How to install an APK to the App Inventor emulator

[Scott Ferguson]

These directions apply to a Windows install of App Inventor.
If you do not have an Android device, you can still develop and test your app with the built-in emulator.
Working with the emulator during development from the Blocks Editor allows you to test the operation of one screen at a time.
However, if you are passing values between screens using open another screen or other screen closed, it is necessary to either have an android device for testing or you can install the apk to the emulator.

Although the emulator can install apks, storage is limited. If you are unable to install an apk due to an out of memory error, you can uninstall any previously installed apps, then try again.
See the section titled Uninstall an APK if you need to do so.

Using this guide to get me started, I was able to figure out how to install an apk to the emulator.
The folder locations mentioned in the article are not present in the AppInventor install folder.
But not to worry. All you need is the adb.exe program to do the install and a copy of the apk file.
In order to modify the contents of the AppInventor folder, you will need administrative privileges.

Install APK:

I started the emulator.

I found the command to run the emulator in "C:\Program Files\AppInventor\commands-for-Appinventor\run-emulator.bat" using the Windows Explorer.
I created a shortcut on my desktop to make this easier to do by right-clicking the run-emulator.bat file in the AppInventor folder, dragging it out to the desktop and choosing create shortcut from the popup menu.

(You can download the installapk.zip file and extract the installapk folder to the desktop.

Inside the installlapk folder is a shortcut to run-emulator.bat to start the emulator and an installapk.cmd script which when run will prompt for the apk file name and install the apk.)

Using Windows Explorer, I navigated to the "C:\Program Files\AppInventor\commands-for-Appinventor" folder where the adb.exe program is located.
I placed my apk file in that folder.

Detailed steps for running the adb.exe install command:

This section is intended for the developers familiar with the Windows command line.

If you want to skip the details of how I did the install skip to the section Easy Install where you can use my script to aid you...

I then went to the Start menu and typed cmd in the search box

In the command window I navigated to the adb.exe folder using cd and dir commands.

Once there I entered the following command:

adb install animator.apk

A message was returned that the apk was installed.

If the emulator cannot install the apk due to limited memory you can unistall other apks to free up some memory and try again.

To see how to uninstall an apk from the emulator go to Uninstall an APK.

Easy Install:

Download the attached installapk.cmd file to your desktop.

Double-click it and enter the name of your apk file if it is stored in the same folder as adb.exe or the path to it if it is stored elsewhere.

If successful, then you can follow these steps to run your app.

If it failed due to insufficient memory then see the section titled Uninstall an APK

Here are some screen captures of these steps...

The adb.exe program will need the path to the apk. I copied it to the same folder/directory to simplify things:

When the emulator loads to this screen you can begin...

If you are using my installapk.cmd script, double-click it:

Type in the path or file name of the apk:

Click the icons button on the emulator:

Your app will show in the programs list:

I have clocked my app's icon and rotated the emulator using Ctrl+F11.

You can also maximize/restore the emulator to full screen using the Alt+Enter toggle feature.

END Install APK.

Uninstall an APK:

You may need to uninstall apks to free up memory on the emulator before it will allow you to install a new apk.

Starting at the initial screen...

Click the menu button then the Settings icon...

Click Applications ..

Click Manage applications

Click the app to delete...

Choose uninstall.

END Uninstall an APK

[Scott Ferguson]

*** FOLLOW UP ***
I have just completed a simple Windows batch file utility to:

• start the emulator (do this first for the other options to work)
  
• send a file to the emulator
• get a file from the emulator
• install an apk to the emulator internal memory or sdcard

This just touches on the surface of what can be done with the adb.exe program which is included in the App Inventor install.
I was also able to experimentally increase sdcard and internal memory storage and select different emulator skins by adding or modifying parameters to the emulator executable but chose to use the stock emulator for this example..
You can download the attached zip file and extract adb_menu.bat to the desktop.

Start the emulator:

Send a file to the emulator:

Get a file from the emulator (/mnt/sdcard/Appinventor/assets/fruits.jpg)

...copied to the the commands-for-Appinventor folder by default (Administrative privileges needed):

Install an app to internal storaage:

END