Get Started with PhoneCheck on Android

This Guide will walk you through performing your first PhoneCheck within an Android application using a Node.js server. It covers:

Things you need before you begin
Setting up the Node.js example server
Setting up and run the Android example application
Performing a PhoneCheck on Android

The final simplified application structure looks as follows:

tru-id-phonecheck-example
├── app-example-android
│   └── app
│       └── tru.properties
└── phonecheck-server
    └── tru.json

And the running Android application looks and works as follows:

For more detailed information on how the Android application, the Node.js server and the tru.ID APIs work together see the PhoneCheck integration guide.

1. Before you begin

To run the example Android application you will need a mobile phone running Android Lollipop (Android 5.0) or above and an active SIM card with mobile data access. You'll also need Android Studio or the Android commandline tools.

To expose the locally running Node.js server to the running Android application you'll require a local tunnel solution such as ngrok.

To run through the guide as a whole you'll need a tru.ID account. If you don't already have an account, sign up now.

The tru.ID tooling relies on the Node.js runtime. So please ensure you have the Node.js runtime installed.

Install and setup the tru.ID CLI

With Node.js install the tru.ID CLI (Command Line Interface) from your terminal.

$ npm install -g @tru_id/cli

During the installation you will be prompted for your tru.ID Default Credentials. These can be found within the tru.ID Console.

Welcome to the tru CLI! Let's start by configuring the CLI

Configuration values can be found via http://tru.id/console

? Please provide your workspace `client_id` {enter your client_id}
? Please provide your workspace `client_secret` {enter your client_secret}
? Please provide your workspace data residency `eu`

Thanks! Writing your updated configuration to {path_to}/config.json... done

Create a working directory

Create a directory that you will add the client and server example code to:

$ mkdir tru-id-phonecheck-example

And navigate into that directory:

$ cd tru-id-phonecheck-example

2. Setup the Node.js example server

The Node.js example server is used as an authority and sits between the React Native application and the tru.ID APIs.

Clone the Node.js Server Example

Clone the tru.ID Node.js example server into the phonecheck-server directory:

$ git clone git@github.com:tru-ID/server-example-node.git phonecheck-server

Create a tru.ID project

Create a new tru.ID project and save the configuration to the phonecheck-server directory:

$ tru projects:create "phonecheck-server" --project-dir=phonecheck-server

You will see output similar to the following:

Creating Project "phonecheck-server"
Project configuration saved to "path_to/tru-id-phonecheck-example/phonecheck-server/tru.json"

The Node.js application will read your tru.id credentials from the tru.json project configuration file.

Run the tru.ID example server

Navigate into the phonecheck-server directory:

$ cd phonecheck-server

Install the application dependencies:

$ npm install

Run the application:

$ npm start

You will see output similar to the following indicating that the server application is running at http://localhost:8080:

> tru-node-server@0.1.0 start
> nodemon src/index.js

[nodemon] 2.0.4
[nodemon] to restart at any time, enter `rs`
[nodemon] watching path(s): *.*
[nodemon] watching extensions: js,mjs,json
[nodemon] starting `node src/index.js`
configuration:
 {
  project_id: '0055f3a3-6e06-4390-9048-4f5a9dfcbbd1',
  name: 'phonecheck-server',
  credentials: [
    {
      client_id: 'PROJECT_CLIENT_ID',
      client_secret: 'PROJECT_CLIENT_SECRET',
      created_at: '2021-01-11T15:44:14+0000',
      scopes: [Array]
    }
  ],
  mode: 'live',
  created_at: '2021-01-11T15:44:14+0000'
}
Example app listening at http://localhost:8080

Create a local tunnel for your server

In order for your mobile application to be able to interact with the locally running server you'll need to setup a local tunnel. For this example we'll use ngrok.

Run ngrok to create a local tunnel and to get a public URL which will be used in the mobile application configuration. Run the following command in a new terminal window:

$ ngrok http 8080

You will then see output similar to the following:

Session Status                online
Account                       Phil Leggetter (Plan: Pro)
Version                       2.3.35
Region                        United States (us)
Web Interface                 http://127.0.0.1:4040
Forwarding                    http://d88e00a17e1c.ngrok.io -> http://localhost:8080
Forwarding                    https://d88e00a17e1c.ngrok.io -> http://localhost:8080

Connections                   ttl     opn     rt1     rt5     p50     p90
                              0       0       0.00    0.00    0.00    0.00

Navigate to your ngrok HTTPS URL to ensure the server is accessible (https://d88e00a17e1c.ngrok.io from the above output).

3. Setup the Android example application

With the server running you can now setup and run the Android application.

Clone and configure the Android example application

Open a new terminal and ensure you are in the tru-id-phonecheck-example working directory. Run the following command to clone the Android example into a app-example-android directory:

$ git clone git@github.com:tru-ID/app-example-android.git

And navigate into the newly created app-example-android directory:

cd app-example-android

Create a copy of the app/tru.properties.example file, naming the new file app/tru.properties:

cp app/tru.properties.example app/tru.properties

And update the configuration value for EXAMPLE_SERVER_BASE_URL in app/tru.properties to point to the public ngrok URL of the Node.js example server. For example:

EXAMPLE_SERVER_BASE_URL=https://d88e00a17e1c.ngrok.io

Install and run the Android Example app

Ensure your Android device is connected to your computer via USB with developer mode and USB debugging enabled.

Using Android Studio

You can then install and run the Android example from Android Studio by opening the project using File -> Open and navigating to tru-id-phonecheck-example/app-example-android and then selecting Run -> Run 'app' from the application menu.

Using the commandline tools

Or you can run the following from the terminal to install the Android sample application:

$ ./gradlew installDebug

You will see output similar to the following:

> Task :app:installDebug
Installing APK 'app-debug.apk' on 'Pixel 5 - 11' for app:debug
Installed on 1 device.

And then launch the application called Sample on the Android device.

4. Perform a PhoneCheck on Android

Enter your phone number with the + and country code and click "Verify my phone number". The application will look similar to the following:

With that, you've completed your first PhoneCheck from an Android application.

5. Resources

6. Troubleshooting

`INSTALL_FAILED_USER_RESTRICTED` when running `./gradlew installDebug`

See this Stackoverflow answer
You may also want to enable the "Stay awake" (Screen will never sleep while charging) option within "Developer options" to ensure the Android device is detected when installing the sample application.

Android app only gets to the "Validating Phone Number input" setup

It's likely that an error has occured but the UI isn't providing any feedback. We're working on updating the sample application to provide better error feedback.

For now, check the following:

Ensure that your tru.properties is correctly set to point to your HTTP ngrok URL
Take a look at the output from your Node.js server to see if there has been an error within the server or interacting with the tru.ID API.