Building the App

This document provides step-by-step instructions for setting up the development environment and building the Kotatsu manga reader app. It covers the necessary prerequisites, project setup, build configuration, and various build variants.

For information about adding translations, see Contributing Translations. For instructions on adding new manga sources, see Adding New Manga Sources.

Prerequisites

Before building Kotatsu, ensure you have the following tools installed:

Tool	Required Version	Notes
JDK	11	The app uses Java 11 language features
Android Studio	Latest recommended	Or IntelliJ IDEA with Android plugins
Git	Any recent version	For cloning the repository
Gradle	8.12+	Automatically provided by the Gradle wrapper

Project Structure

Build System Overview

The Kotatsu app uses Gradle as its build system with Kotlin DSL build scripts. The project follows a standard Android application structure with several key build files.

flowchart TB
    subgraph ide1 [Build System Files]
    settings.gradle-->build.gradle
    gradle/libs.versions.toml-->build.gradle
    gradle-wrapper.properties-->build.gradle
    gradle/libs.versions.toml-->app/build.gradle
    build.gradle-->app/build.gradle
    gradle.propeties-->app/build.gradle
    end

Project Configuration Files

flowchart TB
    subgraph ide1 [Repositories]
    settings.gradle-- Repository config -->id1[Remote repositories]
    end
    subgraph ide2 [Dependency Management]
    libs.versions.toml-- Versions & dependencies -->app/build.gradle
    build.gradle-- Plugin application -->app/build.gradle
    id1-- Dependncy resolution -->app/build.gradle
    end
    subgraph ide3 [Build Properties]
    gradle.properties-- Global settings -->app/build.gradle
    app/build.gradle-- Defines -->id2[Build types]
    app/build.gradle-- Configures -->id3[Build features]
    end

Getting Started

Cloning the Repository

To get started, clone the Kotatsu repository:

git clone https://github.com/KotatsuApp/Kotatsu.git
cd Kotatsu

Opening the Project

Open the project in Android Studio:

1. Launch Android Studio
2. Select "Open an existing project"
3. Navigate to the cloned Kotatsu directory and click "Open"

Android Studio will sync the project with Gradle files automatically.

Build Configuration

Build Variants

Kotatsu has three build variants, each serving a different purpose:

Build Type	Purpose	Configuration
debug	Development and testing	Adds .debug suffix to package name
release	Production releases	Enables minification and shrinks resources
nightly	Automated daily builds	Based on release but with .nightly suffix and dynamic versioning

Key Build Features

The app uses several Gradle features and plugins:

Feature/Plugin	Purpose
viewBinding	Enables type-safe view binding
buildConfig	Generates BuildConfig class
parcelize	Implements Parcelable interface automatically
hilt	Dependency injection
ksp	Kotlin Symbol Processing for code generation
room	Database ORM

Dependencies