Android installation
To satisfy customers with the highest security requirements, the Nevis Mobile Authentication SDK is hardened with state-of-the-art protection mechanisms.
Between versions 3.5 and 3.6 the used hardening framework was changed. If you are using SDK version 3.5 or lower refer to this guide
The Nevis Mobile Authentication SDK binaries for Android are provided by Nevis in an archive file.
For convenience, Nevis also offers a public Maven repository where the debug flavor of the SDK is available.
To obtain the release flavor of the SDK, download it from our portal.
You will see a package called nevis-mobile-authentication-sdk-android-NEVIS_MOBILE_AUTHENTICATION_SDK_ANDROID_VERSION.zip
where NEVIS_MOBILE_AUTHENTICATION_SDK_ANDROID_VERSION
is the actual version of the Nevis Mobile Authentication Android SDK e.g.: 3.7.0.1590
.
Installation from public Maven repository
The nevis-mobile-authentication-sdk-android-package GitHub repository, contains the debug
flavor of the Nevis Mobile Authentication SDK. You can follow the following steps to integrate the SDK in your application using this repository.
The following steps assume that the NEVIS_MOBILE_AUTHENTICATION_SDK_ANDROID_VERSION
contains the SDK version. Set the console environment variable as follows:
- Add the repositories containing the SDK aar in the
build.gradle
file of your application module:
buildscript {
repositories {
maven {
url "https://maven.pkg.github.com/nevissecurity/nevis-mobile-authentication-sdk-android-package"
credentials {
username = <GITHUB_USERNAME>
password = <GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN>
}
}
}
}
Accessing GitHub packages requires you to have a GitHub account. You have to provide a Personal Access Token, as described here.
- In the
build.gradle
file of your application module, add the SDK dependency and its required dependencies:
dependencies {
debugImplementation "ch.nevis:nevis-mobile-authentication-sdk-android-debug:${NEVIS_MOBILE_AUTHENTICATION_SDK_ANDROID_VERSION}"
}
Installation from ZIP archive
The SDK is provided as compressed archive. After unpacking, you see the following structure:
debug
contains the binary files and POM file of thedebug
flavor.release
contains the binary files POM file of therelease
flavor.finalizer
contains the finalization library.
For example the content of package version 3.7.0.1590
will look like:
├── debug
│ ├── nevis-mobile-authentication-sdk-android-debug-3.7.0.1590-javadoc.jar
│ ├── nevis-mobile-authentication-sdk-android-debug-3.7.0.1590.aar
│ └── nevis-mobile-authentication-sdk-android-debug-3.7.0.1590.pom
├── finalizer
│ ├── *.pom
│ ├── *.protect-android.jar
│ └── finalizers
│ ├── linux
│ │ └── finalizer
│ ├── macos
│ │ └── finalizer
│ └── windows
│ └── finalizer.exe
└── release
├── nevis-mobile-authentication-sdk-android-3.7.0.1590-javadoc.jar
├── nevis-mobile-authentication-sdk-android-3.7.0.1590.aar
└── nevis-mobile-authentication-sdk-android-3.7.0.1590.pom
The version of finalizer binaries and Gradle plugin differ from SDK version. This is deliberate.
- Publish the SDK to a dependency management framework
In this section we describe how to publish the SDK to a Maven repository. If you are using a different framework than Maven, you have to manage the publishing of the SDK and its transitive dependencies accordingly. The transitive dependencies of each flavor of the SDK are declared in the POM files.
You have to configure the Maven repository where the Android SDK is available. There are multiple choices.
For more information about declaring Gradle repositories read the official guide.
- Local Maven repository
- Relative/file Maven repository
- Custom Maven repository
You may install the debug
and release
flavors of the Android SDK into your local Maven repository. To do this, execute the following commands in terminal:
export NEVIS_MOBILE_AUTHENTICATION_SDK_ANDROID_VERSION=3.7.0.1590
mvn install:install-file -Dfile=debug/nevis-mobile-authentication-sdk-android-debug-${NEVIS_MOBILE_AUTHENTICATION_SDK_ANDROID_VERSION}.aar -DgroupId=ch.nevis -DartifactId=nevis-mobile-authentication-sdk-android-debug -Dversion=${NEVIS_MOBILE_AUTHENTICATION_SDK_ANDROID_VERSION} -DpomFile=debug/nevis-mobile-authentication-sdk-android-debug-${NEVIS_MOBILE_AUTHENTICATION_SDK_ANDROID_VERSION}.pom
mvn install:install-file -Dfile=release/nevis-mobile-authentication-sdk-android-${NEVIS_MOBILE_AUTHENTICATION_SDK_ANDROID_VERSION}.aar -DgroupId=ch.nevis -DartifactId=nevis-mobile-authentication-sdk-android -Dversion=${NEVIS_MOBILE_AUTHENTICATION_SDK_ANDROID_VERSION} -DpomFile=release/nevis-mobile-authentication-sdk-android-${NEVIS_MOBILE_AUTHENTICATION_SDK_ANDROID_VERSION}.pom
We assume that you are in the root directory of the unpacked SDK package.
Declare mavenLocal()
repository:
allprojects {
repositories {
mavenLocal()
}
}
You may install the debug
and release
flavors of the Android SDK into a relative/file Maven repository. Let's say you want to use the native-dependecies
folder in your Android project root. In this case you have to add the following repository declaration to allprojects
part of your build.gradle
.
allprojects {
...
repositories.maven ({
name = "Native-Dependencies"
url = new File(rootProject.rootDir, 'native-dependencies')
})
...
}
Now you have to install the package to this relative/file Maven repository. To do this run the following commands in terminal:
export NEVIS_MOBILE_AUTHENTICATION_SDK_ANDROID_VERSION=3.7.0.1590
# Absolute path of the previosly created Android native dependencies directory. E.g.: /Users/username/projects/your_android_app/native-dependencies
export LOCAL_REPOSITORY=/Users/username/projects/your_android_app/native-dependencies
mvn install:install-file -Dfile=debug/nevis-mobile-authentication-sdk-android-debug-${NEVIS_MOBILE_AUTHENTICATION_SDK_ANDROID_VERSION}.aar -DgroupId=ch.nevis -DartifactId=nevis-mobile-authentication-sdk-android-debug -Dversion=${NEVIS_MOBILE_AUTHENTICATION_SDK_ANDROID_VERSION} -DpomFile=debug/nevis-mobile-authentication-sdk-android-debug-${NEVIS_MOBILE_AUTHENTICATION_SDK_ANDROID_VERSION}.pom -DlocalRepositoryPath=${LOCAL_REPOSITORY}
mvn install:install-file -Dfile=release/nevis-mobile-authentication-sdk-android-${NEVIS_MOBILE_AUTHENTICATION_SDK_ANDROID_VERSION}.aar -DgroupId=ch.nevis -DartifactId=nevis-mobile-authentication-sdk-android -Dversion=${NEVIS_MOBILE_AUTHENTICATION_SDK_ANDROID_VERSION} -DpomFile=release/nevis-mobile-authentication-sdk-android-${NEVIS_MOBILE_AUTHENTICATION_SDK_ANDROID_VERSION}.pom -DlocalRepositoryPath=${LOCAL_REPOSITORY}
for f in ${LOCAL_REPOSITORY}/**/maven-metadata-local.xml; do mv "$f" "$(dirname $f)/maven-metadata.xml"; done
We assume that you are in the root directory of the unpacked SDK package.
Add the following files to your custom Maven repository and declare that repository.
release/nevis-mobile-authentication-sdk-android-${NEVIS_MOBILE_AUTHENTICATION_SDK_ANDROID_VERSION}.aar
debug/nevis-mobile-authentication-sdk-android-debug-${NEVIS_MOBILE_AUTHENTICATION_SDK_ANDROID_VERSION}.aar
We assume that you are in the root directory of the unpacked SDK package.
NEVIS_MOBILE_AUTHENTICATION_SDK_ANDROID_VERSION
is the actual version of the Nevis Mobile Authentication Android SDK e.g.: 3.7.0.1590
.
Please check the related *.pom
file for groupId
, artifactId
and version
.
- Add
debug
flavor dependency (for development)
In the build.gradle
file of your application module, add the SDK dependency and its required dependencies:
dependencies {
debugImplementation "ch.nevis:nevis-mobile-authentication-sdk-android-debug:${NEVIS_MOBILE_AUTHENTICATION_SDK_ANDROID_VERSION}"
}
- Add
release
flavor dependency (for production)
In the build.gradle
file of your application module, add the SDK dependency and its required dependencies:
dependencies {
releaseImplementation "ch.nevis:nevis-mobile-authentication-sdk-android:${NEVIS_MOBILE_AUTHENTICATION_SDK_ANDROID_VERSION}"
}
Finalization
There are a number of protection mechanisms only included in the release
flavor that require a procedure during the building of the application called finalization.
The finalization updates the binaries of the library with information about your application to execute those protection mechanisms during runtime. If you use Gradle to build the application, the finalization can be done using a Gradle plugin.
The debug
flavor does not require finalization.
Remove references of previous finalization tool
In case you are already a user of the Nevis Mobile Authentication SDK for Android version 3.5.x or prior, and you want to change to version 3.6.x or above first you have to remove the references of previous finalization tool following this chapter. Otherwise, you can skip this chapter.
Apply the following changes in build.gradle
file of your application module.
- Delete the finalizer plugin dependency from
buildscript
block inbuild.gradle
file whereNEVIS_MOBILE_AUTHENTICATION_SDK_ANDROID_VERSION
is the version of the currently used Nevis Mobile Authentication SDK for Android.
buildscript {
dependencies {
...
classpath "ch.nevis:nevis-mobile-authentication-sdk-android-finalizer:${NEVIS_MOBILE_AUTHENTICATION_SDK_ANDROID_VERSION}"
...
}
}
- Delete applying
finalize
plugin line inbuild.gradle
file.
apply plugin: 'finalize'
You probably apply it inside a condition that ensures it is applied only in case of release builds, in this case delete it and the condition as well. E.g.:
if (project.gradle.startParameter.taskNames.find { name -> name.endsWith("Release") } != null) { apply plugin: 'finalize' }
Install Finalization Gradle plugin
- Declare Maven repository
You have to configure the Maven repository where the Finalization Gradle plugin is available. There are multiple choices.
For more information about declaring Gradle repositories read the official guide.
- Local Maven repository
- Custom Maven repository
You may install the Finalization Gradle plugin into your local Maven repository. To do this execute the following commands in terminal:
Replace the placeholders (*
) in the commands below with the real file names and versions.
# Linux / macOs
mvn install:install-file -Dfile=finalizer/*.protect-android.jar -DpomFile=finalizer/*.protect-android-*.pom
# Windows
mvn install:install-file -Dfile=finalizer\*.protect-android.jar -DpomFile=finalizer\*.protect-android-*.pom
We assume that you are in the root directory of the unpacked SDK package.
Declare mavenLocal()
repository:
allprojects {
repositories {
mavenLocal()
}
}
Add the following file to your custom Maven repository and declare that repository.
Replace the placeholder (*
) below with the real file name.
finalizer/*.protect-android.jar
We assume that you are in the root directory of the unpacked SDK package.
Please check the related *.pom
file for groupId
, artifactId
and version
.
- Add Finalization Gradle plugin dependency
In the build.gradle
file of your application module, add following dependency.
Replace the placeholders (*
) in the gradle classpath below with the real package namespace as indicated by the finalizer file name and versions.
buildscript {
...
dependencies {
...
classpath group: '*.protect-android', name: '*.protect-android', version: '*'
...
}
...
}
Set FINALIZE_ANDROID_ROOT
environment variable
FINALIZE_ANDROID_ROOT
environment variable must be set for *.finalize-android
Gradle plugin to specify the path of the finalizer
executable. Replace the placeholders (*
) in the environment variable with the real package namespace as indicated by the finalizer file name.
If you unpacked the content of the zip
file into a directory called nevis-mobile-authentication-sdk-android-3.7.0.1590
inside your HOME
directory then the environment variable should look like:
# On Linux
export FINALIZE_ANDROID_ROOT=$HOME/nevis-mobile-authentication-sdk-android-3.7.0.1590/finalizer/finalizers/linux
# On macOs
export FINALIZE_ANDROID_ROOT=$HOME/nevis-mobile-authentication-sdk-android-3.7.0.1590/finalizer/finalizers/macos
# On Windows
set FINALIZE_ANDROID_ROOT=%HOME%\nevis-mobile-authentication-sdk-android-3.7.0.1590\finalizer\finalizers\windows
Modify build.gradle files
Apply the following changes in build.gradle
file of your application module.
Apply the finalizer plugin and configure it. The following sample shows a simple and adequate configuration. Replace the placeholders (*
) with the real package namespace as indicated by the Finalizer Gradle plugin file name.
apply plugin: '*.finalize-android'
finalizeAndroid {
buildVariants {
release {
disabled false
log "$buildDir/finalization.log"
}
}
}
Manifest placeholders
The plugin requires access to the AndroidManifest.xml
when executed. So, if you use manifest placeholders, they have to be resolved before the plugin runs. If you want to resolve the placeholders on a variant basis, and you use Android Gradle Plugin 7.0 or newer, use androidComponent
as in the following example:
android {
androidComponents {
onVariants(selector().all(), variant -> {
variant.manifestPlaceholders = [attributeName : "$attributeValue"]
})
If you use an earlier version of the Android Gradle Plugin than 7.0, and use the merged flavor of the variant to resolve the placeholders, execute the plugin after project evaluation:
android { applicationVariants.all {
variant ->
variant.getMergedFlavor().manifestPlaceholders = [attributeName : "$attributeValue"]
}
}
[...]
project.afterEvaluate { apply plugin: 'finalize' }
android.enableJetifier
flag
Finalization can fail for instance when using Androidx libraries if third party libraries are not migrated automatically. If finalization fails, we recommend enabling library migration in gradle.properties
:
android.enableJetifier=true
Example - application module build.gradle
file using both release
and debug
SDK dependencies
In the following example, the two out-of-the box build types provided by the Android Gradle plugin are used: release
and debug
. It is assumed that the SDK dependencies are published to the local Maven repository, see installation chapter.
As only the release
flavor of the SDK requires finalization, the finalization plugin is only applied during assembly of the release
build type.
Replace the placeholders (*
) in the gradle classpath and plugin name below with the real package namespace as indicated by the finalizer file name and version.
repositories {
// It is assumed that the Nevis SDK is deployed to the local Maven
// repository
mavenLocal()
// Maven Central and Google repositories have the transitive dependencies
// required by the Nevis SDK
mavenCentral()
google()
}
buildscript {
repositories {
// It is assumed that the Nevis SDK finalizer library is deployed
// to the local Maven repository
mavenLocal()
// The Android Gradle Plugin is accessible from the Google repository
// mavenCentral is required to get its transitive dependencies
google()
mavenCentral()
}
dependencies{
classpath group: '*.protect-android', name: '*.protect-android', version: '*'
classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:7.0.3'
}
}
apply plugin: 'com.android.application'
android {
compileSdkVersion 30
defaultConfig {
minSdkVersion 24
targetSdkVersion 30
}
defaultConfig {
applicationId "ch.nevis.doc.sdksampleapp"
versionCode 1
versionName "1.0"
}
compileOptions {
sourceCompatibility JavaVersion.VERSION_1_8
targetCompatibility JavaVersion.VERSION_1_8
}
}
// Apply the SDK finalization plugin.
apply plugin: '*.finalize-android'
finalizeAndroid {
buildVariants {
release {
disabled false
log "$buildDir/finalization.log"
}
}
}
// Add the SDK dependencies to your application.
dependencies {
debugImplementation "ch.nevis:nevis-mobile-authentication-sdk-android-debug:${NEVIS_MOBILE_AUTHENTICATION_SDK_ANDROID_VERSION}"
releaseImplementation "ch.nevis:nevis-mobile-authentication-sdk-android:${NEVIS_MOBILE_AUTHENTICATION_SDK_ANDROID_VERSION}"
}
Enable Multidexing
If your Android Gradle plugin does not enable multidexing by default, set multiDexEnabled
to true
in the defaultConfig
section of your top level build.gradle
file. The finalization can cause the total number of methods to go beyond the Dalvik Executable specification limit of 64k. Therefore, multiDexing must be enabled for your application.
Backup Setup
The Android Mobile Authentication SDK does not support backing up and restoring its contents.
If your application does not require backing up any of its contents, disable the backup in the AndroidManifest.xml
of your application as described in the Android documentation:
<manifest ... >
...
<application android:allowBackup="false" ... >
...
</application>
</manifest>
If your application requires backing up contents, you must list them explicitly in AndroidManifest.xml
to avoid backing up the SDK contents.
If the contents of the Android Mobile Authentication SDK are backed up and then restored, the SDK can fail during initialization.