st-f / adb-helper

ADB CLI toolbox focused on productivity

🛎 adb-helper 🛎

ADB CLI toolbox focused on productivity (macOS only)

Installation

curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/st-f/adb-helper/main/installation.sh | bash

Optionally you will also need to install:

• scrcpy to mirror devices / emulators
• imagemagick to resize screenshots

Both are available in Homebrew

About

Android development is about working in between repetitive tasks:

• Compile and install an app
• Install / reinstall an APK to investigate something
• Take screenshots and videos

And some other tasks somewhat less repetitively (but still):

• Connect to a device with SCRCPY
• Input text on the device (and often the same texts)
• List connected devices
• Restart ADB
• Turn on / off some accessibility settings

This is exactly what adb-helper does. All options are available within a couple of keystrokes.

Usage

This allows to easily try a GitHub repo, and install it on a device in just a few steps, without the need for an IDE.

For example androidnow:

Once cloned, cd in the directory then call adb-helper:

Once Gradle has finished listing the tasks, you can chose the variant by entering its index. You can also:

• Refresh the variants. These are retrieved and stored in a config file the first time.
• Edit the emojis. A key/value pairs list of emojis and strings, that can be used to customize build variants, for example if you have many variants for different countries, devices types etc.

Gradle will then install:

Then packages names will be retrieved from manifest files, and will provide a list of apps to launch. This is a mandatory step due to the fact that Android projects can use a wide range of variants and packages names, and these don't necessarily correlate to each other (especially with a large number of modules / variants).

This is a one time operation. Configuration files are stored in the .idea folder of the project.

The app is launched.

If you keep working on that project, all you need to do at that point is pressing enter. You now also have the option to start / stop the app, clear the cache and uninstall.

The second main option in APK installation, which shows a list of all APKs in the Downloads folder:

The third is pre-CI checks. A configuration file is used to store common commands, such as gradle detekt, tests etc. You can edit it by pressing "e".

You can also take screenshots, and use a custom width:

And record videos:

There are also some utils. Text Input has a mechanism to easily enter again previously entered strings.

And accessibility utils: