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This guide covers building Simple Alarm Clock using Gradle, including different build variants and configurations.

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Build basics

Simple Alarm Clock uses Gradle as its build system. You can build the app using Android Studio or the command line.

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Build using Android Studio

1

Open the project

Open the project in Android Studio if you haven’t already.
2

Select build variant

In the Build Variants panel (usually on the left side), select your desired build variant:
  • developDebug
  • developRelease
  • premiumDebug
  • premiumRelease
3

Build the app

Click Build > Make Project or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+F9 (Windows/Linux) or Cmd+F9 (Mac).
4

Run on device/emulator

Click the Run button or press Shift+F10 to build and run the app on a connected device or emulator.

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Build using Gradle command line

All Gradle commands should be run from the project root directory: 
# Make gradlew executable (Linux/Mac)
chmod +x gradlew

# Build debug APK
./gradlew assembleDevelopDebug

# Build release APK
./gradlew assembleDevelopRelease

# Build all variants
./gradlew assemble
On Windows, use gradlew.bat instead of ./gradlew.

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Product flavors

The project has two product flavors with different application IDs: 
productFlavors {
  create("develop") { 
    applicationId = "com.better.alarm" 
  }
}

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Develop flavor

  • Application ID: com.better.alarm
  • Use case: Main development and F-Droid distribution
  • Available on: Google Play, F-Droid

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Premium flavor

  • Application ID: com.premium.alarm
  • Use case: Premium version with additional features

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Build types

The project defines two build types:

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Debug

./gradlew assembleDevelopDebug
Features:
  • Application ID suffix: .debug (e.g., com.better.alarm.debug)
  • Code coverage enabled for both unit and instrumentation tests
  • Debuggable
  • No code obfuscation

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Release

./gradlew assembleDevelopRelease
Features:
  • Signed with release keystore
  • ProGuard rules applied (minification currently disabled)
  • Optimized for distribution
Release builds require signing configuration. See the Signing configuration section below.

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Build variants

With 2 flavors and 2 build types, you have 4 build variants:
VariantFlavorBuild TypeCommand
developDebugdevelopdebug./gradlew assembleDevelopDebug
developReleasedeveloprelease./gradlew assembleDevelopRelease
premiumDebugpremiumdebug./gradlew assemblePremiumDebug
premiumReleasepremiumrelease./gradlew assemblePremiumRelease

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Signing configuration

Release builds require a signing configuration. The project expects the following environment variables: 
export UPLOAD_KEYSTORE_PASSWORD=your_keystore_password
export UPLOAD_KEY_ALIAS=your_key_alias
export UPLOAD_KEY_PASSWORD=your_key_password
The keystore file should be located at app/upload-keystore.jks. 
signingConfigs {
  create("release") {
    storeFile = file("upload-keystore.jks")
    storePassword = System.getenv("UPLOAD_KEYSTORE_PASSWORD")
    keyAlias = System.getenv("UPLOAD_KEY_ALIAS")
    keyPassword = System.getenv("UPLOAD_KEY_PASSWORD")
  }
}
Never commit your keystore file or credentials to version control!

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Common Gradle tasks

Here are some commonly used Gradle tasks: 
# Clean build artifacts
./gradlew clean

# Build debug APK
./gradlew assembleDevelopDebug

# Install debug APK on connected device
./gradlew installDevelopDebug

# Uninstall debug APK
./gradlew uninstallDevelopDebug

# Build and install
./gradlew installDevelopDebug

# List all available tasks
./gradlew tasks

# Check code formatting
./gradlew spotlessCheck

# Apply code formatting
./gradlew spotlessApply

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Output locations

After building, APK files can be found in: 
app/build/outputs/apk/
├── develop/
│   ├── debug/
│   │   └── app-develop-debug.apk
│   └── release/
│       └── app-develop-release.apk
└── premium/
    ├── debug/
    │   └── app-premium-debug.apk
    └── release/
        └── app-premium-release.apk

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Continuous Integration

The project uses GitHub Actions for CI. The CI pipeline builds and tests the project on every push and pull request. CI build commands (from .travis.yml): 
./gradlew assembleDevelopDebug
./gradlew testDevelopDebugUnitTest
To ensure your changes will pass CI, run these commands locally before pushing.

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Troubleshooting

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Build fails with “SDK location not found”

Create a local.properties file with your SDK path: 
sdk.dir=/path/to/your/Android/sdk

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Out of memory errors

Increase Gradle heap size in gradle.properties: 
org.gradle.jvmargs=-Xmx2048M

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Dependency resolution failures

Try cleaning and rebuilding: 
./gradlew clean build --refresh-dependencies

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Next steps

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