Book Image

Simplifying Application Development with Kotlin Multiplatform Mobile

By : Róbert Nagy
Book Image

Simplifying Application Development with Kotlin Multiplatform Mobile

By: Róbert Nagy

Overview of this book

Sharing code between platforms can help developers gain a competitive edge, and Kotlin Multiplatform Mobile (KMM) offers a sensible way to do it. KMM helps mobile teams share code between Android and iOS in a flexible way, leaving room for native development. The book begins by helping you to gain a clear understanding of the Kotlin Multiplatform approach, how it works, and how it is different from cross-platform technologies, such as React Native and Flutter, and code sharing options, such as C++. You'll then see how your team can use this software development kit (SDK) to build native applications more effectively by learning timeless concepts and working through practical examples. As you advance, you'll get to grips with the core concepts, understand why UI sharing fails, and get hands-on with developing a small KMM application. Finally, you'll discover expert tips and best practices, along with production- and adoption-related questions, that will help you take the next step in your project and career. By the end of this Kotlin book, you'll have gained a solid understanding of the capabilities of KMM and be able to share code between Android and iOS flexibly.
Table of Contents (15 chapters)
1
Section 1 - Getting Started with Multiplatform Mobile Development Using Kotlin
5
Section 2 - Code Sharing between Android and iOS
10
Section 3 - Supercharging Yourself for the Next Steps

Deciding on a mono repository or a shared library

In this section, we're going to reason about the pros and cons of the following two repository setups:

  • Mono Repository: This is where the shared code is just a module/submodule. This is the choice of most KMM/KMP example projects.
  • Multiple Repositories: This is where the shared code is like a library that's consumed by the different platforms; that is, Android and iOS. Most production apps will likely see this option as more attractive.

Let's start by looking at mono repositories.

Mono repository

In a mono repository structure, your shared code, the Android app, and the iOS app are all contained in the same repository, as shown in the following diagram:

Figure 9.1 – Mono repository

Some of the KMP examples out there, such as the ones where code is shared not just between the different frontend applications but in a server-client/backend-frontend mode, could inspire...