DEV Community: Touchlab

ATOM (A Touch of Multiplatform) Episode #2

Touchlab — Fri, 02 Dec 2022 18:56:47 +0000

Welcome to episode #2 of A Touch of Multiplatform (ATOM)! This is our new podcast dedicated to Kotlin Multiplatform technology in production and produced for you by JetBrains and Touchlab.

In this episode, we sit down to talk with Jake Wharton and Jesse Wilson from Cash App about “weird and ambitious multiplatform things.” Join us in a conversation that ranges from work set-ups and music choice while coding to the recent KMM Beta and writing better shared APIs for iOS consumers to unique projects Jake and Jesse are currently involved with.

You can find full show notes on Touchlab's blog.

Introducing KMMBridge For Teams

Touchlab — Mon, 10 Oct 2022 19:25:17 +0000

Introducing KMMBridge for Teams

Today we are announcing KMMBridge, part of Touchlab’s new Faktory¹ tooling suite. This set of build tools allows mobile teams to successfully publish shared code faster than ever with Kotlin Multiplatform Mobile. Specifically targeted at iOS publishing, teams can now implement the Internal SDK Flow approach, today’s best practice to quickly integrate KMM into production app builds. To try it for yourself, visit https://github.com/touchlab/KMMBridge

KMMBridge allows teams to publish and integrate Kotlin Multiplatform Mobile (KMM) Xcode Frameworks as an internal SDK.

When you're ready, head to our Quickstart Guide to KMMBridge to get started!

Why We Built a Team-Focused Tool

Touchlab has spent years working with teams at different stages of their Kotlin Multiplatform journey. Evaluating KMP, putting KMP into production, and yes, even a fair bit of time talking to teams who looked at KMP and decided against it. One of the key lessons we’ve learned seems obvious in retrospect.

Different types of teams work in different ways.

Of course, every team is different. Every situation will be different. However, there are common patterns. Out of the box, the KMP and the Kotlin/Native toolkit will let you build an Xcode Framework, then integrate it locally into your Xcode project. This works well if everybody on the team builds Kotlin. And in an ideal world, everybody would be able to build Kotlin. But in the real world, most teams who have succeeded followed the Internal SDK Flow approach.

The Internal SDK Flow Approach

As with adopting any technology on a team, early wins help build momentum and confidence so the team can unlock the full potential over time. The Internal SDK Flow has emerged as the best practice to get faster ROI when adopting KMM. At its simplest, this approach means the Kotlin Xcode Framework is pre-built and published as an internal SDK (a private module shared with your team) so iOS developers can include it without building Kotlin locally.

The Kotlin Xcode Framework is pre-built and published as an internal SDK

Somebody else (a team member, CI, etc.) builds the Kotlin Xcode Framework and publishes it somewhere internal. That Framework is then consumed by Xcode just like any other SDK. The iOS build workflow does not need to add Gradle or Kotlin and does not add to its build time or risk. Our build tools let teams build their way immediately, increasing efficiency and eliminating unnecessary complexity to get started. For more context, see Nate Ebel’s talk from Droidcon NYC 2022: Adopting Kotlin Multiplatform in Brownfield Applications. It's a very good overview of the startup issues teams face.

How KMMBridge Works

KMMBridge is a set of Gradle tools that integrate with your Kotlin Multiplatform Mobile project to assist with building and publishing KMM Xcode Frameworks. It is built for the Internal SDK Flow, but you can also use it to publish public SDKs as well. The basic flow is as follows:

Edit and test your shared Kotlin code, then push to your source control repo
Kick off a CI build with KMMBridge. It packages, versions, and publishes your Xcode Framework
Tell Xcode to update to the new version

The iOS build workflow does not need to add Gradle or Kotlin and does not add to its build time or risk

For iOS devs, there is no need to install or learn anything new. KMMBridge supports Cocoapods and Swift Package Manager. It can publish to a few different back ends out of the box, including Github Releases, with more support coming soon.

Why Use This Approach?

As a leader or a member of a mid-sized-plus mobile team, does any of this sound familiar?

Most of the Android devs don’t know much about iOS builds
Most of the iOS devs have never touched Gradle²
The apps are in separate repos or at least have very different build workflows

Every team that Touchlab has worked with, that has successfully added KMP to their existing iOS app, has started with an internal SDK flow.

Some teams have relatively sophisticated internal module-sharing systems, Artifactory or similar. Most (and you’d be surprised at who) have nothing like that. Even with some kind of artifact sharing in place, there is a lot of custom work that would need to be done to wire up Kotlin Xcode Frameworks to be included into a production iOS build.

KMMBridge will help most teams speed past this and get started productively with KMM.

What Comes After the Internal SDK Flow?

What is the next step when you want to scale and get shared code closer to your feature dev flow?

It can seem simple on the surface but this can get tricky, depending on team structure and how features are developed. One example we’ve seen a bit of: over time both teams could start to edit the code as if it wasn’t shared, and without clear guidance those edits can start to conflict in multiple ways.

Most teams with Kotlin Multiplatform Mobile in production have used one or more Touchlab solutions. If you are looking to scale your KMM dev (or have already done so), we should chat.

When you're ready, head to our Quickstart Guide to KMMBridge to get started!

There is more to the Faktory tooling that is in the works, but we decided to carve out this bit now as it is a necessary entry point for teams adopting KMM. As KMM enters Beta, for continued growth and adoption, there are core capabilities that simply need to exist, and the internal SDK flow is one of them._ ↩
Most Android devs try to avoid it, me included (no offense Gradle)_ ↩

Building a Proof of Concept with Kotlin Multiplatform

Touchlab — Wed, 15 Apr 2020 16:50:19 +0000

This post is by Russell (Touchlab multiplatform engineer):

Russell WolfFollow

⌥⇧⌘K

Russell presents our Kotlin Multiplatform starter project, KaMP Kit and discusses approaches for building a POC for mobile code sharing.

Touchlab Share is a series of mini webinars for developers and engineering managers interested in discussing mobile code sharing and Kotlin Multiplatform technology.

Identifying Parts of your Mobile App for High-Impact Code Sharing

Touchlab — Wed, 15 Apr 2020 16:50:16 +0000

Touchlab engineering manager Sam Hill discusses approaches for selecting which parts of your mobile app are good candidates for code sharing.

Touchlab Share is a series of mini webinars for developers and engineering managers interested in discussing mobile code sharing and Kotlin Multiplatform technology.

How to Evaluate Kotlin Multiplatform, React Native and Flutter

Touchlab — Wed, 15 Apr 2020 16:50:09 +0000

This post is by Justin (Touchlab Dir. Project Strategy):

Justin MancinelliFollow

Justin helps dev and product teams navigate the waters of mobile app development and is an expert at integrating them into larger technical, customer, and business ecosystems.

Justin presents a framework that both engineering managers and software developers can use to evaluate how well a multiplatform solution delivers on their unique needs.

Touchlab Share is a series of mini webinars for developers and engineering managers interested in discussing mobile code sharing and Kotlin Multiplatform technology.

Building a Business Case for Kotlin Multiplatform & Mobile Code Sharing

Touchlab — Wed, 15 Apr 2020 16:50:01 +0000

Touchlab partner Jeff Namnum and business development lead Carmichael Caldwell discuss approaches for developers to communicate the business impact of mobile code sharing with Kotlin Multiplatform.

Touchlab Share is a series of mini webinars for developers and engineering managers interested in discussing mobile code sharing and Kotlin Multiplatform technology.

Kotlin Multiplatform Sessions Touchlab is Attending at KotlinConf 2019

Touchlab — Wed, 04 Dec 2019 18:18:47 +0000

Touchlab will be attending KotlinConf 2019 in Copenhagen, Denmark. We anticipate the conference to be a milestone event for the development of Kotlin Multiplatform and its community of practitioners and contributors.

If you’re in town, please let us know because we’d love to meet with you.

If you’re unable to attend the conference, no worries. We’re hosting a Kotlin Multiplatform Fireside Chat in New York City for engineering managers. We’ll discuss and review all the KMP updates from the 2019 conference. Register here.

The following is a list of KMP talks we’ll be attending. If you’d like to be notified when the live stream for these sessions is available, register on the KotlinConf website.

Day 2 (Thursday, December 5th)

Opening Keynote by Andrey Breslav

Time: 9:00 – 10:00

Our take: The KotlinConf keynote is a must watch for anybody that’s interested in Kotlin. Any major new stuff will be announced.

-----

Sharing Is Caring – Kotlin Multiplatform for Android Developers by Britt Barak

Time: 10:15 – 11:00

Our take: This will be a good intro talk. It includes not only native, but JS and backend code.

-----

MPP in 1.3.X and beyond by Dmitry Savvinov and Liliia Abdulina

Time: 11:15 – 12:00

Our take: Another KMP intro, from JetBrains engineers

-----

Coroutines! Gotta catch ‘em all! by Florina Muntenescu and Manuel Vivo

Time: 11:15 – 12:00

Our take: Concurrency for native will be mostly centered around coroutines, so an intro to coroutines is valuable.

-----

Kotlin Multiplatform in Action: more than 10 projects for iOS and Android with Shared code by Alexandr Pogrebnyak

Time: 14:00 – 14:45

Our take: IceRock has been shipping KMP for a while, and has published templates and libraries to help. This will probably be a useful talk for practical KMP advice.

-----

BRIDGE THE PHYSICAL WORLD: KOTLIN/NATIVE ON RASPBERRY PI by Qian Jin

Time: 14:00 – 14:45

Our take: More Kotlin Native. It’s being deployed to an IOT device, which may be interesting to see.

-----

YOUR MULTIPLATFORM KAPTAIN HAS ARRIVED by Ahmed El-Helw

Time: 15:15 – 16:00

Our take: Careem is shipping KMP in a major platform. This is critical info for orgs getting serious about KMP. We’ll be there for sure.

-----

Shipping a Mobile Multiplatform Project on iOS & Android by Ben Asher and Alec Strong

Time: 16:15 – 17:00

Our take: More KMP-in-production experts. We work directly with the Square team doing this, and chat often with Ben, so we’re very much looking forward to see what they have to say.

-----

PREPARING YOUR KOTLIN MULTIPLATFORM DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT by Big Nerd Ranch

Time: 16:15 – 17:00

Our take: Another KMP intro. Good to get multiple perspectives.

-----

KOTLIN NATIVE CONCURRENCY EXPLAINED by

Kevin GalliganFollow

#kotlin Multipatform and Native

Time: 17:15 – 18:00

Our take: If you want to do KMP on native, you need to understand concurrency. This is our talk, and a must see, obviously 🙂

-----

Day 3 (Friday, December 6th)

I Walk The Line: What Parts Of An App Should be in Kotlin Native – and What Parts Shouldn’t? by Ellen Shapiro
Time: 10:15 – 11:00

Our take: Ellen knows mobile tech, and brings a lot of iOS experience to the KMP equation. We’re definitely checking this talk out.

-----

GOING NATIVE: HOW I USED KOTLIN NATIVE TO PORT 6 YEARS OF ANDROID GAME CODE TO IOS IN 6 MONTHS by Ana Redmond

Time: 14:00 – 14:45

Our take: Ana got into native early on and has done very interesting work. This will be a really good talk.

-----

Effective Kotlin-Swift Interoperability by John Rodriguez

Time: 16:15 – 17:00

Our take: Kotlin/Swift communication is a huge topic for KMP. Improving the situation for iOS developers will be critical for adoption, so this is a critical topic to understand.

-----

KOTLIN/NATIVE: ANSWERS YOU WON’T FIND ON THE INTERNET by Eugenio Marletti

Time: 16:15 – 17:00

Our take: Eugenio is a member of the JetBrains developer relations team, focused on KMP and native. If you go to KotlinConf for KMP and skip this talk, I’m not even sure why you’re going.