Switch from multi-platform client to one client per platform

erikhofer commented 7 years ago

Up to now we have been building a client that was meant to share most of the code between a web, Android and iOS application using Angular and NativeScript. However, some downsides of this approach have arisen:

Development is very slow. At the moment we are only developing for Android and it's very cumbersome compared to Java/Android Studio. This may pay off in the future when a DRY codebase is used for all platforms. At this point we have to meet a deadline for some features (hardly doable as is); also we want to push for an MVP Android app as soon as possible. A web client will follow later and an iOS app is not viable atm (we'd need another developer). Also much of the current codebase has to be reworked to actually make it multi-platform.
Technology is inconvenient. It's hard to figure out how to do things (properly). Tooling is way inferior to real native development. Refactoring is hard. The mobile app can't be debugged easily (this is mainly due to how the build is set up in the seed project). Overall we're spending way too much time fixing issues in architecture, dev ops, etc. instead of implementing features. This is frustrating and bad for motivation of the team.
The one-codebase-approach doesn't really work out as expected. We're still tailoring a lot to the platform and can yet not use its full potential. Might be a problem of expertise but it's holding us back.

Additionally, the original disadvantages of this apporach still hold up. For example an Angular SPA isn't optimal for the web client (accessability, SEO, ...).

Proposal Switch to one (native) client per platform.

Build a normal Android app using Java and Android Studio.
Build a web frontend with Thymeleaf that uses the REST API for doing stuff but can display information without JavaScript.
Build a native iOS app when we find a developer.

Note: Yes, we have put a lot of work into the client to this point. We musn't, however, fall for the sunk-cost fallacy here.

erikhofer commented 7 years ago

I will begin to prototype a new Android client and assess this issue based on how this goes.

erikhofer commented 7 years ago

The prototype #35 was successful. Developing with Android Studio works extraordinarily better. We'll commit to the new approach.

xinra-oss / review-community

Switch from multi-platform client to one client per platform #34