docs(android): the device can be driven, not just looked at
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The runtime call does not go over HTTP on Android — the WebView cannot
deliver a fetch() POST body to shouldInterceptRequest, so v3 routes
runtime calls through the addJavascriptInterface bridge. Two things
follow that cost an hour each before the v3 source was read:
`.playwright/init-events.js` does not transfer to the device (its
outbound half hooks fetch, and a POST to /wails/runtime answers
"missing object value" — which reads like a wrong payload and is the
interceptor getting no body at all), and hooking fetch from an eval is
too late on any platform because the bundle captured its reference at
module scope.

The recipe that does work goes in, along with how to get audio onto the
phone (scoped storage silently swallows a push into
/sdcard/Android/data/<pkg>/files, and the fixtures are 2 seconds long,
which is useless for watching a seek bar) and the permission dialog a
reinstall raises, which looks exactly like the app failing to start.

NOTES.md takes the #53 measurements: that its frontend is byte-identical
to the v0.3.1 the phone carries, that the symptom does not reproduce on
main in four scenarios, and that reverting only backend/player/ to
v0.3.1 reproduces #125 instead — with the shim that makes that a
ten-minute experiment rather than a full checkout.
This commit is contained in:
2026-08-20 17:17:33 -04:00
parent fe1fbefee7
commit 67eeb75e7b
2 changed files with 129 additions and 0 deletions
@@ -515,6 +515,75 @@ Four things about it, each of which costs an hour if met cold:
script. Plug in over USB for anything longer than a couple of probes.
- **The socket name carries the pid**, which changes on every launch, so
it is resolved rather than remembered.
- **A reinstall resets the runtime permissions**, and the grant dialog
is a separate activity that takes focus — so the app is up, `am start`
reports "delivered to currently running top-most instance", and
`pidof` is empty because it never got to the foreground.
`dumpsys window | grep mCurrentFocus` naming
`GrantPermissionsActivity` is the tell. `adb shell pm grant
app.yellowjacket.dev android.permission.READ_MEDIA_AUDIO` (and
`POST_NOTIFICATIONS`) ahead of the launch skips it.
### Calling a binding on the device
**The runtime call does not go over HTTP on Android**, and this is worth
knowing before an hour is spent on it. The WebView cannot deliver a
`fetch()` POST body to `shouldInterceptRequest`, so v3 routes runtime
calls through the `addJavascriptInterface` bridge instead: the
@wailsio/runtime installs a `customTransport` that calls
`window.wails.invokeAsync(id, payload)` and receives the answer on
`window._wailsAndroidCallback`. Two consequences:
- **`.playwright/init-events.js` does not transfer to the device.** Its
outbound half hooks `fetch`, which sees nothing here, and its
`call()` posts to `/wails/runtime`, which answers
`Invalid runtime call: missing object value` — the interceptor got the
URL with no body. Its *inbound* half is still right, because
`dispatchWailsEvent` is the entry point in every mode.
- **Hooking `fetch` from an eval is too late anyway**, on any platform:
the bundle captured its reference at module scope, so a wrapper
installed afterwards records nothing. That is why the harness is an
`initScript` and not a step in a spec.
What works is to borrow the bridge, chaining the runtime's own callback
so its pending calls still resolve:
```js
const pending = new Map();
const prev = window._wailsAndroidCallback;
window._wailsAndroidCallback = (id, response, error) => {
if (!pending.has(id)) return prev && prev(id, response, error);
const p = pending.get(id); pending.delete(id);
const env = JSON.parse(response || "{}");
return env.ok ? p.resolve(env.data ?? env.text) : p.reject(new Error(env.error));
};
window.__yj = { call(name, args) {
return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
const id = "yj" + Math.random().toString(36).slice(2);
pending.set(id, { resolve, reject });
window.wails.invokeAsync(id, JSON.stringify({
object: 0, method: 0, windowName: "",
args: { "call-id": id, methodName: "yellowjacket/backend/" + name, args: args || [] },
clientId: window._wails.clientId,
}));
});
} };
```
That turns the device into a tier that can be *driven* rather than only
looked at — `__yj.call("player.Player.LoadFile", [path])` and
`__yj.call("library.Library.AddLibrary", ["/sdcard/Music/..."])` are how
#53 was measured. Names are the Go ones (`GetTracks`, not
`GetAllTracks`); an unknown one comes back as a plain
`unknown bound method name`, so a wrong guess is loud.
**Getting audio onto the phone**: `adb push` into
`/sdcard/Android/data/<pkg>/files/` looks like it works and then the
files are not there — scoped storage. `/sdcard/Music/...` plus
`pm grant … READ_MEDIA_AUDIO` does work, and `AddLibrary` takes the
plain path. The generated fixtures are **~2 seconds** each, which is
fine for a scan and useless for watching a seek bar, so synthesise a
long one: `ffmpeg -f lavfi -i sine=frequency=440:duration=240`.
**And the reason to bother: the phone is an engine, not a screen.** The
first device here renders in **Chrome 113** at 424x439 CSS px. Every