youi-tv build and generate

You.i TV uses CMake as its build system. CMake is cross-platform, meaning that developers can select the build environment of their choice. Depending on your target platform(s), you may be required to do development from more than one platform. The table below helps identify the dependencies.

Development Platform	IDE	Target Platforms
macOS	Xcode (iOS, tvOS, macOS) Android Studio (Android) command line + editor of your choice	`android`, `ios`, `osx`¹, `tizen-nacl`², `tvos` , `osx` for Roku^3,4
Linux	Android Studio (Android) command line + editor of your choice	`android`, `linux`¹, `linux`⁴ for Roku, `tizen-nacl`², `webos3`, `webos4`
Windows	Visual Studio (PS4, UWP) Android Studio (Android) command line + editor of your choice	`android`, `ps4`, `tizen-nacl`², `uwp`¹, `win64`

¹ Supported as a development platform only.

² Tizen (tizen-nacl target) must always be built from the command line, there is no IDE support.

³ macOS is supported for initial development with Roku Cloud Solution.

⁴ Specify target osx or linux and additional compiler flag -d YI_BUILD_CLOUD_SERVER=ON

Command Line Build Tools

The youi-tv CLI includes commands for generating project files and building your application from the command line. Even if you plan to do most of your development through an IDE, it’s useful to know about these commands.

Commands:

youi-tv generate
youi-tv build

The generate command builds a framework of files for your project, and depending on the type of target platform, also builds the related IDE project file. For example, youi-tv generate -p osx builds a project you can open in Xcode. And youi-tv generate -p uwp builds a project for Visual Studio.

The build command builds a debug or release binary executable for your application. It’s intelligently engineered to know whether or not you’ve already generated the required project files for the requested target platform, and it runs generate for you, if needed.

Pro tip

Also try our handy shortcut command, youi-tv run, which builds, deploys, and launches an app, and generates the project if necessary.

Basic Build

The easiest way to build your application is to execute the following from a shell in your project folder:

youi-tv build -p <platform>

where platform is the target platform you want to build for. Use the table above or youi-tv build --help to know which target platforms are available from your current development platform.

Generate Options

The youi-tv generate command has the following options:

Argument	Description
`-b, --build_directory DIRECTORY`	Optional. Where to place generated project files. Default: `<app>/build/<platform>`
`-c, --config CONFIGURATION`	Optional. The configuration type [`Debug`, `Release`] to send to generator. It is only required for generators that do not support multiple configurations.
`--clean`	Optional. Removes old project files before generating.
`-d, --define NAME=VALUE`	While debugging your application with the Metro bundler (yarn server), enable Hermes with `-d YI_JAVASCRIPT_EXECUTOR=hermes`. For production builds and store submissions, in addition to the define above, use `--local` and `YI_LOCAL_BYTECODE` to enable Hermes bytecode in your app. The full string is `--local -d YI_JAVASCRIPT_EXECUTOR=hermes -d YI_LOCAL_BYTECODE=ON`. Hermes builds for Tizen can only be done on a Linux development platform. To enable Hermes on Tizen, add `-d YI_ARCH=armv7-gcc` to the generate command.
`-g, --generator GENERATOR`	Optional. The name of the generator to use. If not mentioned, the platform’s default generator is used.
`-p, --platform PLATFORM`	Required. The name of the target platform. Use `youi-tv generate --help` to see valid choices for your current development platform.
`--youi_version ENGINE_HINT`	Optional. Can be a path, such as `/path/to/5.0`, or semantic version, such as `5.0.1`, and the project gets generated against the mentioned You.i Platform version.
Plus the following options, available for React Native builds only
`--bundler_configuration [file]`	Optional. Pass a config file to Metro, for example, `path/to/config.js`
`--dev`	Optional. If included, the JS file is bundled with the dev flag enabled.
`--directory`	Optional. If included, adds the JS files of the listed directory, and create a bundle for each one.
`--file [file]`	Optional. The entry point for the application, for JS bundling.
`--inline`	Optional. If included, JS bundles are compiled directly into the source code instead of fetched from a yarn server.
`--iterate`	Optional. If included, Only JS bundles that need to be updated by changes to their source JS file will be re-bundled. If omitted, all JS bundles will be deleted before creating all required bundles. Note that changes to a JS file that is a dependency of the source JS file will not cause the file to be automatically re-bundled. Use without `--iterate` to capture all changes.
`--local`	Optional. If included, packages JS bundles with the app instead of fetching from a yarn server. If you want to deploy the production version of your Cloud Solution app on AWS, you must use the `--local` build argument.
`--minify`	Optional. If included, the JS file is bundled with the minify flag enabled.
`--ram_bundle`	Optional. To learn more about using RAM bundling with You.i Platform, see Optimizing Start-up Performance Using RAM Bundling.
`--remote [ip address]`	Optional, default if `--local` is not used. Specify the address where the Metro Bundler can be found. JS bundles are fetched from that bundler. When building for your local development platform, `localhost` is used. Otherwise, your development platform’s IP address is used. Override by providing an IP address.
`--sourcemap_output [file]`	Optional. File name to store the sourcemap for resulting bundle in, ex. /tmp/index.map
`--generated_bundle_file [file]`	Optional. Use this option to skip the default bundle generation and specify a custom bundle file instead. You must use this option with any of the following options: `--local`, `--inline`, or `--ram_bundle`.

Use youi-tv generate --help for a complete list of options and their usage.

Build Options

The youi-tv build command has the same options as youi-tv generate, plus the following additional options:

Argument	Description
`-a, --arg BUILD_ARGUMENT`	Custom argument that can be passed to CMake when building. These are passed down to the native build system. For example when `-j8` is passed to Makefiles, it builds with 8 threads, etc. Multiple arguments on the command line are supported. (default: [ ])
`-t, --target TARGET`	CopyAssets: Copies the assets from the project’s AE assets directory to the location required by the platform for execution. CleanAssets: Cleans up the assets which were copied by the CopyAssets target. Package: Packages the application for the specific platform. This target is only available for platforms which require a packaged application.

Use youi-tv build --help for a complete list of options and their usage.

CMake Configuration

Compiler Warnings

By default, You.i Platform treats all compiler warnings as errors. This helps you find potential bugs that might be masked as a code compilation warning. Although we don’t recommend changing this functionality, your project may have expected warnings. To change the default behavior, edit (or add) the following option in your project’s youi/CMakeLists.txt file. To treat warnings as errors, set to ON. To ignore compiler warnings, set to OFF.

option(YI_TREAT_WARNINGS_AS_ERRORS "Warnings will result in failure to compile when set to ON." OFF)

Hermes JavaScript Engine

Hermes JavaScript Engine optimizes the start-up performance of your You.i React Native app. See Target Platforms to know more about which target platforms support Hermes. To learn more about Hermes in general, see Facebook’s topic on the Hermes JavaScript Engine.

Hermes builds for Tizen can only be done on a Linux development platform. To enable Hermes on Tizen, add -d YI_ARCH=armv7-gcc to the generate command. Note that Hermes requires Tizen 2017 TVs or higher, so enabling Hermes may require you to target your Tizen app to specific models.

As described above, you can use the command line parameter -d to define your Hermes preferences at build time. You can also configure these parameters permanently for your projects by adding cache variables at the top of your project’s CMakeLists.txt file. Note that when testing with the Metro bundler (yarn server), you only need the first of these two settings.

set(YI_JAVASCRIPT_EXECUTOR "hermes" CACHE STRING "JS executor: Hermes - libReactExecutor_hermes")
set(YI_LOCAL_BYTECODE "ON" CACHE STRING "Hermes ByteCode: ON")

The YI_LOCAL_BYTECODE option only works in conjunction with --local (which bundles assets with the app for production builds and store submissions). If desired, edit your package.json file to configure use of --local more permanently for your project.

"youi" : {
  "defaultBundleMode": "local"
}

The opposite of --local is --remote (meaning assets are remotely loaded from the Metro bundler). Our build system uses --remote by the default if --local isn’t specified.

Important

Hermes doesn’t support the Intl library. Using Intl in a Hermes build may cause app runtime issues.

Default Location for Generated Files

If you use the default build directory (that is, you didn’t specify the -b option), the built files are placed in the following locations:

Note For C++ projects, omit the youi directory in the paths below.

macOS

Generated Project Files Path: MyApp/youi/build/osx/MyApp.xcodeproj
Generated Files for a Debug Version App: MyApp/youi/build/osx/Debug/MyApp
Generated files for a Release Version App: MyApp/youi/build/osx/Release/MyApp

iOS

Generated Project Files Path: MyApp/youi/build/ios/MyApp.xcodeproj
Generated Files for a Debug Version App: MyApp/youi/build/ios/Debug-iphoneos/MyApp
Generated Files for a Release Version App: MyApp/youi/build/ios/Release-iphoneos/MyApp

tvOS

Generated Project Files Path: MyApp/youi/build/tvos/MyApp.xcodeproj
Generated Files for a Debug Version App: MyApp/youi/build/tvos/Debug-appletvos/MyApp
Generated Files for a Release Version App: MyApp/youi/build/tvos/Release-appletvos/MyApp

Android

Generated Project Files Path: MyApp/youi/build/android/project/build.gradle
Generated Files for a Debug Version App: MyApp/youi/build/android/project/MyApp/build/outputs/apk/MyApp-debug.apk
Generated Files for a Release Version App: MyApp/youi/build/android/project/MyApp/build/outputs/apk/MyApp-release.apk

UWP

Generated Project Files Path: MyApp\youi\build\uwp\MyApp.sln
Generated Files for a Debug Version App: MyApp\youi\build\uwp\AppPackages\MyApp\MyApp_1.0.0.0_x64_Debug_Test
Generated Files for a Release Version App: MyApp\youi\build\uwp\AppPackages\MyApp\MyApp_1.0.0.0_x64_Test

Roku

Generated Project Files Path: MyApp/youi/build/osx/MyApp.xcodeproj(Mac Only)
Generated Files for a Debug Version App:
- Mac: MyApp/youi/build/osx/Debug/MyApp
- Linux: MyApp/youi/build/linux/Debug/bin/MyApp
Generated Files for a Release Version App:
- For Mac: MyApp/youi/build/osx/Release/MyApp
- For Linux: MyApp/youi/build/linux/Release/bin/MyApp

Tizen

Generated Project Files Path: MyApp/youi/build/tizen-nacl/<ConfigurationType>/MyApp-<ConfigurationType>.wgt
Generated Files for a Debug Version App: MyApp/youi/build/tizen-nacl/Debug/MyApp-Debug.wgt
Generated Files for a Release Version App: MyApp/youi/build/tizen-nacl/Release/MyApp-Release.wgt

PS4

Generated Project Files Path: MyApp\youi\build\ps4\MyApp.sln

webOS

Generated Files for a Debug Version App: MyApp/youi/build/webos<3 or 4>/Debug/tv.youi.myapp_5.x.x_arm.ipk
Generated Files for a Release Version App: MyApp/youi/build/webos<3 or 4>/Release/tv.youi.myapp_5.x.x_arm.ipk

Build and Run from Xcode

Once your project file is generated with youi-tv generate, you can build and run the app from Xcode:

Start Xcode. Open the generated Xcode project file from your project’s build folder. (See above for output file locations.) For example, if your project is called HelloWorld and you’re building for the macOS platform, open:
build/osx/HelloWorld.xcodeproj
1. Xcode opens the project and indexes the project files.
Select your application target from the dropdown menu to the right of the Play button.
Press the Play button in the top-left corner, or press Cmd-R to run the app. You may be prompted to enable developer mode.

Important

With Xcode 13, you may see an error about a legacy build system. You can either:

Switch to the new build system in Xcode, by choosing File > Project Settings > Build System > New Build System (Default), or
Remain on the “Legacy Build System (Deprecated)” and ignore further messages by enabling Do not show a diagnostic issue about build system deprecation.

If you are building with You.i CLI, you can also pass the option -UseModernBuildSystem=1 to use the new build system and disable the error.

For iOS and tvOS builds, you can switch between any real device plugged into your Mac and between the simulators for various types of devices. Click the dropdown menu to the right of the Play button and select the device or simulated device of your choice.

Your app launches in a new window. For example, if trying the HelloWorld C++ sample app, you’ll see a spinning You.i TV logo, and know that your configuration is successful.

Build and Run from Android Studio

Once your project file is generated with youi-tv generate, you can build and run the app from Android Studio:

Start Android Studio.
Click Open an existing Android Studio project in the Welcome window.
In the Open File or Project window, open the generated Android Studio project file from your project’s build folder. (See above for output file locations.) For example, if your project is called HelloWorld and you’re building for the android platform, open build/android/project and click OK.
Select the project folder from the IDE.
Ensure that the build variant is debug.

Ensure that an appropriate physical device is connected, or that an appropriate Android Virtual Device (AVD) is configured and running. You can switch between any real device plugged into your computer and between the simulators for various types of devices by selecting a different deployment target.

Build and Run from Visual Studio

Once your project file is generated with youi-tv generate, you can build and run the app from Visual Studio:

Start Visual Studio.
Select Open Project… from the Visual Studio Start page.
Open the generated Visual Studio project file from your project’s build folder. (See above for output file locations.) For example, if your project is called HelloWorld and you’re building for the ps4 platform, open build\ps4\HelloWorld.sln.
Click Open in the Open Project window.

The Solution Explorer displays a list of all projects.
Select your project and click Play.
Use the Play dropdown list to select a target machine.