Telios Mobile

A mobile client for telios.

In Progress

Building

• set up react-native and it's dependencies
  • Follow React Native docs for React Native CLI, not for Expo https://reactnative.dev/docs/environment-setup
• set up node.js 12.19.x using nvm
  • this version specifically is needed, and referenced in lots of build scripts.
  • common troubleshooting for build failures in Xcode is to check logs for "Running node: $(node -v)" and make sure version is 12.19.x
• set up node-gyp with npm install -g node-gyp
• yarn to install deps
• add .env.development and .env.production env files to the root directory for different schemas. You can see example variables in the .env.example.
• Android:
  • set up Android studio
  • Install NDK 21.4 via the SDK manager
  • Set up ANDROID_HOME environment variable (might be automatic)
  • Set up ANDROID_NDK_HOME environment variable (should be something like $ANDROID_HOME/ndk/21.4.7075529)
  • Make sure you have a bunch of RAM on your machine. Might take over 4GB to build the native deps
• iOS:
  • Set up XCode 12+
  • sudo gem install cocoapods
  • pod setup
  • brew install autoconf automake libtool openssl
  • cd ios && pod install && cd ../
• Before install nodejs dependencies run this command git config --global url.https://github.com/.insteadOf git://github.com/, due to the issue with Github restricted ssh port
• Run yarn run prepare-node-project to patch modules and install the nodejs-mobile dependencies. (this process may take 5-10 minutes)
  • Make sure it uses the right platform - install_modules will only build Node libs for iOS or Android, not both.
  • Use --ios or --android args to specify. By default, it will use the logic platform = process.platform === 'darwin' ? IOS : ANDROID

Run either yarn android or yarn ios to run on the respective platforms. iOS only works on Macs and you need to register your phone for signing in xcode first. Android has "Debug" and "Release" variants. For Release, keystore will need to be generated.

Updating Dependencies

• If /nodejs-assets/nodejs-project/node_modules gets cleared out (which is often necessary for debugging or whatever), or sometimes when installing updated packages within nodejs-assets, you'll need to run yarn run prepare-node-project again from root to rebuild the node libraries.

How it works:

• Uses nodejs-mobile-react-native in order to run node.js code on mobile (telios/nebula-drive) Code can be found in nodejs-assets/nodejs-project/. Communicates to the React-Native thread via a "bridge" that can pass JSON messages
• (npm run prepare-node-project)
  • Modify node_modules/nodejs-mobile-react-native/android/build.gradle to remove main {} according to this post
  • Apply this patch for EventEmitter import after installing: https://github.com/JaneaSystems/nodejs-mobile-react-native/pull/20/files
• Apply these fixes to metro.config.js (different from the current README since APIs changed) JaneaSystems/nodejs-mobile#314 (comment)
• Set up arm ABIs in the build.gradle since they're missing in the default react-native gradle script
• Monkey-patch Hypercore.defaultStorage to disable the lock functionality on oplog files since this doesn't seem to work on Android
• Patch sodium-native and utp-native to point at sodium-native-nodejs-mobile and utp-native-nodejs-mobile in order to compile they for mobile
• Add scripts to build that do the following:
  • Before building native nodejs libraries, clear some duplicate modules and monkey-patch sodium-native and utp-native to point at their nodejs-mobile variants
  • After building compile all the JS into a single bundle.js file starting with main.js
  • ON ANDROID: copy the libsodium.la files inside sodium-native-nodejs-mobile/lib to android/app/src/jniLibs
  • Clear out any unnecessary node_modules or files to reduce app size and improve startup

Debugging

• Make sure you're using the correct version of node.js and NDK/XCode
• Try clearing node_modules and installing them again
• If using android, try clearing android/app/build
• Try running the app from within Android Studio or XCode
• Use console.trace inside the node_modules to track stuff down inside nodejs-mobile threads
• Please make sure 'usr/local/bin/node' is pointing to the correct version of node.js (12.19.1)

Distribution

iOS

• Manually bump the version and build numbers prior to Archive, or upload to AppStoreConnect will fail.
• Manual Signing is needed for Release builds (Automatic is fine for Debug). Download Distribution Certificate from developer.apple.com and import into Xcode manually.
• On Archive and Upload to App Store Connect, make sure to uncheck Upload your app's symbols otherwise upload will fail (due to inability to understand Node library symbol files)

Dev vs Prod apps

There are two different apps setup in Dev console. Telios, and Telios Dev. Telios is pointed to production backend, Telios Dev pointed to dev.

• When distributing an update, set the correct Bundle Identifier, Display Name, and update App Icon to match.
• There is a branch named prod which will contain these changes.

Bundle Identifier:

• Prod: io.telios.mobile
• Dev: io.telios.mobile.dev

Tech

• Redux / Redux Toolkit

  • We use Redux instead of a more localized state management like Contexts/Hooks because we must be aware of all the incoming events from our Node process. Redux is used to observe all incoming Node events and respond accordingly. It also provides great visibility into all the events happening across our system.
  • redux-toolkit removes much of the boilerplate of a vanilla Redux implementation.
  • Recommended to use a Redux debug tool like React Native Debugger
  • Action names: in general, actions which come from Node are prefixed node/ and actions initiated within React Native app are prefixed local/

• Node / Redux communication

  • React Native communicates with Node by sending events via nodejs.channel.send (see nodeActions.ts), and receiving events via nodejs.channel.addListener (see nodeListener.ts). This utilizes the same technology that React Native's bridge to Native iOS/Android uses, but certain messages are forwarded to Node.
  • The nodejs-assets/nodejs-project directory of this project contains code that is executed in the Node environment. We are essentially only using telios-client-backend here, and forwarding all events to the library.
    • Reference telios-client-backend documentation to see what events we receive/respond to.