External Native Build Issue with Phimp.me project

Question

I am trying to import an Android project. When building the project following errors are shown:

Error: Caused by: org.gradle.api.GradleException: executing external native build for ndkBuild
/mnt/FE78E94378E8FAF3/AndroidProject/phimpme-android/app/src/main/jni/Android.mk
at com.android.build.gradle.internal.ExtraModelInfo.handleIssue(ExtraModelInfo.java:114)
at com.android.builder.core.ErrorReporter.handleSyncError(ErrorReporter.java:80)

I have installed NDK, OpenCV, PhotoView as mentioned. I have tried all the StackOverflow posts related to external native build. I am not able to get rid of this error.

Build.gradle(app)

apply plugin: 'com.android.application'
apply plugin: 'jacoco-android'
apply plugin: 'realm-android'

def keystorePropertiesFile = rootProject.file("sample_keystore.properties")

def keystoreProperties = new Properties()

keystoreProperties.load(new FileInputStream(keystorePropertiesFile))

android {
    compileSdkVersion 25
    buildToolsVersion "25.0.3"

    defaultConfig {
        applicationId "org.fossasia.phimpme"
        minSdkVersion 17
        targetSdkVersion 25
        multiDexEnabled true
        testInstrumentationRunner 'android.support.test.runner.AndroidJUnitRunner'
        vectorDrawables.useSupportLibrary = true
        resConfigs "en"
        ndk {
            abiFilters 'armeabi-v7a', 'x86'
        }
        renderscriptTargetApi 19
        renderscriptSupportModeEnabled true
    }

    sourceSets {
        main {
            jni.srcDirs = ['src/main/jni']
            jniLibs.srcDirs = ['src/main/jni/libs']
        }
    }
    buildTypes {
        release {
            minifyEnabled true
            proguardFiles getDefaultProguardFile('proguard-android.txt'), 'proguard-rules.pro'


        }
        debug {
            testCoverageEnabled false

        }
    }

    packagingOptions {
        exclude 'META-INF/maven/org.apache.maven/maven-artifact/pom.xml'
        exclude 'licenses/javolution.license.TXT'
        exclude 'META-INF/maven/org.apache.maven.wagon/wagon-http-shared/pom.properties'
        exclude 'META-INF/maven/*'
        exclude 'org/codehaus/classworlds/uberjar/boot/Bootstrapper.class'
    }

    configurations {
        compile.exclude group: 'org.jetbrains', module: 'annotations'
        all*.exclude group: 'com.android.volley'
    }

    lintOptions {
        abortOnError false
        disable "Instantiatable"
    }

    tasks.withType(JavaCompile) {
        configure(options) {
            // TODO
            compilerArgs << "-Xlint:unchecked"
            compilerArgs << "-Xlint:-rawtypes"
        }
    }

    dexOptions {
        jumboMode = true
    }
    externalNativeBuild {
        ndkBuild {
            path 'src/main/jni/Android.mk'
        }
    }
}

repositories {
    maven {
        url "https://dl.bintray.com/dasar/maven"
    }
    mavenCentral()
    maven {
        url 'https://github.com/uPhyca/stetho-realm/raw/master/maven-repo'
    }
    maven { url "https://jitpack.io" }

    maven { url 'https://maven.fabric.io/public' }

    maven { url "https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/com.box/box-android-sdk" }
}


dependencies {
    compile fileTree(include: ['*.jar'], dir: 'libs')
    androidTestCompile('com.android.support.test.espresso:espresso-core:2.2.2', {
        exclude group: 'com.android.support', module: 'support-annotations'
    })

    //google and support
    compile "com.android.support:appcompat-v7:$rootProject.supportLibraryVersion"
    compile "com.android.support:design:$rootProject.supportLibraryVersion"
    compile "com.android.support:support-vector-drawable:$rootProject.supportLibraryVersion"
    compile "com.android.support:palette-v7:$rootProject.supportLibraryVersion"
    compile "com.android.support:cardview-v7:$rootProject.supportLibraryVersion"
    compile "com.android.support:customtabs:$rootProject.supportLibraryVersion"
    compile 'com.android.support.constraint:constraint-layout:1.0.2'

    //exoplayer
    compile 'com.google.android.exoplayer:exoplayer:r1.5.7'

    //utils
    compile 'com.github.deano2390:MaterialShowcaseView:1.1.0'
    compile "com.jakewharton:butterknife:$rootProject.butterknifeVersion"
    annotationProcessor "com.jakewharton:butterknife-compiler:$rootProject.butterknifeVersion"
    compile 'com.github.bumptech.glide:glide:3.7.0'
    compile 'com.yalantis:ucrop:1.5.0'
    compile 'de.psdev.licensesdialog:licensesdialog:1.8.0'
    /*compile('com.crashlytics.sdk.android:crashlytics:2.9.3@aar') {
        transitive = true;
    }*/
    compile 'com.daksh:loglr:1.2.1'
    compile 'com.koushikdutta.ion:ion:2.1.7'
    compile 'org.jetbrains:annotations-java5:15.0'
    compile 'com.android.support:multidex:1.0.1'
    compile group: 'com.box', name: 'box-android-sdk', version: '4.0.8'

    //icons
    compile 'com.mikepenz:iconics-core:2.8.4@aar'
    compile 'com.mikepenz:google-material-typeface:2.2.0.3.original@aar'
    compile 'com.mikepenz:community-material-typeface:1.5.54.2@aar'
    compile 'com.mikepenz:fontawesome-typeface:4.6.0.1@aar'
    compile 'com.mikepenz:ionicons-typeface:+@aar'

    //ui
    compile 'de.hdodenhof:circleimageview:2.0.0'
    compile 'uz.shift:colorpicker:0.5@aar'
    compile 'com.turingtechnologies.materialscrollbar:lib:10.0.3'
    compile 'pl.droidsonroids.gif:android-gif-drawable:1.2.7'
    compile 'com.github.shchurov:horizontalwheelview:0.9.5'
    compile 'com.nostra13.universalimageloader:universal-image-loader:1.9.4'

    //twitter
    compile "com.twitter.sdk.android:twitter:$rootProject.twitterVersion"
    compile files('libs/twitter4j-core-3.0.5.jar')
    compile files('libs/twitter4j-media-support-3.0.5.jar')

    //cloud rail
    compile 'com.cloudrail:cloudrail-si-android:2.20.1'

    //next cloud
    compile "com.github.nextcloud:android-library:$rootProject.nextCloudVersion"

    //leak canary
    debugCompile 'com.squareup.leakcanary:leakcanary-android-no-op:1.5.1'
    releaseCompile 'com.squareup.leakcanary:leakcanary-android-no-op:1.5.1'

    //flickr
    compile files('libs/flickrj-android-2.1.0.jar')

    //tumblr
    compile('com.tumblr:jumblr:0.0.11') {
        exclude module: 'scribe'
    }

    //realm
    compile 'com.uphyca:stetho_realm:2.0.0'

    //metadataextractor
    compile 'com.drewnoakes:metadata-extractor:2.9.1'

    //tests
    testCompile "junit:junit:$rootProject.junitVersion"
    androidTestCompile 'com.google.code.findbugs:jsr305:3.0.0'

    //opencv
    compile project(':openCVLibrary24133')

    //pdk
    compile project(':pdk')

    //photoview
    compile project(':photoview')

    //compressor
    compile 'id.zelory:compressor:2.1.0'

}

buildscript {
    repositories {
        jcenter()
    }
    dependencies {
        classpath 'com.dicedmelon.gradle:jacoco-android:0.1.1'
    }
}

apply plugin: 'com.android.application'
apply plugin: 'jacoco-android'

Gudrun

ndk-build is legacy build system for Android. why not use cmake? – Pointenoire

github.com/fossasia/phimpme-android – Gudrun

Answer 1

The key problem here is that you either don't have OpenCV SDK installed on your host machine or wrongly refer to the SDK in the project. The steps are as follows:

• once you got the project imported in Android Studio navigate to the app's build.gradle file to check the version of OpenCV used in the project which is 2.4.13.3;
• now go to the OpenCV's download page and download the 2.4.13.3 archive. Unpack it once downloaded;

• navigate to project/app/src/main/jni/Android.mk and specify the path to the OpenCV sdk installed in the following way:

  LOCAL_PATH := $(call my-dir)
  OPENCV_SDK_PATH := anubhav_gupta_s_path_to/OpenCV-android-sdk/sdk/native/jni
  ....
  include $(OPENCV_SDK_PATH)/OpenCV.mk
  

• build the project and follow the Android Studio's prompts.

Markettamarkey

The GitHub project description states exactly that. – Electricity

Note taht the project uses an old Gradle plugin 2.3.3, which does not work well with current NDK (this is a known problem with Android Studio, that it does not check such version dependencies). I tried to sync this project on AS 3.2 with NDK r15c, and it compiled. Most likely, r16 will work, too. – Electricity

@Alex Cohn, ha, it's funny, never scrolled the GitHub page down, only copied the repository link :) Many thanks for your valuable notes. – Markettamarkey

Answer 2

I have followed these steps mentioned in the README.md file - and was able to build the project successfully -

Download this OpenCV-android-sdk zip file and extract it.

 - Copy all the files from *"OpenCV-android-sdk/sdk/native/3rdparty"* to *"phimpme-android/app/src/main/3rdparty"* (create directory if it doesn't exist)
 - Copy all the files from *"OpenCV-android-sdk/sdk/native/libs"* to *"phimpme-android/app/src/main/jniLibs"* (create directory if it doesn't exist)
 - Copy all the files from *"OpenCV-android-sdk/sdk/native/jni/include"* to *"phimpme-android/app/src/main/jni/include"* (create directory if it doesn't exist)
 - Copy all the files from *"OpenCV-android-sdk/sdk/native/staticlibs"* to *"phimpme-android/app/src/main/staticlibs"* (create directory if it doesn't exist)
 - Now build your project. If your build fails then try deleting these build directories *"phimpme-android/app/.externalNativeBuild"* and *"phimpme-android/app/build"*, if they exist and run the build again.

Dithyramb