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The [http://www.wikimedia.org Wikimedia Fundation] is really interested in the Android Version and grants the development of this port. | The [http://www.wikimedia.org Wikimedia Fundation] is really interested in the Android Version and grants the development of this port. | ||
We focus | We focus on tablets because this seems to be there where Kiwix can help a lot, especially in India, but the software should also run on smartphones an we will do our best in that way. | ||
== Development == | == Development == | ||
We do not want to start an other software which would generate a lot of additional code to develop and maintain. So, current Kiwix code base has to be reused and ported. Kiwix runs currently with the help of [https://developer.mozilla.org/fr/xulrunner Xulrunner], but it can also runs perfectly using Firefox. [https://developer.mozilla.org/en/getting_started_with_xulrunner#Alternative.3a_Use_Firefox3_-app_to_run_XUL_apps Firefox can since version 3 is able to launch third party software], like Kiwix. [https://wiki.mozilla.org/Fennec Fennec], Firefox for mobiles, was launched a few month ago for Android, so we hope that Kiwix could be ported to Android using Fennec or something similar (see [http://joliclic.free.fr/blog/index.php?category/mozilla this example]). | We do not want to start an other software which would generate a lot of additional code to develop and maintain. So, current Kiwix code base has to be reused and ported. Kiwix runs currently with the help of [https://developer.mozilla.org/fr/xulrunner Xulrunner], but it can also runs perfectly using Firefox. [https://developer.mozilla.org/en/getting_started_with_xulrunner#Alternative.3a_Use_Firefox3_-app_to_run_XUL_apps Firefox can since version 3 is able to launch third party software], like Kiwix. [https://wiki.mozilla.org/Fennec Fennec], Firefox for mobiles, was launched a few month ago for Android, so we hope that Kiwix could be ported to Android using Fennec or something similar (see [http://joliclic.free.fr/blog/index.php?category/mozilla this example]). | ||
One other difficulty is that Android devices have [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARM ARM] CPUs. So we need to cross-compile Kiwix for ARM on GNU/Linux. We use that it's possible to cross-compile Firefox Mobile ; we also know that part of our code can compiles for ARM because we have ported kiwix-serve... but we never did it for the whole software. | |||
Porting a Xulrunner application to Android is not documented and it seems we are one of the first projects trying to do that. Here are three different approaches: | |||
* Compile Firefox mobile and hack the code (easier way) | |||
* Compile Firefox mobile and run the code with -app code | |||
* Compile Xulrunner for Android (most complicated) | |||
== See also == | == See also == | ||
* https://wiki.mozilla.org/Mobile/Fennec/Android | * https://wiki.mozilla.org/Mobile/Fennec/Android |
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