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05. Android App Development Environment Setup for Open edX

This guide walks you through setting up Android Studio and configuring a local development environment to run the Open edX Android app. The mobile app lets users consume Sherab courses directly on their phones.

1. Install Android Studio

Android Studio is the official program used to write and run Android apps.

Step 1: Download

Visit the official Android Studio website and download the installer for your OS.

Step 2: Install

  • Windows/macOS: Run the downloaded installer.
  • Linux: 
    tar -xzf android-studio-*.tar.gz
sudo mv android-studio /opt/
cd /opt/android-studio/bin
./studio.sh
  • Follow the Setup Wizard to install required SDK components. Accept the default options.

(Note for Linux 64-bit users only: You may need extra libraries: sudo apt-get install libc6:i386 libncurses5:i386 libstdc++6:i386 lib32z1 libbz2-1.0:i386)

2. Enable Emulator Acceleration (Crucial for Speed!)

If you skip this, running the emulated Android phone on your computer will be incredibly slow.

Step 1: Check Virtualization Support

You must have Virtualization enabled on your actual computer's motherboard.

  • Reboot your computer and enter BIOS/UEFI (press DEL, F2, or Esc during boot).
  • Find the virtualization setting and enable it:
    • Intel CPUs: Look for Intel VT-x
    • AMD CPUs: Look for AMD-V or SVM
  • Save changes (usually F10) and boot back to your OS.

Step 2: OS-Specific Acceleration Setup

macOS & Windows

  • Open Android Studio. Go to the SDK Manager (Tools -> SDK Manager).
  • Install Intel HAXM (for Intel CPUs) or enable hardware acceleration for ARM images. (Android Studio will usually prompt you if HAXM isn't available).

Linux

  1. Check if KVM is supported: 
    sudo apt-get install cpu-checker
sudo kvm-ok
    Expected output: KVM acceleration can be used
  2. Install KVM dependencies: 
    sudo apt-get install qemu-kvm libvirt-daemon-system libvirt-clients bridge-utils

3. Local Development Environment Setup

Caution

Important Note: The following configurations are intended only for local development. We are intentionally relaxing security rules to allow an emulator to talk to your local backend. Never commit these changes to GitHub.

Step 1: Configure Development Settings

  1. Open the project in Android Studio.
  2. Locate the development configuration file at: default_config/dev/config.yaml
  3. Update the following keys: 
    API_HOST_URL: 'http://10.0.2.2:8000'
OAUTH_CLIENT_ID: '<your-oauth-client-id>'

Wait, why 10.0.2.2? When running the app in an Android emulator, it has its own private network. If you type localhost or 127.0.0.1, it will try to find a server inside the emulator phone itself! 10.0.2.2 is a special alias that perfectly bridges out of the emulator and connects to your computer's localhost.

Step 2: Allow HTTP (Cleartext) Traffic

Modern apps block HTTP (they demand secure HTTPS). Our local environment runs on HTTP, so we have to disable this block temporarily.

  1. Open app/src/main/AndroidManifest.xml
  2. Add the networkSecurityConfig attribute inside the <application> tag: 
    android:networkSecurityConfig="@xml/network_security_config"
  3. Create a new XML file exactly here: app/src/main/res/xml/network_security_config.xml
  4. Paste exactly this into the file: 
    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<network-security-config>
   <domain-config cleartextTrafficPermitted="true">
       <domain includeSubdomains="true">10.0.2.2</domain>
       <domain includeSubdomains="true">192.168.1.6</domain>
   </domain-config>
</network-security-config>

✅ You're All Set!

Click the green "Play" button in Android Studio to build and run the Open edX Android app locally. It should successfully talk to your Tutor backend.

Next Step: See 06-parters-organization-mapping-management.md to manage in-app mappings.