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.

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Table of Contents (15 chapters)
Preface
Preface
Who this book is for
What this book covers
To get the most out of this book
Download the example code files
Download the color images
Conventions used
Get in touch
Share Your Thoughts
1
Section 1 - Getting Started with Multiplatform Mobile Development Using Kotlin
Section 1 - Getting Started with Multiplatform Mobile Development Using Kotlin
Free Chapter
2
Chapter 1: The Battle Between Native, Cross-Platform, and Multiplatform
Chapter 1: The Battle Between Native, Cross-Platform, and Multiplatform
Understanding the compounding costs of native development
Exploring the pitfalls of cross-platform solutions
Adopting a multiplatform approach
Summary
3
Chapter 2: Exploring the Three Compilers of Kotlin Multiplatform
Chapter 2: Exploring the Three Compilers of Kotlin Multiplatform
Kotlin compilers in general
The Kotlin/JVM compiler
The Kotlin/Native compiler
The Kotlin/JS compiler
Summary
4
Chapter 3: Introducing Kotlin for Swift Developers
Chapter 3: Introducing Kotlin for Swift Developers
Technical requirements
Introducing Gradle
Exploring Kotlin's core features
Understanding Kotlin coroutines
Summary
5
Section 2 - Code Sharing between Android and iOS
Section 2 - Code Sharing between Android and iOS
6
Chapter 4: Introducing the KMM Learning Project
Chapter 4: Introducing the KMM Learning Project
Technical requirements
Getting to know our project – Dogify
Exploring prerequisites
Understanding the technical decisions
Summary
7
Chapter 5: Writing Shared Code
Chapter 5: Writing Shared Code
Technical requirements
Initial project setup
Fetching data from the Dog API
Persisting data in a local database
Summary
8
Chapter 6: Writing the Android Consumer App
Chapter 6: Writing the Android Consumer App
Technical requirements
Setting up the Android module
Tying the Android app to the shared code
Implementing the UI on Android
Summary
9
Chapter 7: Writing an iOS Consumer App
Chapter 7: Writing an iOS Consumer App
Technical requirements
Setting up the iOS app
Tying the iOS app together with the shared code
Implementing the UI on iOS
Summary
10
Section 3 - Supercharging Yourself for the Next Steps
Section 3 - Supercharging Yourself for the Next Steps
11
Chapter 8: Exploring Tips and Best Practices
Chapter 8: Exploring Tips and Best Practices
Technical requirements
Testing shared code
Architectural decisions
Managing concurrency
App size best practices
Summary
12
Chapter 9: Integrating KMM into Existing Android and iOS Apps
Chapter 9: Integrating KMM into Existing Android and iOS Apps
Deciding on a mono repository or a shared library
Exploring team structure and tooling
Learning some adoption tips
Summary
13
Chapter 10: Summary and Your Next Steps
Chapter 10: Summary and Your Next Steps
Recapitulating what you have learned
Managing your KMP expectations
Learning resources
Summary
Why subscribe?
14
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Implementing the UI on Android

Before we start, I'd like to emphasize that I had conflicting thoughts when I was writing this chapter (as a matter of fact, the whole example project). I wanted to polish the UI as much as possible, try out the new Android 12 splash screen API, make it edge-to-edge, and so on. But at the same time, I didn't want to introduce things without explicitly talking about them in this book as well, and to do that felt out of scope.

So, consider this as me finding an excuse for why the UI looks so barebone.

Now, let's throw some Jetpack Compose code together and see how consuming the shared code can be presented on an Android UI:

  1. Let's create a MainScreen that will contain our small number of composable components. We'll start by creating the MainScreen composable:
    @Composable
fun MainScreen(viewModel: MainViewModel) {
    val state by viewModel.state.collectAsState()
    val breeds...
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