Chromebook Installation Notes

[Kurt Hohmann]

Being an Android app, I wanted to try running it on a Chromebook. There are additional steps that need to be taken if anyone else wants to try this.

As this is not a PlayStore app (yet), it needs to be sideloaded. Liz provided instructions for doing that on a phone/tablet, but a Chromebook requires some additional steps up front if you haven't previously done something like this. IMO, the easiest/safest method is by first setting up a Linux sandbox and an Android Debugging Bridge (ADB) - there are easy-to-follow instructions on that to be found at https://www.alphr.com/sideload-apps-chromebook/.

I do have the app up and working now, and am just starting to poke around. A couple of initial notes:

-I was unable to open an existing local file, because I could not access any of the accessible directories on the Chromebook. Local storage selection in the app extends to the /data/user/... directory, but would need to be able to access /home/chronos/user/... instead.   

The Dropbox version worked for me. Apparently I have a dropbox account from years ago that I had forgotten about.

-Resizing the window appears to close the open yWriter file. This wouldn't happen on a phone, but may be an issue on anything with a screen size large enough to allow resizing.

Kurt

[yWriter App Support]

Hi Kurt,

Thanks for your feedback, I appreciate you taking the time to report these issues.

I'll add these to my list.

Liz

yWriter App Support

[yWriter App Support]

Hi Kurt,

I've set up a chromebook virtual device to look into the resizing issue.

Regarding the other issue - to open an existing file on your device, please open it outside the app and select 'Open with yWriter'. This will create a copy inside the local app folder that the app can access.

To share it outside the app again, you can Save As... to Dropbox (more cloud options will be added eventually) or when a project is open, click the 3 dots in the top right and select Share... then choose the target location which should include the option to save to files on the chromebook.

If you're curious, the reason this app cannot directly access files outside of the local app folder is due to some security restrictions on Android apps. (There's some developer-facing information about this here https://developer.android.com/about/versions/11/privacy/storage#other-apps-data). You can open a file outside the app with the 'Open with yWriter' functionality, but due to this limitation I can't allow the app to auto-save back to that file's location automatically.

Hope that makes sense. Let me know if that works for you.

I hope to add some documentation, in-app tutorials, and UI changes (such as to the file selection menu) to make it more clear how to open yWriter files and what the app can and cannot do.

Thanks,

Liz

yWriter App Support