Configuration

#Overview

NativePHP for Mobile is designed so that most configuration happens inside your Laravel application, without requiring you to manually open Xcode or Android Studio.

This page explains the key configuration points you can control through Laravel.

#The nativephp.php Config File

The config/nativephp.php config file contains a number of useful options.

NativePHP uses sensible defaults and makes several assumptions based on default installations for tools required to build and run apps from your computer.

You can override these defaults by editing the nativephp.php config file in your Laravel project, and in many case simply by changing environment variables.

NATIVEPHP_APP_VERSION
NATIVEPHP_APP_VERSION_CODE
NATIVEPHP_APP_ID
NATIVEPHP_DEEPLINK_SCHEME
NATIVEPHP_DEEPLINK_HOST
NATIVEPHP_APP_AUTHOR
NATIVEPHP_GRADLE_PATH
NATIVEPHP_ANDROID_SDK_LOCATION

#NATIVEPHP_APP_ID

You must set your app ID to something unique. A common practice is to use a reverse-DNS-style name, e.g. com.yourcompany.yourapp.

Your app ID (also known as a Bundle Identifier) is a critical piece of identification across both Android and iOS platforms. Different app IDs are treated as separate apps.

And it is often referenced across multiple services, such as Apple Developer Center and the Google Play Console.

So it's not something you want to be changing very often.

#NATIVEPHP_APP_VERSION

The NATIVEPHP_APP_VERSION environment variable controls your app's versioning behavior.

When your app is compiling, NativePHP first copies the relevant Laravel files into a temporary directory, zips them up, and embeds the archive into the native application.

When your app boots, it checks the embedded version against the previously installed version to see if it needs to extract the bundled Laravel application.

If the versions match, the app uses the existing files without re-extracting the archive.

To force your application to always install the latest version of your code - especially useful during development - set this to DEBUG:

NATIVEPHP_APP_VERSION=DEBUG

Note that this will make your application's boot up slightly slower as it must unpack the zip every time it loads.

But this ensures that you can iterate quickly during development, while providing a faster, more stable experience for end users once an app is published.

#Cleanup env keys

The cleanup_env_keys array in the config file allows you to specify keys that should be removed from the .env file before bundling. This is useful for removing sensitive information like API keys or other secrets.

#Cleanup exclude_files

The cleanup_exclude_files array in the config file allows you to specify files and folders that should be removed before bundling. This is useful for removing files like logs or other temporary files.

#Permissions

In general, the app stores don't want your app to have permissions (a.k.a entitlements) it doesn't need.

By default, all optional permissions are disabled.

You may enable the features you intend to use simply by changing the value of the appropriate permission to true:

 
'permissions' => [
 
    'biometric' => true,
 
],

#Available permissions

• biometric - Allows your application to use fingerprint or face-recognition hardware (with a fallback to PIN code) to secure parts of your application.
• camera - Allows your application to request access to the device's camera, if present. Note that the user may deny access and any camera functions will then result in a no-op.
• nfc - Allows your application to request access to the device's NFC reader, if present.
• push_notifications - Allows your application to request permissions to send push notifications. Note that the user may deny this and any push notification functions will then result in a no-op.
• location - Allows your application to request access to the device's GPS receiver, if present. Note that the user may deny this and any location functions will then result in a no-op.