Sign APK without putting keystore info in build.gradle

Question

I am trying to setup signing process so that keystore password and key password are not stored in the project\'s build.gradle file.

Cur

Answer 1

Inspired from https://stackoverflow.com/a/33218300/1673761 with some improvements

Pros

• keystore properties (file name, alias, passwords) are stored outside of git
• Debug mode still works even if we don't have a keystore file or keystore.properties
• The keystore and its properties are in the root folder side by side

In the root of your project (or in android folder for React Native):

• Add your generated keystore file ie: app.keystore
• create a file named keystore.properties
• Add these two files to .gitignore

In keystore.properties add

STORE_FILE=app.keystore
KEY_ALIAS=app_alias
STORE_PASSWORD=your_password
KEY_PASSWORD=your_password

In app/build.gradle add

// Load keystore
def keystoreProperties = new Properties()
try {
    def keystorePropertiesFile = rootProject.file("keystore.properties");
    keystoreProperties.load(new FileInputStream(keystorePropertiesFile))
} catch(IOException e) {
    // We don't have release keys, ignoring
}

...

android {
  ...
  signingConfigs {
    release {
      if (keystoreProperties['STORE_FILE']) {
        storeFile rootProject.file(keystoreProperties['STORE_FILE'])
        storePassword keystoreProperties['STORE_PASSWORD']
        keyAlias keystoreProperties['KEY_ALIAS']
        keyPassword keystoreProperties['KEY_PASSWORD']
      }
    }
  }
  buildTypes {
    release {
      signingConfig signingConfigs.release
    }
  }
}

PS: Edits to improve the groovy logic are welcome