Dianoia - Ionic Mobile app

January 14, 2026 · View on GitHub

A demo of the app (in Greek) can be found at scify.github.io/Dianoia-app.

Non-pharmaceutical activities for people with dementia

Pre-setup steps

This is a legacy Ionic 3 / Cordova 8 project that requires specific older versions of tools. Follow these steps carefully.

1. Node.js

It is very easy to install multiple versions of NodeJS and npm, by using Node Version Manager (nvm).

This project was built using the following versions of nodejs and npm:

node -v
v14.21.1

npm -v
6.14.17

If you are using nvm, run this command in order to sync to the correct NodeJS version for the project:

nvm install
nvm use

2. Java 8

This project requires Java 8 (1.8) - newer versions are not compatible with Gradle 4.x.

Install OpenJDK 8:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install openjdk-8-jdk

If you have multiple Java versions installed, select Java 8 as the default:

sudo update-alternatives --config java
sudo update-alternatives --config javac

3. Gradle 4.10.3

Install Gradle 4.10.3 manually:

cd /opt
sudo wget https://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-4.10.3-bin.zip
sudo unzip gradle-4.10.3-bin.zip
sudo rm gradle-4.10.3-bin.zip

4. Android SDK

Install Android Studio from developer.android.com which includes the Android SDK.

The SDK is typically installed at ~/Android/Sdk.

5. Environment Variables

Add the following to your ~/.bashrc (or ~/.zshrc):

# Java
export JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-8-openjdk-amd64

# Gradle
export GRADLE_HOME=/opt/gradle-4.10.3

# Android SDK
export ANDROID_SDK_ROOT=$HOME/Android/Sdk
export ANDROID_HOME=$HOME/Android/Sdk

# PATH
export PATH=$PATH:$JAVA_HOME/bin
export PATH=$PATH:$GRADLE_HOME/bin
export PATH=$PATH:$ANDROID_SDK_ROOT/emulator
export PATH=$PATH:$ANDROID_SDK_ROOT/platform-tools
export PATH=$PATH:$ANDROID_SDK_ROOT/cmdline-tools/latest/bin

Reload your shell configuration:

source ~/.bashrc

Verify your setup:

java -version    # Should show 1.8.x
gradle -v        # Should show 4.10.3
echo $ANDROID_SDK_ROOT  # Should show your SDK path

Install project dependencies

npm install -g @ionic/cli@6.11.11 

npm install -g cordova@8.1.2

cd dianoia-app

npm install

ionic serve

Execution

Then, to run it in a real Android device, cd into dianoia-app and run:

ionic cordova platform add android@8.1.0

ionic cordova emulate android

Generating icon and splash screen for all platforms

Update the following files:

resources/icon.png

and

resources/splash.png

And then run

ionic cordova resources

To generate the icon and splash screen files for all platforms and dimensions. For more info read this page.

Building

How to change app version before building for release

The app has several places where the app version is defined. Change the following:

In the config.xml file, change the android-versionCode parameter, as well as the version (widget tag).
Change the version in package.json file.
Change the APP_VERSION constant, defined in src/consts.ts file.

Building for Android

Prerequisites

Make sure you have completed the Pre-setup steps section, including:

Java 8 (1.8)
Gradle 4.10.3
Android SDK with environment variables configured

Verify your setup:

java -version    # Should show 1.8.x
gradle -v        # Should show 4.10.3

Since the project uses Firebase Analytics, In order to build for Android you have to put the google-services.json file from Firebase Console to the root directory. The build process will then copy this file to the platforms/android/app directory.

Creating the platform files

In order to build the android platform, you will need the correct version of the cordova-android plugin:

ionic cordova platform rm android

ionic cordova platform add android@8.1.0

Building the Android project

Build the Android project by running:

ionic cordova build android

Note: The project includes Cordova hooks that automatically fix the JCenter/Bintray deprecation issue (JCenter was shut down in 2021). The hooks/after_platform_add.js hook runs automatically when adding the Android platform and replaces jcenter() with mavenCentral() in all Gradle files.

The build command will generate a full Android project, located in platforms/android. This project can then be opened in Android Studio, in order to build and produce the .aap (bundle) or the .apk files.

If you want to build a release version:

ionic cordova build android --release

Signing the Android .apk

After the android project is built, you can either use Android CLI commands, or just open Android Studio, and sign the .apk or .aap (bundle) file.

Manual Signing

In order to sign the unsigned .apk, run:

cd platforms/android/app/build/outputs/apk/release

jarsigner -verbose -sigalg SHA1withRSA -digestalg SHA1 -keystore ~/projects/dianoia/Dianoia-app/SciFY app-release-unsigned.apk SciFY

/home/paul/Android/Sdk/build-tools/36.1.0/zipalign -v 4 app-release-unsigned.apk app-release-signed.apk

/home/paul/Android/Sdk/build-tools/36.1.0/apksigner sign --ks ~/projects/dianoia/Dianoia-app/SciFY --v1-signing-enabled true --v2-signing-enabled true app-release-signed.apk

Then, upload the app-release-signed.apk to the Google Play Developer Console.

Error Tracking with GlitchTip

The app uses GlitchTip for crash reporting and error tracking. GlitchTip is an open-source alternative to Sentry.

Configuration

The GlitchTip DSN is configured in src/consts.ts:

static GLITCHTIP_DSN: string = 'https://YOUR_KEY@app.glitchtip.com/PROJECT_ID';

The error tracking is initialized in src/app/app.component.ts after the platform is ready.

Cordova Hooks

The project includes hooks in the hooks/ directory:

before_prepare.js - Disables Sentry auto-release features (not supported by GlitchTip)
after_platform_add.js - Fixes JCenter deprecation in Gradle files

Build for Browser

In order to generate a bundled directory that can be hosted as a web application, you need to add and build the browser platform:

ionic cordova platform add browser@5.0.4

ionic cordova build browser

If you want to reset the browser platform:

Automated way:

npm run build-browser

Manual way:

ionic cordova platform rm browser

ionic cordova platform add browser@5.0.4

ionic cordova build browser

This will generate a platforms/browser/www directory that can be uploaded to a server.

GitHub pages

In order to generate the docs directory that can be used from GitHub Pages, you need to run the following script:

npm run build-docs

This will generate the docs directory. (Note that this directory is and should be under Version Control).

License

Icons made by Freepik from www.flaticon.com is licensed by CC 3.0 BY

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at

http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.