24. The Turbulenz Android Development Client

Note

PLEASE NOTE: This is a developer preview of software that is still being actively developed. Please report any bugs to the turbulenz-engine-users Google Group.

24.1. Introduction

The Turbulenz Android Development Client is a native implementation of some low-level components of the Turbulenz HTML5 Engine, which allows Turbulenz games to run on Android devices, even when the installed browsers do not fully support HTML5 and related standards.

This technology can be applied to deploy specific games to the various app stores, and integrate those games with the underlying platform services, such as payment, user notifications, etc. However, the primary role of the Development Client is to allow developers to quickly test and iterate their Turbulenz games on Android devices during development.

The client can load and run .tzjs and .tzo files via URLs, or paths to files on the local device. See the Getting Started Guide for details of how to build your application code and data.

Note

The Turbulenz Development Client currently does not create an icon in the Android Launcher. It is intended to be run in response to opening URLs, either via the browser or through the Android SDK Tools.

Diagnostic and log output is available via the system log, and we recommend that developers install the Android SDK so that they can examine the log and run other development tools.

The development client requires the following permissions:

• INTERNET - Connect to internet
• WAKE_LOCK - Prevent the device from sleeping while the game is active
• WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE - Cache data to reduce bandwidth and latency
• BILLING - Enable in-app purchases
• READ_PHONE_STATE - Used to create unique codes for fast login (securely anonymized)

24.2. Requirements

You will need:

• The Turbulenz SDK installed on your host machine.
• The Turbulenz Android Development Client installed on your android device

The following is also recommended:

• The Android SDK, including a working version of the adb tool.

This allows you to launch the client via script or command line from a PC connected to your android device. It also allows you to view the log output from the android client.

24.3. Getting Started

URLs to .tzjs files and .tzo files can be opened from the browser and run in the Turbulenz Engine client.

• Install the Turbulenz Android Development Client via Google Play
• Start the local development server on your host machine and ensure it is accessible from your Android device.
• Browse to your local development server, and click on the .tzjs file entry in the ‘Play’ section for the relevant project.

Note

Depending on the version of the development server you are running, the .tzjs link may be of the form

http://192.168.1.2:8070/#/play/samples/animation.tzjs

which the browser will NOT run in the Turbulenz client. If the client fails to launch, your local development server may be out of date. Try removing the ‘#/’ characters from the URL

http://192.168.1.2:8070/play/samples/animation.tzjs

The local development server can be upgraded by running this command in the python env

easy_install -Z -U turbulenz_local

Applications that have been deployed to the Turbulenz HUB can also be launched by clicking on the ‘Play on Android’ button from the Android browser. The client will ask for login details the first time you launch a game from the HUB.

24.4. Developer Workflow

24.4.1. Options Menu

Swipe down from the very top of the screen to open a development dialog. From here, developers can perform operations such as logout, clearing the internal cache, etc.

24.4.2. Using the Android SDK

Ensure that the Android SDK is installed correctly, and adb is available from the command line.

To view the system log (including the output from window.console.log)

adb logcat

Clear the system log

adb logcat -c

Launch a URL on the device

adb shell am start http://192.168.1.2:8070/play/samples/animation.tzjs

See the documentation for the adb command for more information and uses of the adb command.