RebootX available on the Google Play Store
RebootX is now available on the Google Play Store for all the Android users out there.
After a summer of hard work and test phase, we are proud to announce that RebootX is now available on the Google Play Store.
How did we launch the Android version so quickly after the iOS one ?
The answer is simple : React Native ☺️.
The library is often mocked by its detractors but "force est de constater" that it lets anyone build very efficient apps like a breeze as long as they have good discipline and a strict dev workflow.
Amongst the steps that were necessary to adapt the app to Android, we can mainly list two topics : UI and Native Modules.
UI
React Native renders the apps using native elements. Therefore, the UI changes from one platform to the other. In our case, we noticed some differences, in particular regarding the form elements (i.e. text inputs).
So we had to adjust a little bit our components in order to display them correctly given some Android constraints.
Native Modules
This is a trickier part. As you know, RebootX is a standalone app that connects directly to the Cloud Providers APIs (AWS, CleverCloud, GCP, OVH, Scaleway).
Some of them require some crypto utilities. For example, to send a request to AWS, we have to build a HMAC signature based on the contents of the request.
React Native lacks some crypto utilities and the libraries available on npm are not a good fit for our use case. So we had to build them relying on native crypto libraries.
For iOS, we initially built them using Objective-C. So for Android, we had to adapt all of them in Java.
If you want us to share more details on this part, feel free to contact us. We'll be happy to share our experience.
Enough with the technical details. You can get RebootX on Android starting today. We hope you'll enjoy it. As usual, we are here to help if you need anything.
If you simply want to test the app and share your feedback with us, contact us so we can add you to the testers list.
Chafik H'nini