I have a React Native app with code push configured and running. We use a variation of semantic versioning.
Incremental version is incremented automatically, and we use code push for most of these updates.
Minor version is incremented (mostly) automatically when there are native code changes (necessitating a new app store release).
Major version is manually specified, and mostly driven by business decisions/major functionality changes.
CodePush builds can target any app store release of the same minor version and lower incremental version (specified in CodePush configuration as >=2.20.0 <= 2.20.34, >=2.23.0 <=2.23.2, etc).
Our CI/CD pipeline detects native code changes by looking for changes in the project_root/android or project_root/ios directories, however, we've noticed this misses native code changes (especially since we updated to support autolinking). With iOS, the Podfile.lock usually updates, and correctly triggers our automatic minor version increment. With Android, updates to our native dependencies are frequently only visible (in git) as changes to the package.json, which isn't typically detected.
We could (additionally) trigger our minor version upgrade on every change to our package.json 'dependencies' section, but this would result in app store releases that could have just been code pushes (changes to js only libraries).
I'm looking for a better way to detect native code changes, particularly when the change is limited to an Android-only dependency.
Related
Before i continue, let me let you know that i know the code to deply to a targeted build for codepush
appcenter codepush release-react -a aountName/appName -d Production -m --description "CommentHere" -t versionName
I have tried to figure this out on my own and i have not been able to.
I have several versions of my app which i have deploy using CodePush and everything works well but I started having fears of crashes when i installed new packages on the latest build.
This implies the current code base would have new native differences as compaird to the old version.
The question is how can i deploy my new build with new native codes
and packages present to an old version of my app which does not have those
native packages without running into several crashes from all the users using the old version of the app...
I ask this cos i have a feeling if i push the new build with the new changes in UI and native chnages to the old version of my app, the app old app would crash.
If a bug comes in for an old version, how do I fix it and deploy it
for the old version only? Bugs may be critical and not everyone will
have the latest version of the app Or, the bug may only exist on a old
version of the app.
I await your response.
Code push will not affect any native code written within the Android or the iOS projects of a React-Native application. If you read the documentations carefully, it specifically says that it does not change / modify / update the native portion of the app.
Why?
This is because of the way the CodePush mechanism works. In essence, CodePush only stores and triggers the update of the JS bundle of the React-Native application.
This is why we wrap only the JS main app instance with CodePush HOC (Higher Order Component). This is what's happening when you do:
CodePush(MyApp); //wrapping the js bundle at app-root
So, unfortunately in your case, if there are native codes involved, regardless of deployment to a new or old version of the app, it has to be a AppStore / Playstore driven deployment.
I am readying an app for release to the app stores and I'm concerned with CI/CD pipeline and Code-Push.
How does this scenario play out:
If a developer makes NPM dependency updates and there is a package updated that has native code changes that the JS relies on, will Code-Push still update the JS bundle on user devices ahead of their device downloading the native code updates?
Just so my question is clear, I'm not trying to OTA update native code - I'm referring to a situation where some package like react-native-device-info has native Java/Swift code and also has JS code that requires some api or event constant from the native code. If you bump the package version for react-native-device-info to a new release and there is changes to both native and JS code, would code-push have any way to know to not update the bundle until the native code/app was updated because the JS bundle has code that depends on the native code?
Or, am I thinking of using the tool Code-Push wrong?
The way codepush works is that it updates the JS bundle of your app. Your requirement is to update a NPM package which has a native change and update only your client side which is not possible.
If you do this you will probably end up with a crash of your app when the JS contacts the native code.
would code-push have any way to know to not update the bundle until the native code/app was updated because the JS bundle has code that depends on the native code?
Simple answer NO
Codepush is targeted on a version number so your new version which hits the stores will have a new version number so no point of updating the bundle of the old version of the app.
If you really want all your users to move to a new version push an alert or some sort of message using codepush asking the user to update.
When I changed a library (like 'react-native-image-crop-picker') version on package.json and distribute it with code push in users app the version not changed.
They see older version of that library in app.
what should I do?
Code Push only works with JS code. It doesn't allow to push native binaries. In your case, you have to update app bundles in stores to update your native dependencies.
The CodePush plugin helps get product improvements in front of your end users instantly, by keeping your JavaScript and images synchronized with updates you release to the CodePush server.
Taken from Code Push docs.
I have a react-native app that is using Expo.
In the beginning of the project I pushed some code to the default publishing channel that was never intended to be used in production.
Since then I have released dozens of versions to production and mostly all works as expected. (New installs gets the latest JS code)
However, a few users still gets old versions of the code, even though they literally just downloaded the app from App Store / Google Play.
This is extremely frustrating. How can I make sure that fresh downloads of the app will download the correct/latest version och my JS?
Note that this is not related to the app detecting new code that might be available for download. It is the fact that the wrong code is downloaded and used to begin with. Is there any way to remove all JS-code except the very last version that I published? I imagine that would solve my issue
Turns out, expo don’t always do this successfully. You need to rebuild the react native bundle before publishing.https://proandroiddev.com/bundling-react-native-during-android-release-builds-ec52c24e200d
This is what expo gives as a feature known as Over the Air updates (OTA). Whenever a new version is built with expo channel, it automatically updates even in the app store and play store. But there is a way to disable the updates. the expo documentation for disabling:
It is possible to entirely disable OTA JavaScript updates in a standalone app, by setting updates.enabled to false in app.json. This will ignore all code paths that fetch app bundles from Expo's servers. In this case, all updates to your app will need to be routed through the iOS App Store and/or Google Play Store.
This setting is ignored in the Expo client.
And I do recommend you to read the documents of OTA, which is a good feature when you get to know all of it.
The expo link is expo OTA
I'm using react-native-code-push for my app.
I had released several versions that change only a few of js bugs, which worked fine.
Recently I realized that if a code pushed release involves any change of native code other than javascript, the app crashes while updating. I added several react native packages that need manual linking such as react-native-maps, and released update to some targeted versions hoping them to take those, but no luck.
Then what if an update only involves adding light libraries (using npm install) which don't require native linking? I wonder to what extent exactly the code push allows client-side code updating.
Basically, when you want to add some native code involving link you will have to rebuild your apk / ipa and re-upload it to the stores. If you want to add a new plugin without link there should not be any problem
One advice I could give is to only push bug fixes to your production app. You should not push new features with codepush since apple review (almost) all the applications.