target>