irma_mobile

Authentication made easy, privacy-friendly, and secure

IRMA offers a privacy-friendly, flexible and secure solution to many authentication problems, putting the user in full control over his/her data.

The IRMA app manages the user's IRMA attributes: receiving new attributes, selectively disclosing them to others, and attaching them to signed statements. These attributes can be relevant properties, such as: "I am over 18", "my name is ..." and "I am entitled to access ....". They are only stored on the user's device and nowhere else.

Building the app for development

• Follow the steps for "Installing dependencies" for "Building Projects with Native Code" (not the "Quick Start"):

  • https://facebook.github.io/react-native/docs/0.51/getting-started.html (you may skip the step to install react-native-cli)
  • Yarn is used for Javascript dependency management in this guide, but npm should work as well (except for compatibility with yarn.lock): https://yarnpkg.com/en/docs/install
  • iOS:
    • While React Native states a minimum requirement of Xcode 8, you should use Xcode 9 due to react/react-native#18944.
  • Android:
    • The Android NDK should also be installed through the SDK Manager. This can be done by checking the 'LLDB', 'CMake', and 'NDK' options in the SDK Tools tab.
    • Verify that $ANDROID_HOME is properly set for your current and future shells

• Install the Go toolchain and Dep package manager:

  • https://golang.org/doc/install
  • Setup your GOPATH environmental variable
  • We use Dep to install specific git revisions of Go packages: https://golang.github.io/dep/docs/installation.html

• Install and init gomobile:

  • This will take a (quiet) while:

  go get golang.org/x/mobile/cmd/gomobile
  gomobile init
  

  • Android:
    • gomobile init should automatically pickup the Android NDK if it is installed through the SDK Manager and $ANDROID_HOME is set. Otherwise you need to use the -ndk option.

• Clone this project so it is located inside your $GOPATH:

  • go get github.com/privacybydesign/irma_mobile should do the trick
  • You can ignore the no Go code warning; we fetch the dependencies of the irmagobridge subpackage via Dep.

• Install Javascript dependencies using Yarn or NPM, and vendor Go dependencies:

  cd $GOPATH/src/github.com/privacybydesign/irma_mobile
  yarn install
  dep ensure
  

• Connect your phone with a cable, or use a simulator

  • iOS:
    • By default, a new simulator is automatically created when building the app in the next step. See yarn run react-native run-ios --help for more options.
  • Android:
    • If using a physical phone, verify that the device is visible with the command adb devices
    • To create an Android Virtual Device, follow the steps under "Preparing the Android device" for "Building Projects with Native Code": https://facebook.github.io/react-native/docs/0.51/getting-started.html
    • By default, the only available device or simulator will be used when running the app in the next step. See yarn run react-native run-android --help for more options.

• Build and run the app for development:

  yarn run ios
  

  or

  yarn run android
  

  • Alternatively, Xcode or Android Studio can be used to launch the app and use the IDE tools.

Troubleshooting

• If Javascript compilation fails with an error that some source cannot be resolved or located (i.e. cannot resolve 'lib/...', 'store/...'), it often helps to clear the Babel build cache with yarn start --reset-cache. You may need to kill old Node server (killall node) if you get a port binding error.

• If you get the following error during compilation of the go bridge on Go 1.10, package gobind: cannot find package "gobind" in any of" by upgrade go and gomobile, try to upgrade gomobile to the latest version and run gomobile init again (see gomobile issue 108336).

• If you get this error during compilation of the go bridge for Android:

  seq_android.c:213:3: error: implicitly declaring library function 'memcpy' with type 'void *(void *, const void *, unsigned long)' [-Werror,-Wimplicit-function-declaration]
  seq_android.c:213:3: note: include the header <string.h> or explicitly provide a declaration for 'memcpy'
  

  Then you have a too new version of the Android NDK (>=r16), see here: golang/go#22766

  You can workaround this by including string.h in the following file: $GOPATH/src/golang.org/x/mobile/bind/java/seq_android.c.support

• If you get this error during running on Android in debug mode:

  adb server version (36) doesn't match this client (39); killing...
  

  Then try adb reconnect

• If your iOS build seems to fail with error: An organization slug is required (provide with --org), this actually isn't a fatal error and IRMA.app will be successfully installed to your device. The error is due to a sentry.properties file which isn't necessary in development. This should be fixed to not be a failure in development.

Manual testing

We use BrowserStack to test on actual devices: