To all the iOS users out there: we'd love your help testing the DEV beta app. None of us on the core team are mobile experts but, with the help from a few community members, we've stood something up that can be released soon after a few bugs are sorted out.
If you're interested in helping us report and/or fix these bugs, please download the app. This link should provide all the details (you'll have to download TestFlight first): https://testflight.apple.com/join/7Wq8VRLQ
And the GitHub repo for anyone interested in poking around:
DEV iOS π
This is the repo for the dev.to iOS app.
Status:
Released first version, more info: https://twitter.com/bendhalpern/status/1061323718058786822
Design ethos
We will grow to include more native code over time, but for now we are taking the approach of native shell/web views. This approach lost favor early in iOS days, but I believe it is a very valid approach these days. It is inspired by how Basecamp does things. Our tech stack is a bit different, but the ideas are the same.
https://m.signalvnoise.com/basecamp-3-for-ios-hybrid-architecture-afc071589c25
https://signalvnoise.com/posts/3743-hybrid-sweet-spot-native-navigation-web-content
https://signalvnoise.com/posts/3766-hybrid-how-we-took-basecamp-multi-platform-with-a-tiny-team
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWEts0rlezA
By leveraging wkwebviews as much as possible, I think we can make this all pretty awesome and sync up with our web dev work pretty smoothly. And where it makes sense, we can re-implement certain things fully native, or build entirely native features. Life's a journey, not a destination.
Contributing
- Fork and clone the project.
- Build and run the project in XCode.
- β¦
Thanks for your help π
Top comments (59)
To anybody curious: The Android app will follow. iOS got prioritized due to Apple's crappy support for PWA. π
A question: is the app "wrapping" the PWA? If I'm not mistaken the API is not out in the wild so I guess you're using "web views" or something like that. Would love to read an article about how you and the contributors built it.
Great idea for a post. The repo contains the gist of the approach but I could definitely walk through the process.
Personally I prefer an optimized PWA over installing a native app on Android, but I guess there's still enough people who want to use Apps...
(Android should just simply support setting a default PWA Browser which is different to the default browser.. When Chrome Canary is broken, it's really annoying that my PWAs also don't work..)
I wonder how many regular users are aware of PWAs at all.
I'm loving the PWA on android. Using Edge for Android and have it pinned to my homepage. Notifications don't come through though.
Why not Expo? ;)
haha..thanks. Good to know the poorer section of the globe who arent IOS also have hope!
Omg! Just moved to iPhone! Perfect timing!
Edit: This is incredible, but as a Python dev can we move to self.DEV instead of DEV.self π (jk)
Ahh Iβm thinking about switching too! Howβs the transition?
I switched last December after being in Android my whole life and it was a little bit strange in the beginning, but totally worth it. It also plays very nicely with other Apple devices, if you have any!
me too! can we do a support group? :D
It's a little weird -- a lot of the gestures are different. It's an awesome, awesome phone though. The camera is excellent and it looks really nice!
Hm... But why make a mobile app / PWA? Dev.to works perfectly fine in the mobile browser. I added dev.to to my home screen from my Android's google chrome (it has it's special spot in my reading folder). Pretty sure you can do that on iPhone too. Unless there's a need for native mobile capabilities, I don't think the overhead costs of managing two more mobile projects is worth it?
iPhone does support it (I use it myself) but the support is not great. Clicking on links opens the tab in the PWA window, and if you close the PWA and then come back to it, it will refresh the "app" and go back to
/. While I don't think I'll download the app because the drawbacks aren't enough for me to be that upset with the experience, but native apps are still very necessary for that "real mobile" experience on ios. Mobile safari also doesn't support notifications etc.Ah, I see what you mean. That's pretty annoying. Had that issue before when I added Quora to the home screen (gave up and installed the mobile app). But so far, hadn't had any issues doing this for dev.to :D.
Yeah, this is it. Native true-believers may be disappointed that the app will still largely be web/browser-driven.
I wish more screen estate was dedicated to the article. The social bar should maybe be part of the top toolbar?
PS. posting a screenshot via the app was a bit complicated. Pasting the URL from the small edit field and then writing the markdown for it.
I just like the PWA as android user but the benefit of an app is more popularity due to the fact that the logo can be seen on the app stores (android and ios) and therefore possibly will attract more users.
Just my 2 cents :-)
Loving the app so far except for one thing - when I try to upload an image in a comment, Iβm unable to actually target and then copy the resulting url. A button to automatically copy the url to your clipboard would be fantastic!
Cool, I created an issue π
Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe. From a comment on dev.to:
Describe the solution you'd like
Testflight link is broken guys
@mungaiandela and @joppedc are you still getting an error?
Nope working now and replying with the app π
Installed β looks brilliant! Well done.
On it!!!
Downloaded and posting this comment from the mobile app β‘οΈ